“Square Haunting” by Francesca Wade

Another wonderful read by a young woman who we are surely going to hear a lot more from in years to come. I see that her second book – a biography of Gertrude Stein – is coming out in May. If this debut is anything to go by, that will be a must read.

This book is essentially a group biography, telling the stories of five prominent female authors who lived at one time or another in Mecklenburg Square, Bloomsbury in the inter-war years. Some knew one another socially and / or professionally, and they had friends and acquaintances in common, but they were not close associates. Two are very well-known today, namely Virginia Woolf and Dorothy L Sayers; the other three, Hilda Doolittle, Jane Harrison and Eileen Power less so, but they were all considerable and formidable figures in their day.

I enjoyed this hugely. Not only does it tell the life stories of five remarkable people in a lively and engaging fashion, but it also does a superb job of explaining the important role women like these played in reshaping gender-based social expectations in the 1920s and 1930s. It was not just the experience of war that brought about this very welcome sea-change. Individual pioneers played a big part too, all outstanding scholars and writers who chose to live in Bloomsbury because of its literary society and proximity to the old domed reading room in the British museum where the copyright library used to be based.

The book’s discussion of a period of social change is thus fascinating, as of course is its evocation of place. Mecklenburg Square is still there, but is much changed. Only one of its three original sets Georgian Terraces still stands. The south side was demolished in the 1930s to make room for a student hall, the opportunity subsequently taken to do the same to the northern side after it was bombed and badly damaged in the blitz.

Most of all though this is just a really well-researched and effectively written set of linked biographical essays. Francesca Wade makes all aspects of her subject’s lives interesting. Myths are beautifully slayed to give rounded portraits of five remarkable women. The book is illustrated really well too, although a larger selection of bigger maps might also have been good to include alongside the photos.

First rate in every way.