{"product_id":"the-winds-of-heaven","title":"The Winds of Heaven","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"width: 522px;\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/IWM_IWM_LD_768.jpg?v=1593111034\u0026amp;width=700\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"redtext\"\u003ePREFACE BY AS BYATT\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e328pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781903155806\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Winds of Heaven\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e is a 1955 novel about 'a widow, rising sixty, with no particular gifts or skills, shunted from one to the other of her more or less unwilling daughters on perpetual uneasy visits, with no prospect of her life getting anything but worse’ (Afterword). One daughter is the socially ambitious Miriam living in the commuter belt with her barrister husband and children; one is Eva, an aspiring actress in love with a married man; and the third is Anne, married to a rough but kindly Bedfordshire smallholder who is the only one who treats Louise with more than merely dutiful sympathy. The one relation with whom she has any empathy is her grandchild.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Winds of Heaven\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e is very readable: like Dorothy Whipple, Marghanita Laski or Noel Streatfeild, Monica Dickens had the knack of writing about ordinariness while making the reader unable to put her books down. It is about family relationships: it seems rather cruel that all three of Louise's daughters are so harsh to her but that, Monica Dickens is saying, is the way of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs John Betjeman said in a \u003cem\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/em\u003e review when the book was first published: 'Monica Dickens is one of the most affectionate and humorous observers of the English scene, particularly of the pretensions of genteel suburban life, that we have. Not only this, but she can always tell a good story, touch the heart with a pleasant sentimental grace… I think \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Winds of Heaven\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e is her best novel yet.'’ While Elizabeth Bowen wrote in \u003cem\u003eTatler\u003c\/em\u003e: ‘Monica Dickens has chosen a situation perfectly suited to her art – her sense of comedy, her affection for people and her almost uncanny knowledge of their small ways. Here, in fact, is humour at its most kindly… How well she sees extraordinary in the ordinary, and how familiar she is with all kinds of people… Not a page of \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Winds of Heaven\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e is not enjoyable: here's a fine blend of comedy with sheer good sense.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA 1950s furnishing fabric, origin unknown. It is a design that could only be 1950s and the pink would surely have been a favourite colour of the heroine of the book.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Knitting Party\u003c\/em\u003e by Evelyn Dunbar 1940, at the Imperial War Museum\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Monica Dickens","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":54098774163763,"sku":"wep1789694581739","price":25.6,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":54098774196531,"sku":"unh1789694581740","price":32.64,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":54098774229299,"sku":"fbt1789694581741","price":34.17,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":54098774262067,"sku":"oka1789694581742","price":44.89,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0989\/0578\/4627\/files\/the-winds-of-heaven_1.jpg?v=1789694586","url":"https:\/\/sandstepclad.shop\/products\/the-winds-of-heaven","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}