All I Desire

In the 1930s, in the isolated English village of Holm Street very little happens. But, in the same way that many villages imagine themselves places where little happens, a whole host of drama occurs. Holm Street’s latest drama is all too real, plotted through a Women’s Institute (WI) scheme to host a Shakespeare festival in the garden of the village’s long-neglected manor house. The one sticking point is that its new owner, widowed romance writer Hermia Carlisle, is not a WI member. Hermia arrives from India seeking a quiet village where she can write her scandalous books but, with daughter Jeremy in tow, she unknowingly makes waves. Thinking of her lovely garden, WI president Mrs Mannering appeals to the WI’s central mission of “Peace and Unity and Harmony in our villages”, suggesting “we ought to welcome new people and make them our friends”. Another new arrival, a cricket match and the general upheaval of small businesses and class tensions add to the hubbub of new blood. Originally published in 1937, All I Desire is one of four Lambert novels reissued by Dean Street Press’ Furrowed Middlebrow imprint this month, alongside Scotch Mist, Harvest Home and Staying Put. These follow the first modern reissue of Lambert’s Much Dithering in 2020.