Absent in the Spring

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Indeed, the publishers of my 2017 paperback edition chose to dub the author ‘Agatha Christie, writing as Mary Westmacott’. It is a true desert experience of biblical lore, with all the trappings of her upper-middle-class life stripped away to confront the actual person she has become.

Dame Agatha Christie, writing as Mary Westmacott, masterfully follows the unfolding of Joan Scudamore's self realization. She’s always been a planner and people manager, and when faced with nothing to do for the first time in her life, she begins to deal with painful memories. His anthropomorphic novels, such as Beak of the Moon - using the mountain parrot keas as characters - are unique in New Zealand literature. You can’t wait for the ending because you hope for a positive beginning but know deep down that it may not happen.As I said, I listened to it (Ann Beach did a superb job of reading it) and I now will continue down my rabbit hole to find a hard copy so I can underline in it. The title of the story comes from a quote from Sonnet 98 by William Shakespeare, “From you I have been absent in the spring” and is about being unable to enjoy the spring due to the absence of their loved one. Absent in the Spring: Stranded between trains, Joan Scudamore finds herself reflecting upon her life, her family, and finally coming to grips with the uncomfortable truths about her life. Agatha Christie was always prolific, often finishing a book within a few months, but Absent in the Spring was written in just three days. Having read all the books she’s brought and exhausted all her writing paper, Joan is forced into days of idleness which led her inexorably into self analysis.

Joan is married to Rodney Scudamore, a successful but dissatisfied solicitor, and they have three grown offspring. In this book, she suffers an epiphany and comes face to face with her true self as well as the reality of her life; the resolution is somewhat surprising, but when it happens it feels inevitable. The question, however, that keeps the story quite tense is whether Joan will realise this by the end of the book.While I have read all of Agatha Christie's novels and short stories, this might be the first time I have read anything written under the nom de plume of Mary Westmacott. Although not a Christian novel, it deals with the depths of depravity in the human heart in a way which few “light” novels do. When their home is invaded by people the birds face new challenges and have to adapt for the first time in many generations. Her domineering character has made miserable the lives of her husband, children, friends and servants.