Book 0079
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Donated by Samantha Ellis, who says...
Subversive, funny, and very peculiar, Lolly Willowes is the story of a 47-year-old spinster who moves to a village called Great Mop, sells her soul to the devil and becomes a witch. I love its fabulous irreverence. And we need older, odder heroines.
One of my favorite books. And the first novel I ever read, that has as heroine a single woman who doesn’t fall in love and/or marries. She fights for her independence and finds it too, hurray!
Aunt Lolly is a loveable spinster, just like everyone’s real or imagined maiden aunt. But with the help of the devil, she escapes from the conventional role allotted to single women in the pre-war years. A warm hearted book with more than a touch of magic!
Powerful and rather gothic. The magic is not apparent for some time and then it is introduced gradually until the reader realises that Lolley is a …… No I won’t spoil it. I’m now going to read another Townsend Warner novel.