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 [1 favorite]

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 [1 favorite]

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

Response by poster: 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

Response by poster: 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