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  • Book Review
  • Smoke Portrait - Book Review


    Trilby Kent has previously published a children’s book; this is her first novel. She lives in London and is studying for a PhD in Creative Writing.

    Set in London in 1936 Glen is a graduate in her 20’s, working in a bookshop and trying to be a writer, she is part of the generation who between the wars set out to cram as much life and laughter into their lives as possible. Whilst casting about for something interesting to do with her life and widen her literary horizons Glen sees an advertisement in the newspaper asking for willing volunteers to correspond with European high security prisoners to improve language skills, Glen applies and is given the address of a Belgium prisoner.

    Marten is a young Belgium boy whose older, successful and much loved brother has recently died in an accident. When the body is never found Marten’s family begins to fall apart so when he receives Glen’s letter in error he keeps it to himself for a few days before deciding to reply in the guise of Pieter, the prisoner Glen is writing to.

    Glen receives word that her eccentric Aunt Annabel has been abandoned by her husband and decides to go to Ceylon to help her run the tea plantation and bring up the children. Her early letters to the ‘prisoner’ detail the exciting sights and sounds of Ceylon and her new life, in return Marten writes of an imagined life in prison, sometimes overstepping the mark when he describes terrible punishments that are metered out by the governor and having to backtrack when Glen offers to intervene on his behalf.

    Slowly over time the letters change in tone as Marten joins a fascist movement and Glen tries to make sense of Ghandi, Indian Home Rule and her assumption that her co-respondent is a political agitator. Glen uses Marten as a sounding board for her frustrated outpourings throughout a love affair and Marten writes of his brother and his bourgeoning political interests, both of them are hiding behind imagined personas but rely on one-another in a time when world peace cannot to be depended upon.

    Trilby has re-created the world of the 1930’s, the wives who gather to chat and gossip at The Club; their earnest, self important husbands who pounce on a new-comer and sound out the family name until someone can lay claim to a connection before extending friendship.

    For a writer Glen fails to look beneath the surface, and her reliance on ‘omens’ and symbols seems childish in a young woman, at times you wish to warn her of the trouble she is courting. It is Marten who has the more adult outlook on life; some of his letters (mainly the ones he tears up and doesn’t send) show a depth of maturity Glen doesn’t seem to posses. Trilby has created two wonderful characters.

    This is a great novel, it is not afraid to examine the racism of the settlers, the different factions heading towards the second world war, but it doesn’t preach or lecture, it’s a fantastic story and it’s almost a surprise to look up from it and find you’re not in the clubhouse avoiding the heat of the day, sipping a gin.

    Smoke Portrait – Trilby Kent
    Alma Books Price £12.99
    ISBN 987-1-84688-129-9
    Publication Date- March 2011

    If you enjoyed this novel try:
    M.M. Kaye: The Far Pavilions
    Paul Scott: The Raj Quartet



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