LOVE AMONG THE DAUGHTERS

This immensely entertaining foray into the swinging Twenties of England and later an American campus is Mrs. Huxley's third autobiographical recall, following The Flame Trees of Thika (1959) and On the Edge of the Rift (1962), both dealing with a Colonial African childhood. This time young Miss Grant appears in England, bemused lodger with Aunt Madge and Uncle Jack in rickety, hay-rackety, terrier-torn Nathan's Orchard. Believe her or not. Aunt Madge is marvellous-by Wodehouse out of Cold Comfort Farm--as she rages off over the fields with her yapping pack, dressed in black and glowering within over a youthful series of Uncle Jack's indiscretions which plunged them into poverty. The three daughters--Gertrude, Kate and Joanna--go their experimental ways with Elspeth tagging along-to a relative's roaring hunt, a country house weekend, Christmas galas at Uncle Rufus' with all sorts of blood-feuds and cousin-cozening. Dating at the College of Reading (searing cold winds and slush preserved virginity effectively) was an interlude of tango lessons, dances and damp boat excursions. A removal to the Cornell campus in America was an eye-opening view of cram-rather-than-cogitate education; the mad status scramble and liquor (home-made) which could paralyze. . . along with some lovely scenery and the excitement of a still effervescent America. Witty, intimate and charming, this is the prolific Mrs. Huxley's nostalgic the dansant.