The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets

I first heard of The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets during my quest for books like I Capture the Castle. It's not I Capture the Castle, of course, and I wouldn't want it to be, but it deals with a similar territory: coming of age against a background of an eccentric family, not enough money and an impressive, literally-cold, crumbling home.

It's 1954 and Penelope Wallace is eighteen years old, poised between adolescence and adulthood. Her father died during the war and there isn't the money to restore Milton Magna Hall, where she lives with her difficult beautiful young mother and her music-obsessed brother Inigo (who sneaks home from boarding school on weekends).
The book opens when Penelope, waiting at a London busstop, meets Charlotte show more and Charlotte talks her into coming to tea with Charlotte's aunt.
And thus begins a friendship between two tall girls, both in love with the singer Johnnie Ray and both waiting for their adult lives to begin. Charlotte and her enigmatic cousin, Harry (who is training to be a magician) drag Penelope to London parties and bring Magna to life with their visits.

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets is charming, lively and poignant - full of vibrant characters, and details about London, being a teenager in 1950s and the gap between those who were adults and those who were children during the war. I like that it's a coming-of-age story more about friendship than romance. Penelope's insights about people and London and growing up are everything I wanted from this sort of story.

I stayed up late reading because I just couldn't put this down... and I don't know that I can adequately describe how it left me feeling. Bittersweet, and very reluctant to return it to the library. I love this book! And I love how the title fits it perfectly, even if it takes time to see why.

"It's supposed to be quite the most magnificent building in the west country," said Aunt Clare, recovering her voice.
"It was, perhaps," I said. "It's in rather a state at the moment. I mean, it hasn't quite recovered from the war. There was a lot of mess made when it was requisitioned. The soldiers treated it pretty appalling - " I stopped there, my heart beating furiously. I hadn't talked about the problems Magna faced to anyone, not even to my mother. The subject made me more nervous than anything in the world.
"To watch a great house dying is a terrible tragedy," murmured Aunt Clare. "One of the great tragedies known to man [...]" show less

I'm not normally a fan of 'hooray henry' style books, but this is absolutely charming. Eva Rice has written a lovely story with some really great, strong characters.

The book itself is beautiful, with pink edged pages and drawings every now and again to fit in with the story.

I've read Eva Rice's work before, and it was quite different to this, showing that she is an accomplished and versatile author. The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets follows Penelope, an 18 year old who lives with her mother and brother at the huge, problematic stately pile, Milton Magna. She is mad about pop star, Johnnie Ray, and when she meets a girl called Charlotte, who feels exactly the same, she finds a new best friend. She also meets Charlotte's somewhat flighty show more cousin, Harry, who elicits Penelope's help in trying to win back his former love.

What follows is a light-hearted and warm story in which Penelope really seems to come of age. I loved the 1950s history, and the descriptions of parties, soirees at the Ritz, ginger scones at Aunt Clare's house, beautiful party dresses etc - all very evocative of the era.

I found this to be a very engaging read and only wish I had read it sooner. show less

I picked up this book expecting a bit of fluff...and found myself wonderfully surprised. Not fluff at all but rather a poignant story of 18 year old Penelope of an impoverished wealthy family in 1950's England, teetering on the edge of womanhood. The book is replete with marvelous characters, Penelope's beautiful, young widowed mother; her younger musically-inclined brother named after Inigo Jones; her friends, Charlotte and Harry; and Aunt Clare. Full of literary and musical references, this is the best book I've read in a long time. Five GIANT stars!

Penelope Wallace meets Charlotte Ferris at a bus stop, when the latter insists Penelope accompany her to her Aunt Clare’s for tea. It is 1950s London, and the two young women, seemingly very different, become fast friends, moving through elegant parties, sharing a crush on singer/heartthrob Johnnie Ray, and exploring various love interests. Together they weather the changes in British post-war society, and in their own family situations.

I really enjoyed this novel. Through her characters, Rice lets the reader experience a taste of high society and Bohemian counterculture, landed gentry living in genteel poverty, the excesses of youth, and the fascination with flashy Americans. Despite our many differences (age, nationality, social show more standing, etc), I connected to these characters. I loved how they developed as they matured. Penelope, Charlotte, Harry and Inigo are witty, thoughtful, confused, eager, charming and vulnerable.

I applaud Rice for what she did “not” have the characters say and do, as much as for what she did have them comment upon and experience. They felt real to me, and while I have no desire at all to relive my teens, I was happy to go along with them on their journey towards adulthood. show less

So much positive to say about this book. I think the biggest compliment I can give it is it feels as if it were written contemporaneously with the period it was describing, or failing that, written by an 80-year-old woman with a deft hand and keen memory, yet neither of these things are true. Eva Rice is just apparently an enormously gifted writer with an unbelievable ability to capture the tenor of the times.

All the characters were interesting and engaging and lovable (even the worst of them had their charms) and flawed, and I'm going to miss them. I suppose underneath all of it it's a romance, but that's hardly the focus--it's less of a romance than Pride and Prejudice--it's really a few stories at once, all of them wonderful, show more detailing the relationship of Penelope with her family, her friends, her house, her crushes, etc. over the course of a few months.

If you liked I Capture the Castle or The Pursuit of Love or heck, Little Women you'll probably love this.

(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. There are a lot of 4s and 3s in the world!) show less

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice is a book I discovered in the bargain section at B&N.
The story is set in London, post-WWII. Eighteen year old Penelope, her brother,Indigo, and her mother live in a large estate house, which they can not afford to maintain. Penelope's father died during the war and left them nearly penniless.
While looking for a job, Penelope takes an impulsive cab ride with a stranger, the lively Charlotte Ferris, and the two soon become fast friends. Penelope follows Charlotte to society parties and even pretends to be her cousin's fiance to make a girl jealous. Penelope and Charlotte share a love of American rock-n-roll which is just starting to emerge, and fashion and fun.
This is a delightful, charming show more read, full of quirky characters. The story is about friendship, coming of age, a changing world, and a dash of romance. I did not want this book to end nor did I want to leave 1950's London. This is much more than a chick-lit novel and I strongly recommend this well-written, captivating book. show less

I picked up this novel because one of my favourite authors EVER, Elizabeth Wein, gave it an excellent review on Goodreads. I had absolutely no idea what it was, except that there were comparisons to Dodie Smith's "I Capture the Castle" which I vaguely remember reading and enjoying. I found this gem on the fifth page -- the main character, Penelope (who has a brother named Inigo!), talking about another girl she had just met: "She was the sort of person one reads about in novels yet raraely meets in real life, and if this was the beginning of the novel -- well! (5)"

Penelope is the tall, plain daughter of a father killed in the war, and a beautiful young mother just seventeen years older than herself. Her chance encounter and subsequent show more friendship with the charming and outgoing Charlotte brings excitement to her life that has been absent -- living in the giant old estate called Milton Magna Hall, a crumbling old mansion, is a rather dull existence, broken up only by her mother's alternating moods of guilt and emotion, extravagance and spending. Penelope also becomes acquainted with Charlotte's brother, Harry, who is infatuated with an American woman, Marina; he eventually hatches a plot to win her by convincing Penelope to serve as a foil.

I began this book with great hopes, and went merrily along for about half the book, at which point I started to feel disillusioned with the characters; with Penelope and Charlotte's gushing over the popular singer Johnnie Ray, with her mother's whims and emotions, and even with the seeming smallness of things that bothered Penelope, especially in contrast to the larger problems around her. While I was intrigued by the idea of American popular music taking the fancy of young English girls (as in a counter wave to the "British Invasion"), as the novel wrapped up, everything came together a la Daphne du Maurier, and I was left more than a wee bit disappointed, despite the charm and witty prose of the narrator. I would say this is about 4 stars for the first half, then slides down to around 2.5 towards the end, which makes me sad because I really really wanted to like it. show less