The Orchard on Fire

This intimate, intensely seen novel was short-listed for the 1996 Booker Prize. Shena Mackay's six previous novels have won her critical admiration and a popular audience in England, but her work has not received due recognition in the United States yet. The Orchard on Fire is a concise, domestic novel set in the village of Stonebridge, where the parents of April Harlency have come in 1953 to run the local teashop. April's private reveries and her entanglement with the grim family life of her best friend, Ruby Richards, fill up a vivid and dramatic year in the wonderfully distinctive life of Stonebridge.

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Beautifully-crafted story of girlýs ý50s childhood - Rated
'The Orchard on Fire' chronicles events in 1953 in the life of eight-year old April Harlency, whose parents have recently moved to the village of Stonehenge in Kent to run a tearoom. She becomes best friends with fiery, tomboyish Ruby, whose parents are proprietors of the local pub, and together they share experiences with an array of village characters including creepy Mr Greenridge; strict schoolmistress Miss Fay; bohemian artists Dittany Codrington and Bobs Rix, and village communists, the Silver family.

Mackay's writing is simply beautiful: there were many occasions when I re-read whole paragraphs to savour the language. 'The Orchard on Fire' brilliantly evokes village life in the '50s through convincing period details, dialogue and - most of all - development of a diverse range of characters whose mindsets mirror the values and behaviours of the times. Without excessive nostalgia, Mackay transports the reader back to arguably gentler, more innocent times - whilst warning of social evils that may lurk beneath the veneer of respectability. In a market-place awash with novels depicting childhood experiences, 'The Orchard On Fire' stands out for its realism and honesty and, above all, elegantly-crafted prose.

a photo album of the 50s - Rated
Nostalgia has the effect of painting the past in vivid colours that make the present seem pallid in comparison. Shena Mackay uses this contrast to lend poignancy to her account of rural England in the 50s, "The Orchard On Fire". A frame story takes place in an anonymous, suburban present, where the narrator - April - leads a strangely unfulfilling life. The heart of the book, however, deals with a much more intensely experienced time in her life: when as a ten-year old she moved to a small village in Kent where her parents opened a pub.

"The Orchard On Fire" centres around the friendship between April and local red-head Ruby. The lightness of childhood friendship is shaded by the theme of child abuse, however, which at first made me slightly wary. Isn't it possible to write a book about childhood that doesn't include abuse? It can so easily seem like a shortcut for the author to prove that she has something important to say. However, Mackay's handling of the issue doesn't feel that way. A scene where April plays self-consciously in the garden of her abuser is touching without being manipulative.

As in many stories of childhood, the narrative meanders rather than following a clear-cut plot. Mackay's recollections of the details of nature and everyday life are shot through with that special sort of intensity that you only have as a child. Her language made me think in colours: Ruby's ginger hair, lime green plimsolls, autumn leaves.

In spite of its sometimes heavy subject matter, the style is never melodramatic. Mackay keeps matters both tender and straightforward, in the way that children deal with life. Is April's emotionally detached middle-age linked to the abuse she suffered as a child? Mackay leaves the question open. However, she does tie up some lose ends of the story at the end in a way that felt out of tune with the rest of this subtle book: overly sentimental, perhaps. It doesn't really change the overall impression left by this book, which opens up as a faded photo album; intimate, loving and with the gentle sorrow that time passes by.

Tragic at points, tender at other moments - Rated
Another book about growing up in the fifties, this time in small-town Britain. A tragic story about two girls growing up, one which gets beaten at home by her parents, whereas the other gets chased by an old man who kisses her every time his wife isn't there. In between the terrible bits, the girls are like real girls; they play, go to school and have to help in the shops of their parents. I liked reading it, at some points the story is very touching, though by some people it might be considered a book for softies.

A Glorious, Heady Plunge Into Childhood - Rated
In my opinion, this is Shena MacKay's best novel. In Coronation Year, Betty and Percy Harlency, with their small daughter, April, move from London to a small village in Kent called Stonebridge, to take over The Copper Kettle Tearoom. The Copper Kettle is a charming, but not financially prosperous, establishment.

When April meets the tomboyish, fiery, ginger-haired Ruby, their friendship is instantly sealed. The girls are staunch allies who conspire together in every way possible. Their secret signal is the "lone cry of the peewit;" their hideaway is a railway carriage where they are continually up to mischief. When the two girls finally manage to pry open the door of the carriage they stand and gaze "in the smell of trapped time."

It is this smell of trapped time, this nostalgia for the emotions of the past, that The Orchard on Fire conjures so expertly. MacKay is reminiscent of Proust in this extraordinarily evocative novel and we feel intimately connected to April and to her emotional life. MacKay, usually a brilliant writer, excels in The Orchard on Fire and we can hear the buzz of the insects and the bluebottles, smell the overgrown weeds and the lush summer grass and picture the family's new home at The Copper Kettle.

The small English village where April lives is a bit unconventional as are April's parents; the duo are unlikely political radicals and MacKay manages to introduce a Bohemian element into the story in the gentle, pretentious artist characters of Bobs Rix and Dittany Codrington, who is "like the Willow Fairy in Fairies of the Trees by Cicely Mary Barker."

One of the best sections of this wonderfully-written book comes when The Copper Kettle is chosen to host a weekend party for Bobs and Dittany and their artist friends. For a time, Stonebridge is awash in fairy lights and the pink glow of nostalgia.

Although some may dismiss The Orchard on Fire as overly-sentimental, it is nothing but. Child abuse plays a part is this masterfully-written story as does sexual perversion, bringing to mind scenes of Pip in Great Expectations. We become deeply immersed in April's world, and in her fears and expectations, most particularly her horror at losing a cherished Christmas present.

Although this novel tells us more of April then just her childhood, it is childhood that is most strongly evoked in all of its trouble and all of its glory. The adult April is but a shadow of the child April and we, who grew up with her, know why.

The Orchard on Fire is Shena MacKay at her finest and one of the most wonderful and atmospheric books I have ever read. It is a glorious, heady plunge into the world of childhood that will never be forgotten.

Beautifully written - Rated
This is a story of childhood friendship and village life in 50's England, seen through a young girl's eyes. Sheila Mackay manages to combine suspense and ill-boding with beautiful description of sentiment; at the end, I could hardly focus on the page through the tears. Once finished, you just want to pick the book up and start again.