Reading the 20th Century discussion

Welcome to our December 2023 buddy read of Appointment With Yesterday by Celia Fremlin.

This was first published in 1972 (her first novel published in the 1970s) and her eighth published novel.

We will be reading all Fremlin's novels in publication order, previous books can be found in the book discussion threads.

Come one, come all

Everyone is welcome



Milly Barnes, a middle-aged woman with an assumed name, is on the run. She is driven by her fear that at any moment the remorseless arm of the law will catch up with her. The cause of her terror is ultimately revealed in flashback. The author's previous books include "Appointment with Yesterday".

I will be starting this later today but plan to read it slowly as I have many books to juggle, so many that I have to fit this one in my later-in-the-day entertaining read slot, which was last filled by a Christie/Poirot and then a Wodehouse/Blandings.

I also plan to read this soon, but I need to finish something first. Too many books to read this month, but it's a good problem to have!

Me too - I usually shy away from 'on the run' books but as it's Fremlin, I'll give it a go.

I think the impact of multi tasking all day, and more doom scrolling than I care to admit to, has made it possible for me to read more than one book at a time. I can have a few on the go and read what calls to me for a few hours, then switch to another or alternate days. I’ve never read like that before.

Started this today . Certainly never felt this way about London's underground railway before. I always hated it.

I think the tube is actually one of the best things London has. When you go to other Capital Cities, you realise you can't get about nearly as easily as you can here in London. If you avoid the rush hour, at least. I remember going to Rome and being nonplussed that such a huge city had only two lines...

Susan wrote: "I think the tube is actually one of the best things London has. When you go to other Capital Cities, you realise you can't get about nearly as easily as you can here in London. If you avoid the rus..."

I'm not saying that the tube is a bad thing, but my experience of it was during rush hours when it was overcrowded, people strap-hanging so being a short person meant that I was at times suffering someones smelly arm pit with no alternative. Or a man would push himself right up against you , where he could feel the motion of the train against you. I was very thankful when I stopped working in the city.

This will be my next Fremlin!

Finished , and as always really liked it. I thought it started well, with "Milly" wanting to get her own back on her former husband. Really was a marry in haste and repent at leisure, but leisure was not what she found. I enjoyed her digs at the wealthy wives. I really did need the flash back to make me feel at ease with her.

I've made a start on this now - one of my secret nightmares has always been what to do if you suddenly have to leave your home... so this is creepily right up my street!

I'm always impatient when the secret is withheld from readers as it feels so fake so hope I find out soon what Milly's running from.

Jill, that revenge motive is so understandable and the satisfaction of sending back the alimony cheque - but yes, we just know it's not going to end well.

I haven't really had much time. When I pick this up I like it, but I find myself a little resistant to go back to it. Not sure why. I like Milly, but perhaps it is creeping me out a little as I think of posible events that could have happened which caused her to run away.

I picked up one of my before dinner books yesterday and came across the sentence "I was also acting as kind of a concierge and janitor to my fellow tenants, in return for cheaper rent from my landlord..." and thought "she shouldn't have to clean up after those two young students; her cleaning jobs should provide her sufficient income."

Then I suddenly realized I was not reading Appointment With Yesterday but had instead started a new vignette in writer/musician Martin Newell's A Prospect of Wivenhoe: Snapshots of an English Town. Oops.

In my defense, I am currently balancing 5 books, which is alot for me, but thought they were of such a variety that no such confusion would result. And if I did get things confused, I wouldn't have predicted it would have been between Mr. Newell's and Ms. Fremlin's works. Although maybe I should have.

Susan wrote: "I haven't really had much time. When I pick this up I like it, but I find myself a little resistant to go back to it. Not sure why. I like Milly, but perhaps it is creeping me out a little"

I felt like that at the start but I'm over that reluctance now - Fremlin reminds me a little of Agatha Christie in the way she has such an unobtrusive way of writing but it's so fluent that before you know it you've read a chunk of the book at one sitting.

I'm about a quarter of the way in, and Milly's just met the students who are hilarious. Anyone know what a 'hotplate' is? Sounds dangerous, plugging it into the light to boil a kettle!

Brian E wrote: "I picked up one of my before dinner books yesterday and came across the sentence "I was also acting as kind of a concierge and janitor to my fellow tenants, in return for cheaper rent from my landlord"

How disorienting, Brian! A bit like that childhood game where you draw the head of a person, fold the paper over and pass it to the next person who draws the torso and so on till you get to the end and open up the full Frankenstein-esque figure.

I'm lapping up all the domestic details, all usual - the 'labour-saving kitchen' with a Hoover, the idea of domestic work, the lodgers.

Milly talks about having no skills or qualifications - does that mean she never finished her nursing training after she married Julian (and what a charmer he is!)? How vulnerable women were (many still are, of course) - though I think my revenge might have been to stay in that Kensington flat living off his alimony!

A hotplate is like a single electric hob I think, which you plug in and it heats up. Although plugging it in through the lights, sounds a little dangerous.

Ah, thanks - sounds fatal, especially with what was probably old and maybe dodgy wiring in those houses. The book was published in 1972 so I'm assuming the setting is more or less contemporaneous - just fifty years ago feels like a different world!

As usual, I'm loving this. Awful Mrs Graham with her sociology degree calling Milly Mrs Er, naggy but good-hearted Mrs Mumford, and the two students pretending not to be posh and rich! As usual, Fremlin shows us all these characters without having to make any authorial comments.

Brian E wrote: "I am currently balancing 5 books, which is alot for me, but thought they were of such a variety that no such confusion would result."

Ah, you'll have to take a tip from Milly: when she starts worrying about which lies she's told to whom, she decides she'll get a lined notebook and set up columns so she can see at a glance what she's said to various people.

Oh, those flashbacks - creepy! 😲

Lordy, this gets tense! I ended up staying up far too late last night to finish this.

Dying to discuss the ending with you all!

I had guessed who was looking for her, even though the students had described him, but when the doorman had said who it was, it clicked.

I got really into this today. Only a few chapters to go. It is almost unbearably tense, isn't it? I need to know the ending and I think this is one of her very best, but also quite difficult to read as it feels like I want to cover my eyes!!!

Yes, she definitely knows how to build the tension

I agree that those flashback chapters are some of the most powerful writing I've seen from Fremlin with some horribly jumpy moments, like the face at the window...

This is a very disturbing novel, just because you can really see it happening.

Susan wrote: "This is a very disturbing novel, just because you can really see it happening."

That's such a good point, you really can. And I was so worried for Milly as a result.