Author: Judy Leigh
The Silver Ladies Do Lunch is a book by Judy Leigh, and the first one in the series of two so far. I am really pleased that Leigh also has books where stories continue, such as this one, and previously also Five French Hens and The Silver-Haired Sisterhood.
The Silver Ladies Do Lunch is a different type of book than what Leigh normally writes. I mean, the theme of friendships and communities, love, and ‘it’s never too late sentiments’ are the same, but there are so many connected characters here, so the community she writes about is quite large. This series could result in many different books due to the wealth and diversity of characters. What I also liked is the difference in approaching writing with a prologue telling history from the 1950s, then moving to the present day.
The prologue introduces a group of friends from Oxfordshire who go to a primary school together during the 1950s and meet their new teacher, Miss Hamilton. The group instantly loves a new teacher, and the prologue explains the bond she created among primary school pupils. Fast forward to the present, and school children are in their 70s. Minnie has never married and lives in Oxford where she worked as a professor of classics, and despite frequently coming to her village, Middleton Ferris to do lunch with her friends aka the silver ladies, she still enjoys her Oxford home filled with books and memories of parties and friends, or what is in essence a bohemian life (so, again a Bohemian character in the book; loved Minnie, and previously Pam and Aurora from other books). Her story was again fascinating to me because it is a story of leaving your own class and struggling to keep things going. When she came back from college, Minnie’s father slapped her at breakfast because she said ‘actually’, thus changing her working-class talk and sounding ‘posh’. Throughout her life, she kept her two lives separate: a bohemian life from Oxford and her home life, and did lunches with her silver ladies, with the message being that friends are forever. This is also very English because I noticed many years ago that many people in England keep childhood friendships, which is not always the case in other countries, where people make friends at University and then work as they move and go about their lives.
Other than Minnie, silver ladies are also Lin married to Neil, Josie who was widowed and grieves her husband Harry, as well as a whole set of local characters which are introduced in more depth than in other Leigh’s books, such as former school children and now local adults in their 70s, the Dangerous Dave, Kenny, George and his wife, his son, an Irish family living on the barge, etc. A local waitress, Florence, gets pregnant, and the father of the child does not want to answer her phone, so the silver ladies look after her and invite her to lunches and organise the community to support her. But, most interestingly for the group and the village, is that Miss Hamilton, who now insists on going by just Cecily, returns to Middleton Ferris now in her 90s and becomes a part of the silver ladies group. In a group of friends struggling with meaning of live (Josie cannot stop grieving years after Harry’s death, Lin is worried that Neil is cheating and Minnie sometimes wonders whether her career was worthwhile since she did not marry and sometimes feels alienated from her village), the arrival of Cecily on her funky scooter and with Cecily being 90 years old but as energetic as ever, things change for friends who find meaning in their friendships and the community that comes together.
As with all Leigh’s books, this is a story of community and friends coming together and supporting one another, but it is also a story of the meaning of life, dreams, and class alienation common for working class children in England who develop middle class careers and taste (e.g., Minnie likes theatre and reads a lot, and has a different taste in reading and life than her friends). The Silver Ladies Do Lunch is definitely my favourite book from Leigh, and I have already started the second part, with the hope that many more books in this series will come. Once again, I loved the bohemian character, this time Minnie, and particularly that even in her 70s, she wears bohemian dresses and Dr Martins boots, and I loved the description of her class struggle, which many people could identify with.
Thank you for reading!