About Time by Penelope Mortimer

About Time: An Aspect of Autobiography by Penelope Mortimer. 1979 Doubleday, first U.S. edition, 215 pages. The Guardian begins their obituary of Mortimer: "Penelope Mortimer, who has died of cancer aged 81, might not immediately be thought of as a feminist, but her nine novels all took up the cudgels on behalf of women - most notably The Pumpkin Eater. Published in l962, it was her fifth novel. With an exemplary spareness of prose, it tells the story of the emotional disintegration of a mother with numerous children, and of her husband's estrangement." Mortimer also wrote a controversial (at the time) biography of Queen Elizabeth. Here she portrays her early life in England between the two wars, with a vicar father "whose morality was as muddled as his theology" and her escape to education and writing. Condition: Jacket in Good+ condition, some fading and chips, book in Good+ condition, foxing to text block "Neither I nor Mr. Riddick ever mistook him for a man of God."