Mothering Sunday is a British romantic drama film directed by Eva Husson , from a screenplay by Alice Birch , based on the novel of the same name by Graham Swift. Set in the wake of World War I , the film follows the life of Jane Fairchild Young , an orphaned maidservant who spends Mothering Sunday with her wealthy lover. The film also marks the first appearance of Academy Award winner Glenda Jackson in a theatrical release in over 30 years, having last appeared in King of the Wind , as well as the penultimate film role of her lifetime.
In , Jane Fairchild is an orphan and maidservant who works for the wealthy Niven family. On Mothering Sunday , Jane is given the day off to spend as she likes.
To her surprise, Paul Sheringham, the son of wealthy neighbours, invites her to spend the day with him at his family's house while his parents are out having lunch with the Nivens and the Hobday family.
Paul and Jane have been having a secret sexual affair for years, since Jane's arrival at the Nivens's estate. However, Paul is due to marry Emma Hobday. She had been unofficially engaged to his brother James Sheringham, who died in the Great War. Both Paul and Emma have mixed feelings about their engagement but feel obliged to marry nevertheless. Jane, alone at the house, wanders around naked examining how the Sheringhams live, then eats and drinks before setting off on her bike.
In a time-shift to a later point in her life, Jane has become a writer and marries Donald, a philosopher whom she meets while working at a book shop. He asks her how she became a writer and she says there were three reasons: she lists her birth and the gift of a typewriter as two initiating incidents, but says she prefers to keep the third to herself.
