Helen Dunmore
Zennor In Darkness

Published 1993 by Viking. Currently available in paperback.

Helen Dunmore's novels and short stories tend to be set in East Anglia, Russia, or one of the Baltic States. But her first novel is set almost exclusively in Cornwall, in and around the fishing village of St Ives. It is 1917, and the First World War is consuming the nation's young men, with conscription threatening the livelihoods of farming and fishing families. Into the close community have come some outsiders. One married a local girl many years ago, but, despite living in St Ives all his married (and widowed) life, has never been fully assimilated. The other two have little desire to go native. These are D H Lawrence and his wife Frieda. Since Frieda is not only German, but a von Richthofen, the couple arouse suspicion - exacerbated by Lawrence's anti-war writings.

Skillfully weaving fact and fiction, Helen Dunmore tells the story of young girls becoming young women, of love and of loss, of patriotism and the similar (but often contradictory) urges of family and community. As so often in Dunmore's work, roles, actions and inactions shift in their moral value. Is it a good thing for Lawrence to befriend a local? How far should a family go to stop their sons being called up? If war is hell, are soldiers a sort of devil?

Naturism plays no part as such in this excellent book, but the opening scene of skinny dipping on Hayle sands, and similar scenes recalled later in the book, could have been taken from articles in naturist magazines. There is a delightful freshness in the writing, with telling details - such as the differing reactions to chill seawater on bare flesh.

Non-sexual nudity, this time of the back-garden variety, appears briefly in Helen Dunmore's 1999 novel With Your Crooked Heart. Since part of the point is that the lady is completely alone, and the garden totally private, I have not included this title in the lists - although, like all of Dunmore's work, I do recommend it.

Recommended.

Ratings:

Nudity	Naturist nudity	A good read?

Last updated 2004 March 29.
 
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