By Wendy Monk

The Birmingham Post
November 6, 1980

From May To October
By Jennifer Lash
(Hamish Hamilton, 5.95 pounds)
 
 
 

      During this single summer, quietly, beautifully, summoned by Jennifer Lash in FROM MAY TO OCTOBER, things do go wrong.  Michael's bookshop in the neighbouring town is not paying its way; they must sell.  Caroline, bursting with a desire to paint but with no time or privacy, grasps the opportunity when a friend offers her the use of a lonely house in France.  The children are parked for the holidays and she has the (for her) extraordinary luxury of being alone and being able to paint uninterruptedly.

          The bookshop is sold, and also the house which they had always sworn they would never leave; but now they have no choice, the offer is too good.

          With the finest of needles and stitches like cobwebs Miss Lash, an attractive writer, new to me, fills her summer tapestry, and makes us believe in enduring love -- a rare achievement.