Novel with a baby kicking his heels?

January 14, 2015 6:27 AM

This is such a little thing but it's bugging me! I read a novel with a scene in which two women are talking. One has a baby and they put the baby down (on a rug? on the lawn?) so he can 'kick his heels'. I am pretty sure it is a British novel and probably not recent, say written before 1980. Does anyone know what novel I am thinking of? Asking because I realise I never really understood what 'kicking his heels' meant until my own baby started to do it!
posted by prune to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

Kicking one's heels is an idiomatic expression, though. It just means to be made to wait for someone or something.
posted by empath at 6:57 AM on January 14, 2015

Cooling one's heels is to be made to wait.

Kicking up your heels is to dance, or more idiomatically just to relax and have fun.

The novel quote sounds like a quite literal thing that babies do, rather than an idiom. It might be very difficult to track the novel down based on that single sentence!
posted by tracicle at 7:26 AM on January 14, 2015

"Kick up your heels" is American idiomatic english. "Kick Your Heels" is british.
posted by empath at 7:30 AM on January 14, 2015

I stand corrected! Hadn't heard that one.
posted by tracicle at 7:31 AM on January 14, 2015

There's a description of a baby kicking up its heels in this 1932 book, but it sounds different from the one you described. I just googled and looked through the first two pages of results; you might have more luck if you look through more pages.
posted by onlyconnect at 7:57 AM on January 14, 2015

Ah no, sorry for the confusion (British person here). I meant literally kicking his heels, ie lying on his tummy and kicking his heels into the air. Since the phrase from the book popped into my head I hoped it might ring a bell with someone else too.

It's not your suggestion onlyconnect, but thanks!
posted by prune at 8:16 AM on January 14, 2015

There's a scene in Margaret Drabble's Jerusalem the Golden in which some people are in a garden with a baby:

“I’m not at all pleased with James,’ said Mrs Denham. ‘He’s just peed all over my review copy of that book on Fanny Burney. And I was going to sell it to Harrods, it’s such an awful book, I really had decided to sell it to Harrods. But I don’t suppose Harrods will want it now James has peed on it, will they?”

“You shouldn’t let him lie around without his nappy on,” said Clelia severely.

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Mrs Denham. ‘I feel so sorry for them, all bundled up and soggy. And when it’s such a fine day, for once, one ought to let them kick.”

No mention of heels, though.
posted by zadcat at 9:32 AM on January 14, 2015

I thought the passage might have been at the end of Howard's End, as it includes two sisters, a baby, and a hay field, but I checked and there's no mention of heels.
posted by percolatrix at 2:09 PM on January 14, 2015

It makes me think of the British author Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress). It sounds like a very typical scene from her novels, though I can't think of a specific one.
posted by primate moon at 5:51 PM on January 14, 2015

My sources say I'm right: it's Elizabeth Taylor's "A Wreath of Roses" published in 1949.
posted by primate moon at 6:21 PM on January 14, 2015

Ah! Well I've read Jerusalem the Golden and Howard's End, so perhaps I embellished my memory of one or both of those. Thanks for all the replies!
posted by prune at 5:40 AM on January 15, 2015