102. Margaret Kennedy — Troy Chimneys

AMY: Hi everyone. Welcome to Lost Ladies of Lit, the podcast dedicated to dusting off books by forgotten women writers. I'm Amy Helmes.

KIM: And I'm Kim Askew. So today's episode doesn't feature a special guest, but Amy, maybe our daring alter egos will make an appearance. 

AMY: Yeah, that would maybe be appropriate given the novel we're discussing today, Troy Chimneys by Margaret Kennedy.

KIM: Yeah. And this one's going to appeal to all you Regency fans out there. 

AMY: Which should be all of you.

KIM: Yes, of. course. 

AMY: So this book was actually written in 1953, so that brings us to our word of the day: pastiche. And Kim, I will admit, I had vaguely heard that term and never quite known what it meant. So now I know, and just in case there's anyone out there like me who didn't quite know that term, I'll sum it up for you. A pastiche is an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work artist or period. If you had asked me before, I probably would have guessed it was some sort of French delicacy.

KIM: Yeah. Pastry shaped like a mustache.

AMY: Yes. I love it. 

KIM: Anyway, Margaret Kennedy, the author we're going to be discussing today, was hearkening back to the Regency Era with this book. It was recently re-released by McNally editions, so thank you to McNally for providing us with a copy of this book. It's a gorgeous cover too. 

AMY: Oh yeah. It's a really unique novel about a man with a split personality, and I'm looking forward to discussing it, Kim. So let's just raid the stacks and get started. So it's fitting to point out that Kim and I are working on an outside writing project that indirectly relates to the Regency Era, so we've been kind of wanting to immerse ourselves in that world, that style, that sort of language. So Troy Chimneys was a perfect read to get us in the mood.

KIM: Right. Um, and for research purposes, we also had fun going to a performance of Jane Austen Unscripted here in Los Angeles by the Impro Theater Group. What a blast we had. 

AMY: Yeah. They basically take a suggestion from the audience and then build an entire Regency plot around it. And the one they did when we were there, they really nailed it. I think my favorite part was when the men would pretend to be trotting around on invisible horses on the stage. And then they also gave us tea and specialty cocktails and a little bouquet when we first showed up. It was so much fun.

KIM: Definitely. Many people were dressed up in sort of Regency attire, so the people watching was amazing. But getting back to Troy Chimneys, the author, Margaret Kennedy, is probably best known for her novel, The Constant Nymph, which is not set in the Regency Era. It's set in the Austrian Alps and is said to be loosely based on the Bohemian painter Augustus John. It was considered pretty racy when it was first published. The podcast Backlisted actually has a great episode about The Constant Nymph, so we'll direct you there if you'd like to hear more about that particular novel. 

AMY: So getting back to Margaret Kennedy, what do we know about her life?

KIM: So she was born Margaret Moore Kennedy in London in 1896. Her family was well off. Her father was a barrister. And as the oldest of four children, she was educated by a governess. She started writing when she was at Cheltenham Ladies' College. And then she went on to study history at Oxford's Somerville College. This is also where Rose Macaulay studied history about 15 years prior. And we did an episode on Rose Macaulay with Kate MacDonald recently. 

AMY: Also, the author Winifred Holtby, who we should also do a future episode on at some point, she actually attended Somerville College with Kennedy, and Holtby had this recollection of her from when they were at school. And I'll just read it:

"She is an unobtrusive sort of person. Apart from two or three friends, she speaks to a few people, but now and then at a college debate or during dinner time discussion, she suddenly opens her mouth and makes about three remarks so witty, so disconcerting, and so shrewd that college picks up its ears and wonders whether perhaps there is more in the girl than meets the eye. Rather a brain at history, I expect she'll go down and write a textbook, said rumor." So that's a recollection Holtby gave in an article in Time and Tide magazine.

KIM: Quite flattering, I would think, to feel sort of discovered, um, in your unobtrusiveness. Anyway, the rumors she spoke of were spot on because not long after finishing college Kennedy did publish her first book, and it was actually a French history book called A Century of Revolution. Then her first novel, Ladies of Lyndon, was published in 1923. That book came and went without a lot of fanfare, although it was generally well received, but when The Constant Nymph came out a year later, she basically exploded onto the spotlight.

AMY: And she earned a fortune with that book, apparently selling more than a thousand copies a day for several weeks in the United States. She received congratulations from notable male writers of the day, including Thomas Hardy and J M Barrie, and many people were surprised that a woman had actually written the book because it was not like any typical woman's novel quote, unquote. This book basically overshadowed the rest of her career and is the book she's best known for, as we said at the top of the show.

KIM: Yes, and all that's actually reminded me of Kate Gibbons who wrote Cold Comfort Farm, and basically said that that book was like "some unendurable old uncle to whom you have to be grateful because he makes you a handsome allowance, but is often an embarrassment and a bore."

AMY: That still makes me laugh to this day. Um, yeah. And while I don't think that Kennedy felt that way about The Constant Nymph, it's funny that you should make that comparison because I actually found a book by Faye Hamill in which she compares Cold Comfort Farm to The Constant Nymph in one chapter and draws comparisons between the two heroines. I would not say those books are anything alike, story-wise or style-wise, but anyway, while she lived, Kennedy was definitely considered a literary celebrity. From what I read online, she seems personality- wise, pretty straight- laced and unassuming, just like Holtby's description of her. She wasn't a drama queen or flashy or anything like that. And I almost wonder, in a way, if that kind of normalcy about her is part of the reason that maybe we don't hear about her that way we might hear about other writers of the era, like Dorothy Parker or, you know, Virginia Woolf, people like that.

KIM: Yeah, that's interesting. Um, I wonder if that is the case. Getting back to her personal life though, a year after The Constant Nymph was published, she met the barrister David Davies at a party. They were both 29 years old at the time. He went on to become a judge and was knighted in 1952, so he must've been a pretty big deal I guess. They had three children, two daughters and a son. And her eldest daughter, Julia Burley, became a novelist herself. And actually, Margaret's granddaughter, Serena Mackesy, is also a well-respected novelist today. She sometimes goes by the pen name Alex Marwood.

AMY: Kennedy continued to live in London, raising her family and writing under her maiden name. She wrote a total of 16 novels and several plays, including a stage adaptation of The Constant Nymph. And then she went on to also write the screenplay for that book. It was made into a film in 1943 starring Charles Boyer and Joan Fontaine. She actually has two dozen film credits to her name. 

KIM: Wow. That's amazing. 

AMY: During World War II, Margaret volunteered their London home to be the local sector air raid station. And her husband volunteered as air raid warden. And obviously it was a stressful time to be in London, which had an effect on Kennedy. She became afflicted with Bell's palsy. It kind of distorted her face and made it look like she had suffered a stroke. She eventually did take the children out of London to live in Cornwall in 1944. That London house was completely destroyed by a bomb. Holy cow. 

KIM: Yeah, yeah. 

AMY: Though she did not write novels during the war years, she did write a memoir based on four months worth of her journal entries in 1940. It's called Where Stands a Wingéd Sentry. Yes, Kim Wingéd! It has that accent mark on it. 

KIM: I love it.

AMY: I knew you would. That was written when England was having its moment of realization about the war. I mean, things were starting to get very bad. They were really worried Hitler could invade England. That book, incidentally, was published just last year by Handheld Press, which is helmed by our previous guest, Kate MacDonald. I've got to say Kim, this book is so good. It's really moving and funny. It's so much more entertaining than I expected it to be. It doesn't read at all like a history book. It reads like a friend kind of filling you in on all the latest. So it's completely engrossing.

KIM: Wow. I want to borrow that book. That sounds amazing. Um, after that, Kennedy began to write more again following the war, including a biography of Jane Austen. And I wonder if working on this biography inspired her to write Troy Chimneys, which was published in 1953, three years after the Jane Austen biography? I could imagine maybe she wanted to stay in that world. 

AMY: Yeah. She felt like, okay, I know all this stuff now, why not turn it into something? Um, which I think is a great segue into discussing the novel. So why don't we start off with the title itself? Troy Chimneys is the name of a country house in the book, but its name is basically bastardized from the French. And here I'm going to bastardize the French: Trois Chemins,, Shema. if I'm saying that, right, which means three paths.

KIM: It's like she predicted people out there like us who are horrible with French pronunciation would exist and she just decided to make it easy on us. 

AMY: Yeah. If I had to say the French phrase more than once, I would have flung this book across the room, I guarantee. But anyway, in the book we don't really spend a ton of time at Troy Chimneys, but it is the residence that our narrator Miles Lufton aspires to live in as an adult. These three paths that converge in front of the residence are symbolic, you could say, for the various alter egos which reside within him. We're going to get to all that in a minute, but Kim, why don't you set the story up for us?

KIM: Yeah. So the book actually starts off in an epistolary style during the Victorian era. 

AMY: I didn't know pastiche, but I do know the term epistolary. It's basically letters compiled to create a novel.

KIM: Correct. And so the book begins with an 1879 letter from one Frederick Harnish to Sir James Cullen in Ireland. Frederick says he's investigating a bit of family history, particularly this weird cousin Ludovic who died in 1830. So Sir James writes him back and says, yes, we found all sorts of mention of Ludovic in these papers written by my great Uncle Miles Lufton. Turns out Miles and Ludovic were really good friends. He goes on to say that he knew nothing about his great uncle Miles, but when he asked his mother about him, she looked uncomfortable. " I believe she does know something and that he was not quite the thing," he writes. 

AMY: I want you to spill everything now. 

KIM: There must be something there. Yeah. 

AMY: Yes. So we find out also in this prologue that Miles Lufton, his nickname was Pronto, and he served as an MP and "cut quite a dash" is the phrase Margaret Kennedy uses. We're intrigued, right? 

KIM: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. We want to know. 

AMY: Yeah. Um, what follows are a letter and some diary entries from Miles Lufton circa 60 years earlier in 1818. So the book kind of starts in the Victorian Era and then it tosses back to the Regency Era. And can I just say that I loved the way Kennedy starts off this book with all these letters and documents? It reminded me of the start of Frankenstein or Dracula. 

KIM: Yeah, a lot of Gothic books have this conceit to get you sort of into the story. I love that.

AMY: And boy does it work, you know? There's this real air of mystery. I'm also actually reminded of a much more recent book called His Bloody Project that's set up in this kind of same vein. It's by Graham McCrae Burnett, and it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016 and that kind of purports to be a true crime incident, so it's all sorts of police reports that you're reading, things like that.

KIM: I did read that, and that's really good. Um, and then, you know, what also struck me is, um, Northanger Abbey, doesn't it start out with some letters?

AMY: I can't remember. 

KIM: Like maybe so that would be the connection. We'll have to look that up, 

AMY: Yeah. Yeah. That makes a lot 

KIM: more sense. 

Check. 

AMY: Okay. I'm sure some of our listeners out there who are huge Jane Austen fans are like, "Yes. How do you not know this?" 

KIM: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and then I'm thinking also of The Blair Witch Project where you're convinced something has really happened. So with Troy Chimneys, right out of the starting gate, you're like, "Ooh, there's a story to unearth here." It's instantly intriguing. You want to know what's going on. 

AMY: Yeah. And I saw this book referred to online as a Regency puzzle. You do feel as if you're working a little bit while you're reading it, because it feels like there's a lot of moving parts, you know, things that are going to be important and tie in.

KIM: Yes. And given that we have these two personas -- there's Miles Lufton and his alter ego, Pronto -- I was also thinking right away of The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy or The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. 

AMY: Yeah, this idea of the alter ego is always a fun set up. I think, um, Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" also plays around with this idea. And coincidentally, I just picked up a book at a used bookshop called The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife and the Missing Corpse. It's a non-fiction book about England's eccentric Fifth Duke of Portland who may have led a secret double life. So I'm really into this whole idea . Even today you think of like Marvel movies. We wouldn't have them without the alter ego concept. Right? 

KIM: Right. Yep. 

AMY: And I think that maybe I had a little too much build up because of all these other ideas that we're talking about. I think it all led me to believe that Troy Chimneys was going to have more of this adventurous swashbuckling element like The Scarlet Pimpernel, you know? I thought Pronto, this alter ego, was either going to swoop in and save the day or he was going to be some sort of nefarious problem that Miles Lufton would have to deal with. But I think what Kennedy's actually going for in this novel is a lot more subtle.

KIM: Yep. You're right. It's more, I'd say, a study of how someone can behave differently in different circumstances or have a different side of their personality come out in the presence of different people. I think we can all be a little bit like that sometimes. And it's actually, we call it code switching these days, right? 

AMY: Yeah. That's a good connection that you make. Um, I never thought of it that way. I mean, do you ever react differently depending on the people that you're with, would you say?

KIM: Absolutely. I mean, I could think of a couple of different things right now. I mean, at work, you know, you have your professional persona and you maybe don't show as much of your personality there depending on where you work. And then I'll say you have your family persona where, you know, you kind of revert back to who you were as a child. So that's just a couple ways I can think of that I probably do that. What about you? 

AMY: Um, yeah, I probably tend to be more shy and introverted in a group setting, whereas with people I really know, I can really open up and be more ridiculous and out there. It's funny because in the book, it's kind of the opposite. This Pronto character, when he's out in public, he's able to be more brash and, um, an entertainer with tons of charisma, you know? But then his true nature when he's by himself or just with a few close friends, he's more introverted. 

KIM: Yes. Yep. 

AMY: So in terms of Miles Lufton, let's talk a little bit about him. He is a parson's son who has kind of a subdued personality, as we just said. He appreciates the simple things in life, and he doesn't have grand ambitions other than to just settle down in the country someday.

KIM: Pronto, on the other hand, has these grand ambitions to enter Parliament, and he has a way with the ladies, as it were. He's a charmer, and you might even say, a rake, right? He basically holds court in a room full of other people and especially loves to wow a crowd with his singing.

AMY: Ladies man, yes. So early in the book, when we're learning about Miles's backstory, there's a passage that hints at his dual nature to come. Kennedy writes as Miles in his journal, "We have suffered all day from a superfluity of icebergs. My father can talk of nothing else. He has been reading an article upon the arctic regions in the gentleman's magazine. It appears that an iceberg exposes but one 10th of its bulk above the surface of the water, concealing nine tenths below for the inconvenience of shipping. Since I never intend to visit the arctic, this peril does not apply."

KIM: Cue the Titanic theme here. 

AMY: Iceberg right ahead! So obviously the iceberg is a metaphor for Miles and Pronto. There's a side that's showing right now, and a side that is submerged, that's going to come out. And there's also a warring tension between these two personas, like sort of the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other shoulder. Kennedy writes Pronto "never expects, never prepares for those sudden bursts of feeling on the part of Miles, which threaten from time to time a revolution, they always take him by surprise, and he is powerless before him. He takes cover when the gale blows up and only ventures forth when it is over. So far, they have done him little damage. Since they invariably blow themselves out, he very properly ignores them." So the Pronto side of the personality kind of thinks he's in charge a little bit I would say, you know, cause he's like "I'm the more confident guy. I'm not too worried about anything Miles is thinking." 

KIM: Yeah, it's interesting because I almost was, like, waiting at points for like a psychopath.

AMY: Yes, I really, really was waiting for Pronto to cause trouble and, and sort of like salivating for it. I really wanted it to happen. And yeah, we should also note that there almost seems to be a third personality in the works, the version that's sort of outside reflecting on both Miles and Pronto. So just like the three paths converging outside of Troy Chimneys, there are technically three sides to his alter ego. And he even says at one point, you know, maybe there's a third guy in here, the kind of observer of both.

KIM: But our protagonist is not the only one in the novel who's keeping certain things shrouded. For example, a young woman enters Miles's life. She's introduced as "the child under the cloak," which is so mysterious and interesting, but there's more than meets the eye to her, too. And that leads us circuitously to the denouement of the whole story.

AMY: Which we won't give away. Um, but also it goes without saying that when it comes to the ladies, Pronto definitely steers the boat. So this poses a problem when Miles begins to fall for a woman whom Pronto would most definitely not approve of. Um, this was my favorite section of the book because you really kind of see the warring sides of Pronto and Miles. And also, I just loved the chemistry between Miles and this female character. 

KIM: Oh, yeah. I think the other fascinating element of the book is that Kennedy is writing this from a male point of view. 

AMY: Yeah, absolutely. I don't read too many Regency novels with a guy speaking. 

KIM: No. 

AMY: And there's actually a passage I highlighted having to do with the sort of social rule that a young lady ought to always have a chaperone in the company of a man. And It kind of illustrates this really well, that she's writing as a man. Uh, so I'll just read this little bit. "To suggest that a man cannot safely be left alone with a woman is to turn his mind, inevitably, to thoughts of what might ensue if he were. It supposes a natural licentiousness to be so near the surface that neither his honor, nor her virtue, should be exposed to the ordeal of propinquity." Like, "What are you saying? I have a dirty mind?" 

KIM: Yeah. Yeah. Totally, totally. Um, it's funny because like the whole issue, um, in the book there's a marriage plot running through it, or the idea of who these women and men are supposed to marry, that is very Jane Austen. And it's really interesting to see the male perspective for that. Cause if you think about like, if Pride and Prejudice had been written from Darcy's perspective, what would that have been like? Um, and so it's just, I think it's really interesting that she decided to do a male protagonist in this particular era. 

AMY: 100%. I think that's the draw for the book. 

KIM: Yeah. 

AMY: Um, and interestingly, Kennedy literally drops Jane Austen into this book when Miles and his young lady friend are debating the merits of two of his favorite novels. So he says that, you know, "My favorite novels are Emma and Mansfield Park." And she objects to the fact that the women in Austen's books are always confined to the parlors. And she adds "that lady's greatest admirers will always be men, I believe, for when they have had enough of the parlor, they may walk out, you know, and we cannot."

KIM: That is such an interesting line in the book and it really stood out to me because typically, you think of the Jane Austen fan as being a woman, but we can walk out of the parlor now. And we couldn't then. 

AMY: That's something interesting to go back and look at. Who was her demographic? Who was reading her? I think it was probably both, but yeah, you don't associate today, uh, Jane Austen with like favorite books for men. 

KIM: Yeah. And given that she wrote a biography of Jane Austen, I feel like, you know, she knows what she's talking about.

AMY: Yeah. Yeah. 

KIM: Yeah. So Amy, we actually compared notes briefly after we each read the book, as we always do. And I know you did have some complaints about the novel. What were the things you didn't like about it? 

AMY: Okay. So the main thing was what we said about expectations. I really was expecting Pronto to be even more dramatic than he was. I frankly didn't always see a huge disparity between Miles and Pronto, to the point where I didn't even sometimes know which one I was dealing with. They didn't feel that distinct. I also felt like all the different documents and characters started to make me confused at times. But I did love Kennedy's voice, and I loved the premise so much that I was willing enough to follow Miles's journey. I just wished more would have happened. So I think it was a good idea. Not entirely sure she executed it as well as she could have, but that's just me. I mean, this book went on to win a James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in 1953, so people obviously liked it.

KIM: Yeah. I mean, personally, I think my expectations weren't so strong in that direction, and I kind of was willing to be led, um, with her more subtle way of showing that the differences between the characters and how it was much more of a psychological book and not as dramatic, uh, as we might've swashbuckling, as we might've thought that it was initially. But now that we've looked into the book more, talked about it, researched it, I mean, do you feel like you appreciate that aspect of it more? Or do you still feel the same about it? I loved it.

AMY: I feel like I got to the end and I was a little disappointed. Um, there is an interesting play on words that happens with his fate. Uh, I don't even want to get into that because we don't want to say what happens, but, um, she did some clever things, for sure. But yeah, I feel like if you're gonna go with the split personality situation... I used to write for a soap opera magazine, so like that's a world of evil twins and, you know, there is always like crazy drama surrounding that. So, yeah. I think I just expected more.

KIM: You know, even though it is, um, Regency- inspired and it's set in the Regency Era, she does have a feminist perspective on the marriage plot that I think is very interesting, especially for the 50s, too. 

AMY: Honestly, any of our listeners interested in this era and this type of book, they're going to like the book. I'm not saying don't read it. I'm just saying know that it's more subliminal than just like Zorro or the Dread Pirate Roberts and Wesley from The Princess Bride.

KIM: Yeah. 

AMY: It's not, it doesn't quite go 

to that. 

KIM: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

AMY: Yeah, exactly. Um, side note, I learned another P word from reading this book, and that is poplolly. 

KIM: that. I love that word. 

AMY: Um, oh, "he's got a little popularly on the side, has he?" Uh, it's kind of an old-fashioned term for sweetheart or someone you have a fondness for, and it comes from the French poupoulet, which means sweet baby, which is cute. Um, looking up that word led me to a 2005 nonfiction book called Poplollies and Bellibones by Susan Kelz Sperling. And that's a book all about long lost words like this. So of course everyone must be intrigued about what a bellibone is, right? That is also a British word stolen from the French term belle et bonne, which means beautiful and good. So that refers to a woman who is both good looking and has a good heart. So if somebody calls you a bellybone, everyone, you need to take it as a compliment.

KIM: Okay. Um, when you first said pop lollies and belly bones, my mind did go into the wrong place. I did not realize, but thank you for 

AMY: but yet.

KIM: Speaking of dirty minds. Anyway, that's all for today's episode. If you're loving all the book recommendations you're getting from this podcast, consider telling a friend and leaving us a five star review over at Apple podcasts. It means so much to us. 

AMY: Our theme song was written and performed by Jennie Malone, and our logo was designed by Harriet Grant. Lost Ladies of Lit is produced by Amy Helmes and Kim Askew.