This book has sat on my bookshelf for about 2 years, and when I was about to embark on a short plane trip and needed a packable book, knew I could depend on Penelope Lively for an entertaining several hours, and I was right. Loved the 2 main characters, Howard and Lucy and the evolution of the island. The author did a great job of following their histories, and putting them together under rather strange circumstances. There were many phrases and paragraphs that I would like to underline and remember that are applicable to life in general. I had just read HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG and was so afraid that would be a hard act to follow. I was very happy with my choice.

Fictitious English hamlet is home to a little-appreciated church with some fine Gothic details. When a newcomer, deemed a little too flamboyant for some, arrives and tries to give the church a boost with a little show biz, unsettling events unfold.

It's a delightfully descriptive, fast-paced story filled with nicely conceived characters. This is really a low-key mystery novel, but there's more to it than a whodunnit. In my opinion it remains one of her better works; shame it's not in print.

Great fun if you want to get a taste of English country sensibilities.

No one writes novels quite like Ivy Compton-Burnett: they're really more like novelized plays than anything else, and as Diane Johnson notes in her extremely intelligent foreword to this edition, Compton-Burnett's antecedents are more with Oscar Wilde than anyone else, in her love of savage epigrams and wordplay. her novels are almost impossibly stylized: almost all her characters speak in the same style, so small children and uneducated coooks speak with the same level of sophistication as wealthy educated homeowners. Still, for all of its artificiality, you'd be hardpressed to beat MANSERVANT AND MAIDSERVANT as a superior exercise in style. Compton-Burnett's witty and troubling vision of the effect of a wicked Victorian paterfamilias's repentance is exceptionally striking and thought-provoking, and though this novel is not quite up to the level of A HOUSE AND ITS HEAD (also recently reissued by NYRB Press in a stunning paperback edition), it is one of her best works nonetheless.

Perfect Happiness is about just that. A widow trys to be happy after her husband dies. Lively's descriptions of how time heals is comfortingly accurate.

The story is about a girl, Maria, on a summer holiday with her parents. (I don't remember this place she went to, I read this some time ago) At this place she went to for her holiday, she met a boy who is like Maria in a way he enjoys his privacy, but he also is comfortable with his hectic life with his family. The other part of the story is that she finds out about a girl, Harriet, who lived (I'm not sure about this) about 100 years ago, who started an elaborate sampler... but never finished it. And Maria wants to find out why.

I don't know, the humour was kind of that which wasn't immediately seen... the story had beautiful descriptions and interesting thoughts from Maria. Part of the story was how Maria's parents were in response to Maria's friendship with the boy (can't remember his name) and his family, and I thought this was pretty interesting. One review on the back of the book described the story as 'haunting', and in a way it is.

Anyway, I think if you don't mind reading a lot, if you don't mind entering the thoughts of a young girl (11 years old)... you might like this. =)

Although I have always been and will be a fan of Lively's writing, I was somewhat disappointed in this book. Once or twice I thought she got way off the subject of the house. I would have appreciated more details about the house's inhabitants over the years, its contents and what all these meant to her at different times of her life. There could have been a few more details about things were done and what it was really like to be a girl in England during those times. These fascinating subjects were somewhat glossed over, I thought....

I would have enjoyed it quite a bit more had she included lots of photos of the house, gardens, rooms, the family heirlooms mentioned, old photos of relatives and retainers, and family events. These would have made the book so much more meaningful. Even if that had meant a higher price,I would still have bought it.

(It would be interesting to know what's become of the house since her family left it. Is it still a private home? Converted to a business of some kind? Being loved and kept up the way it once was?)

All that said, I very much enjoyed the things she DID write about, as well as her writing style. Perhaps some day she might reissue the book in a satisfyingly "illustrated" form.

More please!

I am a great admirer of Ms. Lively's work, both fiction and nonfiction, and I think this is a wonderful book. My only disappointment is that there are no photographs in the book--not even an author photo on the jacket cover! Photographs would have raised the book's price, I suppose, and it might seem childish to request them, but when there is such detailed and vivid description of specific objects (that embroidered firescreen, for instance) and people, I don't believe it is unreasonable for the reader to want even more--and to feel a bit cheated. Was it her decision, or a stingy move on the part of her publisher?

Still, I love this book and plan to re-read it many times.

Penelope Lively's extended essay centers on the home of her grandmother, who was born in Victorian times and in Edwardian days was a young wife and mother, mistress of a country estate. Through her description of hundreds of items considered vitally necessary to the household, she ponders the cast-in-stone class structure, the assumptions which underlay the roles and behavior of men and women, the status of children, the notions of childcare, the sturdy outdoor motif of country living. The weather, she said, was simply ignored, and people went about what they meant to do, rain or sun. Hunting and gardening figured prominently; many social activities centered around
these activities.

Americans who know the work of writers like Agatha Christie will be familiar with this English world, dissimilar from our own country especially because of rigid class distinctions. A middle class household, Lively tells us, would be expected to employ servants. Her grandmother could spend hour upon hour doing rigorous physical labor in her gardens, but she felt much put upon when in later days, she was faced with doing her own "washing up" (kitchen dishes and pans). Lively also describes well the distance between genders, the attitude that men and women were utterly different, with different interests and orientations, unlike the more intimate, nose-to-nose marriages that began around mid-century.

Lively's essay is composed of personal perceptions, and although I find the limitations of this subjectivity its one drawback, I recommend it as an entertaining view to a vanished era.

The Harrison family move into their new house and James wants the attic turned into his bedroom but whilst they are cleaning out the attic they find a bottle with a message in and they accidentally smash it and what they don't know is that a spirit is released.After this there is lots of messages being left around.No one believed james and no one ever did until things got too bad and they all wish they had believed him. It is written by Penelope Lively who is a very affective author.

The ghost of Thomas Kempe is a spooky story written by penelope lively. The Harrison family have strange things going on in their new house. Messages are being left in places in werid writting and odd things have been happening. James Harrison is sure there's a ghost haunting the house but no-one will beive him until things start to get too out of hands........ This book makes a good read and is suitable for anyone who is willing to sit down and get engrossed into solving the mystery of the Harrisons house.

The Ghost of Thomas Kempe is a very good story of which the Harrison family move from their old house to a new Countryside Cottage but they dont knpw that a 300 year old bloke is trying to haunt them. The family recieved letters and messages as if the GHOST was trying to haunt them.The atmospheric detail and Archaic language used,was to a good effect. The book was quite good but the ending was not very well thought out!

I read this book for an English project. It is a very funny and interesting book and you don't know what trouble Samuel Stokes is going to cause next! i recommend it to anyone who wants a good laugh !