The Millstone

It’s the usual story: seven years ago I read my third book by Margaret Drabble, having read the first thirteen years ago, and I’m just now getting round to reading another. I had enjoyed the later novels with older characters more than the earlier ones but this early one is probably her most well-known novel and it’s great.

Published in 1965 it’s the story of PhD student Rosamund who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant. Abortion is still illegal; the National Health Service has been going less than twenty years; illegitimacy is frowned upon. Margaret Drabble herself was still in her mid-twenties when the book was published (it was her third) and she was a (married) mother so I would expect the descriptions of the NHS services of the time to have a basis in reality¹. They make for pretty alarming reading today so there’s a bit of time capsule about the book. But then there’s a whole lot of things that are just as relevant now as then.

I see from her Wikipedia page that Drabble decided not to put Rosamund in a relationship in order to be able concentrate on and explore the mother/child relationship rather than the mother/father one. Which makes sense for the story, but whilst that takes away one angle it adds in another. Though attitudes to illegitimacy have certainly changed single mothers often still take the heat today. Rosamund being relatively well-off and middle-class mean that this isn’t that big an element of the story, the same features that often temper society’s view of single-motherhood today. Rosamund’s equivocation about whether a baby is actually the millstone of the title and her changing feelings and the attitudes of the community around her felt much more timeless than the medical details.

It’s definitely still a good read, and still relevant, sixty years later. It’s a short novel and though I found the lack of chapter breaks disconcerting at first once I got into the story I didn’t mind that. And yes, it’s left me wanting more and I’m definitely making a note to read more of the author though time will tell whether I act on that or not!