Booker Prize Winning British Author Graham Swift's Mothering Sunday-A Romance

Born in the UK (1949) Swift is a prolific & honored literary figure. His novel, "Last Orders" received the Booker Prize (1996) & made into a movie starring Michael Caine.  "Mothering Sunday-A Romance" is a tender reflection of an affair between a housemaid, Jane Fairchild, & a young aristocract, Paul Sherringham, from a neighboring manor.  This deceptibly diminutive story possesses a fleeting magical aura.  The year is 1924,  post WWI in England.  There's been immeasurable loss & grief permeating the fringes of society trying to recuperate.  It's noted, "WWI suited all business" yet the times were yielding to another age where sticklers for class designations were crumbling.  The blurring of class distinctions still maintain barriers.  "Mothering Sunday" refers to Sundays, the day off for the servants used by most to visit their mothers.  Jane Fairchild is the name given her at the orphanage where she was raised with kindness & education.   She recognizes the freedoms allowed by not having severed ties. This plank sheet lays the groundwork to shape the opportunities for a future without constraints.  Still, her life begins at 14 as a housekeeper.  She is now a young woman in her early 20's & employed as a maid for the Upleigh family.  The Upleigh's & Sherringhams have lost sons in the War & much of their wealth but cling to the appearance & decorum of the aristocracy.  Jane is drawn to books (barely read) at the Upleigh estate & to the handsome & virile Paul who is betrothed to a woman of his station.  Jane's irreverence, curiosity & sexual emancipation are admirable traits although we sympathy arises for her life in service & her subservant role as a sexual diversion.  Graham' artful narrative of a fleeting affair is blended with the art of self-discovery & empowerment.  Jane's tale is told in flashback with a wink to secrecy.  Her reveals are pedaled at a leisurely & enticing pace.   Jane's love for reading flourish & she beomes a successful & revered author.   A writer's thrust is to capture the stuff of life, to capture the very feeling of being alive.  Swift's "Mothering Sunda-A Romance" is  an exquisite ode to self-awakening.