She is best known for her 1956 novel The Towers of Trebizond, but Macaulay wrote many books that have been unjustly forgotten. What Not, written during the last months of the first world war, was suppressed after publication, and is published now in its original form.
Its vision of a postwar Britain most likely influenced Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World: it describes an autocracy that aims to increase the average intelligence of its citizens to prevent another war. “It was a lack of brains …which plunged Europe into the Great War”; now, “brains … must make and keep the Great Peace”. Intelligence is ranked from A-C; with only certain pairings allowed to procreate; those with “deficiencies”, and their relatives, are “uncertified for marriage”. Macaulay’s protagonists work for the Ministry of Brains; Kitty is an A, Nicholas is “uncertified”. The novel follows their “unfortunate” love story.
What Not carries echoes of the US’s eugenics movement, which enforced sterilisation of certain groups and made it illegal for those with “deficiencies” to marry. Other references to reality are comical – an endorsement of a brain-training programme reads: “From an inveterate writer of letters to newspapers. I no longer do this.” The book is a protest against social control, but a love story at heart. As Kitty and Nicholas’s love grows like an “embryo”, Macaulay emphasises its naturalness: “their relationship burgeoned like flowers in spring”. Her writing is stirring, funny, uniquely imaginative. This book should not be forgotten again.
• What Not is published by Handheld Classics (£12.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.
