''Not That Sort of Girl'' (1987) is a novel by British author

Mary Wesley Mary Wesley was the pen name of Mary Aline Siepmann CBE (24 June 191230 December 2002), an English novelist. During her career, she was one of Britain's most successful novelists, selling three million copies of her books, including ten bestsell ...

. The novel is set in

Southern England Southern England, or the South of England, also known as the South, is an area of England consisting of its southernmost part, with cultural, economic and political differences from the Midlands and the North. Officially, the area includes G ...

and takes its beginning in the late 1930s and follows the life of Rose Peel throughout 48 years of marriage.

Plot summary

At the age of 19 Rose is in love with the passionate but penniless Mylo Cooper but agrees to marry Ned Peel. She doesn't love Ned, but it's the safe thing to do. Ned has inherited a country house called Slepe from an uncle, and the married couple move in shortly after the wedding. Rose immediately falls in love with the house and its garden, if not with its owner. During the war Ned is away from the house a lot and her real love, Mylo, starts visiting her at Slepe. They go on meeting each other secretly through all 48 years of Rose's marriage until her husband's death. Shortly after Ned dies, Rose leaves Slepe, her beloved home for half a century (now her son's and not so beloved daughter-in-law's), taking only a few things with her. Temporarily installed in a hotel room, Rose starts looking back on her life. Her marriage was one of convenience; she was never passionately in love with her husband. However, on their wedding night she promised him that she would never leave him, a promise she could never break. Now at the age of 67 she is free, and doesn't know where she is going in life.

Important Characters

* Rose: Married to Ned Peel, although she is in love with Mylo Cooper. She is thirteen years younger than her husband. * Ned Peel: Rose's husband and the owner of the estate named Slepe. * Mylo Cooper: In love with Rose, but too poor to be marriage material. During the war he smuggles Frenchmen across the Channel. * Mr Freeling: Rose's father, who says he has cancer to get things his way. * Mrs Freeling: Rose's mother, who starts to live when her husband dies. * Christopher: Ned's and Rose's son (their only child). * Mrs Edith Malone: A friend of Rose and the superior socialite of the area. * Emily Thornby: Nicholas Thornby's twin sister. She has an affair with Ned, who may be the father of her child. * Nicholas Thornby: Like his sister he is not wealthy, but takes advantage of other peoples generosity or ignorance. He is very close to his sister, he may even be the father of her child. * Archibald Loftus: Scotsman and Ned Peel's uncle. * Flora Loftus: Ned's aunt and married to Archibald. * Mr Farthing: The gardener at Slepe. * Mrs Farthing: The cook at Slepe.

Themes

A noticeable and recurring theme in Wesley's works is the idea of the large house, the idyllic and peaceful sanctuary in the

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...

(notably in

The Camomile Lawn ''The Camomile Lawn'' is a 1984 novel by Mary Wesley beginning with a family holiday in Cornwall in the last summer of peace before the Second World War. When the family is reunited for a funeral nearly fifty years later, it brings home to them ...

A Dubious Legacy ''A Dubious Legacy'' (1992) is a novel written by the British author Mary Wesley. The story takes place in the West Country, England, from 1944 to 1990. It concerns the tragic and bizarre marriage of the Tillotsons and their relationship with tw ...

Part of The Furniture ''Part of the Furniture'' (1997) is a best-selling novel written by British author Mary Wesley. The novel was Wesley's last one, published when the author was eighty-five years old. Plot summary Seventeen-year-old Juno Marlowe is in love with ...

and Not That Sort of Girl). As a young woman

spent most of the war (

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

) at a large estate named

Boskenna Boskenna is an early medieval settlement and large 17th-century manor house (formerly with associated farms and cottages) in the civil parish of St Buryan, west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Nearby, to the south, is the valley and cove of St ...

on the south coast of Cornwall near

Land's End Land's End ( kw, Penn an Wlas or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...

. Boskenna became the ideal house in Wesley's universe. In ''Not That Sort of Girl'' the large house is named Slepe, and if Ned Peel isn't the ideal husband, at least Slepe becomes the ideal house. It is a place where Rose is safe from the war and the fear of the blitz in the city; she is away from the terror of superiors (her parents) and conventions. The reason why the war provides such a convenient background for Wesley is that war makes people do things they otherwise wouldn't have done. About her own experience of war, Wesley said: "We had been brought up so repressed. War freed us. We felt if we didn´t do it now, we might never get another chance".Patrick Marnham, Wild Mary - A Life of Mary Wesley, Vintage, UK, 2007, , p. 86. The Thornby twins certainly make the most of it and are not inhibited by conventions - they may even have a child together. Ned is having an affair with Emily Thornby and may also be the father of her child. Rose suspects this, but doesn't care. Even sensible Rose is having an affair; she has the nerve of letting Mylo stay at Slepe while Ned is at war. They all seem to go against the normally accepted conventions without worrying about the consequences of their actions - they may, after all, be wiped out tomorrow. Rose married Ned Peel because he was the safest choice, not because she loved him. The safe marriage appears repeatedly in Wesley's works. As a young woman Rose is an insecure and impressionable soul, and just like ''Calypso'' in

and ''Antonia'' and ''Barbara'' in

, Rose seeks someone who can provide for her and take care of her. The fact that she is insecure appeals to Ned because he likes to feel superior. When Rose has married Ned and they move into Slepe she is at first alone (Ned joins the army). Life at Slepe without Ned gives Rose a chance to become an independent individual and not just her husband's appendage. Like most of Wesley's women she evolves and to his horror Ned must realise that his young wife is not as easy to manipulate as he had first thought.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Not That Sort Of Girl Novels by Mary Wesley 1987 British novels Macmillan Publishers books