The first novel in what was to become known as “The Helena
Trilogy” was not planned by the author, Pamela Hansford Johnson, as
the first in a series. If it had been, the sequence might have been
labelled the “Pickering Quartet”, since Claud Pickering is the
first person narrator of the three novels under discussion – Too
Dear for My Possessing (1940), An Avenue of Stone (1947)
and A Summer to Decide (1948) – and he and members of his
family also appear in relatively minor roles in Johnson’s Winter
Quarters (1944).
In the latter novel, however, the interlinked stories of army
personnel, their families and the residents of the English village
in which the troops are temporarily stationed, …
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Citation:
Pollard, Wendy. "The "Helena Trilogy": Too Dear for My Possessing, An Avenue of Stone and A Summer to Decide". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 May 2015 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35634, accessed 20 May 2025.]
