A Foreign Country

Daphne is the sort of woman who lives alone because she can "no longer bear conversations". She has an orderly mind and she's proud of it. At 74 her faculties remain as sharp as they were 50 years ago when she worked in the War Office, interviewing suspected Fifth Columnists. By 1940s standards her work there was dutiful beyond reproach, but civil rights standards have moved on since then. When Rachel, her favourite son Oliver's girlfriend, suggests she take part in a programme about internment and deportations during the war, Daphne clams up. She knows better then to volunteer for trial by television. Even so, the clam of her self-imposed retreat has been disturbed and, just when she needs him most, Oliver disappears to film the latest show more war in a southern republic of the former USSR.
Francine Stock's first novel reads like a thriller and glitters with acidly observed asides. Nationalism, language and communication in an age of satellite technology are three important themes, and a former Newsnight reporter and presenter, Stock is well placed to explore a fourth: the tricks and vanities of modern-day journalism. Rachel doesn't really know anything about the Second World War, Oliver's interpretation of the conflict he is filming alters with each new development and with hindsight Daphne's work looks sinister. But Stock knows better than to judge her characters and, in this thorough and accomplished first novel, notions of right and wrong are always subject to debate. show less

A fine short novel about the rounding up of potentially dangerous, Duce supporting, Italians residing in the UK during WWII. Daphne, a secretary speedily promoted in the civil service finds herself making decisions about who may, or may not be an enemy. In older age her son's girlfriend, a journalist, approaches her as part of a planned documentary. Time and perspective are explored.

Behind this is the family story of husband and two sons, the younger of whom is himself a documentary maker.