{"product_id":"family-roundabout","title":"Family Roundabout","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 530px;\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" data-mce-style=\"width: 530px;\"\u003e\n\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/24_Family_Roundabout_copy.jpg?v=1593033737\u0026amp;width=700\"\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePREFACE BY JULIET AYKROYD\u003cbr\u003e384pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781903155134\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRichmal Crompton is famous for being the author of the \u003cem\u003eWilliam\u003c\/em\u003e books, which sold over 8 million copies in her lifetime, but she also wrote forty novels for adults, the best of which is, in our view, \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eFamily Roundabout\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e, a 1948 book about the life of two families during the inter-war years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFamily Roundabout\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e centres on two matriarchs, around whom their two families spin. One is dreamy, laissez-faire, kindly and bookish; the other is controlling, managerial, efficient and energetic. 'Mrs Fowler's hands-off approach is on the face of it more appealing that Mrs Willoughby's repressive autocracy,' writes Juliet Aykroyd in her Preface, 'but in the end we are left pondering, What is a successful mother, or, come to think of it, a successful child?'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe two women try hard, but inevitably the family roundabout goes round and round, the riders go up and down, and both must accept their children as they really are, rather than as they would like them to be; for all their efforts, whether misplaced or well-meaning, as it used to say above nursery doors - 'tout laisse, tout casse, tout passe'. This is quite a sardonic book, certainly it is not anodyne, and the reader is led to conclude that neither Mrs Fowler nor Mrs Willoughby have spun the roundabout quite as they should. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003eAn example of 1940s 'peasant-art' style, the fabric shows prancing roundabout horses on a striped background. 'Roundabout', a cotton and rayon tissue, was designed by Warner's staff designer Albert Swindells in 1946 when the book was being written. One of the matriarchs in it, Mrs Fowler, is especially fond of her 'faded cretonnes and threadbare damask' but might have had 'Roundabout' for new curtains. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eDetail from a 1928 Southern Electric Railway poster 'Kentish Hills \u0026amp; Surrey Dales' by Ethelbert White\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Richmal Crompton","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":54098752635187,"sku":"fev1789694405233","price":26.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":54098752667955,"sku":"tua1789694405234","price":35.04,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":54098752700723,"sku":"dst1789694405235","price":32.13,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":54098752733491,"sku":"xlz1789694405236","price":53.6,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0989\/0578\/4627\/files\/family-roundabout_1.jpg?v=1789694409","url":"https:\/\/sandstepclad.shop\/products\/family-roundabout","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}