Brief shining (by Kathleen Rowntree)

(Amazon UK link)

When I started rereading my collection of novels by Kathleen Rowntree, I was certain that each one stood alone, without any overlap of characters. Nevertheless, I thought I might as well read them in order of publication, rather than the order in which I previously read them as I acquired each one.

It’s nearly eighteen years since I first read ‘Brief shining’, so I wasn’t surprised that I had entirely forgotten the story and the people involved. But what surprised me even more is that the author used names which she had used in ‘The quiet war of Rebecca Sheldon’, which I reread in January. Then it struck me: ‘Brief shining’ is a sequel. It does stand alone - I had no idea of this when I first read it - but it continues the lives of several of the characters from that book. I had felt when I finished ‘The quiet war…’ that some of the threads felt unfinished. So it’s good to know that they did continue, even though it’s set some years later.

Sally is the main character in this book, however. She’s eight years old at the beginning, and adores her family’s summer holidays at her grandparents’  home. Her grandfather, George, is approaching seventy but is active and mostly very kind. Her grandmother Rebecca has somewhat retreated from life due to a heart condition, and mostly stays in her room. Their unmarried daughter Bunny looks after them, and rather rules the roost. 

Sally and her younger sister Anne mostly get along well, although they’re quite different in nature. Anne is more practical and outgoing, Sally rather dreamy and oblivious, though she, too, likes helping with animals and with the harvest. Their mother Meg - who was a child in ‘The quiet war…’ is a strong, confident women who is headmistress of a school. Their father Henry doesn’t quite fit in with the family, though he’s fond of them all and usually happy to go along with them. Meg has just begun to realise that although he has many admirable talents, he’s getting older and it seems that he’s no longer interested in her as a woman…

It’s a character-based book in three sections, each one moving forwards by a few years, so that by the end Sally is grown up with a young child of her own. And although there are multiple viewpoints, we mostly see events from either her perspective, or that of Meg. There are a lot of challenges for Sally as she starts to develop into a woman; her mother finds herself oddly jealous, and her aunt Bunny becomes angry, possibly because she sees her own life passing her by. 

If I had read this book without having read ‘The quiet war of Rebecca Sheldon’ a couple of months earlier, I might have been slightly puzzled by the inclusion of three great-aunts (sisters of Meg’s father) and uncles, only one of whom really has any significance in the story. But all of them were important in the first book, so it was interesting to me to read about them as they become increasingly elderly. Charlotte is deaf, Louisa looks after everyone, Pip is gnarled with arthritis. 

They squabble and distrust each other, and - inevitably - there are deaths, although none feels like a great tragedy. Perhaps that’s because the multiple viewpoint style means that I didn’t really relate strongly to or empathise with anyone, other than, perhaps, Sally.

The author has an excellent feel for the different eras - it’s not stated exactly what years the novel takes place in, but when the girls are young it’s post-war, when a half-crown was a generous gift to a child. So I assume 1950s, moving forward to the 1970s by the end. Technology on the farm changes, for better or otherwise, and television makes a difference to life towards the end. Attitudes change, too. So it’s interesting from a social history point of view, and also, to me, as a coming-of-age novel with a bittersweet ending. 

The ‘brief shining’ refers to Sally’s visions of past inhabitants of the house; once or twice she tries to discuss ghosts with older relatives, but she doesn’t get any satisfactory answer.  It’s left undecided whether or not she’s actually seeing a ghost, or whether her imagination is stronger than usual at some points in her life.

It’s not the most exciting of books, yet I found it oddly compulsive and read it in just a couple of days. Recommended if you like character-based women’s fiction; particularly if you read and liked ‘The quiet war of Rebecca Sheldon’. 

Review copyright 2026 Sue's Book Reviews