This is an entertaining ‘body-swap’ comedy first published in 1935. It’s narrated by Polly Wilkinson, a middle-class suburban mother who loves the ‘talkies’, who randomly finds herself swapping places with Lady Elizabeth, a mansion-dwelling aristocrat who hunts and smokes. Once the two women have determined that they are not mad and that what’s happening is real, they make life difficult for each other, causing many awkward moments especially with their respective husbands, but eventually they meet and become friends. The strange phenomenon is even useful, as Lady Elizabeth is good at arranging furniture and making social connections, while Polly can engage more in conversations and even fixes the estrangement between Elizabeth and her husband. Polly’s own husband is not so happy, as their relationship becomes rocky whenever the body-swap happens. Sometimes they swap in the most inconvenient moments, such as Polly suddenly finding herself on a horse, never having ridden before, and promptly being scared and falling off.

I enjoyed the book as the style had a comfortable feel and was easy to read. We never get Elizabeth’s perspective, which is interesting as the author Maud Cairnes, as the introduction points out, was known as Lady Kathleen (she had a very long name) and had more in common with Elizabeth. I don’t think it would have been so amusing and she could have seemed snobbish when suddenly finding herself lowered in class. The book could have gone further and made Polly working class for a more extreme difference, but the story partially rests on their social circles beginning to overlap and the confusion this causes. Elizabeth’s smoking is mentioned quite often, as cigarettes were fashionable for upper-class women in the 1930s. Her friends suspect she is ill when she starts refusing her smokes, but actually she is inhabited by Polly, who doesn’t smoke. One interesting aspect which shows the class divide, is that whenever the two women have swapped, Polly (as Elizabeth) often ends up in bed attended by a doctor because everyone worries there’s something wrong with her nerves, while no such thing happens to Elizabeth (when she is Polly), probably because doctors were expensive and would only be called for physical illness. The two women never tell anyone else about their connection for fear of ending up in an asylum.

The book reminded me of another body-swap novel, The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski, which was more of a horror story and dates from the 1950s.

Strange Journey was published in the British Library Women Writers series, 2022.