The Hive by Gill Hornby
It must have been quite daunting for Gill Hornby to publish her first novel – for she is the sister of the more famous Nick, and wife of best-selling author Robert Harris. Now The Hive is out in paperback, she must be getting fed up of these facts being mentioned, as its a best-seller of her very own.
In The Hive, Hornby takes on female cliques of a particular kind – Mums of primary school aged children and the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) which fundraises for their schools. It’s a satire, but it’s also oh-so-close-to-the-truth!
I’ve done my stints on the PTA: at my daughter’s old school I was variously Secretary, Treasurer, Quizmaster, Fireworks supremo, Form Rep – you name it, I did it and I loved it, and I can honestly say that as a committee, we always got on brilliantly and worked as a team, managing to raise lots of money and have fun, (well, mostly!). The hardest part of doing anything was getting helpers on the night for things – even for just half an hour – putting out tables, chairs, clearing up, directing parking etc. (and selling tickets for anything to the teachers!) Now she’s at senior school, and fundraising is limited to a couple of annual events, so I’m having a rest from being on that kind of committee. Been there, done that…
It’s the start of a new year at St Ambrose, a C of E primary school. New year, new headmaster too; Mr Orchard has plans. Meanwhile, in the playground Bea is making an announcement…
‘I have been asked…’ she paused, ‘by the new head …’ the words ruffled through the gathering crowd, ‘to pick a team.’ She was on tiptoes, but there really was no need. Beatrice Stuart was the tallest of them all by far.
Rachel, sinking back against the sun-trap wall of the pre-fab classroom, looked on and smiled. Here we go again, she thought. New year, new project. What was Bea going to rope her in for now? She watched as the keenos swarmed to the tree and clustered around. Their display of communal enthusiasm left her with little choice but to stay put, right there, keep her distance. She could sit this one out, surely. She was bound to hear all about it from Bea later. She would wait here. They would be walking out together in a minute. They always did.
Except that Bea doesn’t ask Rachel. She walks off without her, and Rachel realises that not only has she not seen Bea during the summer holidays, that she hasn’t seen her since Rachel’s husband Chris walked off leaving her for a younger model.
When Bea’s fundraising committee meets, they find a willing volunteer in Heather to be the secretary and she takes copious minutes. Bea makes herself chairperson and doesn’t even let the Headmaster get a word in edgeways about what he’d like them to fundraise for. Separate from the Parents Association (PASTA) They are to call themselves COSTA – the Committee of St Ambrose, and will host a lunch ladder, gourmet gamble raffle and a car-boot sale. It’s not long before Bea’s feathers are ruffled though for in a subsequent meeting newbie Deborah, who likes to be called Bubba, offers to host a ball in her garden…
Rachel finds herself partly happy, partly annoyed about her exclusion. Although Rachel walks to school with Heather and their daughters, Heather worships Bea and isn’t her best source of information, but she can rely on Georgie to update her. You can imagine the oneupmanship that’s going to ensue: Bea doesn’t want the ball to be a success, Heather’s tendency to micro-manage gets ever more irritating, events become invitation only, the headmaster is single, and in thus in need of a good woman … and so it goes on.
The novel is mostly seen from Rachel’s point of view and I could sympathise with her having to get to grips with being newly single again. My favourite character, however, was Georgie. She’s given up work to be a full-time mum and is happiest with a baby at her hip. She lives in domestic squalor on a farm and is totally in love with her husband and he with her. Their kitchen is perennially untidy and muddy, but she can whip up a healthy meal in minutes with home-grown produce. Georgie is very straight-talking, and always diving out for a fag break as an excuse to avoid boredom.
It’s not all fun and games though. As with any group of families thrust together by circumstances, there will be friendships made and broken, issues to deal with like bullying between their kids, and occasionally tragedy and illness. Although the story is a broad comedy for the most part, Hornby does bring suitable gravitas to the serious bits, before diving back in to make fun of some of the others’ reactions to them.
The dialogue can be hilarious. She captures that tendency of a clique of women who all carry on their own conversations at the same time, while not really listening to anything anyone else is saying well. All the stereotypes of mum are present and correct and their fawning over Bea is almost sickening – vying to take their turns to collect Bea’s children when Bea announces that she now has a ‘job’. Rachel is a bit weak, but I can understand her stasis having been through it myself.
The bee analogy works well for this group. The queen bee and her faithful workers, who will eventually decide that the queen is past it and cultivate a new leader. Hornby works the bee theory in rather too obviously though a) by making Rachel’s mother a beekeeper, and b) you’ll also either like or loathe the character names – Bea, Heather, Clover, Melissa and of course Mr Orchard… I was of the like persuasion in this case.
I’m a big fan of Nick Hornby’s novels – which tend to look at life mostly from a male perspective. His sister has given us the female one – it’s overdone, but the premise is great and I enjoyed reading it for the most part. Newly out in paperback, this is an undemanding summer read. (6.5/10)
I’d just like to finish by saying that all schools need volunteers to help in many ways from running events and fundraising to helping out on school trips. I found it a rewarding experience, and you don’t need to get as involved as I did – any help is always appreciated – and real life at the school gates is, in my experience, much nicer than this.
* * * * *
Source: Own copy. To explore further on Amazon, please click below:
The Hive
I enjoyed this one but it made me fear a little for my future and having to deal with the drama of the school gate!
Going to toddler group will prepare you – a little. Good luck! 🙂
Ha I think I’ll wait it out until it’s compulsory 😉
I hadn’t heard of this but I’m interested. I’m a Hornby fan too btw.
Luckily my offspring are well out of school age now – I always kept my distance from this kind of thing (and it *did* happen but I never wanted to be involved). Although now I work in a primary school and can observe it happening in the playground….. 🙂
As do I. Different seeing it from the school side!
Such a wise and compassionate comment about. Rachel. Helps me see this novel in a better light. I too am so very glad to have this stage behind me. well and truly
Thank you. 🙂
I think this might be too close to home for me. For those on the staff PTAs can be as frightening as they can be supportive and unfortunately, I have had too much experience of the former and too little of the latter.
It’s beginning to sound like I was lucky with my PTA…
I am so glad to read your review as this is a book I have hovered over in Tesco, undecided. I’m so pleased to have a much clearer idea of what it’s like. Now that those days are past, I will probably be inclined to give it a go – it does sound like fun summer reading.
It was undemanding fun – not perfect by a long shot, but I enjoyed it. As it’s so cheap at the supermarket – why not give it a go!
I threw myself into all this and enjoyed it, working as hard as at a job. At one point I was involved in baking cakes etc at 3 summer fairs (that of the school my 2 youngest attended, the one I taught at and the local community one) I found secondary school involvement useless, mean AND cliquey so withdrew. The fascinating lesson was how very much more money my children’s primary school raised than the one I taught at – I worked hard to remedy that and had some small effect. Both were inner city but one had a more mixed class/income intake.
Senior school just isn’t the same is it – it’s the compulsory pick-up at primary that makes you the friends at the gates. My daughter walks home now – I rarely bump into any of her classmates’ parents outside her immediate circle of friends.
I loved this book. It made me look at my involvement at my daughters school in a different way. I can see why some of the committee work gets bogged down – it’s because of the personalities. Overall, I’ve recommended this book to numerous friends that i see on the playground.