Running away (by Titia Sutherland)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m rereading the novels by Titia Sutherland, which I hadn’t read for a long time. I’ve just finished ‘Running away’ which I last read in 2006. Unsurprisingly, I had forgotten the people, the story and the conclusion. But I knew I had liked the book when I read it previously.

Laura is the main character, and I found her believable and likeable. She’s married to Rick, and in many respects she’s quite contented. She’s never been passionately in love with him, but she’s extremely fond of him, and - at first - liked the way he cherished and protected her. Her first marriage was very different, and she was quite damaged by it. But she had to raise her daughter Hannah, and Rick fell in love with Laura. Rick has a daughter, too, Annabelle, who is a few years older than Hannah. On the whole, their family has blended well. 

When the story starts, Annabelle is seventeen, and Hannah fourteen. Laura is planning to get away by herself to a holiday home in Cornwall. It’s not that she’s unhappy, exactly, or in any way neglected: but she needs some space. She has mentioned this to Rick, who doesn’t understand. So she’s left a letter with her stepdaughter, and is taking off by herself for an undetermined period; but probably not more than two or three weeks. 

I thought the characters of the family were very well portrayed. Perhaps Annabelle and Hannah are a tad caricatured: Annabelle is hard-working and self-deprecating, and has a poor self-image. She’s in love with one of her classmates, and knows she’s a bit overweight, so she decides to go on a strict diet. Hannah, meanwhile, is outgoing, and often gets into arguments with her mother because she wants more freedom. Hannah hopes that she might have more scope for late night outings and parties with her mother away for a while. 

And Rick is a complex person. His first wife wanted to be looked after and cared for, and he has been treating Laura the same way. At first she was relieved and thankful to be relieved of the burdens of paying bills and thinking about house maintenance. But now she’s feeling as if there’s nothing left of her personality. She writes poetry which Rick calls ‘scribbling’. She tries to renovate furniture, only to have him tell her gently that it’s hard work and that he can do it. He does a lot of the cooking and housework, and he persuaded her to leave the job that she liked, initially to be at home to help the girls blend together as sisters.

I thought it a very interesting situation. Rick is not selfish or controlling - or not deliberately, anyway. He can be unobservant, even obtuse at times, but his desire is to make things easy for Laura, to look after her in a way that feels rather old-fashioned and chauvinistic. Any attempt she makes to discuss this lead to tension and more misunderstandings, which is why Laura needs some time alone, to clear her mind and help her focus. She also wants to do some serious writing. 

The house and location are perfect, but set in a village… and all too quickly Laura is caught up in village gossip, and becomes attached to a young homeless man who is a talented artist with serious health problems. She also gets to know the somewhat reclusive Mark who was recently widowed, and who teaches classics. 

Rick, meanwhile, takes a while to come to terms with what Laura is doing, and finds it surprisingly difficult to deal with the house and two teenagers on his own. Hannah persuades him that she should host a party, and Annabelle is hardly eating anything, looking quite unwell…

The whole novel takes place over just a few weeks, and a lot happens during that time. Both Laura and Rick find an unexpected attraction to someone else… I didn’t know what might happen, nor whether they would eventually reunite. But I did enjoy the different relationships that developed, and the situations that arose. 

All in all, I thought this a good book, well worth rereading. 

Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews