An Inner Life

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31653, 13 April 1968, Page 4

An Inner Life

The Swan In The Evening. By Rosamond Lehmann. Collins. 156 pp.

The author has taken as a sub-title “Fragments Of An Inner Life," and her book is divided in two parts. In the first she gives a diverting account of some of the highlights of her childhood, and in the second a sombre essay on the shattering effects of sudden personal bereavement and the consolation afforded to her by her individual approach to a form of spiritualism. No book of Rosamond Lehmann’s could ever be dull, and if the reader enjoys chuckling over the experiences of a childhood passed in the bosom of an intellectu-ally-gifted and materiallyprosperous family, the change of mood in the latter half of the book, to a revelation of nearly unassuageable grief, is no less gripping.

Even the childhood evocations of the author—her early literary efforts, youthful illnesses, joys and disappointments are clouded by tragedy with the death of a six-year-old child—daughter of her father’s groom—which brought grief to the warmhearted household. When Rosamond Lehmann’s daughter, Sally, died of poliomye-

tis In 1958, while in Indonesia, the distracted mother was reminded of that earlier sorrow.

Spiritualism is a subject which rouses widely differing reactions. Publicised cases of charlatanism induce scepticism, and sometimes revulsion in a number of people. Others, and the author is one, derive a good deal of consolation from spirit communications.

Rosamond Lehmann's belief in a life beyond the grave was not induced by religious convictions, for she had never been committed to a belief in any particular creed, by having an inner certitude of the “nearness” of her daughter during her first state of numbed shock, she cautiously sought the aid of those who believed communication with the dead to be possible in the light of their own experiences.

She makes a good case for her belief, and is unable to understand the positive desire of so many people in this day and age to reject the idea of a life of any sort following the one they know, when their time comes to relinquish it. This thoughtful book will evoke no response in some readers, but to others could bring comfort in the face of bereavement.