In the Days of My Youth: A Novel

A wistful, often funny portrait of English boyhood in the mid-19th century, told with rueful affection by a narrator looking back on his formative years. Basil recalls his childhood in the village of Saxonholme, a place of lanes and ancient stones, where he was raised by his father, a physician who blends sternness with a love of literature. The boy chafes against the expectation that he'll follow his father into medicine, preferring to wander the countryside with his nose in a book. His education unfolds amid the small dramas of village life: rivalries, friendships, and the devastating humiliation of his first attempt at romance, a hilariously botched courtship of a traveling performer named Angelina that ends in spectacular heartbreak. Edwards writes with gentle irony about the earnest dramas of youth, the way childhood feels eternal while it lasts, and the ache of knowing it cannot last. For readers who cherish Victorian nostalgia done with wit rather than sentimentality, this is a quiet treasure.