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Keeping The World Away by Margaret Forster


This is a love story but the main object of desire is a painting which passes through many hands throughout the novel, the women love it and like to view it from their beds whilst musing on the artist and her state of mind whilst the men use it as a form of currency to gain attention from the women.

After Gwen trains both at the Slade, and Paris with Whistler she returns to Paris in the early 1900’s and embarks in a passionate affair with Rodin that drives her to the pure heights of happiness and the depths of despair. She paints ‘A Corner of The Artist’s Room In Paris’ pouring all her emotions into its execution whilst waiting for Rodin to contact her and resume their affair and when he makes it clear to her that he’s no longer interested in her she gives the painting to her good friend Ursula.

Ursula looses the painting whilst travelling home due to a mix up of trunks and the painting is claimed by Charlotte; daughter of Sir Edward Falconer. Whilst Charlotte is travelling abroad with her father to further her art education their home in London is burgled and the picture taken.

As the years pass the painting goes through the hands of Stella; a nurse during the first world war, to Ginny; a portrait painter. It then falls into the ownership of a wronged wife and after her death it becomes the cause of a family row and has to be sold.

It isn’t until the present day that the painting is recognised as being the work of Gwen John and is on loan to a gallery when it is re-discovered all over again by a woman who falls in love with it.

Because the painting was executed during Gwen’s extreme mood swings each owner of the painting reads their own meaning into it and gives it a different frame depending on their wealth and situation.

This is an absorbing book, Forster’s attention to historical detail is flawless, her story charts the struggle of women who want to be accepted as artists. The plot lines weave seamlessly between families and great events, the painting coming dangerously close to previous owners during chance meetings and plot twists.

The story is peppered with real and fictionalised characters. Gwen John is the sister of the more famous Augustus John, she is known for her portraits, usually of nameless women and her pen and ink drawings of the numerous cats she owned throughout her life. It was quite a departure in style for her to paint a picture without and figures in it. The painting can be viewed at a gallery in Sheffield, Yorkshire.

Published by Vintage Books
ISBN 978-0-099-49686-1
£7.99
Reviewed by Dianne Blashill



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