When Marnie Was There is a sweat little story about a lonely girl maturing through a secret friendship with a mysterious girl called Marnie.
Anna is a sickly orphan living in London with her foster parents, the Prestons. Although the Prestons are caring enough, Anna cannot help but feel she is unloved. She believes their kindness is only paid, not something offered out of love. At school, too, she struggles to mix with people. She imagines herself as always being somehow ‘outside of the circle’. Whenever she is in a social situation, she tries to put on her ‘ordinary face’ so that she does not appear awkward. One summer holiday, Anna is sent to Norfolk to stay with the Peggs, an acquaintance of Mrs Preston, in the hope that the fresh air of the seaside might do her some good.
In Norfolk, Anna still struggles to fit in and finds solace in being alone. She spends most of her free time roaming the nearby sand dunes. In one of her strollings, Anna finds an old manor house across the marsh. She is curiously drawn to the Marsh House and in one of its upstairs windows she recognises a girl of about her age with her hair being brushed, Marnie. Marnie turns out a cheerful girl with beautiful blue eyes and blond hair, which render her almost ethereal. Anna does not feel she has to put on her ordinary face in front of Marnie and they soon forge a friendship. Their bond is deep yet precarious at the same time. The reader sense there is something uncanny about their friendship as strange things keep happening whenever they meet. Their secret friendship ends in a sad way, and I do not think this counts as spoilers as their friendship part is only half of the story and the rest is about Anna discovering the truth about Marnie through her mixing with the Lindsay family, who have recently moved to the Marsh House and staying there for the summer.
It is, in a way, a simple story that portrays a girl’s inner growth, but there is more to it, which I think only those who have read the book can sense. On top of that, I have a soft spot for a book that sets a quaint house as part of the foreground. There is something enchanting about it, don’t you think? Perhaps it is so because it transcends time and connects the past and the present.
I doubt if I would have related to Anna if I had read this book as a child. As a kid I was nothing like Anna. The subtlety of the book would have escaped me. Classic children’s books almost always have this quality in common: they are better/newly appreciated by adults. To me, When Marnie Was There is certainly one of those books. I highly recommend the Audible edition of the book read by Jan Francis. The background music inserted between chapters heightens the poignant atmosphere of the story so much that it almost brought me to tears!