Where Stands a Winged Sentry by Margaret Kennedy

Trade paperback format. 

English bravery, confusion, stubbornness and dark humour (‘Nanny says that an Abbess is threatening to swallow the whole of Europe’) provide the positive, more hopeful side of Kennedy’s experiences, in which she and her children move from Surrey to Cornwall, to sit out the war amidst a quietly efficient Home Guard and the most scandalous rumours. Where Stands A Wingèd Sentry (the title comes from a 17th-century poem by Henry Vaughan) was only published in the USA, and has never before been published in the UK.

Margaret Kennedy (1896-1967) made her name as a novelist with The Ladies of Lyndon (1923) and The Constant Nymph (1924), and continued publishing fiction, screenplays and plays until the year before her death.

The Introduction is by Faye Hammill, Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow.

Reviews

‘Where Stands A Wingèd Sentry was published by Yale University Press in 1941 in the US … but never in Britain until now by Handheld Press, which has a mission to rediscover forgotten stories. It has struck gold with this absorbing and engaging slice of social history … This is a fascinating book, an important example of contemporary home-front literature.’ – Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Times

‘She talks about politics but also writes with equal verve about floor polish and how the certainties of ordinary life can be whisked away in an instant.’ – Sunday Express