LGBTQ+ Book Review: Winter Love by Han Suyin (1962)

Red does not love her husband Andy. She knew what true love actually was, a love that she cannot speak to him about, nor would want to. Instead, she nags him, rations sex and knows that she will eventually leave her marriage. ‘Red’ was the nickname given to her because of the colour of her hair, her real name was Bettina Jones, now Bettina Morton. She had known Andrew Morton since she had been a student studying Zoology at Horsham Science College, London. He was studying to qualify as a doctor.

They had met during the war when they had lived at the same cheap, down-at-heel boarding house. Red had slept with Andy both out of curiosity and because he would bully and cajole her to do so, but she was not naturally attracted to men and had had relationships with women. Then, on the first day of term of her second year in September 1944, Red spots a woman, a new student. Her blue and green tweeds make her stand out from the fawns and greys worn by the rest of the students, a beautiful dark-haired woman to whom Red is irresistibly drawn to.

Mara Daniels had been allowed to join the course straight into the second year. Her clothes were expensive, nails painted pink, heeled shoes and real nylon stockings, an item that could only be obtained on the black-market during wartime. She was married and was doing Zoology just for something to do. Red invites her to undertake a dissection of a cat with her. Red’s friend Louise notices Red’s attraction to Mara. Red knows she wouldn’t cause a scene even though she doesn’t like this. Louise would grow to dislike Mara. Love between women was a secretive world fraught with fear of discovery, and marked by coded language, looks and discreet behaviour. Red and her friends were aware of other close female ‘friendships’, women who share homes together, including their tutor, Miss Eggleston. However, it was assumed that these relationships would end when a man and marriage came along and with it the security of a ‘normal’ life.

Red is awed by Mara’s obvious access to wealth and the finer things in life. Although she was not poor in comparison to working class people, Red had to watch her spending. She lived on her allowance waiting until she reached the age of 21 when she would inherit money left to her by her father. Red’s initial attraction to Mara develops into an obsessive love for her. She rises early to take two buses to meet Mara and walk to college with her and, knowing where Mara lived, Red would walk along her road on Sundays hoping to bump into her. Mara appears to be extremely confident and self-assured to Red, who is conscious of her frowsy clothes and cheap lodgings. When Red finally visits Mara’s flat it is beautiful and stylish. This flat, along with the clothes, expensive perfumes and accessories, are provided by her husband Karl, a businessman who, as he was a Swiss national, was able to keep out of the war whilst profiting from it. Red is not jealous of Mara’s wealth and rather liked having a well-off friend; however, this difference between them would eventually create tensions. Mara had never been poor, never experienced want and is completely unaware of the challenges faced by less well-off people like Red. She would prove to be quite naïve to the realities of life without money.

The catalyst for their relationship moving on from a friendship to something much deeper and intimate was the impact of war. Londoners were being terrorised by V1 rockets, frighteningly random as to where they fell. The college had been spared so far but one day when Red and Mara visited a café a V1 fell close by. They survived but the owner was killed; life could be brutally cut short and there was no time to waste being coy and shy. For the first time in her life Red is wanted and needed by another. Before this she had always been the needy one, the one who had to ask. Now this stunning and beautiful woman wanted her and to be with her always. But Red’s personal demons from the rejections she suffered as a child and from a manipulative relationship as a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl with an older woman would regularly surface. Still very young and not able to talk to anyone about her feelings about the past (the stiff upper lip mentality of the period) and it being impossible to speak of her attraction to women meant Red had had to bottle up her feelings; however Red could not stop them bursting out with the result that Mara was on the receiving end of unaccountable anger and nastiness. What makes Red even more angry is that Mara just gets upset. She never returns the anger, never stands up to Red. Red blames Mara, hating this weakness in her character, not understanding why she accepts this treatment. This deepens both her love and contempt for Mara.

Red’s early life had been a difficult one, losing her father to illness and having a stepmother who viewed her as ‘abnormal’ and in need of a psychiatrist. Little was ever said about Red’s birth mother, a woman her stepmother referred to as ‘low class’ who had left her husband for another man. This insecurity in her early life, the rejections she suffered, could explain Red’s obsessive love and need for Mara. She had little experience of unconditional love, the love that gives grounding and security in adult life; the nearest she came to this was with her Aunt Muriel, her father’s younger sister. Without this sort of loving relationship in childhood Red is left feeling needy for love but at the same time lacks any sense of entitlement to it. The confusion and frustration created by this would lead Red to first place Mara on a pedestal, besotted by her, then destroy it with her inability to separate this relationship from past ones and from past traumas.

It’s Mara’s husband Karl that becomes the main bone of contention between Red and Mara. She cannot help being jealous of Karl despite Mara’s protestations that she does not really like or love him. Red hates the way Mara acts around Karl and is angry by the way she allows him to bully and dominate her, but she is still besotted with Mara and these extremes of emotions from love to hate, tenderness and cruelty persist and become more frequent as the relationship develops. Mara constantly assures Red she loves her despite Red’s treatment of her.

Their differing attitudes to wealth becomes a problem between them, straining their relationship. Mara had never been without money before or after her marriage whereas Red had always been acutely aware of her lack of income. When Mara tells Red that she wishes to leave Karl and be with her as a couple Red’s first thought is how they were going to manage financially. Another strain uppermost in Red’s mind is the need for secrecy regarding the nature of their relationship. No one must find out they are a couple, but Red is fearful of any hint that others may know and will ‘out’ them. It is a fear that is not shared by Mara; it was Mara, who had never had a relationship with a woman before, who states that they must be Lesbians. Mara’s lack of concern over what people may think of her was one of the things that attracted Red to her; now this was a source of anxiety to Red as her 21^st birthday, and her inheritance, approached. Aware of the scandal caused by her mother’s adultery, Red does not want further trouble. Her mother lost her reputation and social standing, and Red had no wish to follow in her footsteps.

The war comes to an end. Mara and Red find a nice flat in Bloomsbury where they can be together when Karl is away on his business trips. Red hopes that they’ll both find jobs soon so they can be fully independent; she had inherited some money from a deceased relative and was able to support them both until she got her father’s money. Their relationship still see-saws between blissful contentment and periods where Red turns on Mara, angry, spiteful and bitter. They could express love and emotional intimacy with each other, but physical intimacy was a problem owing to Mara’s lack of experience with women and from Red’s emotional turmoil brought on by the intrusive memories of past relationships. These remembrances sullied what was now her first true love. These unexpressed feeling come out again as anger which Mara simply accepts with tears. At this point in history there were no relationship counsellors, no agony aunts, to which Red could turn to deal with her feelings; she if left not really understanding why she gets so angry, nor what to do about it.

Now as a wife and mother Red looks back at this love, the halcyon winter of this winter love when the darkness and the cold of the season did not touch her as it did before but has done ever since. Could their love, their relationship have lasted? Unfortunately, an ill-chosen holiday in rural Wales, Karl’s determination that he would hold onto Mara, Aunt Muriel’s fear of scandal would prove unsurmountable. The answer to this was her marriage to Andy, but Andy would never replace what she had lost.

LGBTQ+ Book Review: The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (2006)

Published in 2006 and shortlisted for the Man Booker and the Orange Prize, Waters novel, like Han Suyin’s Winter Love, is mainly set towards the end of the Second World War and the early years of the peace. The Night Watch focusses on the lives and interconnected relationships affected by the Second World War. The characters are trying to put their lives back together again after such a cataclysmic event, one in which the home front was impacted to a far greater extent than it had ever been during previous conflicts. Bombing raids brought the War to the heart of the people, to non-combatants, leaving a trail death, destruction and traumatised lives.

Kay Langrish lives alone in a flat above a Christian Science Practitioner, Mr Leonard, who is her landlord. She spends her days just walking around London, occasionally visiting the cinema and her friend Iris Carmichael, known to her and other friends as Mickey. Fortunate to have an independent income, Kay does not have to work. On her walks her short hair and attire of shirts and trousers mean that she is regularly mistaken for a young man. Mickey, with whom she worked in the ambulance service during the war, is concerned for her and the aimlessness of the life she lives now. She suggests that Kay should come and live with her on her houseboat. Mickey works as a mechanic in a garage but has ambitions to work as a chauffeur and eventually get out of London. The city still bears the scars of the war and is shabby and run-down, full of rubble, damaged buildings and bomb craters. Kay appreciates the offer, but Mickey’s boat is too small for them both. She is one person she can confide in and tells Mickey she cannot get over what happened to her during the war. They worked as a team going out with the ambulance during raids, putting on a calm a front when out in London and in danger, and when back at the station using banter and jokes as a coping mechanism to deal with the fear and horror they had experienced. Outwardly, they displayed an almost blasé attitude to the conflict, but this masked the trauma and ill effects of what they had had to witness in the course of their work. Kay would walk calmly home, greet her girlfriend, Helen, still half asleep in bed. Then she would go to their sitting room and pour a glass of whiskey to help get her through the fit of shaking that always came to her after these traumatic nights retrieving the injured and the dead.

Duncan Pearce regularly visits the building where Kay lives to assist Mr Mundy, who he calls his Uncle Horace, to attend Mr Leonard’s clinics. He always looks out for Kay, intrigued by her manner of dress and her regular walks. He lives with Horace as he had been unable to return to his home area. Duncan had spent the war in Wormwood Scrubs prison. The shame and stigma of his sentence, and maybe because he did not do his bit for the war effort, has distanced him from his family. He is not a social outcast but not fully a part of regular society either. He has a job in a candle factory, but it is not a regular sort of factory. This is a place that employs people who, for some reason or other, cannot work anywhere else. Some have injuries or disfigurements and others, like Duncan, have a past that would make them unattractive to regular employers. It is effectively a dead-end job with few prospects. Duncan proves to be a good worker and when a journalist and photographer visit the factory his supervisor is keen for them to meet him. Much to his shock and surprise Duncan recognises the journalist. Robert Fraser had been his cellmate in prison, and he was equally surprised to find Duncan in a place like this.

Duncan’s sister Vivian works at a marriage agency with Helen. They had worked during the war at, respectively, the Ministry of Food and the Assistance Board. Although these jobs seemed glamorous, the reality was that they could be somewhat similar to working in a factory. Vivian certainly felt this when working in the typing pool at the Ministry of Food, churning out reams of typewritten documents and reports alongside other typists doing the same thing. Her colleagues were mainly from upper class backgrounds and had names like Felicity and Minty. Vivian was from a humbler background and had undertaken a secretarial course which helped her land this job. Her instructor had noted that there was no reason why a girl of her background should not do as well as one from a ‘better sort of family’. Conscious of this ‘disadvantage’ Vivian took elocution lessons and took note when one of her colleagues expressed horror at people using words such as ‘Dad’ and ‘toilet’. This reflects, in Winter Love, Aunt Muriel’s discomfort at Red’s use of slang terms and middle-class talk which she had adopted to fit in a be chummier with others as the different classes mixed during the war years. Red had the choice to do this, of course. Vivian, unless she changed herself, ‘bettered’ herself, would have only had lower status work open to her. Vivian had been seeing a married man, Reggie, for many years, a secret she keeps from many including her family. She never mentions her brother Duncan.

Helen Giniver is also from a modest background, her father being an optician. She and Vivian chat amiably during their lunch breaks, but Helen is aware that Vivian will often ‘bring down the shutter’ when the conversation veers towards anything personal. Helen has secrets of her own; she is gay and lives with her girlfriend, Julia, an architect’s daughter and a popular crime novelist. Kay and Duncan are also gay. As with Red and her friends in Winter Love, relationships are discussed in coded language, are secret and discreet.

The characters have their secrets and their own personal traumas and heartbreaks, and all are linked to each other to some degree. Helen and Vivian are unaware that they are linked to each other through Kay as she is Helen’s former girlfriend and the person who helped Vivian on the very worst day of her life. On this day as well, Kay’s life would change direction leading the current aimless existence that so worried her friend Mickey.

Social class is something that underlies and influences the lives and relationships featured in the novel. Fraser had the assurance of his public-school background to know that his stint in prison would not affect his future prospects. He still expected a successful life at something and did not fear discrimination; his class, his school and his old boy network could be called on to smooth his way into whatever he wished to do, in his case become a journalist. This was not the case for Duncan within his working-class community. For him and his family prison is a mark of shame, difficult to shake off. He was not in prison for principle or political belief as was the case with Fraser, who was a conscientious objector. Duncan did make a point that Fraser was not really doing anything to change the world for the better just being stuck inside, which gave Fraser pause for thought. Mr Mundy went further and said that he shouldn’t be in prison and that he was merely ‘playing’ at being there. Fraser’s socialist/collectivist principles were not being forwarded whilst serving time.

Frasers politics do explain his concern for the life Duncan is leading in 1947, working in the candle factory. Meeting up for a drink after work, Fraser notes that the factory is one up from a charity case. Duncan, however, says he likes it there, likes the work. Fraser catches up with Vivian and tells her of his concerns for her brother. He expresses concern at the co-dependent relationship between Duncan and ‘Uncle’ Horace, and fears there may be an element of exploitation within it. Duncan maintains that he’s happy, he does not expect anything better than this, or he may feel he doesn’t deserve anything better; this life is his punishment for the crime he was sent to prison for. When still in prison during a visit with Vivian and his father, the commonplace conversation about family and friends descends into an argument, started by Duncan, who is silently satisfied when his father tells him that he is ashamed of him. His father brings up the possibility of Duncan, after he is released, bumping into the parents of his friend Alec; Alec, in his opinion, is the one who ought to be in prison, not Duncan.

Kay was from a more privileged background than Helen, but this class difference did not stop her from being deeply in love with her. Before Helen, Kay’s life had been chaotic, drinking too much and having lots of affairs. Her last steady girlfriend gave Kay her flat as a parting gift. This home and Helen brought calmness and stability to Kay’s life. She doted on Helen, bringing gifts and treats for her bought on the black market (but not looted goods). Helen hated it when Kay went out to her job risking her life during bombing raids, but Kay knows she has to go though she misses Helen when away from her.

For Helen Kay’s attentiveness to her, flattering and lovely at the start of their relationship, was beginning to get a little bit much for her. She had expressed to Kay on a number of occasions that she did not deserve the treats and the love Kay shows to her, which Kay refutes. She was intrigued with Kay’s friend, Julia Standing, someone who Kay had had a ‘misaffection’ with in the past. When one day by chance Julia sees her and greets her in the street, Helen feels quite shy, self-conscious and finds herself blushing at the attention. Julia, dressed in work clothes with her hair tied up still exudes the sort of self-assurance and confidence that Helen feels unable to match. Helen was attracted to Julia and can sense this interest was being quietly reciprocated. But Helen fears that she is gauche and lacked the class and sophistication that Julia confidentially carried with ease. People may have pulled together and mixed more during the war, but the old class distinctions were always present and never went away, only to start reasserting themselves after the conflict was finally over.

Helen’s self-destructive behaviour that emerged later on, her jealousy if Julia gave any attention to other women, could be explained by this lack of confidence in herself, of being undeserving of someone like Julia as a partner and lover. The jealous rages, the ‘gnomish voice’ she cannot keep down reveal her fear that Julia will leave her for someone from her own upper-class background. With the war over, Julia was becoming a successful novelist whose book had been dramatized for the BBC (at that time the only broadcaster). This was far more glamorous than Helen’s job at the marriage agency, a job that held few prospects. She can see that she would find it difficult to compete with Ursula Waring, who was responsible for getting Julia’s novel broadcasted. She had the same cut-glass accent as Julia and her clothing and confident manner suggested a similar wealthy background. Helen had been jealous of Kay’s relationship with Julia and had wanted to have what she had had; now she was jealous of Julia herself and, like Red, she cannot control these feelings no matter how much hurt they caused.

The clandestine nature of these lives and relationships are difficult and stressful. Helen desperately wishes to tell Vivian about her love for Julia, and almost does but the moment to do so passes. She has become used to Vivian’s reticence about personal matters. When Fraser pays an unexpected visit to their office Helen assumes this is her lover. Observing them from a window she feels that it is so easy for heterosexual couples to meet and interact and openly show affection; she is unaware of the reality of Vivians love life with its deceptions, fear of discovery and seedy hotels trysts.

It’s plain that Reggie has no plans to divorce his wife and marry Vivian. Divorce may have been difficult, expensive and disapproved of in the 1940s, but it was not impossible to obtain. Vivian accepts his excuses about his wife and life. His easy charm and flattery mask the fact that he is self-serving and a coward; but Vivian is besotted with him. He promises that they would have their clandestine meetings in a better class of hotel after the war, the Savoy or the Ritz. Vivian is so in love with him that she is prepared to accept this and stay his mistress. This was risky for her as if this relationship was discovered the double standards of the day would have judged her far harder than on Reggie, leaving her reputation in tatters. As with Duncan, it appears that Vivian doesn’t expect anything better from life than this. However, her catching sight of Kay in a cinema queue whilst returning to London with Reggie from a trip in the countryside, leads to a subsequent meeting at which Vivian returns a ring belonging to Kay. This interaction finally sparks a glimmer of hope in Vivian that she can have a better life, do things she always wanted, achieve her ambitions, and leave Reggie.

This novel has been meticulously researched and paints a vivid picture of life on the home front during and just after the War. The descriptions of the living conditions, the restrictions in food and clothing (lots of mentions of clothes being reconditioned and darned), the destruction meted out by the bombing leaving London still, in 1947, looking shabby and run-down, the deaths and, above all, the mental and emotional impact of the conflict bring the reader close to the experience of living through these tumultuous times. The characters are all trying to find their way back to some sort of happiness and stability, dealing with the emotional scars of war as the country starts to rebuild and get back to normal. Their experiences have left them with residual senses of uncertainty, still feeling unsettled, still needed to find a direction and come to terms with the past. The novel closes with all the characters nearing turning points. Vivian and Kay meeting will possibly spur them to make changes and get out of the ruts they are in. Fraser could support Duncan to gain a better life and job than the one he is in now, and the path is looking rocky for Helen and Julia. The country was on the cusp of change also with the implementation of the Beveridge Report, the welfare state and the new NHS, however it would be some years before other social reforms on homosexuality, crime and punishment and sexual equality made for freer and more open lives than those experienced before.