An End To Autumn

An End to Autumn

Two teachers who have already stopped living find, unexpectedly, a reason to start again.

About the Ebook

Tom and Vera Mallow, who are in only their early thirties, might indeed be said to be in the autumn of their lives already, they are school teachers, both of them, but without any strong feeling for children, and without nay children of their own. Their outlook is wary; they hold themselves apart. When they invite Tom's mother to share their home, they do so from a sense of duty rather than love. But after autumn, we find, comes summer; and it is the mothers - Tom's and, later Vera's - who in surprising ways reverse the march of the seasons:

Mrs Mallow as irritant, with her incongruous friendship with Mrs Murphy, a Catholic and of a lower social class; and then Angela, the vivacious ex-actress, from the a different world, to provide catharsis. Here is a sympathetic and unusual study of a marriage that, surprisingly and against the odds, takes the right turning; though lest anyone should feel that Crichton Smith is succumbing to sentiment, the novel's last page echoes the veiled foreboding of it first.

Why You'll Love This Ebook

• A sympathetic and unusual study of a marriage that, against the odds, takes the right turning
• From one of Scotland's most distinguished twentieth-century literary voices
• Written with a poet's concentration — spare, precise and deeply moving
• Read another celebrated title from Polygon - an imprint of Birlinn Ltd

About the Author

Iain Crichton Smith (1928 – 1998) was born in Glasgow, brought up on Lewis, and attended university in Aberdeen. After working as a teacher in Clydebank and Dumbarton, he taught at the High School in Oban until he took early retirement in 1977. He was the recipient of many literary awards and received an OBE in 1980. His widow, Donalda, still lives in Taynuilt, where the couple moved after their marriage in 1977.

Publication Details

Publisher: Polygon (an imprint of Birlinn Ltd)

Publication Date: 15 April 2015

Print Length: 184 pages (Ebook edition)

ISBN (Ebook): 9780857907325

Format: Ebook

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