The Aloe

Linda Burnell dreams, listless and distant, whilst downstairs her mother, Mrs Fairchild, sets in order the family's new home in the New Zealand countryside . . . Her vigorous and exhausting husband Stanley, is at the office, but will return with eager and admiring eyes. . . Her children, Kezia, Lottie and Isabel, prepare lunch on a concrete step - daisy-head poached eggs and fuschia-petal cold meat. . . Her sister, Beryl, sings love songs to an imaginary young man who will release her from stifling existence. . . The Is THE ALOE, the evocative tale of the Burnell family which Katherine Mansfield began writing in 1916 in an attempt to crystallise the memories of her childhood and 'make our undiscovered country leap into the eyes of the world'. It was later reworked and shortened to become her acclaimed PRELUDE. But this, the original, is very different - in style, detail and texture - giving us both a wonderful short novel and a fascinating insight into a classic of modern literature.