Like not a few novels of its kind, Mothering Sunday deals with present day matters without always conveying the sense that the author is, in fact, thinking in present-day terms. Anna Caldwell, a septuagenarian lady, unexpectedly insists on living in seclusion. A day comes when she is visited by the various members of her grown-up family, with their children. In the course of this visit the personal histories of the characters are unfolded; and finally a dramatic climax takes place. Miss Noel Streatfeild is at pains to explain the natures of all these persons in her book; but we are not always convinced by her psychology…. The author seems to accept so much that is improbable that the accumulation results in the air of unreality which permeates the book. The heart-burnings of Carol, the American wife, seem, also, anything but American.

'Family Fortunes," in The Times Literary Supplement...