Sex was not really part of Mrs Winterson’s mission statement for the little girl, but when Jeanette showed herself to have, along with all her other qualities, a passionate nature, that was itself challenge enough for Mrs W – who abjured sex. I had all kinds of variations, but usually I drowned it But for me, the delight was a detachable chimpanzee, made out of a Brillo pad, at the end of my visit she let me play with it for five minutes. It showed the two parent Noah’s leaning out looking at the flood while the other Noah’s tried to catch one of the rabbits. 1910īest of all, she had a collage of Noah’s Ark. Le Douanier Rousseau’s last painting : The Dream. Though close acquaintance with the Bible and the English Hymnals did bring her into early contact with a rich, lustrous, poetic language.
The extraordinary creative, imaginative, hugely intelligent child Jeanette turned out to be was never quite going to fit into classic missionary mode. Adopted by an extraordinarily eccentric couple (particularly the dominating Mrs Winterson), fervent Pentacostalists, Mrs W’s life-plan for the adopted baby was to raise her to be a missionary. When Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was first published in 1985 it was often stocked in the cookbooks section with the marmalade manuals.Īs is known Jeanette Winterson had a harsh beginning. Or, perhaps as Winterson amusingly suggests in her prologue to my 2009 digitised edition or perhaps truthfully suggests – she is, after all clear to remind us she is a writer of fiction, of novels -: It’s probably because, knowing the one-word ‘what is this book about?’ preconception subject matter of ‘Oranges’ I mistakenly assumed it was a book devoted to lesbian erotica. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, her first book, is the fourth Winterson I’ve read in as many months. I came to Jeanette Winterson quite late, and have no idea what took me so long.
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