In his memoir, Sherriff wrote: ‘The story was a simple one: a small suburban family on their annual fortnight’s holiday at Bognor: man and wife, a grown-up daughter working for a dressmaker, a son just started in a London office, and a younger boy still at school. It was a day-by-day account of their holiday from their last evening at home until the day they packed their bags for their return; how they came out of their shabby boarding house every morning and went down to the sea; how the father found hope for the future in his brief freedom from his humdrum work; how the children found romance and adventure; how the mother, scared of the sea, tried to make the others think she was enjoying it. [...] I wanted to write about simple, uncomplicated people doing normal things.’

And he succeeds, it's a charming, gently British, cosy read. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys Persephone's publishing choices, of course, but also to anyone who wants a genuinely lovely, calm family story. Although it was first published in 1931 and also set between the two world wars, there's no politics or unwitting foreshadowing.

The Spectator's contemporary review finished: ‘Here is a subject which could have been treated satirically, cleverly, patronisingly, sentimentally. But Mr Sherriff comes to it fresh, and makes it universal. The sympathy with which each character is seen is so perfect that even its pettiest details brings a lump into one’s throat. Many will welcome this book, which expresses the genius of a people.’