Stella Gibbons : Enbury Heath

Cold Comfort Farm, the book for which Stella Gibbons is best known, was published in 1932 when she was thirty. It is an extraordinary book for a thirty-year old; sophisticated, witty, a wonderful satire of Thomas Hardy, Mary Webb even D H Lawrence. It has been made into films, plays and audio books, and remains a favourite novel of many readers. Not many readers know that she published about twenty-eight books in her lifetime, as well as poetry and journalism. I am gradually dipping into her books, in no particular order, as they cross my path.

Enbury Heath was the third novel she published, in 1935, three years after Cold Comfort Farm. It is described as semi-autobiographical, but it is clear the protagonists are very close to Stella and her two brothers Gerald and Lewis. Here, the girl who struggles to make a life for her younger brothers after their father has died, is called Sophia, (wisdom) and the brothers, Harry and Francis.

Sophia does not dress in black for her father’s funeral. She can’t afford to buy a new jumper and besides she does not feel sorry her father is dead.

But she was miserable, so wretched that she was sick and frozen with misery, and at the same time, she felt callous and flippant. She could not cry, even from shock.

Her mother died six months ago of a stroke, following years of unhappiness married to a drunken bully. But the father, a doctor beloved by his patients, but hated by his children, a big charismatic man who loved music, but also a violent alcoholic, caused his children to grow up in fear and to blame him for their mother’s death. This seems to reflect the facts of Stella’s life. Her father Telford Gibbons was a doctor, a heavy drinker and philanderer and a dabbler in laudanum.

The story concerns Sophia’s attempts to create a safe loving family for her brothers. She is a thoughtful serious young woman, loving quiet and walking in Nature, writing poetry. Her brothers, however, are younger and very soon want to spend their time partying.  Harry, at twenty, is handsome, and making a precarious living as an actor. Sixteen-year old Francis is warmer and more perceptive, but when he leaves school and gets a job, girls come into his life, and a rich South American friend means they can party as much as they like. Soon the residents of Enbury Heath are complaining about noise and racket that goes on until 4 am.

Thrown into the mix are some very annoying relatives who believe they know what’s best for the young people. Uncle Preston, who loves nothing more than to have long sessions on the telephone gossiping about all the shortcomings of the young people, Aunt Maxine on the fringes of the theatre world and seeing herself as more Bohemian, but mostly concerned with her own life, the insufferable Aunt Grace and the kind quiet Aunt Loo.

After the reading of their father’s rather irresponsible will, the young people are able to escape from their relatives. The father leaves very little money, but when the practice is sold a few thousand pounds will be available. With the help of her friend Celia, Sophia finds a tiny cottage which she can just afford to rent. It is heart breaking to read of the delight she has in setting it up and making it clean and colourful. At first, she and her brothers have simple meals together, but soon Francis starts work, Harry gets another part, and she is left with all the shopping, cooking and cleaning as well as her job as writer for a news service while they go out and spend their money.

This story is as much a study in different approaches to life as a family tale. Sophia cannot bear to be in debt, but her brothers have a devil-may- care attitude that all will be well; and it worries her that they may be like their father. Ultimately, she is forced to give up her dream and let her brothers go. As she reflects at the end of the book,

It’s very queer, she thought, I’m all alone now: and goodness only knows what will become of the boys without me. We’ve got no prospects. We’ve got an awful heredity, and we haven’t made a good start in managing our own lives. And yet in spite of all these things, I can’t feel unhappy. I can only feel excited and full of courage.

This book is darker than most of Stella Gibbons’ writing, and perhaps not as elegantly written. Her feelings about her brothers, and her dissatisfaction with herself come through very strongly. But her loving and poetic soul are also evident.

Try as I will, I cannot find out what happened to Stella Gibbon’s brothers. There has been one biography of her, by her relative Reggie Oliver, but is only available at a prohibitive cost.

If any readers can tell me how Gerald and Lewis Gibbons turned out I will be eternally grateful.