cover image A House in Flanders: 2a Memoir

A House in Flanders: 2a Memoir

Michael Jenkins. Viking Books, $20 (160pp) ISBN 978-0-670-84780-8

Jenkins, Great Britain's ambassador to the Netherlands, charmingly recalls a summer holiday in 1951 that he spent with his French relatives on a Flanders estate. At age 14, the boy is instantly at home among proper but colorful older family members: ladies widowed, orphaned or left unwed by two world wars, and their few surviving brothers, scarred veterans. Tante Yvonne keeps firm but diplomatic control of the household and farm, and it is she who teaches Jenkins ancestral values rooted in the land. All of Jenkins's French relatives captivate him, but especially matriarchal Yvonne, who never allows her burdens to spoil her joy of life. Jenkins's recreation of his first experiences of a foreign culture lingers long after the book's end. (Apr.)