E. M. Ward - Forest Silver

Have you ever enjoyed a book so much that you wanted to hold it to your chest, keep it to yourself, keep it safe? If you know what I’m talking about, then you will understand my feelings towards E. M. Ward’s Forest Silver.

As someone who feels most like myself in the woods, I thought a book called Forest Silver couldn’t go far wrong. Even so, it took me by surprise. My pre-order arrived in my mailbox last Friday and when I got home from my walk with Clark, I started it right away. Within minutes I was captivated.

    From the narrow road they looked down through tree branches to the lake, that lay rippled and silver bright behind the dark trunks. Almost at the top of the hill they turned off by a little path that led to a gap in the roadside wall. Through the gap they could see into the solemn wood of Bainriggs, now colourless and vague but so sodden with the day's rain that, except in the black tree shadows, everything was changed to silver. The moonlit rocks, the wet sponge of moss upon the ground, leaves, lit spaces of the beech trunks and the stems of birches, always silver but now brighter than in any noontide, all these shone and glittered with a light so wan and yet so brilliant that it seemed like the phosphorescence of a world long dead.
    ‘Forest Silver!' said Blunt, observing all this and thinking of the tax paid long ago by tenants for the right of pasturage in the lord of the manor's woodlands.

The Second World War is going on and Richard Blunt has served with distinction in the R.A.F., winning the Victoria Cross, and being invalided out. After jilting his fiancée in London, he arrives in the Lake District looking for rest and quiet. There he meets 17-year-old, Corys de Bainriggs, the owner of her family’s estate. She agrees to let him stay on her land and they soon form a bond. 

As the relationship between Richard and Corys grows the reader begins to expect that this is going to be a coming of age novel where the young girl becomes a woman and leaves her boyish interests and appearance in childhood. But, thankfully, the narrative is a lot more subtle than that.

As mentioned above, “Forest Silver” is the name of an ancient tax to allow grazing. This novel raises issues of conservation of land. There are many war guests to the area, trying to escape the bombed out cities, and there is a clear dichotomy between how some of them believe the countryside is best enjoyed verses how the locals do.

At one point, desperate for the money, Corys sells a parcel of land. The man who works on her estate has lost his home in a fire and he has been sleeping rough in preference to taking charity. He’s an old man and Corys can’t bear to see him suffer. So she feels she has not choice but to sell land to raise money for the rebuild.

The loss of the land eats away at Corys. Seeing the new owner’s house go up and the once untouched view destroyed, proves to be more than she can bear. But as she explains, when questioned why she sold the land in the first place, she didn’t know how much it would bother her, she didn’t know it would feel like this.

Corys is contrasted against the three Sweeting girls. Collectively referred to as the Sweetings, they are eye-catching with their light blond hair and traditionally feminine appearance. It’s these girls that make Corys more aware of her own appearance, especially when the aptly named, Gerald Lovely comes on the scene, who seems taken with the Sweetings, while disregarding Corys. Corys has no interest in Gerald, but she has a strong desire to have a baby and she has decided that to make this happen, she will one day need to get married. Wanting to prove to herself that she will be able to attract a man when the time comes, she buys new clothes and has her hair done. The experiment works a treat. Soon Gerald is a frequent visitor at Bainriggs. But now that Corys has him, she doesn’t know what to do with him. 

In the background, Richard is jealous of the interest Corys shows in the young man. Although, Richard avoids addressing his feeling for Corys directly, and the only one who seems able to see Richard’s growing love for Corys is her grandmother.  

Now, I think the title Forest Silver is about more than the appearance of the land, or the poetic name of an ancient tax. This is a book about the countryside, but it’s also a book about a young girl figuring out what she is willing to sacrifice. Like the land that she regrets selling and is desperate to get back, she returns to herself at the end of this book. I think Corys learns the valuable lesson that there are some things that one cannot sacrifice and survive. I think Corys will always be the "tall boy" as Richard first takes her to be. And I also think that what Corys’ grandmother said is true. Richard, a man who appreciates Corys as she is, came into her life too early. 

E. M. Ward’s descriptions of the natural world is the sort of writing best savoured slowly. I can’t think of a more fitting book to enjoy on Earth Day. Fans of nature writing will especially enjoy this book. It’s a rare glimpse into the effects of the second world war on a small community. The exploration of society’s expectations of gender and how gender roles are learned and performed is an aspect that I found particularly interesting.

My only regret while reading this book is that I got so engrossed, I didn’t spare the time to mark passages as I went. Thank goodness, I have this one on my shelf. I’ll be sure to tab favourite sections on the inevitable reread.

I really hope this newest release in the British Library's Women Writers series does well, because I would love to see them republish more of E. M. Ward's books in future.