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No.47 Haywards Heath

Exam code: 2010
Written by: Ashika|Reviewed by: Caroline Carroll|Updated 2 July 2026

No.47 Haywards Heath: Haywards Heath analysis

Haywards Heath analysis

In the exam, you will be asked to answer one question from two options. Both questions will be on a different text from the selection of ten texts in Stories of Ourselves Volume 2. 

Because there are so many text options, make sure you read through the exam instructions carefully, and look for the questions on Stories of Ourselves.  

The following guide to Haywards Heath by Aminatta Forna contains:

  • Plot summary

  • Themes, ideas and perspectives

  • Writer’s methods

  • Key quotations

No.47 Haywards Heath: Plot summary

Plot summary of Haywards Heath

When the story begins, the protagonist, Attila, is driving to the English town of Haywards Heath. He thinks back to the “youth” at the car-hire desk, and his hired car from the “Prestige” range. He remembers Rosie, and how they shared a joke about the “overseas students” who could not pronounce the name of her home town, “Haywards Heath”. Attila has found out where Rosie is from the “London hospital” where he consults as a trauma doctor for displaced populations twice a year. 

Readers learn that Attila is visiting England and is excited about his impulsive trip to find Rosie. He reflects on the last time he saw her, and his sudden departure after graduation to go “6,000 miles away”. 

When he arrives he is surprised to find the address he has been given has directed him to a care home. He finds Rosie in the “day room”. He remembers how she pleaded with him to stay, and apologises to her for leaving her all those years before. However, although she says she has a friend called Attila who is coming to visit her soon, Rosie is unable to recognise him. 

They go for a walk in the garden, during which Attila is reminded of her cheerful and youthful nature despite her age and dementia. She steals a sweet from an elderly woman sitting on a bench, telling him that they are her favourites. 

Attila goes back to visit two months later, once he has found the sweets Rosie loves. However, once there, he sees her dancing with one of the African care workers. Attila notices that the man has the same “smooth” skin and little beard that he had when he was young. He sees her place her head on his chest and ask him to dance “another turn, Attila”. 

He places the box of her favourite “Newbury” sweets on the table and sits down to watch. 

No.47 Haywards Heath: Themes, ideas and perspectives

Themes, ideas and perspectives in Haywards Heath

For top marks, you need to form a critical understanding of the text’s themes and ideas. This is best when it includes personal judgements and evaluations of the themes, ideas, and perspectives of the text. Here are some of the key ideas you will need to understand in Aminatta Forna’s Haywards Heath. 

What are the key themes in Haywards Heath?

Theme 

Analysis

Romantic  relationships 

  • Forna’s story revolves around memories that create bonds between people that last forever:

    • Attila says that “Haywards Heath” had been a “joke” between him and Rosie for a “long time”

    • This implies Attila has thought about it for the duration of their separation

  • Forna reveals the poignant nature of an unresolved romantic relationship:

    • Although separated for decades, Attila has carried his feelings for Rosie throughout his life

    • When Rosie fails to remember him, Attila has to find solace in the bathroom

  • Forna shows the frustration Attila feels when it is revealed that Rosie remembers him, but that she cannot recognise him:

    • Attila is pleased to hear Rosie’s familiar words: “Shall we do another turn, Attila?”

    • But these words are spoken to a care worker, not him

Individual identity

  • Forna creates a complex character in Attila:

    • He spends his life torn between his career as a doctor and his love for Rosie

    • He used to have a “Malcolm X goatee”, which made Rosie pity him

    • He seems pleased that the English do not stare at him, and that he can pronounce “Haywards Heath”

    • His introspection veers between his own successes and thoughts of Rosie

  • The story details Attila’s need for closure and a sense of redemption:

    • Readers learn about his troubled life — although he married, his wife has since died

    • Attila feels regret over his failed romance with Rosie

  • Attila is humbled by unfolding events:

    • At first he is self-absorbed and thinks about his “Jaguar” hire car, annoying youths, and food

    • He chooses not to imagine Rosie has a husband

    • He remembers how she wanted him to stay when they were together

The past and the present     

  • Beginning the story with Attila driving to find Rosie, Forna alludes to the metaphorical route of his life:

    • Attila makes an “emergency stop” when the car radio “blasts” out, and he must gather his thoughts

  • Forna introduces Attila as an elderly man thinking back on his youth and puzzled by the “new generation”:

    • Ironically, the young man who Rosie dances with at the end of the story reminds her of a young Attila

  • The story progresses through Attila’s memories, showing the significant impact of a past decision on his life:

    • His memories of Rosie are nostalgic; he is drawn powerfully to the past, and imagines Rosie as she once was 

    • Forna creates pathos with juxtaposition of happy memories against the harsh reality of their present-day realities

No.47 Haywards Heath: Writer's methods

Writer's methods in Haywards Heath

How does Forna present her ideas and perspectives?

In her short story Haywards Heath, Aminatta Forna conveys the hopes and disappointments of an elderly man returning to a past love. 

Technique 

Analysis

Omniscient narrator 

  • Forna uses an omniscient narrator to show Attila’s perspective 

  • The third-person narration creates pathos as his every emotion is revealed:

    • His “heart beat wildly, and his scalp had shrunk against his skull”

  • The narrator contrasts the garden where Attila and Rosie feel youthful with the "overheated” “day room” that represents their harsh reality:

    • The "chrysanthemum"-filled garden creates nostalgia

Symbolism 

  • Forna represents the path Attila has taken in life with his hire-car, a “Jaguar XJ”, which represents financial success:

    • He is identified by his car when a publican “remembered him, or, more accurately, the Jaguar”

  • Forna represents Attila’s life through the car’s gadgets:

    • That he finds the “satnav” annoying may be symbolic of his age and his sense of misdirection

    • When he gets there, Rosie’s ‘home’ is not what he had expected 

    • The “car radio”, which is set too loud, represents the disconnection he feels to the “new generation” and his sense of frustrated youth

  • Forna’s symbolic use of the “Newbury Fruits” represents the missed romance between Attila and Rosie:

    • When he finally takes her the sweets, she is in another man’s arms

No.47 Haywards Heath: Key quotations

Haywards Heath key quotations

The mark scheme for Section B of Literature in English Paper 1 asks you to showcase your knowledge of the story in the question. To do this, you should refer to the text through references and quotations. You will not be required to remember direct quotations, though. Summarising, paraphrasing, referencing single words, and referring to plot events are all considered valid supporting evidence for your points. 

The best way to revise quotations is in connection to a theme. Below you will find explanations and analysis of some key quotations from Aminatta Forna’s Haywards Heath, arranged by the following themes:

  • Romantic relationships 

  • Individual Identity

  • The past and the present  

Romantic relationships   

Meaning and context

  • The narrator says that Attila became breathless when he heard Rosie’s name mentioned at the “London hospital” where she used to work

Analysis

  • Forna shows Attila’s strong and lasting feelings for Rosie by emphasising his excitement at simply hearing her name:

    • His reaction is so strong it is physical

Meaning and context

  • Attila hopes that Rosie will remember him when he visits next

Analysis

  • Forna’s alliteration in “hope”, “hung” and “heart” accentuates the emotive language:

    • Attila is very disappointed to find Rosie in a care home, but he still holds out a vain and desperate “hope” for a rekindled romance

    • Forna implies Attila has a sense of regret over the missed chance to be with Rosie

Individual identity  

Meaning and context

  • Attila’s choice to go back home after graduating from university in England was because he had dreams and personal goals

Analysis

  • Forna highlights the difficult decision Attila faced choosing between Rosie and a career as a doctor back home:

    • It is implied Attila went back to Africa to help “displaced populations” with “trauma”, and that it was there that his wife was killed in an atrocity

  • Forna here raises themes about personal identity and impactful decisions

Meaning and context

  • When Attila and Rosie are walking in the garden of the care home, Rosie is “youthful”, and takes in the “wonder” of nature by touching the wet leaves 

Analysis

  • Forna highlights, with sensory imagery, Rosie’s cheerful nature 

  • Despite her age and condition, she takes pleasure in simple things

  • This may emphasise the sense of loss Attila feels having lived without her

The past and the present   

Meaning and context

  • Attila does not consider Rosie may be married when he visits her at the care home

  • That he does not know if she has married highlights the length of absence between them

Analysis

  • Forna illustrates how Attila’s memory of Rosie is limited to their time at university

  • This creates suspense, as readers and Attila wait to find out what Rosie is like now

  • It also reveals Attila as stuck in the past

Meaning and context

  • When Attila and Rosie walk in the garden he is taken back to the past and feels excited:

    • In a strange way, she makes him feel young again

Analysis

  • Forna creates a sympathetic portrayal of Attila and Rosie’s romance:

    • Despite their age, he is “youthful” when he is with her, and this, Forna implies, he has not felt for a long time

  • Forna implies Rosie would have brought fun to his life as she used to say he was “too serious”

Sources

Wilmer, M (ed.), 2018, Stories of Ourselves: Cambridge Assessment International Education Anthology of Stories in English Volume 2, Cambridge University Press.

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