The Fortnight in September

The Fortnight in September is by RC Sherriff, the author of Journey’s End (1929). The novel’s premise is brilliantly simple. We accompany Mr. Stevens, an office clerk, his sweet but nervous wife Flossie, and their three children—Dick, who works for an auctioneer; Mary, a dressmaker’s assistant; and schoolboy Ernie—as they ready themselves for their summer holiday and take the train from London to the coast.

We follow the twists and turns of their holiday; how they come out of their shabby boarding house every morning and go down to the sea; how the father finds hope for the future in his brief freedom from his humdrum work; how the children find romance and adventure; how the mother, scared of the sea, tries to make the others think she is enjoying it. The book is a celebration of ordinary life and all its beautiful details.

“A little masterpiece” – Sunday Express