Bad Blood: A Memoir (Paperback)

The Old Devil was her maternal grandfather, an adulterous, hard living vicar who passed on his love of books and language to his granddaughter. He let down and disillusioned everyone who came into his life, but as Ms. Sage says, "he didn't live long enough to disappoint me," and she adored him. Her grandmother, the Harridan, despised (this really is not a strong enough word!) him and never let him forget it. She never kept house, nor cooked and mostly looked after her asthma. She never went near him "except feet first-when she was buried in the same grave with him." This unlikely pair produced The Fairy Child, the author's mother who lived in girlish wonder all her life. Valma had her mother's contempt for house work but also was imbued with the notion it was her "sacred duty." Consequently, her efforts were constant and the results indifferent. She could not bear confrontation, (small wonder!) and was timid to the point of exasperation. What was important was what was on show. Thus the public areas of the vicarage and the people in it were reasonably tidy, and the private areas of both body and home were filthy. Ms. Sage lived with head lice for over six years, because none of the household would admit that she had them.

In this ménage, no one wanted to be a parent, the grandparents raged and rowed, the mother was a forever-helpless child. Ms. Sage freely admits she was an unlovable child. She whined and pouted and wept; her saving grace was her fierce intelligence and her luck was her beauty, both as a child and adult. Until she was six, she lived with her grandparents until her father came home from the wars. Her mother and father were perfectly matched. He needed someone to protect and she needed the protection, but parenting was not in the picture.

I was amazed over and over at how Lorna persevered to get out of the stifling village life. She made the cardinal error of becoming pregnant at 15, then marrying her 17-year-old lover. She would not let even this become an impediment in her scholastic journey. Both she and husband graduated from Durham University with firsts.

Ms. Sage's writing is so personalized, spare with the driest humor, she is a living presence. She died shortly after being notified she had won the Booker Prize for Biography for this book. I couldn't take in that this vivid presence was gone. I am so grateful she had time to write this fine memoir.

Sage's engrossing story is jarring to readers like me, who enjoyed wonderful childhood days. It also will be jarring to childless professional women who today face a different set of conventions, and difficulties combining motherhood and career.

I loved the book. It recounts the childhood of Lorna growing a small hamlet in an area know as the English Maelor/Wrexham Maelor in North Wales on the Shropshire/Cheshire borders with Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham all within an hours drive. The area consists of nine hamlets/parishes. My mother and Lorna grew up in Hanmer. My sisters and I grew up in Worthenbury, the birthplace of my father, approximately four miles away. Everyone knows everyone else, no matter which hamlet they grew up in. It was and is a very close-knit community - few people leave and those that do rarely stray far!! (I guess that makes me something of a rarity there!!) Despite the difference of 40 -50 years and ration books - life remains much the same.

I suppose part of my reluctance to read this book was my basic concern that I would find it annoying and irritating - relating life in that area as something different to the way I saw it. In fact - it was so accurate it took my breath away at times. Rekindling old memories - putting nursery rhythms and sayings into context. Introducing different perspectives on the people I knew. She recounted the village relationships and divisions so accurately that I would laugh out loud whilst reading the book. Lorna lived in the village, my family, being farmers, around the villages. Her reflections on the attitudes towards farmers and villagers are spot on. I also joined the young farmers, with very different results! I was the eldest of three daughters of a farmer with no sons! To see what that refers to - you have to read the book!

This autobiography is well written and I think well deserving of its award. It truly reflects the attitudes of the times in that area - some of which still exist. Whilst for me it was in many ways a journey back to my childhood, for anyone else it would be an accurate reflection of rural life on the borders of England and Wales. Lorna Sage's style of writing is a relaxed one that is easy to delve into. Sadly Lorna died shortly after writing this book - still only in her 50s. If at the end of this book, you like me, cannot believe that her mother was quite the domestic disaster portrayed - I have it on very good authority that she was just that! She quite a legend!