Miss Ranskill Comes Home

"A Balloon Site, Coventry," Dame Laura Knight, 1943. © Imperial War Museum

I ordered Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd as part of my Persephone Monthly because I thought it was going to be something quite similar to Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. I'm not sure why I thought this, but I just got the impression from the summary. When I started reading it, I realized that it was nothing like I expected, and I was ecstatic at what I discovered as I flipped the pages.

The story is heartwrenching, humorous, and inspiring all at once. The relationships Miss Ranskill forms with people in the book are written quite beautifully and you can appreciate why she becomes attached to these people, without Todd spelling it out.

"The Queue at the Fish-shop," Evelyn Mary Dunbar, 1944. © Imperial War Museum

As a modern reader, you cannot help but sympathize with the emotions that Miss Ranskill is going through. If you were dropped back in time during WWII in England, how would you manage coping with rations, coupons, and blackout? The way Miss Ranskill reconciles the absurdity of these roles in the homefront is quite childlike, yet reasonable. I especially enjoyed her justification regarding her butter ration use in an argument with her sister, Edith:

     'You might try to think,' so Edith expostulated frequently, 'I don't want to seem disagreeable, but it really it looks almost greedy to eat all your butter ration in one meal.'
     [Miss Ranskill] 'It seems greedier to me to make such a fuss about it and niggle it out in tiny bits. When it's there I eat it: when it's finished I go without. I don't want every day to be the same.'
[...] 'Can't you see that it's better,' she insisted. 'You must see it's better to behave as if there wasn't a war for one day in the week?'
     But Mrs. Phillips and Edith did not see. Since they must make sacrifices, they preferred to be sacrificed daily by slow stages.

This innocent logic is pervasive in the novel and adds an amazing quality to the entire story. Todd's narration is great to read, has an amazing pace, and has elements I've never seen in a war-time story. It was definitely hard to put down this book and I was so sad when I came to the last page. But, the book ended amazing well and has bumped its way up to my favorite Persephone book. I must say, I never thought that Miss Buncle's Book would be knocked from that position!

Comments

[Toria]

Thank you so much for writing these reviews, you've given me a couple more books to get my hands on. I adored Miss Pettigrew so I can't wait to get hold of this and Miss Buncle.

[coops456]

The 3 Misses (Ranskill, Buncle and Pettigrew) are in my top 5 Persephones. The dislocation that Miss Ranskill experiences is so beautifully portrayed; the book made me laugh and cry.

Congrats on your mention in the Biannually!