3.5 rating ( )

"It was all very well, this fun, but Wilfred was tiring of it."

'Wilfred and Eileen' opens in Cambridge, 1913. Wilfred and his friends are in their final week before going their separate ways. There is the final ball to be got through, and Wilfred is not only tired of the ways of his fellow students, but also less than enthusiastic about his partner for the ball, Diana. Down by the river in the afternoon he meets a Miss Stenhouse in the company of his friend, David. He encounters her again at the ball, and while Diana dances Wilfred takes Miss Stenhouse - Eileen - to see some of the sights of the college. They return to the ball, Wilfred spends the rest of the ball with Diana, and in the morning writes to Eileen to say how much he enjoyed meeting her, and suggesting they meet up again in London, where they both live. He is unsatisfied with the tone of his letter, he worries that it is presumptious based on such a short meeting, and tries not to look forward to a reply.

Wilfred and Eileen was the first novel by Jonathan Smith. In his Afterward he explains how he came to write it. Smith was Head of English at Tonbridge School, and was intending to write a biography of or critical introduction to Siegfried Sassoon. One day he found waiting outside his classroom a boy, Anthony Seldon, (who went on to become Master of Wellington College and a political biographer) who said something extraordinary had happened to his grandparents during the Great War, and that his mother, Mary Seldon, had considerable quantities of autobiographical material by his grandfather, Wilfred Willett. Smith felt there were similarities between Sassoon and Willett in terms of their background and experiences, but also in their style. Smith also saw a remarkable love story in the early part of Willett's material, and it was that which he felt moved to write about.

Smith says "It is a tricky thing lifting out a section of a real person's life and trying to turn it into a novel. ... .... It is trickier if the direct descendats, the close family, are still living. A father's real life or a mother's real life is more than a 'story' to a living son or a living daughter; it's far more important and far more potentially touchy than mere historical material to be shaped and rewritten." Smith was concerned that he had been entrusted with intimate personal material and that how he used it, if he got a publisher, would affect how those real people, Mary's parents, Anthony's grandparents, would be seen by the rest of the world.

It may be this concern, on top of the new experience as a novelist, which prevents the characters from really coming alive. The most vivid parts are those concerned with Wilfred's early experiences in the hospital; the descriptions of the medical practices at the time are not for the faint hearted. The first chapter, designed to show the over-stylized, affected behaviour of Wilfred's Cambridge cohorts, and the artificiality of their lives, feels particularly stiff, which is odd as Smith himself was at Cambridge, albeit some decades after Willett, decades in which the speech and pastimes of the students has doubtless changed. Perhaps the feeling of distance and artificiality are meant to illustrate William's feelings, may even come from his own writings, but unfortunately it simply gives the impression that the author is not at ease with his material.

Smith went on to write 'Summer In February' also set around the time of the Great War, and based on real events. It would be interesting to compare the two to see how his approach has changed, if at all.

Kindly sent to me by Persephone books

Wilfred and Eileen is now firmly one of my all-time favourite Persephone books, and I have read quite a lot of them. I was also delighted to find that the book sits very nicely alongside the books I am reading for the Great War theme read.

“Wilfred felt he would like to talk to her and this was surely a good moment, the moment seemed to matter. Don’t hesitate, Wilfred: Wilfred was always looking back at things or ahead to things, never occupying the space – he reprimanded himself for this. But she might take a low view if he obviously moved across to talk to her. Who did he think he was?”

wilfred and eileenThis delightful novel starts in 1913; Wilfred Willet is coming to the end of his four years at Cambridge about to embark on his medical training at the London Hospital. At a May ball, Wilfred meets Eileen Stenhouse who has accompanied another young man but with whom he strikes up a conversation. As they sit out the thirteenth dance that evening the two take their first tentative steps in a love affair that will lead to a lifetime together.

Full of ideas Wilfred begins his medical training with all the idealism of youth, working hard and meeting Eileen whenever he can. The two are soon devoted to one another, despite the lukewarm reception to their relationship from both families. Knowing that it will be years before Wilfred can provide a home for them, the couple decide to marry in secret at the Registry Office. Unable to live together, the couple take to spending precious time together at a small hotel, before going their separate ways back to their family homes.

As war comes to Europe and patriotic fervour sweeps the country, Wilfred decides to lay his medical studies to one side for a time and joins the London Rifle Brigade much to Eileen’s distress. With Wilfred about to go off for Officer training, the truth about their marriage is revealed, and the couple are hastily propelled into going through a “proper” church service to legitimise their union, with a quiet little announcement the next day in the Times.

By early October 1914 Wilfred is in France, and then on to Belgium, writing to Eileen whenever he can, telling her honestly how very much he misses her, and how frightened he is at the idea of battle. In December Wilfred is horribly injured while trying to help another soldier. It is now that Eileen comes into her own, showing an incredible toughness and determination, to get to her young husband and then later to bring him home, and find him the treatment he needs.

“Wilfred was dreadfully shaken as they pulled into Whitechapel Road. Eileen’s hand pressed on his cheek while she explained her plan: they were to ask for Mr Jenkins, no one else would do; if he was not in he was to be called and told one of his students needed his attention. Wilfred’s name would do the trick, surely.”

The story is really that of Eileen, she was a remarkable young woman, for a woman of her background to have travelled alone to France in the early months of the war was fairly unconventional. She absolutely believed in Wilfred’s need of her, that his recovery depended on her being with him. The sympathetic and affectionate portrayal of Wilfred and Eileen’s relationship alongside Eileen’s unwavering determination is what makes this novel such a joy to read.

Jonathan Smith’s writing is really very good, there’s a deceptive simplicity to it that hides the poignant depths that the story of these two engaging young people takes us. As I read I became convinced that Wilfred and Eileen must have been real people, they felt so very real to me, their story resonated with me in the way a true story often will. I hadn’t read any background information about this novel before I began reading it, and so I was delighted by the revelation in the author’s afterward. They were real people. Jonathon Smith wrote this novel having been told the story of the real Wilfred and Eileen Willett by their grandson – a pupil of Smith’s. His afterward describes how he came to write this novel, and his meetings with Wilfred and Eileen’s daughter, leaving us with a wonderful sense of the couple behind the story. I am now determined to track down a copy of Jonathan Smith’s other novel ‘Summer in February’. ( )