The Daffodil Days
1st Edition
Published on 12. March 2026
288 pages
978-1-0372-0384-8 (ISBN)
Description
'Deeply researched and utterly convincing' Melissa Harrison, Guardian
'Not a word is out of place. Full of understated lyricism ... an exquisite and spellbinding debut' Heather Clark, author of Red Comet
'Luminous ... Helen Bain's prose is exact and alive, and the novel builds with a quietly devastating inexorable force you can't look away from' Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife
In the early 1960s, in a small town near Dartmoor, the church bells ring. The people of North Tawton go about their days, catching glimpses of one another's lives.
There's the local GP, who knows more about his patients than he would sometimes prefer. There's the young shop assistant at Kestrels, who understands that the ladies who come there for a new outfit sometimes hope to find a new self. There's the tenant farm labourer who rings the tower bells at the church three times a week, the notes - harmonious and clashing - rippling out across the rooftops of the town.
Amid all these lives, a young couple move into focus. New to the town with their small daughter, they have escaped London for a quieter existence in the thatched house beside the church, Court Green. The life they intend to build here - out of fresh lino tiles, second-hand furniture painted with hearts and flowers, and expertly-cooked suppers for weekend guests - will be a good and happy one.
The Daffodil Days depicts a pivotal year in the marriage of 20th-century literature's most infamous couple, witnessed by the people they lived among. It is a kaleidoscopic portrait of this enigmatic pair, refracted through the rich inner lives of a rural community caught - if only for a moment - in their light.
'Not a word is out of place. Full of understated lyricism ... an exquisite and spellbinding debut' Heather Clark, author of Red Comet
'Luminous ... Helen Bain's prose is exact and alive, and the novel builds with a quietly devastating inexorable force you can't look away from' Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife
In the early 1960s, in a small town near Dartmoor, the church bells ring. The people of North Tawton go about their days, catching glimpses of one another's lives.
There's the local GP, who knows more about his patients than he would sometimes prefer. There's the young shop assistant at Kestrels, who understands that the ladies who come there for a new outfit sometimes hope to find a new self. There's the tenant farm labourer who rings the tower bells at the church three times a week, the notes - harmonious and clashing - rippling out across the rooftops of the town.
Amid all these lives, a young couple move into focus. New to the town with their small daughter, they have escaped London for a quieter existence in the thatched house beside the church, Court Green. The life they intend to build here - out of fresh lino tiles, second-hand furniture painted with hearts and flowers, and expertly-cooked suppers for weekend guests - will be a good and happy one.
The Daffodil Days depicts a pivotal year in the marriage of 20th-century literature's most infamous couple, witnessed by the people they lived among. It is a kaleidoscopic portrait of this enigmatic pair, refracted through the rich inner lives of a rural community caught - if only for a moment - in their light.
Reviews / Votes
Beautiful, affecting and deeply impressive, this is an ingeniously constructed novel, told slant. I loved it. * Louise Kennedy, author of TRESPASSES * An exceptional novel, with shades of Hilary Mantel. Helen Bain takes the familiar and makes it utterly new. I loved it. I miss it * Meg Mason, author of SORROW AND BLISS * A luminous, deeply researched debut, The Daffodil Days reimagines Sylvia Plath's Court Green period through a chorus of village voices - letting the known story fall away until what remains feels bracingly human and close. Helen Bain's prose is exact and alive, and the novel builds with a quietly devastating inexorable force you can't look away from * Paula McLain, author of THE PARIS WIFE * A pointillistic, unsentimental, and intimate portrait of Sylvia Plath through the eyes of those whose lives she brushed up against in rural Devon. Bain renders Plath's humor, wit, resilience, and heartbreak from new angles, at once strange and familiar. Not a word is out of place. Full of understated lyricism and a deep respect for Plath and her world, The Daffodil Days is an exquisite and spellbinding debut * Heather Clark, author of Red Comet * Helen Bain has produced something quietly miraculous. The Daffodil Days brings the characters in a rural community to life in a way that evokes Andrew Miller's A Land in Winter ... the depth of Bain's meticulous, loving research is never obtrusive. It's a captivating debut: a compassionate, perceptive and truly wonderful book * Miranda Seymour * You would be forgiven for thinking that there was little left to say about their time in Devon that has not already been said; but by coming at its subject from the viewpoints of others, this virtuoso, deeply researched and utterly convincing debut achieves something quite extraordinary * Guardian * Told through shifting viewpoints, this fictionalised account of the period leading up to Plath's tragic death is utterly compelling * i paper * Stunning * Good Housekeeping * A beautifully achieved story of daily and extraordinary life * Sainsbury's * A love letter to Dartmoor, and to the writer who lived there, Bain's is a smart debut that sheds new light on one of our most enigmatic creatives * The Bookseller * Bain's style is both old-fashioned and radical ... A cleverly quiet, unassuming novel about two people who were anything but * Daily Mail * I adored this novel. It's beautifully written, intricately plotted, wears the precision of its research lightly, and is exquisitely moving. A very special book * Lucy Caldwell * Bain brings Sylvia to life with extraordinary skill... it's exquisitely written * Country and Townhouse * Bain deftly employs her vast research with prose that feels tactful, subtle and assured. Readers familiar with Plath and Hughes will delight in the additional layers of meaning ... A quiet, richly drawn debut about the small-town folks who orbited the 20th century's most famous literary couple * Kirkus Reviews * One of the many pleasures of this book is the complex, multi-faceted, picture that it creates of the period ... Thoroughly recommended * Historical Novel Society *More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN-13
978-1-0372-0384-8 (9781037203848)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Helen Bain received her PhD in creative writing from King's College London, and holds two MA degrees from Birkbeck University in creative writing and modern/contemporary literature. She was chosen for the London Library Emerging Writers Programme 2020-21 and the Genesis Foundation Emerging Writers Programme 2022-23. She lives in Sussex. The Daffodil Days is her first novel.
