Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns

  

Our Spoons Came From Woolworths

by Barbara Comyns

First published in Britain by Eyre & Spottiswode 1950

Published in Paperback by Virago Press Ltd. 1983

The edition I read, Virago Press 2013

Introduction by Maggie O’Farrell 2013

Maggie O’Farrell picked up a copy of the book, probably the 1983 edition, in a second hand book shop in Lyme Regis and thought it the best 50p she had ever spent.

Barbara Comyns, born in 1909 was so like the main character Sophia, that her daughter complained that she had been killed off in the book. It shows life in 1930’s bohemian London, which may have been jolly fun for those with plenty of money, but wasn’t so good for those who were living from one art sale to the next.

Sophia tells the story in the first person, as it is, as it happens, the struggles with not enough money coming in, she does her best to get modelling jobs whilst her husband tries to establish himself as a painter. When she becomes pregnant his relatives complain that she is dragging him down and she should put the child up for adoption so that she can earn more and keep her husband whilst he establishes himself as an artist.

The description of pre-NHS maternity care are horrendous as is the warning that if she turns up at the hospital without her pink card she will not be admitted, even if she is in labour.

I agree with Maggie O’Farrell, when you start reading this book it is hard to put down and finding out that so much of the story is based on the experiences of the author makes you wonder how they managed to survive that lifestyle. I suppose the answer is that a lot of them didn’t, but they don’t tend to write the history of that time.

Second Variety by Philip K. Dick

  

Second Variety

Volume two of the Collected Stories by Philip K. Dick

published 1987

Philip Kindred Dick was born on 16^th December 1928 and died 2^nd March 1982, before the collected stories was published. His twin sister died shortly after their birth and their tombstone was inscribed with both their names. He died, at the age of 53, due to complications after a stroke and his Father had his ashes buried with his sister.

He started publishing si-fi short stories in magazines in 1953, at the age of 23. Volume 2 of his collected stories contains ones written between 1952 and 1955. They are dystopian and, although written over 70 years ago, contain some things that are currant such as fighting robots and the idea of a Planet B. Nothing good comes of these things, robots are in charge of their manufacture, they develop new and more efficient fighting robots who decide that the humans are the problem, kill them off on earth and then fight amongst themselves, leaving earth devoid of life. In another story people travel back in time to find out how to make robots so that they can use them to restore earth to a living planet. The people take the plans for the robots and their inventor accidentality dies whilst they do this, leaving them with the problem of what to do to correct their problems. They go forward to find out the effect of their actions and find earth is a green and pleasant planet, so they burn the notes they took.

The story with the planet B had earth laid waste, probably due to war, so the survivors decided they needed a new world. They thought Mars looked possible, so they sent out a survey team to check it out. They found the ruins of a city, deserted about 6,000 years before and information to show that they had headed for an alternative planet, unfortunately that one happened to be earth. So they decided they had to look outside the galaxy for a Planet B.

There are 27 stories in this collection, there are five books in the series, He also wrote about 45 novels, many of which were made into films. He is considered to be one of the greatest dystopian si-fi writers of the 20^th century. There is one thing that does date it, all his characters smoke and he mentions it a lot.