I’ve heard of Barbara Pym from reviews over at Pages Unbound, so when I had some time and was looking for a lighter read, I decided to check out A Few Green Leaves as it was available on Libby. I started this book hoping for something like the Fairacre series by Miss Read, and I think this was close.

If you’re familiar with Fairacre, you’ll know that there isn’t much of a plot. Instead, it just describes life as it goes on. A Few Green Leaves is pretty much the same. The story starts when Emma moves to the village but not much happens in terms of excitement – pretty much the most scandalous thing is that Emma’s old fling temporarily moves to the village to complete his manuscript and the rector’s sister decides to move to Birmingham.

To me, the biggest mystery was figuring out when the book took place. There’s the NHS, there are cars, but handphones aren’t ubiquitous and people still remember WWII. After some googling, I found out it’s the 1970s, which I didn’t quite manage to guess.

In terms of characters, I don’t know how I feel about them. I think it’s partly because the “romance” between Emma and the other characters don’t feel romantic at all! We do get a few lines every few chapters about someone hoping to see Emma, but with no introspection about WHY, and Emma herself seems to hold no romantic feelings for anyone! Many of the emotions seemed similarly shallow (we see them, but we don’t feel them), though I did like this line by Emma’s mum:

“It was sometimes a grief to her that her daughter was not better read in English Literature, with all the comfort it could give. A few sad Hardy poems, a little Elliot, a line of Larkin seemed inadequate solace.”

The charm of this book lies in the writing. It’s gently humourous – nothing very laugh out loud but enough to bring a grin to the face. It was what kept me reading until the end, I really did enjoy the description of village life, even as I was trying to figure out when the book was supposed to take place and if there was going to be a plot.

Overall, this was an interesting read. I can’t say it has the same charm the Fairacre series has for me, but I did enjoy it and I’m tempted to read another Pym novel to see if it can scratch that cottagecore itch. This one was almost, but not quite, there for me.