The daughter of a solicitor, Frances Rimington was born in 1890 into another world. Christened by the same minister who married Effie Gray and John Ruskin, it was a world of strict Edwardian etiquette, of rigid social order and of large, dark houses filled with domestic servants. Here, her daughter has taken Frances’ extensive notes – some typed, some carefully rewritten under headings, most simply scribbled in a variety of journals – and has organised them into a chronological retelling of her mother’s childhood experiences. All aspects of life are covered, from the everyday topics of prices, wages, chores and recreation to bigger issues such as the restricted opportunities for women and the great change which the First World War brought. Frances Rimington died in 1973.
By way of a postscript, her daughter Diana recalls a colonial life in Kenya, where her father was a district commissioner. One account of a vanished world is replaced by another, leaving the reader with a clear sense of the frailty of our times, yet reminded of the thread of continuity that runs through families.
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