When we first meet Millicent Dorrington she is a young lady on the verge of womanhood in inter-war England. The daughter of a wealthy mill-owner and one of five children – Gordon, Denis, Janet, Lorna, Cecily and Bunny – she is tormented by the high walls of their home, White Lodge, which hold her in. The young Millicent tells her father that she is destined for great things – that she is desperate to break free . . . But while Millicent’s siblings grow up, move on and experience life, their freedom confines her. Held back by the bonds of family, unable to leave her siblings behind, Millicent appears to miss out on the joys of life. But as time goes on, she becomes the centre that holds her family together. Perhaps Millicent’s great destiny was, after all, to remain at home; remain at one with those who love her most and see out her final days in the warmth of the White Lodge. Tender, humorous, gentle and quietly devastating, Richmal Crompton's Millicent Dorrington is the powerful story of a woman, a mother and a friend.
Author
Richmal Crompton Lamburn was initially trained as a schoolmistress but later became a popular English writer, best known for her Just William series of books, humorous short stories, and to a lesser extent adult fiction books. Crompton's fiction centres around family and social life, dwelling on the constraints that they place on individuals while also nurturing them. This is best seen in her depiction of children as puzzled onlookers of society's ways. Nevertheless, the children, particularly William and his Outlaws, almost always emerge triumphant.
