SUMMER VISITORS

by Susan Sallis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 7, 1989

It's mackerel for tea and lots of blustery weather in this tale about a family's yearly visits to the Cornish fishing village of St. Ives (or ""Shires,"" as the locals call it) between 1924 and 1965. Sallis is an English writer, the author of April Rising (1984). Alfred and Marie Bridges, of Bristol, begin summering in Cornwall just after the Great War; they're taken in by Etta and Philip Nolla, who come to love the Bridges children, Madge and Neville, as their own. But vacations grow considerably less halcyon around 1939, when Alfred succumbs to a weak heart and Neville dies fighting in Spain (leaving behind a love child, mothered by St. Ives profligate Rose Care). Madge weds Neville's old chum, Clem Briscoe, and despite severe sexual frigidity, bears him a comely daughter, Rosemary; but during WW II, she falls in love with a soldier and becomes pregnant. Clem will accept the child, Mark, as his own, and finally come to love him when the baby loses both legs in a fall from a Cornish precipice. Mark grows into a strong, stouthearted fellow, managing to swim and get around with remarkable dexterity, and eventually able to believe that young Zannah Scaife loves him for himself, and not out of sympathy. Rosemary finds a young man, too, who turns out to be her cousin--Neville's handsome bastard boy, who's been adopted by a local landowner. It's all quite tame and predictable, but also probably cozy enough to warm a few hearts.

Pub Date: Dec. 7, 1989

ISBN: 0753167751

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1989

Categories: FICTION