The Story of Stanley Brent (Zephyr Books)

Ada Boucher and Stanley Brent are young things at the time of boaters, parasols, champagne and trippers on the Thames. Ada is an apprentice and dreads heading into the low-paid saleswoman position which beckons. Stanley is an assistant at a land broker's establishment. Their relationship is flushed through with naїve romance - he is bowled over by her raven-haired beauty, she by his humour and goodness.

After a long engagement they marry. A trying honeymoon of fearful discovery for Ada about the realities of marriage is the first sign that their greatest challenges may be compromise and really getting to know each other. As life goes on, in small ways their paths diverge. Some of the hopes and joys they hold dear are cast aside, but there are compensations: Stanley becomes a junior partner in his firm; they purchase a new house in the outer suburbs; two daughters are born. But somehow, their fears and worries seem never quite allayed. Can they turn their lives to the sun? Or is there something in them that keeps them facing the dark?

For her first published book, Elizabeth Berridge set herself one of the hardest tasks: the story of a whole life condensed into a tiny number of pages. Using telling detail, both domestic and philosophic, and employing it with astoundingly precise skill in unusual ways, she navigates a path which speaks volumes, giving us an unforgettable picture of a struggling couple trying to understand themselves, the world in which they live, and what it all means. The Story of Stanley Brent was first published in 1945.