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Loading... Still Life: Sketches From A Tunbridge Wells Childhood (1983)| 54 | 1 | 482,662 | 
(4.3) | 3 | Still Life: Sketches from a Tunbridge Wells Childhood (the sub-title is important) was first published in 1984. It won the J.R. Ackerley Prize for Literary Biography in that year. It is a classic among middle-class memoirs. In twenty-one short chapters the town is vividly anatomized. And so are its residents: meet Dr Ranking and, best of all, meet the Limbury-Buses living a life of contented ossification. 'Cobb remembers, and that, as well as his redeeming freedom from all conventional standards of dignity and relevance, is what makes this offbeat, capricious book a rare treasure'. John Carey, Sunday Times 'A remarkable feat of making purest autobiography part of a general, social history... Cobb has broken one of the strangest silences in English social commentary; on the missing history of the English bourgeoisie'. Michael Neve, Times Literary Supplement… (more) |
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| Epigraph |
The town is never over-run with trippers.
nor are its streets ever defiled by the vulgar or
the inane. Its inhabitants are composed,
for the most part, of well-to-do people who
naturally create social atmosphere tinged
by culture and refinement...On its outskirts are
many houses of the kind that attract those
members of the aristocracy desirous of change
of scene after the ceaseless social duties of the
London season. Thus it may be taken for
granted that when London is 'empty' in
the society sense, Tunbridge Wells is
at its liveliest and best.
From Royal Tundbridge Wells:
The Official Guide, c. 1923  | |
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To the memory of my mother | |
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The approach to Tunbridge Wells by train, especially from the direction of London, is unexpectedly dramatic, and was even more so in the days of steam. | |
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I can still hear her distinct, rather emphatic, very self-assured speech: 'Richard, you look a shack'(perhaps a reference to the way of life of the local hermits) and see her erect figure, in a grey cardigan, her face in profile silhouetting her sharp nose, as she sits, over tea, by the French windows opening on to the balcony, with the sound of the bowls coming through from the Grove Bowilng Club. (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.) | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English
None ▾Book descriptions Still Life: Sketches from a Tunbridge Wells Childhood (the sub-title is important) was first published in 1984. It won the J.R. Ackerley Prize for Literary Biography in that year. It is a classic among middle-class memoirs. In twenty-one short chapters the town is vividly anatomized. And so are its residents: meet Dr Ranking and, best of all, meet the Limbury-Buses living a life of contented ossification. 'Cobb remembers, and that, as well as his redeeming freedom from all conventional standards of dignity and relevance, is what makes this offbeat, capricious book a rare treasure'. John Carey, Sunday Times 'A remarkable feat of making purest autobiography part of a general, social history... Cobb has broken one of the strangest silences in English social commentary; on the missing history of the English bourgeoisie'. Michael Neve, Times Literary Supplement ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description |
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I suspect that some may find it lacking purpose, but I found this a delightful series of verbal portraits, recreated by Cobbs’ easy and descriptive prose. Although my childhood was much later, in the 1970’s, I found some of the characters and scenes described brought back similar, though previously forgotten memories for myself.
A month later and I have increased my rating of this, as I keep recalling descriptions from this excellent memoir. (