The Fortnight in September

By: R.C. Sherriff

Narrated by: Jilly Bond

This charming, timeless classic about a family of five setting out on their annual seaside vacation is “the most uplifting, life-affirming novel I can think of...the beautiful dignity to be found in everyday living has rarely been captured more delicately” (Kazuo Ishiguro).

Meet the Stevens family, as they prepare to embark on their yearly holiday to the coast of England. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens first made the trip to Bognor Regis on their honeymoon, and the tradition has continued ever since. They stay in the same guest house and follow the same carefully honed schedule—now accompanied by their three children, twenty-year-old Mary, seventeen-year-old Dick, and little brother Ernie.

Arriving in Bognor they head to Seaview, the guesthouse where they stay every year. It’s a bit shabbier than it once was—the landlord has died and his wife is struggling as the number of guests dwindles every year. But the family finds bliss in booking a slightly bigger cabana, with a balcony, and in their rediscovery of the familiar places they visit every year.

Mr. Stevens goes on his annual walk across the downs, reflecting on his life, his worries and disappointments, and returns refreshed. Mrs. Stevens treasures an hour spent sitting alone with her medicinal glass of port. Mary has her first small taste of romance. And Dick pulls himself out of the malaise he’s sunk into since graduation, resolving to work towards a new career. The Stevenses savor every moment of their holiday, aware that things may not be the same next year.

Delightfully nostalgic and soothing, The Fortnight in September is an extraordinary novel about ordinary people enjoying life’s simple pleasures.

British Family on Holiday

A sweet, slow-moving tale of a middle-class British family's very routine holiday at the seashore.

Charming and exquisite simplicity

We are transported to the world of small people with small, ordinary lives and simple, banal pleasures but who are still able to dream and imagine ambitions. An insightful book which never loses touch with what it means to be human.

Enchanting!

A story about the things that matter. In its seeming simplicity the reader is rewarded with the beauty of family bonds and gratitude for the little things.

Published in 1931

This is a simple story about simple people.

I kept wondering the year. The father was annoyingly meticulous in his planning. The mother was distressingly timid. I kept wanting her to speak up or show some gumption. Their behavior was puzzling. and annoying. The children were bland.. I tried to imagine their clothing but couldn't since I didn't know the time period.

After I finished I looked up the author and decided the time would have been in the late 1920s. Knowing that would have made the novel more enjoyable.

Good for the heart

Easy on the ears. Makes me want to buy the print version. Such contentment from this book and its characters.