'Our mother rather lost interest in us after the thirst got hold of her and, although our grandfather was vaguely fond of us, he certainly wasn't interested.'
This is the story of Blanche and Vicky. Following the death of their grandfather - in whose enormous Warwickshire house they live - their mother relinquishes drink (to which she had taken in a big way) for the joys of frantic housework. Naturally the girls long to escape.
Blanche trains as a model at a dubious institution in London, and Vicky flees to Holland and a purgatorial life as an au pair to a lot of dogs. But this is only the beginning and other adventures await them, including the poverty and cabbage smells of one-room living, the charcoaled fingers of art school, drunkenness and cheap restaurants of Soho bohemia, and varying degrees of excitement with several husbands and lovers.
First published in 1967, A Touch of Mistletoe shows Barbara Comyns' original voice at its best, mixing a characteristic simplicity with a quiet but cunning wit.
'Everyone should read Barbara Comyns... There is no one to beat her when it comes to the uncanny.' - Rachel Cooke, Guardian
'Comyns's heroines, and her novels, are plaintive, strange, and robust all at once.' - TLS
