Making Conversation

Making Conversation (1931) by Christine Longford (1900-80) was first reprinted in 1970 after the novelist Pamela Hansford Johnson reassessed it in the Times Literary Supplement. She wrote: ‘This ought to be regarded as an English comic classic, which I suppose, unlike the ravishing Cold Comfort Farm, it is not. I hope time will redress the neglect.’

The heroine, Martha, is plain, with curly hair, small eyes which she tries to enlarge in a soulful manner by stretching them in front of the looking glass, and very little chin. She is extremely clever and totally innocent. Her besetting trouble is that she either talks too much, or too little: she can never get right the balance of conversation.

‘This witty book, crisp and dry as a fresh biscuit, is a novel of astonishing subtlety and of a subtlety that is not at all “worked out”. It is native and assured. It is this subtlety that saves Making Conversation from the imputation of triviality, of being just a “funny novel”. It is about a real girl, for whom we ought to be sorry, but for whom, because of her strength of nature, we are not sorry in the least. She would raise her eyebrows at us if we were.’

Endpaper

Endpapers taken from a 1931 dress silk in a private collection.