{"product_id":"miss-ranskill-comes-home","title":"Miss Ranskill Comes Home","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"wp-caption alignright\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/Screen_Shot_2016-07-25_at_12.34.00.png?v=1593107994\u0026amp;width=700\" width=\"490\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"std\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"redtext\"\u003eAFTERWORD BY WENDY POLLARD\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e336pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781903155363\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis funny, touching and highly original 1946 novel, by the author of the \u003cem\u003eWorzel Gummidge\u003c\/em\u003e books, is about a woman who goes on a cruise and is swept overboard; she lives for three years on a desert island before being rescued by a destroyer in 1943.  Miss Nona Ranskill returns home to a world radically changed by the outbreak of the Second World War and it seems to her that England has gone mad: she cannot buy clothes without 'coupons', her friends are only interested in 'war work', and yet she is considered uncivilised if she walks barefoot or is late for meals. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith echoes of life during the Covid lockdowns when the norms and rituals of everyday life changed almost overnight, Miss Ranskill is shocked and confused by the impossibility of buying stockings, or bananas, or hair-grips and by the talk of Objectors, and conchies, and Quislings and Nasties and the ATS, and the WAAF and ARP. ‘Even the language was secret from her, full of strange words and alphabetical sequences.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen a rumour breaks out that Miss Ranskill is a Germany spy and the police are on her trail, Barbara Euphan Todd treats it with such a light touch that very quickly it is not Nona we worry for, but everyone else, seen through her ‘innocent’ eyes, behaving in ways that defy common sense and to an outside observer border on madness. The description of her bossy old-school-friend, Marjorie, leading her team in ‘extinguishing an incendiary bomb’ in the greenhouse, with a stirrup-pump is gloriously funny. And yet the writing demonstrates a strong sense of morality and the main focus of Barbara Euphan Todd's satire is people behaving heroically and appallingly at one and the same time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe writer Rosamond Lehmann considered \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMiss Ranskill Comes Home\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e 'a work of great originality, and delightfully readable, a blend of fantasy, satire and romantic comedy... a very entertaining novel and less light than it seems.’ And Lehmann was not alone in her admiration: the \u003cem\u003eManchester Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e called it ‘a witty first novel which besides being continuously entertaining displays a fine appreciation of life’s values’, whilst the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e praised the blend of ‘reality and fantasy, irony and pity… touchingly persuasive and real’.  Meanwhile the \u003cem\u003eSaturday Evening Post\u003c\/em\u003e described it as ‘one of the finest stories we have read in a long time’. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first three pages of \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMiss Ranskill Comes Home\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e take an unusual tone, akin to a fantasy novel, which may be one reason why it was neglected for so many years, but it then quickly becomes a light, charming and thought-provoking read that is also very interesting about the plight of single women in this period. This has been an especial Persephone favourite.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlso available as a Persephone eBook.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor more on \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMiss Ranskill Comes Home\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e, have a look at the Persephone Perspective.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003eThe endpaper is 'Sutherland Rose', a 1946 screen-printed cotton textured fabric designed by Graham Sutherland for Helios.\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\"\u003eWWII poster by Fougasse\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Barbara Euphan Todd","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":54098767511859,"sku":"vca1789694505428","price":28.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":54098767544627,"sku":"grw1789694505429","price":32.16,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":54098767577395,"sku":"ext1789694505430","price":38.25,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":54098767610163,"sku":"mti1789694505431","price":45.56,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0989\/0578\/4627\/files\/miss-ranskill-comes-home_1.jpg?v=1789694510","url":"https:\/\/sandstepclad.shop\/products\/miss-ranskill-comes-home","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}