A Bookish Space

London's Summer Morning

2012-01-22T22:23:00.001Z

My heart has been in Paris these past few weeks as I have been busy researching and planning what my boyfriend and I will be doing, seeing and experiencing during our trip. I am so stupidly excited and am counting down the days until we go! Which is why it is nice to be reminded that I am currently living in a pretty marvellous city as it is. I am very much guilty of taking London for granted and not appreciating its unique history, culture, and all round London-ness really.

I am currently reading Paula Bryne's fascinating biography about the extraordinary Mary Robinson. A teenage bride who was sent to a debtors prison with her husband, Mary became a famous actress who caught the eye of, and was the mistress of, some of the most influential men of the 18th century (the Prince of Wales, who later became King George IV, and Charles Fox the leader of the Whig party, amongst others). A life tainted by scandal, Mary was also a prominent feminist thinker and a talented author and poet. In her poem London's Summer Morning, Mary vividly brings Georgian London to life, and with it has helped me to appreciate the daily sights and sounds of this wonderful city which I am so fortunate to live in.

Who has not waked to list the busy sounds
Of summer's morning, in the sultry smoke
Of noisy London? On the pavement hot
The sooty chimney-boy, with dingy face
And tatter'd covering, shrilly bawls his trade,
Rousing the sleepy housemaid. At the door
The milk-pail rattles, and the tinkling bell
Proclaims the dustman's office; while the street
Is lost in clouds impervious. Now begins
The din of hackney-coaches, waggons, carts;
While tinmen's shops, and noisy trunk-makers,
Knife-grinders, coopers, squeaking cork-cutters,
Fruit barrows, and the hunger-giving cries
Of vegetable venders, fill the air.
Now every shop displays its varied trade,
And the fresh-sprinkled pavement cools the feet
Of early walkers. At the private door
The ruddy housemaid twirls the busy mop,
Annoying the smart 'prentice, or neat girl,
Tripping with band-box lightly. Now the sun
Darts burning splendour on the glittering pane,
Save where the canvas awning throws a shade
On the day merchandize. Now, spruce and trim,
In shops (where beauty smiles with industry),
Sits the smart damsel; while the passenger
Peeps through the window, watching every charm.
Now pastry dainties catch the eye minute
Of humming insects, while the limy snare
Waits to enthral them. Now the lamp-lighter
Mounts the tall ladder, nimbly venturous,
To trim the half-fill'd lamp; while at his feet
The pot-boy yells discordant! All along
The sultry pavement, the old-clothes man cries
In tone monotonous, the side-long views
The area for his traffic: now the bag
Is slily open'd, and the half-worn suit
(Sometimes the pilfer'd treasure of the base
Domestic spoiler), for one half its worth,
Sinks in the green abyss. The porter now
Bears his huge load along the burning way;
And the poor poet wakes from busy dreams,
To paint the summer morning.

Paris on the brain ...

2012-01-13T20:36:00.003Z

I may live in London, but for the past few weeks it is another city that has occupied my thoughts and desires ... Paris! I am nearing the end of Antonia Fraser's magnificent biography after the much misunderstood and vilified Marie Antoinette. The inevitable, yet no less heartbreaking, ending is nearing it's conclusion, with many buildings in Paris playing their part in this horrible tale.

Another reason why Paris has been very much on my mind is because my boyfriend and I have booked a mini break there for the end of the month!!! I am very much excited. I have been to Paris before on a few occasions, but only when I was very young, so unable to appreciate this atmospheric city. Also the main purposes of my visits were to see family rather than the opportunity to discover Paris. Which brings me to the reason for this post. We are only going for four days and I want to cram in as much as possible. Which is where you come in. I would really appreciate any tips of places we have to visit, things we should experience and any little discoveries you have made yourselves. Anything you can suggest would be great, and very much appreciated to ensure this is as magical a trip as I fully intend it to be!

A creative afternoon ...

2012-01-08T21:01:00.001Z

After a busy Saturday of badminton and entertaining, it was blissful to just be able to sit down for a few hours this afternoon to work on my patchwork quilt. I had forgotten just how therapeutic it is sorting through and matching fabrics, and the addictiveness of sewing together fabric hexagons to reveal a patchwork flower.

I hope that you have all had a lovely weekend.

Good intentions …

2012-01-06T13:01:00.000Z

I love the start of a new year. A whole new year of possibilities open up in front of you. Goals and intentions take on a special meaning. The slate is wiped clean of any unachieved ambitions and you can create new resolutions (or resurrect old ones) with a light heart. You aren’t held back by what you haven’t done, and can look forwards to what can happen if you put your mind to it.

The start of 2012 has inspired me with good intentions (I do prefer the word ‘intentions’ and the flexibility it offers rather than the rather unfriendly and rigid ‘resolution’):

Tackling the piles …
The piles of books blighting my bedroom are getting slightly ridiculous now. Searching for a book hidden within their depths is quite a risk, and has resulted in numerous avalanches of falling books. Plus they inspired some harsh words over the Christmas period, which has been invaluable in inspiring me to get something done about them. So I have a threefold approach to help tackle these piles of doom:

1) This is quite difficult, but I am resolved (at least now when I am far from the temptation of a book shop and my will is stronger) not to buy any new books this year so that at least the piles are not added to with new acquisitions. My only caveat is that I will still buy the Virago Book Club selections (unless of course I already own a copy of the selected book), but seeing as there are only five to six selections a year, I don’t think these additions will make a noticeable addition to my collection.

2) Maybe even more difficult, I am going to have to ruthless cull my collection, getting rid of any books I don’t think that I will ever read as well as those books I have read and they weren’t sufficiently good enough to inspire a re-read in the future. What this also means is that once I have finished reading a book, I will seriously think about whether this is a book that I am likely to ever re-read again. Even thinking about the book massacre ahead is making me shudder, but it has to be done.

3) The only nice part of my whole plan to tackle the piles is that I am going to buy a new bookcase for the living room, which will house my reduced collection. Being able to look at my collection properly, without the fear of a mass of books landing on my head, is very heartening and will hopefully inspire me during the tough moments ahead.

Appreciating the book collection I already have ...
My intention not to add to my already impressive collection of books by not purchasing any new ones this year (with the exception of Virago Book Club selections), happily leads to my intention to fully appreciate the book collection I already have. This year I want to reacquaint myself with my collection. Re-discover beloved books and finding new books to fall in love with. This was something that I mostly followed in 2010, and was a great way to discover gems that I have owned, in some cases, for year and years and years and hadn't read before. One example being Jane Eyre, which I have owned since school and discovered to my delight as part of this.

Reading my way through my collection also fits neatly into my desire to read more classics, which was again another successful resolution from 2010. I have such a big collection of classics, quite a few of them books that my parents bought me when I was at school which I mostly haven’t touched. This year I want to read more works from the beloved authors that I discovered in 2010 (such as E.M. Forster and Somerset Maugham), discover new authors (such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gustave Flaubert), as well as giving Jane Austen another go (I was quite underwhelmed by the two books I have read by Jane Austen, but after all the adaptations of Austen's work that I watched over Christmas, as well as the various documentaries, I am inspired).

I can’t wait to see what my collection of books has in store for me this year!

Being crafty ...

Last year was quite a creative one for me. I have been watching to be more crafty for a while now, and happily for me my boyfriend discovered some free craft lessons quite near to our home. As part of this I rediscovered knitting, going further than the straight knitting and casting off that I knew before (I couldn’t even cast on previously). I also discovered the completely therapeutic and downright addictive nature of patchwork and crochet. I love being able to make things and the feeling of connecting with the creative arts of women. I have been a little lax in my crafty pursuits however (my beloved and rather ambitious attempt to make a patchwork quilt has been neglected since I posted in June, and I have a couple unfinished knitting and crochet projects), so this year I want to be a bit more dedicated in my crafts.

Learning to drive …
This is definitely something that I need to master. Although the public transport system in London is so extensive and easy to use (when it is not being infuriating through signal failures and delays), I know that there will come a time when driving will be more convenient (transporting our weekly shopping on buses is not easy as it is). Plus there is something a little sad about being 25 and not being able to drive. Now don’t get me wrong, I have tried to drive and even took lessons when I turned 17, but starting at university put back my plans to take my driving test, and when I took lessons again in my final year of university (with the validity of my theory test nearing it’s deadline) a few unfortunate events (not my fault, honest) meant that I failed both my attempts at the test. Plus living in London has given me no incentive to get back behind the wheel again. However, I really want to pass my driving test this year, and as part of this will need to re-take my theory test, which is a bore.

What do you feel about resolutions or New Years intentions? Do you tend to set yourself some? If so, what are your resolutions or intentions for the New Year?

2011 reading in review: my favourite reads

2012-01-02T17:40:00.004Z

This was actually easier to put together than I thought it would be, mainly because I decided that rather than compiling a top 5 or top 10 reads, I would just select my beloved reads of 2011 (excluding re-reads) regardless of what the overall number would be. So without further ado, below are my favourite reads of 2011:

Fiction

Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord

Completely charming, and yet not shying away from the dark and questionable sides of life, Hector and the Search for Happiness is a wonderful modern day fairy story and the first book of the Hector's Journey's series. Introducing the utterly delightful Hector, I can't wait to read more of Hector's adventures.

South Riding by Winifred Holtby

A book I am convinced I wouldn't have read if it hadn't have been selected as part of the Virago Book Club, South Riding chronicled the loves, lives and ambitions of the 150+ inhabitants of the fictional county of South Riding. My edition still contains the endless post-it notes that I used to mark descriptions and passages that I want to go back to for the beauty of the writing alone.

Free Land by Rose Wilder Lane

Where as 2010 was the year where I started to make amends for my woeful neglect of the classics, 2011 was definitely characterised by my love of Laura Ingalls Wilder and my desire to read about the pioneering experience in general. Written by Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter, Free Land is inspired by the lives and experiences of Rose's parents (Laura and her husband Almanzo) as well as her maternal grandparents. For a Little House fan, it was a real delight coming across details and incidents that I recognised from the Little House books and the Donald Zochert biography about Laura, however Free Land is much more than an extension to the Little House books. It is an astounding book in it's own right. Rose writes with incredible detail and perception about the pioneering experience. The hardships, difficulties and dangers, as well as the comradery and human spirit that characterises the pioneering experience for me.
.

Non-Fiction

The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure

Part memoir, travelogue, literary biography, literary analysis and analysis of the Little House on the Prairie television series, and all round ode to all things Laura Ingalls Wilder, Wendy McClure's excellent The Wilder Life chronicled McClure's re-engagement and obsession with Laura World. Written in such an engaging and humorous way, with her enthusiasm for all things Laura shining through, I loved this gushing tribute to one of my most treasured authors.

Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel
Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier by Joanna L. Stratton
These fascinating books, which draw upon the diaries and accounts written by pioneer women, helped me to undersyand the wider pioneering experience. The voices of the brave women, some of whom did not even want to make the move westward but had to due to the decision of fathers and husbands, shine through these books.

Happy new year!!!

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

I love the beginning of a new year. The fact that it is a fresh start and full of endless possibilities which have yet to reveal themselves. I hope that 2012 is all that you want it to be and more!

2011 reading in review: the reading decades

2011-12-29T15:26:00.000Z

This was something that I did last year, and which was really interesting as it revealed that I read more recently published books than I thought I did. This exercise was similarly enlightening, as it showed that that just under half (21) of the 44 books I read this year were published in the last 11 years with a surprising 5 released this year! The Virago Book Club was a great way to get me reading more recently published books.

In 2011 I serendipitously managed to read at least one book from every decade between the 1840s and present day. There was no such happy accident, to the same extent at least, however, this year I did read at least one book from almost every decade between the 1910s and the present date, the 1920s being the only decade that wasn't represented. Quite an interesting occurrence to say that this is not something that was intentional and it just goes to show than random isn't as random as you would otherwise believe.

1910
My Antonia - Willa Cather (1918)

1930s
Young Pioneers - Rose Wilder Lane (1932)
Butterfield 8 - John O'Hara (1935)
South Riding - Winifred Holtby (1936)
Free Land - Rose Wilder Lane (1938)
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier (1938)
By the Shores of Silver Lake - Laura Ingalls Wilder (1939)

1940s
The Long Winter - Laura Ingalls Wilder (1940)
Little Town on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder (1941)
These Happy Golden Years - Laura Ingalls Wilder (1943)

1950s
The End of the Affair - Graham Greene (1951)

1960s
Fresh from the Country - Miss Read (1960)
Below Stairs: The Bestselling Memoirs of a 1920s Kitchen Maid - Margaret Powell (1968)
Climbing the Stairs - Margaret Powell (1969)

1970s
The First Four Years - Laura Ingalls Wilder (1971)
Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder - Donald Zochert (1976)
The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough (1977)

1980s
Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier - Joanna L. Stratton (1981)
Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey - Lillian Schlissel (1982)
The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan (1989)

1990s
Mrs de Winter - Susan Hill (1993)
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire - Amanda Foreman (1998)
The Hours - Michael Cunningham (1998)

2000s
Rebecca's Tale - Sally Beauman (2001)
Fingersmith - Sarah Waters (2002)
The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices - Xinran (2002)
Snobs - Julian Fellowes (2004)
The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl - Belle de Jour (2006)
Miss Potter: A Novel - Richard Maltby, Jr (2006)
The Journal of Dora Damage - Belinda Starling (2007)
Peony in Love - Lisa See (2007)
The Help - Kathryn Stockett (2009)
One Day - David Nicholls (2009)
Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match - Wendy Moore (2009)

2010s
Hector and the Search for Happiness - Francois Lelord (2010)
Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism - Natasha Walter (2010)

Perfect Lives - Polly Samson (2010)

Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore - Stella Duffy (2010)

The Wilding - Maria McCann (2010)

The Collaborator - Margaret Leroy (2011)

Hector and the Secrets of Love - Francois Lelord (2011) Monsieur Montespan: A Novel - Jean Teule (2011)
We Had It So Good - Linda Grant (2011)
The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie - Wendy McClure (2011) (2011)

2011 reading in review: the meme

2011-12-28T19:00:00.000Z

What's great about blogging for over two years, is that I can compare my book list from last year to see how my reading has changed, if at all. Below is a meme that I did at the end of 2010, which is interesting to look at again in light of my 2011 reading.

How many books read in 2011?
This year I managed to read 44 books, which is a bit less than the 56 books that I read last year. Of course it's not the number of books read that is important, but rather how much I enjoyed the books I read, and I must say that I discovered a lot of wonderful books this year that that I will surely revisit in years to come.

Fiction/Non-Fiction?
33/11, which is a higher proportion of non-fiction books compared to 2010. I'm actually (pleasantly) surprised by this figure, as I thought that I had read less non-fiction works this year.

Male/Female authors?
10/34, which is a much lower proportion of male writers compared to last year where the difference between male and female authors was a lot closer (22/34).

Favourite read?
To be revealed in my post about my favourite reads of 2011 ...

Least favourite read?
I think this will have to go to Sally Beauman and Susan Hill's atrocious and completely unnecessary sequels to Daphne De Maurier's marvellous Rebecca.

Most disappointing read?
Unfortunately this was Willa Cather's My Antonia. A beautifully written book, but it wasn't quite the story that I was expecting, or wanted, it to be.

Most surprising (in a good way) read?
The Help by Kathryn Stockett. A rare example of a bestseller worth all the acclaim.

Best series discovered?
Francois Lelord's Hector's Journeys series, which I discovered this year (you can read my thoughts on the first two books here and here). Completely charming, I can't wait to read more of Hector's adventures.

Most memorable character?
Definitely Farncois Lelord's Hector. Utterly delightful, Hector is an unforgettable, lovable and completely believable character.

Favourite new authors?
As you can probably expect, Francois Lelord is a favourite author that I discovered this year. I am also looking forwards to reading more works by Rose Wilder Lane after enjoying Young Pioneers and Free Land.

Oldest book read?
My Antonia, published in 1918.

Newest book read?
This is actually quite a surprise to me, as I always assume that I hardly read new releases. Actually this year I read 5 new releases, all published in 2011: Margaret Leroy's The Collaborator, Francois Lelord's Hector and the Secrets of Love, Jean Teule's Monsieur Montespan: A Novel, Linda Grant's We Had It So Good and Wendy McClure's The Wilder Life: My adventures in the lost world of Little House on the Prairie.

Longest book title?
The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl by Belle de Jour.

Shortest book title?
Snobs by the wonderfully talented Julian Fellowes.

How many re-reads?
10 re-reads.

Most read author?
This year I mostly read no more than one book per author, however, I did read five books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and two each by Rose Wilder Lane, Margaret Powell and Francois Lelord.

Any in translation?
Four books: Monsieur Montespan: A Novel by Jean Teule, The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices by Xinran and Hector and the Search for Happiness and Hector and the Secrets of Love by Francois Lelord.

A book read this year which was recommended by a blogger?
I read two books based on recommendations by a blogger, both of which were reviewed by Book Snob this year: Lillian Schlissel's Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey and Joanna L. Stratton's Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier.

2011 reading in review: the book list

2011-12-26T14:16:00.003Z

As we start looking forward to 2012, here is my reading list from year. Like last year, the majority of my list is made up of works of fiction, however there are a few non-fiction books in there too. This year I also re-read a lot of old favourites, as well as discovering a few new ones, which I will reveal in my top reads of this year. This was a really enjoyable reading year for me, especially because of my Little House inspired reading which helped me to further understand Laura Ingalls Wilder's life and the pioneering experience in general. I look forwards to seeing what reading 2012 will bring.

1. By the Shores of Silver Lake - Laura Ingalls Wilder *
2. The Long Winter - Laura Ingalls Wilder *
3. Little Town on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder *
4. These Happy Golden Years - Laura Ingalls Wilder *
5. The First Four Years - Laura Ingalls Wilder
6. My Antonia - Willa Cather
7. The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl - Belle de Jour
8. The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough *
9. Snobs - Julian Fellowes
10. The Journal of Dora Damage - Belinda Starling
11. We Had It So Good - Linda Grant
12. The Wilding - Maria McCann
13. Monsieur Montespan: A Novel - Jean Teule
14. Hector and the Search for Happiness - Francois Lelord
15. Hector and the Secrets of Love - Francois Lelord
16. Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder - Donald Zochert
17. The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices - Xinran *
18. The Collaborator - Margaret Leroy
19. The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie - Wendy McClure
20. South Riding - Winifred Holtby
21. Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey - Lillian Schlissel
22. Butterfield 8 - John O-Hara
23. The End of the Affair - Graham Greene
24. Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism - Natasha Walter
25. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier *
26. Rebecca's Tale - Sally Beauman
27. Below Stairs: The Bestselling Memoirs of a 1920s Kitchen Maid - Margaret Powell
28. Miss Potter: A Novel - Richard Maltby, Jr
29. Climbing the Stairs - Margaret Powell
30. Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier - Joanna L. Stratton
31. Young Pioneers - Rose Wilder Lane
32. One Day - David Nicholls
33. Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore - Stella Duffy
34. Free Land - Rose Wilder Lane
35. The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
36. Peony in Love - Lisa See *
37. Mrs de Winter - Susan Hill
38. Fresh from the Country - Miss Read
39. The Hours - Michael Cunningham *
40. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
41. Fingersmith - Sarah Waters *
42. Perfect Lives - Polly Samson
43. Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match - Wendy Moore
44. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire - Amanda Foreman

* Re-read

Merry Christmas!!!

2011-12-25T07:00:00.000Z

I hope that you are all having a magical day surrounded by loved ones and twinkling decorations! My boyfriend and I are celebrating our second Christmas in our little home, which is now more or less completely finished. A lovely present in itself, although I am just a bit more excited about the Doctor Who and Downton Abbey Christmas specials later on today!

Decks the halls ...

2011-12-24T18:06:00.000Z

The Christmas tree is decorated ....

... the cards are hung ....

... and the little Christmas village, complete with foam Gingerbread House that my boyfriend and I built this afternoon, is waiting for the arrival of a jolly man in red.

I hope that you are all having a lovely Christmas Eve!

Wedlock - Wendy Moore

2011-12-23T07:04:00.000Z

For all the biographies and social history books that I have on my shelves, it is actually quite rare that I have an overwhelming urge to read one. Maybe it is their size or the fear that they will be too academic and dry. I'm not really sure. So when I get the urge to read one, it is certainly best that I make the most of it. I'm not sure if it has been the cold that made me reach out for a nice thick, comforting read about another period, but I certainly didn't quite get what I was expecting from Wendy Moore's Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match, as it paints a rich and also incredibly disturbing picture of the marriage between Mary Eleanor Bowes and Andrew Robinson Stoney. Certainly far from a comforting read.

Mary Eleanor Bowes was the only child of George Bowes, a member of the noble Bowes family and an important and talented businessman in his own right, and the heiress Mary Gilbert. Mary's childhood was pampered and privileged, and as part of this she enjoyed an exemplary education normally reserved for the sons of the nobility. Intellectually gifted, with a keen interest in botany, Mary came to the attention of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu a well known intellectual and the organiser of the celebrated Blue-Stocking Club which she held at her London residence.

Mary's father sadly died when she was just eleven, leaving her the heir of his exceedingly prosperous estate valued between £80 and £150 million in modern terms. In Georgian Britain the aristocracy viewed marriage as an important way to build powerful relationships between great families. Although arranged marriages were slowly making way to the concept of love matches, financial considerations still played an important part. And Mary, now the richest heiress in Britain and possibly even Europe, was seen as being quite a catch. Enjoying the attentions of various privileged sons, and even a prince, Mary settled on John Lyon, the ninth Earl of Strathmore and a member of the noble yet impoverished Lyon family. Marrying on her seventeenth birthday in 1768, Mary not only brought her considerable wealth to the partnership, but also her name. As part of the stipulations of her father's will, any man that Mary was to marry, as well as the children of that union, were required to take the name of Bowes. In adulthood, some of the five children from Mary's first marriage styled themselves as Bowes-Lyon, creating the Bowes-Lyon lineage from which Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother, descended from.

The marriage between Mary and the Earl of Strathmore was not successful. Over 10 years older than his bride, the Earl and Mary differed greatly in terms of temperament, personality and interests. The Earl discouraged Mary's intellectual pursuits and forced her to break many of her relationships with intellectuals, such as her patron Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Mary also had a difficult relationship with his family, which did not improve after the death of the Earl from ill-health in March 1776 after nine years of marriage.

Mary's marriage settlement with the Earl allowed generous provisions for herself and their children should she be widowed, and she also regained her life interest from her father's estate upon the Earl's death. As such, Mary was now one of the richest widows in Britain. Mary made the most of her freedom, and 1776 for her was largely characterised by excess and flaunting her lover George Gray with whom she started a affair during the last months of the Earl's life. It was her behaviour during this year that coloured society's opinion again her and labelled her as scandalous and decadent, and which accounted for the lack of support she received during her subsequent court cases against her second husband.

Although Mary was not keen to be married again due to her unhappy experiences with the Earl, in August or September 1776 Mary was formally betrothed to Gray when she was pregnant the third time with his child (this third pregnancy, like the two previous to it, ended in abortion with the fourth abortion attempt being unsuccessful). During this period Mary also enjoyed the attentions of Andrew Robinson Stoney.

Andrew Robinson Stoney was the eldest son of a privileged family who made their money from their lands in Ireland. Although the heir to his father's successful farming business, Stoney had no interest in working the land for his living. Ambitious but lazy, with fantasies of wealth and power, Stoney abandoned his future inheritance to become an ensign, the lowest rank of officer, in the Fourth or King's Own Regiment. Although at first promising, a few short months revealed that Stoney was not suited for army life and his undistinguished military career was made up of poor behaviour, accumulating massive debts due to his decadent lifestyle, and relying on family connections within the army to get him out of trouble.

It was while an ensign that Stoney managed to get himself into the company of Hannah Newton, the only child of a father who, like Mary's, made a fortune through coal. An heiress, Hannah's inheritance was worth more than £3 million in modern terms, making her extremely attractive to Stoney. In turn bullying and wheedling his father until he settled sufficient lands and funds on Stoney to allow him to meet the requirements of a future spouse for Hannah, Stoney married Hannah in 1768. Charming and generous when courting Hannah, marriage revealed Stoney's vicious temper and behaviour. If his later behaviour towards Mary is any indication, it is extremely likely that Stoney was physically and emotionally abusive and controlling towards Hannah. In 1776, Hannah died in childbirth, her child dying with her.

Without an heir, Stoney had now lost all claim to Hannah's fortune, and so began searching for other means to achieve the lavish lifestyle that he desired. After a brief flirtation with Anne Massingberd, Stoney set his sights on Mary. As with the poor unfortunate Hannah, Stoney wheedled himself into Mary's company and her affections. He also employed underhand schemes and sent letter purporting to be from others, to encourage her attractions. Indeed throughout Stoney's life he showed himself as not being a stranger to theatrics in order to achieve his suspect ends.

One of his biggest theatrics was in terms of securing Mary's hand in marriage, despite her being formally engaged to Gray. In January 1777, Stoney took part in a duel with the Reverend Henry Bates, the editor of the Morning Post, to protect the honour of Mary, whose character was being vilified in Bates' publication. Injured during the duel, and reported to be suffering from a life threatening wound verified by four witnesses, Mary agreed to marry the man that risked his life for her honour and who, it was believed, would shortly die. However, not long after the marriage ceremony was performed, Stoney, now named Bowes due to the stipulation from her father's will, began to quickly recover. Moore believes that the whole duel and his supposed wounds were all part of a cunning ploy by Bowes.

In Georgian Britain where the upper classes abhorred the scandal of divorce and separation resulted in social exile for the separated wife, marriage was generally for life, with unhappy marriages only ending upon the death of one of the spouses (as in the case of Mary and the Earl of Strathmore). As such, there was very little protection for Mary from the savage and brutal attacks that Bowes subjected her to during their marriage. Almost immediately after they were married, Bowes began to brutally attack Mary, sometimes during sustained periods of half an hour at a time. Pinching, slapping, punching, kicking, burning and hitting Mary with objects such as the hilt of a sword of a candlestick, Bowes was inconceivably vicious. Weakened by the constant abuse, Bowes also restricted the amount of food that she was allowed, making her thin and frail.

Not content with physical brutality, Bowes also sought to undermine any support that Mary could turn to. He forced her to write letters to his family and friends that made her sound cold and pompous. He restricted the company she could keep and made her act odd, rude and deranged to guests, amplified by the fact that Bowes would not allow her buy new clothes so that she appeared unkempt and dishevelled. As the one now hiring and paying the servants, he made them report on Mary's behaviour and threatened her to ensure that she would not confide to anyone the abuse she sufferred. Bowes also severely restricted Mary's movements, initially getting servants to spy and report on where she went to, and eventually banning her from visiting her beloved gardens without his permission, and on rare occasions when allowed, only in the company of Bowes or a trusted servant.

Healso flaunted his indiscretions and illegitimate children in front of the humiliatedMary, in one instance forcing her translate a love letter he had written to one of his Frenchmistresses, and in another forcing her to comment on the appearance of one of his illegitimatechildren, the product of an affair with the lowly nursemaid hired to nurseMary's young son with Bowes.

Mary'sexistence with Bowes was miserable and the descriptions of her mistreatment, even hundredsof years later, are extremely difficult to read. Reading these, youcannot help but feel sorrow and pity for Mary, little protected by law and alienatedfrom possible support, and anger towards the disgusting and savage Bowes. I was close to tears on so many occasions, and moved by the efforts made by herservants to help Mary escape her inconceivable existence, although it wouldonly take sustained threats to her life before Mary finally had the courage toleave him.

For escape she finally did in February 1785 after eight years of abuse. Where divorce was only achievable through beingsanctioned by three different courts and processes, and it being much harder for a woman to divorce a man rather than the other way round, it was only through lengthysuits over numerous years (which Bowes doggedly appealed against) that Mary was legally separated fromBowes. During these hard years, Bowes was in control of Mary's fortune, so she had to rely on the charity of servants, her tenants and friends to support her. Unwilling to relinquish his hold on Mary, Bowes terrorised those who tried to support Mary and agree to testify against Bowes, sullied her name and reputation through commissioning false stories and cruel illustrations, and even abducted her in broad daylight until she was rescued by farm hands. Finally four years after Mary escaped Bowes her divorce was announced in March 1789 and Mary's ownership of her fortunes re-instated. However, Mary was never fully free from Bowes, as although he was now unable to contest the divorce, he still made numerous attempts to gain access to herestate.

Iwish that Wedlock would have included more details about Mary's lifeafter she was finally free from Bowes as some sort of vindication for the tormentedexistence she suffered at his hands. By all intents and purposes, itseems that afterwards she led a quite, secluded and peaceful life. I hopethat she was able to find some peace, for she surely deserved it.

The Wilder Life - Wendy McClure

2011-12-21T09:30:00.000Z

It's very rare that I look forwards to a book being released, mostly because the books that I tend to read have been published decades ago. The evocatively titled The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure was a definite exception, as I was unbelievably excited about it from from the moment I first heard about it. Part memoir, travelogue, literary biography, literary analysis and analysis of the Little House on the Prairie television series, and all round ode to all things Laura Ingalls Wilder, this is a perfect book for fans of the Little House books that want to experience more of Laura and her world.

Wendy first read the Little House books in childhood, and was completely drawn to Laura and her lived experiences. This Laura World, as Wendy calls it, was felt to be a mythical place that no longer existed and of which there are no trace of the places that Laura and her family inhibited (although secretly a young Wendy hoped that she and her family would come across the abandoned cabin from Little House on the Prairie whilst they were on a trip through central Kansas). As part of Wendy's childhood fancies, she also used to imagine leading Laura around 20th century America and introducing her to experiences such as shopping trips to the mall, using escalators and soda machines, and trips in the car.

The Wilder Life examines Wendy's re-engagement with the Little House books and Laura World, which started when she re-read the books in adulthood. Yet Wendy's experiences and engagement with the books differed from when she was a child, as she was able to fully give into her obsession. Much like I did this year, she immersed herself in realms of books and biographies about Laura. The internet also enabled her to find out lots of facts and figures about Laura, and follow their random trails to wherever they led.

But simply reading about Laura was not enough. Not content to wanting to experience the day to day activities and chores that made up Laura's experiences, Wendy describes how she tried to experience them herself. Food is an integral part of the Little House books, and within their pages Laura lovingly details the various meats, vegetables, fruits and homemade treats and goodies that made up her diet. In the same way that Wendy describes her various attempts to make some of the iconic food and treats of the Little House books: making candy and forming their shapes in snow like Laura and Mary did in Little House in the Big Woods, grinding seed wheat in a coffee grinder and making sourdough so as to make bread like the Ingalls family had to during the bleak days of constant blizzards in The Long Winter, and searching for and ordering a butter churn from the internet so as to churn butter like Ma would have done. I loved reading Wendy's various experiments and the lengths that she went to in order to experience things as much as possible as Laura and her family would have done.

Another important part of the book are Wendy's descriptions of the various trips she made to the Little House homesteads and going into the actual houses (or replicas of) that Laura and her family lived in. Seeing the houses and wells that Pa had built, the cotton trees they planted, being able to look at things that actually belonged to the Ingalls family, sleeping in a waggon and visiting an actual sod house. Experiences that made me wish I could be there. but through her vivid descriptions made me feel that I was seeing the same things too. It has been one of my dreams for a long time to visit the Little House homesteads. I don't know if I ever will, but reading The Wilder Life certainly gave me a glimpse of what it would be like.

Wendy's experiences are interspersed with fascinating insights about Laura, the differences between her real experiences and the books, as well as the life that she led following the events described in the Little House books. Wendy also offers her own interpretation and analysis of the Little House books, as well as on the television series. The book is full of intriguing little nuggets that I loved reading about. For instance, in the 1960s, the Little House books were widely known as the Laura and Mary books. Like Wendy, I was quite shocked by this. For me, the Little House books have always been about Laura, with the narrative following Laura's experiences (such as during the terms where she taught school in another settlement). However, the most fascinating nugget for me was about Laura's Pioneer Girl memoir. I have known for a while that Laura originally wrote a memoir about her pioneer childhood and that when it was rejected by publishers (and surprisingly, it still hasn't been published yet) Laura started working on the Little House books based on her experiences instead. What I didn't know was that a later draft of the memoir (after the first one had been rejected for not being interesting enough, included an account of Pa joining a group of vigilantes to try and bring the infamous Bloody Benders to justice. This is widely thought to have been an attempt by Laura and Rose to make the memoir more exciting, as it was highly unlikely that Pa could have been involved, as by the time the crimes of the Benders had been discovered, the Ingalls family were back in Wisconsin. A fabrication I just wouldn't have expected from the writer of the wholesome Little House books.

As I think you can tell, I absolutely loved reading The Wilder Life and finding out about Wendy's obsessions and the lengths that she went to to experience Laura World for herself. Wendy's experiences are written in such an engaging and humorous way, with her enthusiasm for all things Laura shining through, that she really did feel like a friend. A completely geeky friend who would understand and let me indulge in my passion of Laura and her world. I think this is why the book was so important for me. Living in England, I have found it very rare to find someone who loves the Little House books, and who does not confuse it with the television series of the same name. Plus, as I have already said, although a dream, I'm not sure if I will ever visit the Little House homesteads. So Wendy's book made me feel that I am not alone in my passion and she let me live vicariously through her experiences. Finishing The Wilder Life made me feel bereaved I was wanted to continue reading about Wendy and her Little House inspired adventures.

Many thanks to Alice at Penguin US who very kindly sent me a copy of The Wilder Life.

An apple a day ...

2011-12-18T10:00:00.000Z

My bookcase contains many books marked with these beloved little apples. This little icon is linked to so many treasured authors and books, and I instinctively look out for it when browsing shops. But closer inspection reveals subtle differences in design, colour and shading. Some proudly and explicitly identify themselves as belonging to Virago or as being a VMC, whilst other know that the apple alone is enough for faithful friends. Some designs are present on many of the Virago books I own, others are rarer, or in the case of the World Book Night editions, one offs. While I can’t manage an apple a day, they all provide substance for the mind and soul.

A whirlwind tour of 5 months worth of books ...

2011-12-11T09:30:00.000Z

June to November I may have been a bad blogger, but I certainly didn't neglect my books. So, as promised, hold on to your hats as I guide you through a whirlwind tour of the books I read while I was away:

South Riding by Winifred Holtby - One of my favourite books of 2011. If it wasn't for South Riding being selected as one of the Virago Book Club reads, I probably wouldn't have picked it up due to its 500+ pages and small type. Holtby's characters are inspired and her writing, especially her pen portraits of characters, beautiful. Like with Willa Cather's My Antonia, I found myself endlessly marking the book with post-it notes for descriptions I wanted to go back to. Holtby really made me feel that South Riding was an actual place and that I was peering into the lives of its inhabitants. She made a door stop of a book feel like it was a mere couple of hundred pages, and a cast of almost 200 characters feel like friends.

Butterfield 8 by John O'Hara - The opening line gives an enticing hint of what is to follow: "On this Sunday morning in May, this girl who later was to be the cause of a sensation in New York, awoke much too early for her night before." Set in the heady world of 1930s New York, we follow Gloria, the fun and glamorous girl in question with an unfortunate weakness for men (even if they are married), as she negotiates the unexpected consequences of walking away from her lovers apartment with his wife's fur coat. A wonderful book.

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene - My first Graham Green, and a bit of a disappointment. As the narrator Bendrix ("For some reason I am a man known by his surname") bumps into Henry Miles on a wet January evening, his obsession for Henry's wife Sarah, his former lover, is reawakened. Bendrix becomes fixated on finding out the reason why their love affair ended so abruptly, and so reveals the darker sides of love - jealously and the desire to possess the other. I found the reason for Sarah ending the affair ridiculous and not really fitting in how I understood or felt her to be, and it was mainly for this reason that the book fell down for me.

Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter - the third selection of the Virago Book Club, a worrying examination of a new form of sexism that is pervading our society in the form of a highly sexualised culture that limits the perceived options available to women. The second half is a bit study heavy (and a little repetitive) but overall an eye-opening and disquieting read.

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier - Still atmospheric and suspenseful the second time around, I don't know why I haven't read any other books by Du Maurier. Something I definitely plan on remedying.

Rebecca's Tale by Sally Beauman - Avoid. Characterisations not true to how they appear in Rebecca and the plot felt contrived and silly.

Mrs de Winter by Susan Hill - Another sequel to Rebecca, and again does no justice to the original, although I felt that Hill's style was more reminiscent of Du Maurier's style than Beauman was.

Below Stairs: The Bestselling Memoirs of a 1920s Kitchen Maid and Climbing the Stairs by Margaret Powell - First published in the 1970s, these are the first two books of a trilogy of memoirs by Margaret Powell. These describe her years in service, and how she worked her way up from being a kitchen maid to finally a cook, before she left service when she married. Hugely popular when first published, the success of these books in part inspired the commissioning of Upstairs, Downstairs. Told in her no nonsense way, these books are full of anecdotes of Powell's time in service.

Miss Potter: A Novel by Richard Maltby, Jr - Written by the man who wrote the script to the 2006 film of the same name, Miss Potter is a whimsical and mischievous book which follows Beatrix Potter as she steps away from her restrictive life to become a successful writer of children's book. Sometimes it felt that this was a slightly buffed up version of the screenplay, but was still an enjoyable read (although maybe you need to have a fondness of the film to enjoy the book).

One Day by David Nicholls - Readable but over-hyped.

Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore by Stella Duffy - A fun romp of the early life of Theodora, as she evolves from popular actress in the bawdy Hippodrome of Constantinople, to religious convert, to adviser and wife of Justinian, the next in line as Emperor of the Byzantine empire. Ending just as Justinian and Theodora are about to make their first public appearance as the new Emperor and Empress, I can't wait for the next instalment in the life of this captivating woman. Another Virago Book Club selection.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan - The first novel of one of my favourite authors, Tan sensitively tells the stories of four Chinese women and their American born daughters. A delight.

Peony in Love by Lisa See - Another of my favourite authors that writes about Chinese women, this book is inspired by real events, whereby young privileged Chinese girls sought to escape their severely restricted lives by refusing to eat, hoping that when they died their true love would find them and bring them back to live, as what occurred in a popular 16th century opera The Peony Pavilion.

Fresh from the Country by Miss Read - Told in Miss Read's deceivingly gentle yet sharply observed manner, Fresh from the Country follows Anna, a country girl, as she moves to Greater London for her first teaching post and the challenges she faces. Anna's misely landlady Mrs Flynn would give Mrs Pringle a run for her money! Completely charming.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham - A homage to Virginia Woolf’s MrsDalloway, The Hours follows three characters over the course of one day in their lives: Virgina Woolf in 1923, Laura Brown in 1949 and Clarissa (a real life Mrs Dalloway) at the send of the 20th century. Separatedover time and place, these women’s lives and stories are touched by similardoubts, fears and experiences. Cunningham has a beautiful style of writing, which subtly draws together the shared threads of these women's lives. A truly wonderful book.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett - A rare example of a bestseller that is worth the hype. A book that had me in turn angry, apprehensive, nervous and giggling to myself, this is a rare treat.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters - Set in the Victorian criminal underworld, with a plot that twists and turns, ducks and dives, Fingersmith doesn't disappoint the second time round. I don't want to say any more, but if you haven't read this before, please do!

And finally, my thoughts on Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel, Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier by Joanna L. Stratton, and Young Pioneers and Free Land by Rose Wilder Lane can be found here.

Phew!

An addiction ...

2011-12-08T08:30:00.000Z

Help, I have an addiction. It started with just one or two every now and then. They fitted easily on my shelves. But then my shelves got too full, so I started storing them in piles. Just little piles. But then the piles grew ... and grew ... and grew.

They have have taken over one side of the wardrobe, 5 piles deep ...

... as well as the other side, 4 piles deep with a couple of other mini piles ...

... and some have managed to hide themselves under the desk. I definitely need help!

So as my new years resolution, I am planning on tackling the piles and weeding out the books I can't see myself reading or re-reading. So here are some of my, admittedly smaller, piles of weeded out books. I have some where to go!

Little House inspired reading ...

2011-12-05T08:30:00.000Z

The Little House books have been my constant companion during my childhood and teenage years, and now my adult years as well. Where as other books have come and gone, these books have always stayed with me. While I was in primary school, I was given a box-set of the first five Laura books (although published after the first book in the series, the story of Laura’s future husband Almanzo Wilder, Farmer Boy, wasn’t included) by my American aunt. Containing the beautifully evocative titles of Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, On the Banks of Plum Creek, By the Shores of Silver Lake and The Long Winter, these wonderful books transported me back to a completely different time and place than my own – 19 century America. Through these books I followed Laura, her siblings and her parents, Ma and Pa, as they made their journey west across America in their covered wagon, setting up home in log cabins, underground sod houses and wooden shanties along their way.

I loved Laura. She was spirited and brave, but she could also be naughty and misbehaved, struggling against the way that her sister Mary was just too ‘good’. She was a real girl, not a sugar coated fabricated good girl. Someone you could imagine as a friend, someone you wanted to be like. But she actually really and truly was a real girl, as the books were written by Laura and described her childhood. And that for me intrigued me even more. That the adventures described in these wonderful books actually happened (although as I have got older, I found out that some liberties were taken with timelines and characters, but these have done little to dull my enthusiasm).

As I grew older, so did Laura as I followed her adventures through the later books in the series Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years and The First Four Years (the last of which I finally read at the beginning of this year). The world that she inhibited also expanded beyond the books, as I found out that there was a popular Little House on the Prairie television series loosely based on the Little House books, as well as a series of books about her daughter Rose Wilder Lane (which I've still to read) written by a close friend of Rose, Roger MacBride, who inherited Lane's estate including the rights to Laura's literary estate.

And this year my understanding of Laura's world had grown even more. I finally read The First Four Years, which although marketed as a Little House book, is in fact an unedited first draft of a book that may have been intended for adults, which was found amongst Rose's effects after her death. The tone of the book is much more sombre than the other Little House books, chronicling as it does the hardships, ruined crops, disasters, debt and ill-health that stalked the first years of Laura's and Almanzo's married life together, as well as the devastating loss of a child. But despite these trials, Laura's voice shines through. Her unwillingness to be beaten and her determination to appreciate the little things. And all was not bad in those early years of marriage, including the birth of their only surviving child. Probably not one for younger readers, I would definitely recommend The First Four Years to older fans of the books.

In addition to reading the final book in the Little House series, this year I also I read Young Pioneers (also published as Let the Hurricane Roar) and Free Land written by Rose Wilder Lane. These fictional stories are interesting not just because they describe the pioneer experience, as explored in the Little House books, but also because they are inspired by the lives of Rose's parents and grandparents (the Ma and Pa from Laura's stories). It was a real delight coming across little details and incidences that I recognised from the Little House books. Young Pioneers is written in quite a simple style, which reminded me of the earlier Little House books, while Free Land is more detailed and perceptive, much like the later Little House books.

I have been wanting to read a biography about Laura Ingalls Wilder for a while now. To get an understanding of the differences between the books and her actual experiences, as well as to find out more about her life not covered in the books. Donald Zochert's Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder was the first ever book-length biography written about Laura, which draws heavily upon the manuscript of her unpublished memoirs Pioneer Girl. I must admit I was a little disappointed by this biography. It reads like a fiction book, with little signposting of years. It also felt like it was just basically re-telling the Little House books with some extra details thrown in, especially as Laura's life after the events described in the Little House books wasn't covered in any great detail (less than a quarter of the overall book). I also wanted the book to draw a bit more on the differences between events described in the Little House books and the actual events. I don't want to seem too harsh as it was a very readable biography, which included some interesting accounts, but it didn't have the clout I was expecting. I think it was a good starting point to find out more, but it is not a definitive detailed biography of Laura's fascinating life.

As well Laura centred reading, this year I have been reading more generally about the pioneering experience, inspired very much by Book Snob. Although my experience of Willa Cather's My Antonia, part of her Pioneer Trilogy, wasn't too great (that does remind me that I have still have Cather's O, Pioneers! to read), I found Lillian Schlissel's Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey and Joanna L. Stratton's Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier completely captivating (Book Snob's reviews for these books can be found here and here). Both draw on diaries and accounts written by pioneer women. Schlissel focuses on the challenges and dangers that the families that travelled westwards to Oregon and California between the 1840s and 1860s faced, whilst Stratton examines the experiences of those pioneers that reached their destinations, in this case Kansas, and how the challenges were by no means over.

While reading the Little House books I understood that Pa moved his little family around so frequently as he felt that that land was getting too populated, but I never really realised that their movements as being part of a greater westward migration across America. These absorbing accounts helped me place the Ingalls' experience as part of a wider experience. They also helped me understand Ma more fully. I have always found Ma a bit of a stick in a mud in the books. Re-reading the books now I am older, and within the context of these diaries, has made me appreciate just how difficult pioneer life must have been for her. Like many of the women from Schlissel's book, Ma had no choice in the family's constant movements. It was always Pa's decision. Each time she had created a little home for her family, they packed up and moved to (untamed) pastures new to go through the whole difficult and dangerous experience again. How she must have resented the constant journeys westwards, when all she wanted was a civilised upbringing for her family. For her children to be educated at the local school and to attend church. For them to be settled.

This year has certainly been a Little House inspired year, and I look forwards to discovering more about her life and the pioneer experience. Please do leave a comment if you have any recommendations for me, as I would love to hear them. And if I haven't bored you all to death, here is a sneak peek of another Little House inspired book I will be talking about soon ...

Perfect Lives - Polly Samson

2011-12-03T09:36:00.001Z

When Polly Samson’scollection of short stories Perfect Lives was announced as the fifth book forthe Virago Book Club, I wasn’t too enthusiastic. I don’t tend to readshort stories. Due to my commute, I have about 2 hours each day in whichI can really sink into a book. Short stories on the other hand obviouslydon’t take as long to read. Once you have finished one, you can eithermove to the next one (but this means that you are not able to properly reflectabout what you have just read), or you put the collection aside for anothertime. Reading is a way for me to ignore my usually crowded, cramped anduncomfortable travelling conditions, and escape to another time andplace. Not having anything to read whilst commuting is horrendous, for me, as I am brought back to the pains of travelling by public transport during therush hour traffic. Plus I really like to reflect about the stories I havejust read. I don’t want to jump into another one. So, as you canguess, a book of short stories wouldn’t have been my choice of readingmaterial.

From the very first page ofthe first short story The Egg, I realised that I was in for a treat. Samson’s writing is beautiful, breathtaking and just so vivid. As I read,I felt like I was following Celia around her house while she performed herritual of getting breakfast together. Celia is refined, controlled andeverything appears to be just so. And yet into this perfectly orderedworld we are given clues about undercurrents of disorder bubbling underneath. The hat her husband is no longer allowed to wear. The dongle she hasbought for him so that he does not need to travel to London. And finally,the raw egg with words scribbled on it that is maliciously posted through herletter box, exploding messily upon impact, interrupting her painstakinglyordered world and bringing with it memories of the moment when her perfectworld was turned upside down.

The second treat, uponreading the second story in the collection, is that these are a series ofinterconnected short stories, where the protagonists move in and out of eachothers tales. So while reading, I had genuine moments of delight where Irecognised names of characters met before, and when the relationships betweenthe various characters and how they were connected were revealed. But theseconnections don’t feel contrived. Not all the characters fit togetherneatly. They don’t all know each other. Just like in life.

As with Celia in the firststory, this collection examines lives that appear to be perfect to outsiders,lives which others envy. Samsonlifts the lid on outwards appearances, and demonstrates that the lives ofothers are not as they may appear. The protagonists of these stories livein a well-to-do coastal town. They are mostly privileged and findhappiness and expression through some form of art or music. However,underneath their apparently happy lives there lurk the messy and painful sidesof life - infidelity, mothers struggling to love and appreciate their children,dissatisfied spouses, broken relationships, unrealized ambitions, illness and avery narrow escape from a chilling outcome. But there are also the thingsthat make life worthwhile – finding friends in unexpected places, first love(even if unrequited), pleasure found in music and art, and buildingrelationships with family. As such, Perfect Lives is a bit like achocolate box. There are the darker tales such as The ManAcross the River, ones that can leave a bitter taste in your mouth (for me,Rose’s perceptions and feeling towards her second daughter in The Rose Beforethe Vine), but also light ones (my favourites Remote Control and The BirthdayPresent) and the playful Ivan Knows which had me in mind of a chocolate coveredin popping candy (the stuff that feels like mini explosions in your mouth).

Perfect Lives reminded meof the first Virago Book Club choice of Linda Grant’s We Had It So Good, in that it showsthat life isn’t always as it seems and things may not turn out as expected, butthat in the end, this is okay. For instance, in the short story At ArkaPana, although upset andsaddened about her father being missing from her upbringing and childhood,Claudine realises that they may actually have been for the best as she would have been“orphaned twice-over by the piano”, the obsession of both herparents. Or as the narrator of Remote Control puts it:

It wasn’t perfect: thehouse was a shambles, the volume of the film a bit louder that I would haveliked, but the children would sleep through it. Angus and Ivan weregrowing into two fine boys. A warm current of happiness ran throughme. It wasn’t perfect, but it would do.

As I mentioned earlier, the writing is stunning. Samson also writes lyrics, and I think it shows in her writing, which has a beautiful poetic feel about it. So I will end this review with some of my favourite quotes from the book, and hope that they encourage you to pick up a copy and experience these beautiful stories yourself.

Claudine couldn’t remember a timewhen her mother hadn’t been hammering at the piano fir hours every day; evenworse were her students. She used to think of other people’s houses assanctuaries, as piano-free havens where reading and thinking were occasionallyaccompanied only by the gentle buzz of a television. Here, the gleamingpiano took up half the living room and most of the oxygen. A carnivorousold thing, it had teeth rather than keys and a lid just right for trappinglittle fingers.
At Arka Pana

How ugly the peoplewere. Tap man had the sort of looks that made her think that his ownbirth might not have been a pleasant one: eyes close together in a head shapedlike a hillock, flock of dark hair taking flight; and his wife neat as a tulip,probably put her pale clothes on fresh from the packet each morning.
The Rose Before the Vine

Theplasterwork reminded rose of her first wedding cake, the one she’d cut with Jimmy, a struggle to get the knife through the cold white icing, threetiers. A piece brought up like a prize with tea and silver spoons at thechristenings of Leo, Tilda and then finally, thought Jimmy’s moods by that timemade her feel less than celebratory, Anna... Rose’s Italian wedding cakehad been a different affair: messy, glistening; a pyramid of creamyprofiteroles, piled up in a generous heap, caramel-coloured as the sun-bakedhouses in Castagnola; sticky and sweet as any metaphor for love.
The Rose Before the Vine

Mark Twain and me ...

2011-11-30T14:17:00.001Z

I love the Google doodles marking important celebrations, dates and people. Today is apparently the 176th birthday of the author Mark Twain. In celebration, the homepage of Google is the famous scene from Twain's 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer where Tom tricks his friends to whitewash a fence for him, which was a task given to Tom as a punishment by his Aunt Polly!

There is another anniversary today, although not as illustrious, as it's my 2nd blogoversary! Thank you to all of you that have read and commented on my blog, and have made blogging such an enjoyable experience for me.

Yikes!!!!

2011-11-27T09:35:00.001Z

Yikes, I can’t believe that it’s been 5 months since I last posted. How time has flown! There are no excuses really, but are some of the things that have been occupying me the fast few months:

§ Work. No, not very exciting, but it does take up 40+ hours of my week plus travel time

§ My house. I don’t think I have mentioned my house at all in this blog. This is because despite buying it about 2 and half years ago, my boyfriend and I have gone through spurts of working on it coupled with longer periods of not doing anything. This year has been a concentrated Let’s Get It Done year. A whirl of getting walls and ceilings plastered, having coving, skirting, architraves, doors, switches, sockets, new lights and carpets fitted, installing net curtain and curtain poles, buying and putting up net curtains, curtains and lampshades, and lots and lots of painting later means that we are nearly there. Plus we have a tiler booked in for the end of the year to tile the hallway, kitchen and conservatory, so hopefully all we will have left are some touching up here and there and actually enjoying living in our house. Phew!

§ Although I haven’t done any of this since my last post, I have been learning how to crochet and knit. I find knitting quite stressful, but crochet has proved to be extremely therapeutic

§ Expanded my limited cooking repertoire to include lasagne and cottage pie

But you want to know about the books? Well, although I haven’t been very good on the old blogging front, I have of course not neglected my beloved books. But more on those on another post, although here are a snapshot of some of them to help whet your appetite …

Flower power ...

2011-06-07T19:53:00.000+01:00

For the past few months I have slowly been working on my first patchwork project. Above are some of the hexagon flowers that I have finished (sewed by hand!) - each flower is made up of a plain blue centre, surrounded by petals of three different floral fabrics. I've never done patchwork before, but I have set myself the rather huge challenge of producing a quilt for my double bed. I seem to be averaging one full hexagon flower a month, so I think that this is going to be quite a long term project! At the end of it, I am hoping to produce a quilt similar to this stunning one (although with a cream border surrounding my flowers instead)

Hector and the Secrets of Love - Francois Lelord

2011-06-03T13:36:00.000+01:00

Hector and the Secrets of Love is the second book in Francois Lelord's Hector's Journeys series. Our favourite psychiatrist is back for more adventures, this time, as I'm sure you can guess, about love.

The pharmaceutical company that Hector's on-off girlfriend, Clara, is working for are developing a drug that can control love. A drug that means that we can choose who we fall in love for, and equally, to help us to continue being in love with our partner. A drug that can remove some of the messiness and unpredictiveness of love. A drug, well, that somehow doesn't seem right.

However, there is a problem. The professor that that pharmaceutical company were working with to develop the drug has gone missing, and has taken with him his research and some prototypes of the drug. As the professor is none other than Professor Cormorant, who Hector met in his first adventure Hector and the Search for Happiness, Clara's boss, Gunther, asks Hector to help them track down Professor Cormorant. Hector accepts and finds his quest taking him to the Far East. And as Hector plays cat and mouse trying to locate Professor Cormorant, he finds that he and Gunther are not the only ones interested in finding Professor Cormorant.

While trying to track down Professor Cormorant, Hector also learns his own lessons about love and the different components of heartbreak. Although things seemed to finally be on track with Clara, just before Hector left on his adventure Clara confessed that she no longer thought she was in love with him. Added to this the extra complication that Hector and Vayla, a waitress at his hotel, both tried a prototype of the Professor's drug and are now in love, and you are guaranteed more excitement with Hector.

Hector and the Secrets of Love is another wonderful story from Francoise Lelord and I cannot wait to read about Hector's next adventures. Fingers crossed we don't have to wait too long!

Virago Live Event: We Had It So Good

2011-05-31T15:27:00.000+01:00

All the way back in March (how time flies) I attended the first Virago live event, for their first Virago Book Club selection, We Had It So Good by Linda Grant. We Had It So Good is about the baby-boomer generation, who felt that they had life so good, and that they were going to do great things in their lives and live forever: 'Stephen could not get out of his mind how lucky they had been: himself, Andrea, Ivan and all their other friends. The sun had risen on them and had stayed all this time on their faces. Their purpose was to fulfil the ultimate destiny of the human race.'

Linda Grant explores this sense of entitlement through the story of Stephen, his wife Andrea, and their university friends Ivan and Grace. A Rhodes scholar, Stephen comes over from America to study for a year at Oxford University. While out in the garden one summers day, Stephen meets his neighbours, fellow students, Andrea and Grace, and their friend Ivan. Through them, Stephen is introduced to the counter-culture of the 1960s - drugs and all their weird and wonderful theories.

Stephen has so many expectations of his life; however, these start to unravel when he is thrown out of Oxford for tearing out a page from a library book (the page happened to be about making LSD, but for Oxford, the real crime was defacing a library book, not manufacturing and distributing drugs). This is the 1960s, America is fighting in Vietnam, and fearful of being drafted if he is sent back to America, Stephen and Andrea get married. Although a marriage of convenience, Andrea insists that they make a real go of their marriage.

We Had It So Good follows Stephen and Andrea through their marriage, and through their ordinary, unspectacular lives. Life hasn't turned out as Stephen expected. He hasn't become a somebody that he so desperately wanted, thought was due to him. Rather too late he realises that that the everyday achievements, marriage, children, owning a house, are successes, are important, are achievements in their own way. A thought-provoking book, We Had It Go Good shows that life doesn't necessarily turn out as you expect, and that is okay, and that it is also okay if you are not a somebody.

The book also made me think about my parents lives. The lives they experienced before they had me. A whole part of their lives that I wasn't a part of, and that I only hear snippets about. My father was a bit of a hippy in the 1960s. He had the long hair and the beard. He wasn't into the various theories and philosophies of the time, but he was certainly into the music. I could imagine him in some of the scenes with Stephen, Andrea, Grace and Ivan, especially the chapter where Stephen first meets the others. In this, Stephen is interrogated about the various wacky theories of the time, and his knowledge of them (which was non-existent, the same as I would suspect for my dad, who doesn't have time for this sort of thing). Andrea then starts to talk about The Lord of the Rings, which they had all read apart from him. When my dad saw me reading The Lord of the Rings a few years ago (around the same period when the films were coming out), he said that in the 1960s everything seemed to be reading this and The Hobbit. He could remember people going on about Bilbo Baggins, and him not knowing who on earth that was. When he found out, he refused to read the books just because everyone was.

So I was really excited to attend the Virago live event for We Had It So Good, which Linda Grant also attended. Linda Grant is such an engaging speaker. She discussed what it was that inspired her to write We Had It So Good, and also provided some fascinating insights into the editorial process. Within We Had It So Good, there is the villain of the piece, Grace. Grace is quite a nasty character, but later in the book we find out some of experiences that shaped her. Initially, the revelatory chapter about Grace was towards the beginning of the book, however, upon advice from her editor Lennie, who also attended the event, this chapter was moved to later on in the book. Linda revealed how this is a decision she is still uncertain about, although I think that personally this worked well in the book. In real life we just don't know the full back story of everyone we meet, so we just have to make our own judgments as best we can. There may be reasons for the way that people behave, such as with Grace, but we don't always know these.

This was a really interesting evening, so many thanks to the Virago team, Linda Grant and her editor Lennie Goodings. Thank you also to Stephen from Little Brown Books, gave me permission to use the photo below from the evening, taken by the Virago team. Linda is on the left, with Lennie on the right.

Hector and the Search for Happiness - Francois Lelord

2011-05-29T09:50:00.000+01:00

Hector is a psychiatrist. He is also an unhappy one. Hector is starting to find that more and more of his clients, clients who seem to be successful and have everything, are unhappy, without any real apparent reasons for their unhappiness. And now all of this is starting to affect Hector. So Hector decides to follow the advice of one of his clients to go on holiday. Although Hector being Hector, this won't be just any holiday, but a trip to various countries around the world to try and understand what it is that makes people happy and unhappy.

Hector's search starts in China, where Hector meets up with an old school friend Edouard. From there Hector's journey takes him to Africa, America (to show his findings to a famous professor of happiness, Professor Cormorant), and finally back to China to share is discoveries with an old monk that he met at the beginning of his search. Along the way, Hector not only finds out about the various causes of happiness (and unhappiness), but also what it means to be human - falling in love, re-connecting with old friends, making new ones. His search also gives him glimpses into the sad and questionable sides of life - poverty, prostitution, drug trafficking and kidnapping.

Hector and the Search for Happiness is like a modern day fairy story. We have our hero on a quest to find out the secret of happiness (and unhappiness), who finds himself embroiled in thrilling adventures along the way, but who ultimately finishes his quest and who along the way also finds out more things about himself and others. There is no better person that I would have liked to accompany on his adventures. Hector is a wonderful character. He is earnest, kind, sometimes a little naive, but he is also human. He makes mistakes. He cheats on his on-off girlfriend Clara, he falls in love with another woman (a different kind of love to the type he feels for Clara, but still, he falls in love). But in the end we know that he is a good guy, that he tries to do the best that he can. That he is like us, he is only human.

The style of writing is also that of a fairy tale too. Apart from China, all the other countries that Hector visits, even the country that Hector is from, are not named. Instead they are described. In this way they become like mystical lands, through the descriptions there may be parts that can help you identify the country, so they are like the world we inhabit, but in not naming them they become in some way other-worldy. For instance, America is:

... the big country where there were more psychiatrists than anywhere in the world. Notice that we say 'more psychiatrists than anywhere else in the world' but we could just say more swimming pools, more Nobel prizewinners, more strategic bombers, more apple pies, more computers, more natural parks, more libraries, more cheerleaders, more serial killers, more newspapers, more raccoons, more of many more things, because it was the country of More, and had been for a long time.

Even the history of the countries that Hector visits are deliberately vague. There are references to vague events, situations, but these are shadowy. For instance, the horrors of Communist China under Mao become:

But the people who ruled China when Ying Li was a child had decided that teachers like him [her father] were useless, undesirable even, and so he and his family had been sent to the remotest part of China. And there everybody worked in the fields and nobody was allowed to read books except for the one written by the man who ruled China at the time. And that meant Ying Li's sisters never went to school, because the children of undesirable people weren't allowed to study; they had to learn about life from working in the fields. Being younger, Ying Li was later able to catch up a little at school, but then her father had died (he'd never got used to working in the fields and it had worn him out), and she'd been unable to continue her studies.

Hector inhibits our world, but a shadowy, less specific version of it.

I loved Hector and the Search for Happiness and was sad when I finished reading it (although not too sad, as I had Hector's next adventure, Hector and the Secrets of Love, lined up, but more on that another time). Francois Lelord has created an unforgettable, lovable character His style of writing is wonderful too. Short chapters, beautifully written chapters that keep you reading long after you intended to read. If you haven't met Hector for, please, please read Hector and the Search for Happiness!

My fantasy guestlist ...

2011-05-26T09:30:00.000+01:00

Last week at work we were discussing which three famous people, deceased or alive, we would like to have at a dinner party. There are so many interesting people that I would love to include, but I finally managed to get this down to six (I know, it’s still not three), and I extended it to include fictional characters too (I’m obviously one that finds it hard to stick to the rules!). So here is my list:
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Stephen Fry seems to be such a knowledgeable and well-read man, with an enviable depth and breadth of knowledge, so I am sure that he would be an absolutely fascinating dinner guest.

I’m sure Hercule Poirot wouldn’t pass off the opportunity to share the intriguing cases he has worked on and how he solved these with his ‘little grey cells’. Also, what insights would he be able to provide on the mysterious 11-day disappearance of his creator, Agatha Christie?

The Little House books were my companion during my childhood and teenage years, and I have recently come to them again (I am also currently reading Wendy McClure’s wonderful The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie, so it is fair to say that I am a little obsessed at the moment). I would love to meet Laura Ingalls Wilder to find out more about her pioneer childhood, the differences between the books and her real life, the influence of her daughter Rose while writing the books, her life following the years that were chronicled in the Little House books, and so much more!

My second fictional guest would be the captivating, complicated, proud and utterly wonderful Mr Rochester, who I fell in love with when I read the magnificient Jane Eyre for the first time last year.

I read most of Richard Yates’ novels last year, and with their common themes of infelidity, betrayal, alcohol abuse and psychiatry, I got the sense that these were somewhat semi-autobiographical and inspired by how own experiences. As a chronicler of the darker side of domestic life, I think that Richard Yates would also be a fascinating guest.

My final guest would be the Empress Dowager Cixi. A determined and ambitious woman, Cixi rose through the ranks from being a lowly concubine to becoming the last Empress of China. Vilified during her reign and after her death, I would be interested to hear the truth behind, what I suspect to be, a misunderstood historical figure.

So over to you, which six deceased or living, real or fictional, people would you invite to your ideal dinner party?

Monsieur Montespan - Jean Teule

2011-05-24T19:26:00.000+01:00

In 17th century France, duelling is outlawed due to a royal edict, punishable by death. As Montespan, a young gentleman of the nobility, is being reprimanded by a prosecutor due to his brothers participation in a duel, which also claimed his life, Montespan encounters the beautiful Francoise, abandoned by her fiance who has fled France due to his involvement in the duel. Eight days after this fateful meeting, the two are married.

The marriage is at first happy, however, the young couple soon run up debts due to their excessive lifestyle. The Montespan family are also exiled from the court of King Louis XIV because of one of Montespan's relatives had at one time rebelled against the King. Desperate to be able to lavish riches upon his wife, as well as to try to get into the favours of the King, Montespan embarks on a number of ill-advised military expeditions, putting him further in dept. The young couples luck appears to change however, when because of a recommendation from an acquittance, Francoise becomes a lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie Teresa. Francoise's beauty, charm and wit brings her to the attention of the King.

As a mistress to the King, Montespan is forced to relinquish his claim to his wife. Monsieur Montespan is inspired by the true story of Montespan and how, heartbroken by the loss of his wife, he risked his position, liberty and life to publicly protest against the King. Ridiculed by his contemporaries for making a spectacle of himself and for not making the most of his good fortune and the advantages that being the husband of one of the King's mistresses brings, and still portrayed as a figure of fun even hundreds of years later, Jean Teule's novel invites us to look again at this misunderstood figure.

By focusing on Montespan however, the figure of Francoise, and how she could have inspired so much love and devotion from an abandoned man until his death decades later, was under-developed. I think that the novel could have been improved by telling Francoise's story in parallel to Montespan's; however, regardless of this, I found Monsieur Montespan to be a fascinating book, bringing to my attention an intriguing human episode from 17th century France. Teule also excels at bringing to life the excesses and vile behaviour of the nobility of the time.

A trip down the rabbit hole ...

2011-05-21T16:59:00.000+01:00

I couldn't agree more with this sentiment from Henry James at the beginning of his novel The Portrait of a Lady:

Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. There are circumstances in which, whether you partake of the tea or not--some people of course never do--the situation is in itself delightful.

A few weeks ago, a friend and I went to the Sanderson Hotel, London, for their Alice in Wonderland inspired afternoon tea. Multicoloured finger sandwiches, exploding lollipops, and clotted cream and a three-flavoured drink in a tiny 'drink me' bottle made this a truly enchanting experience. Even more so as the staff made the eating of the afternoon tea almost a ritual. The waitress recommended the ordered that we should eat out sandwiches, lollipops and sweet treats, and also the way in which they should be eaten (one lollipop to go in our mouth in one go without biting, the other to place one side on your tongue for a few moments and then to place the other side on your tongue) and drunk (the 'drink me' beverage was made up of three different flavours, so in order to taste these, the waitress recommended drinking this in three mouthfuls). A highly recommended afternoon treat!

And just because it's the weekend, here are some pictures of the fabulous spread! I hope that you are all having a wonderful Saturday.

Multicoloured rainbow sandwiches on a range of different flavoured breads.

Hazelnut praline ice-cream lollipop that explodes in your mouth and blueberry lollipop that is warm on one side, and cold on the other.

Apple pie, lemon curd and English toffee 'drink me' drink, chocolate opera rabbit's cake and strawberries and cream mousse 'Eat me' heart (my personal favourite).

Yummy scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam.

Chinese Women: A century of suffering, courage and resilience

2011-05-11T09:13:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I attended a fascinating talk called 'Chinese Women: A century of suffering, courage and resilience'. The talk was chaired by Emily Buchanan, a journalist who has also written about her experiences of adopting her two daughters from China in her book From China with Love - A Long Journey to Motherhood. Hilary Spurling, who has written a recent biography about the Nobel Prize for Literature author Pearl Buck, was also a participant in the talk. Both of these women brought some extremely interesting insights to the talk, but I was especially interested to hear Xinran’s contribution to this topic. Xinran is the author of many fictional and non-fictional books that explore the changing roles and lived experiences of women in China, and it is her books that have guided my interest in the history and roles of Chinese women.

I have always been interested in the roles, lived experiences and history of women. This mostly manifested itself in an interest in British women’s history; however, China has always held a fascination for me. In my childhood it represented a world completely different to my own, with its own completely distinctive culture, history and way of life. A place that felt almost like a fairy tale land that would never hold any relevance, if that is the right world, to my own life far away on the other side of the world. That is until I met my boyfriend, whose parents are from Hong Kong, during my first year at university. This spark my interest in finding out more about the country that his ancestors are from, and also so that I can impart this knowledge about this part of their heritage to our (future) children. My natural interest in the roles, lived experiences and history of women meant that I became particularly interest in the women of China.

At the same time as my growing interest in Chinese women, I, an extremely close family friend had bought a copy of Xinran’s The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices, which sounded interesting. I and his wife L have been like second parents to me, always being there for me and offering help and support whenever I’ve needed it. L helped nurture and develop my interest in women’s issues, rights, role and history, lending me relevant books to further my understanding. It is also through her that I owe my awareness and love of Virago. Soon after spotting this book, my mum surreptitiously bought me a copy of it after spotting it in a charity shop.

Xinran presented a popular radio programme in Nanjing, and from this developed her desire to understand the women of China. The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices is the result of numerous of interviews and conversations that Xinran conducted in order to try and better understand her fellow Chinese women. These stories examine our roles as women (sister, wife and mother), the courage, strength and resourcefulness of women, as well as the discrimination, abuse and betrayals that we also face. Some of these stories and experiences are shared by all women, regardless of race, nationality and age, others are unique to China’s history and heritage. All of these are sensitively told by Xinran. Needless to say that Xinran is one of my favorite authors, and that I own many of her books.

So for me, Xinran’s books are closely tied to my growing interest in Chinese women, as well as to my loved ones. Even more so as my boyfriend bought me my remaining Xinran books, and when I collected these together to take to the talk yesterday, in each one of my books from Xinran, each contained some note from him.

Oh dear, this has turned into a bit of a rambling post. Going back to the talk, it really was absolutely fascinating. Emily Buchanan, Hilary Spurling and Xinran each brought their own experiences to the talk, which highlighted that like it is virtually impossible to understand and make generalisations about all Chinese women, so too are our interpretations different. One interesting point about the experiences of Chinese women that was discussed, was that the lived experiences of rural and urban Chinese women are completely different. Whereas the day to day life of rural Chinese women hasn’t changed significantly from decades beforehand, urban life has undergone mass transformations. As such, as well as a rural/urban difference, there is also a significant generational differences between the experiences of women in China. The young urban Chinese women are a lot more confident than their predecessors. They also see what happened in the past as being unconnected to themselves.

Hilary Spurling also made an extremely interesting point about interpreting experiences through western eyes. In the western media much is made about the exploitation of female factory workers in China. Hilary agreed that they work and live in appalling conditions, however, the women themselves do not see themselves as being exploited. Instead, the factory work allows them to support their families and younger siblings. Although the pay is tiny compared to equivalent pay in the west, they earn in a month what would otherwise take them a year. As such, when they return to their families, they status within both their families and their village reflects their economic contributions.

So overall a really thought-provoking evening, topped off by being able to meet and have my books signed by an author that I really admire!

Mad Men and book spotting ...

2011-05-07T20:55:00.000+01:00

I am currently addicted to the television series Mad Men. Set in 1960's New York, the series follows the professional and personal lives of men and women working in the advertising industry. Mad Men brings to life the day-to-day life, politics and fashion of 1960's America. It also feels that it has stepped out of the pages of a Richard Yates novel. Both Yates and Mad Men make us question the idealised perceptions of 'perfect' family life in the 1960's and share a lot of common themes, for instance, adultery and betrayal of spouses, abuse of alcohol, mental health and changing attitudes towards visiting a psychologist, and what seems to be a preoccupation of ordinary people wanting to write and to have something published. Somewhat ironically, Vintage Classics seem to have used old advertising images in their stunning cover art for Yates' novels.

Mad Men is also fun to watch to look out for references to popular books and authors from the period. For instance, a copy of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover being surreptitiously shared by the secretarial staff. The Group by Mary McCarthy, which was re-issued by Virago in 2009, was also the book of choice by a main female character while she was bathing. After being mentioned in an episode of Mad Men, Rona Jaffe's The Best of Everything is now being re-issued by Penguin Classics.

Does anyone else watch Mad Men?

World Book Night

2011-05-04T12:29:00.000+01:00

Back in March was the first ever World Book Night. This was where 20,000 'givers' distributed 1 million books to the public on 5 March. Twenty-five titles were chosen to be given away as part of the initiative, and 40,000 specially printed copies where printed of each of the selected books (click here to find out the chosen books). I was lucky enough to be selected to give away 48 copies of Fingersmith by Sarah Waters - one of my favourite books, written by one of my favourite authors, published by one of my favourite publishers! I gave away copies of Fingersmith to friends, colleagues and commuters, and it was such a fun and rewarding experience to be able to share such a wonderful book - especially when friends and colleagues have said much they are enjoying/have enjoyed Fingersmith.

As part of World Book Night, a launch party took place the night before at Trafalgar Square, where a number of authors, actors, musicians and Boris Johnson(!) did some readings - apparently the single biggest literary event in history. I was lucky enough to win a pair of tickets to the launch through the Innocent blog, and despite the freezing temperatures, it was an amazing night. Some of my favourite moments included (sorry for the poor quality photos):

Nelson's Column being lit up with 'World Book Night 2011'.

Sarah Waters reading from Fingersmith.

Alan Bennett's moving reading from his memoir A Like Like Other People's about his mother's last days in a care home and his rousing speech that plans to close public libraries will affect children the most, and so, in effect, it is child abuse!

Boris Johnson doing a reading of what he described as being the most accurate description of a hangover (something he gave the impression of having experienced once or twice!).

Margaret Atwood, who came all the way from Canada to take part in the launch, reading from another Virago book, The Blind Assassin.

Philip Pullman's reading of Norther Lights, including the voice of Iorek Byrnison, the armoured bear. Philip Pullman's reading had me in mind of Charles Dickens, who apparently, when on reading tours, would put on voices for each of his characters.

So a rather unforgettable night and experience, and I look forwards to World Book Night 2012!

The Royal Wedding

2011-04-29T19:54:00.000+01:00

You have to have been living in a cave if you didn't know that today Prince William married Kate (sorry, Catherine) Middleton at Westminster Abbey. I am not a Royalist by any stretch of the imagination, and question their relevance in British political life, especially as the monarch effectively only has the power to advise, rather than create and enforce legislation in the UK. In saying this though, since William and Kate announced their engagement last November, I have eagerly been reading details about the forthcoming nuptials, and have been looking forwards to their wedding day.

This is the first big Royal event in my lifetime that I have been able to participate in. I was quite young when Princess Diana's funeral took place, and was living in the north of England. I can remember watching part of the funeral on television, but I was too young to really engage in this mass public event. For William and Kate's wedding, however, I am now living in London and able to participate in the festivities. At one point yesterday I toyed with watching the wedding on television at home, especially with reports that it may rain, however, I'm glad that I decided to watch the event unfold on the big screens erected at Trafalgar Square instead (and the English weather even decided to behave today as well - although cloudy at the beginning of the day, it did become quite gloriously sunny).

After quite a fitful nights sleep due to my excitement, my boyfriend and I got up early this morning to catch the train to Charing Cross. From there it was a short walk to Trafalgar Square. We arrived only a little after 8am, and despite the wedding ceremony due to start at 11am, it was already quite packed. We managed to find quite a good place near one of the big screens to sit down; although, as the start of the ceremony got closer, due to the number of people trying to get into Trafalgar Square, we were all asked to stand up to allow more people to come in.

The atmosphere at Trafalgar Square was amazing. As members of the Royal family and well known faces appeared on the screens, people cheered and waved their flags in the air. Of course the biggest cheers were reserved for the groom and his stunning bride. Trafalgar Square also erupted with rectangular pieces of red, white and blue pieces of tissue paper near the close of the service. Sadly in the run up to the wedding I found that most people I have spoken to were either apathetic or cynical about the wedding. Being in Trafalgar Square, it was wonderful to be surrounded by people proud to be there to share some small part of William and Kate's big day.

Today was a truly unforgettable (and emotional) experience, and I would like to thank my boyfriend for coming with me to Trafalgar Square, especially as I know that there were countless other ways that he would have preferred to spend his day.

Below are some photos of the big day:

A busy Trafalgar Square.

Prince William arriving at Westminster Abbey.

First full glimpse of that dress.

Exchanging of the rings (although in this case it is probably more accurate to say the giving of the ring, as only Kate has a wedding ring).

Waving of flags during 'God Save the Queen'.

The newlyweds emerging from Westminster Abbey.

Trafalgar Square erupting with patriotic confetti.

The Royal family on the balcony at Buckingham Palace.

The newlyweds on the balcony at Buckingham Palace.

The Battle of Britain flyover, on route to Buckingham Palace, over Trafalgar Square.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, at Trafalgar Square leading a toast to the happy couple. This was after he unveiled his gift to the happy couple on behalf of London, a tandem Boris bike (accompanied by his 'Katy, Katy' poem, set to the famous 'Daisy, Daisy' poem about a bicycle built for two).

My Antonia - Willa Cather

2011-04-26T15:24:00.000+01:00

As part of Virago Reading Week, organised by Book Snob and A Few of My Favourite Books at the end of January, I read Willa Cather's My Antonia. The pioneering history of America is such an interesting period of American history, however, all of my reading on this period has been based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House book, as I wasn't really aware of other books set in this period. So when Book Snob mentioned her plans to read My Antonia (part of Cather's Pioneer Trilogy), I was really excited to read more about America's pioneering past. Sadly My Antonia did not turn out to be the book that I wanted it to be, and so I decided to leave it a while before writing down my thoughts. Well a few weeks turned into a few months, but for what it's worth, here are my thoughts.

My Antonia is the story of Antonia, a Bohemian immigrant who comes to America with her intellectual father, grasping mother and her siblings. Her story is lovingly told by Jim, himself a stranger to the Nebraska plains, after the death of his mother and father. Antonia is proud and headstrong. She also has a determination to survive. Coming to America unable to speak a word of English, Antonia gets Jim to teach her English from the very first moment that she meets him. It is because of Antonia also that her family are able to survive after the suicide of her father. And yet ... I found the characterisation of Antonia a little flat. I am not convinced that Jim was the best way of telling Antonia's story. I never got of real sense of Antonia as a person. Her likes and dislikes. Her motivations and what made her what she was.

Although I felt that the characterisation of the main protagonist was quite poor, Cather shows herself as a genius of creating short, humorous, and sometimes quite devastating, pen portraits of comparatively quite minor characters:

He [Mr. Cutter] certainly met his match when he married Mrs. Cutter. She was a terrifying-looking person; almost a giantess in height, raw-boned, with iron-grey hair, a face always flushed, and prominent, hysterical eyes, When she meant to be entertaining and agreeable, she nodded her head incessantly and snapped her eyes at one. Her teeth were long and curved, like a horse's; people said babies always cried if she smiled at them. Her face had a kind of fascination for me: it was the very colour and shape of anger. There was a gleam of something akin to insanity in her full, intense eyes. She was formal in manner, and made calls in rustling, steel-grey brocades and a tall bonnet with bristling aigrettes.

It is such a pity that I felt that Willa Cather was unable to make Antonia a living, breathing person, the same way that Mrs Cutter leapt off of the page for me.

I must admit, however, that much of my dissatisfaction with My Antonia was due to my desire for a book, like the Little House series, which explored every day life on the prairies. I am certain that I would have enjoyed the book more if not for these unfair expectations for My Antonia to be the kind of book it was not. In saying this though, My Antonia did contain some interesting nuggets about the role of immigrant girls in their families fortunes. The immigrant girls who worked away from home to support their families were treated with disdain by the 'refined' daughters of the town merchants who stayed at home as American fathers would not allow their daughter to go out to work - 'Unless his girls could teach a country school, they sat at home in poverty'. However, as a result of the immigrant girls industries, their families prospered quicker than the 'principled' American families - '... the girls who once worked in Black Hawk kitchens are to-day managing big farms and fine families of their own; their children are better off than the children of the town women they used to serve'. This made me think of The Long Winter in the Little House series, in which, if it was not for Pa's forward thinking to allow Laura to help him gather the hay during the summer, the Ingalls family may not have survived the harsh winter in which every bit of the hay gathered was used to keep the family warm when the coal had run out, and due to deep snows, trains were unable to travel to the little town with coal supplies.

Virago Reading Week

2011-01-24T21:42:00.000Z

Lovely button for Virago Reading Week created by Thomas at My Porch.

It’s hard to believe that it is almost the end of January (where did the month go?!), which means that today is the first day of Virago Reading Week organised by Book Snob and A Few of my Favourite Books. Very exciting! For Virago Reading Week, I have chosen to read Willa Cather’s My Antonia, and if I can fit it in O Pioneers, both of which, I am reliably informed by Wikipedia, are part of Cather’s Pioneer Trilogy.

The pioneering past of America is such an interesting period. This was where brave men, women and children moved West across America, turning the vast, largely inhabited prairies into farms, sowing fields of corn and wheat, rearing animals and populating the stark land with trees. All of my reading about this period in American history has been based on the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, so Virago Reading Week is a good opportunity for my to explore other books about this period.

As a slight (but relevant) aside – how do you know when you may have too many books? When excited for the reading week I ordered both My Antonia and O Pioneers only to realise after they had arrived that I already own a copy of My Antonia – in the exact same edition! Oh dear (although that won’t of course stop me buying anymore books)!

2010 Reading in Review: The Reading Decades

2011-01-08T11:29:00.000Z

Having a few spare hours on my hands, I decided to look at my 2010 reading list by the year each book was originally published, and it has certainly made me re-evaluate what I previously thought about when the books I read are published.

I thought that the vast majority of my reading were books published between 1900 and the 1950s, and that I read hardly any books published in the last decade or so. In actual fact, under half (26) of the 56 books I read last year were originally published between 1900 and the 1950s, and ignoring the posthumous publication of E.M. Forster's Arctic Summer in 2003, I read a whopping 15 books published between 1990s to now (including three books published last year)!

It's also been interesting to see that I have read at least one book from every decade from the 1840s to present day. The decade that I read the most books from last year was the 1930s, with 12 books, which is mostly due to Molly Vivian Hughes' trilogy of memoirs and the Little House by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Surprisingly for me the second most popular decade was the 2000s with 9 books.

If you have a spare hour (or two), I would certainly recommend looking at your reading lists by decade of publication. It may uncover a few things you never realised about your reading!

1840s
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (1847)

1850s
North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell (1855)

1860s
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott (1868)
Good Wives - Louisa May Alcott (1869)

1870s
Little Men - Louisa May Alcott (1871)

1880s
Jo's Boys - Louisa May Alcott (1886)

1890s
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (1891)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (1891)

1900s
A Room with a View - E.M. Forster (1908)

1910s
Howards End - E.M. Forster (1910)
The Moon and Sixpence - W. Somerset Maugham (1919)

1920s
The Life and Death of Harriett Frean - May Sinclair (1922)
The Painted Veil - W. Somerset Maugham (1925)
Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence (1928)

1930s
Friends and Relations - Elizabeth Bowen (1931)
Little House in the Big Woods - Laura Ingalls Wilder (1932)
Peking Picnic - Ann Bridges (1932)
Farmer Boy - Laura Ingalls Wilder (1933)
A London Child of the 1870s - Molly Vivian Hughes (1934)
Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder (1935)
A London Girl of the 1880s - Molly Vivian Hughes (1936)
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell (1936)
A London Home in the 1890s - Molly Vivian Hughes (1937)
On the Banks of Plum Creek - Laura Ingalls Wilder (1937)
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - Winifred Watson (1938)
Nightingale Wood - Stella Gibbons (1938)

1940s
A London Family Between the Wars - Molly Vivian Hughes (1940)
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh (1945)
I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith (1948)

1950s
Village School - Miss Read (1955)
The Fountain Overflows - Rebecca West (1956)
Village Diary - Miss Read (1957)
Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories - Truman Capote (1958)
Storm in the Village - Miss Read (1958)

1960s
A Special Providence - Richard Yates (1969)

1970s
Disturbing the Peace - Richard Yates (1975)
The Easter Parade - Richard Yates (1976)

1980s
Young Hearts Crying - Richard Yates (1984)
Cold Spring Habor - Richard Yates (1986)
Scarlett's Women: Gone with the Wind and Its Female Fans - Helen Taylor (1989)

1990s
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks (1993)
The Reader - Bernhard Schlink (1995)
Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier (1997)

2000s
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber (2002)
Old Town in the Green Groves: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Lost Little House Years - Cynthia Rylant (2002)
March - Geraldine Brooks (2005)
The Apple - Michel Faber (2006)
Daphne - Justine Picardie (2008)
The Lady Elizabeth - Alison Weir (2008)
The Rhythm of Selby: A Gently Mysterious Novel of the South - Marti Healy (2008)
The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters (2009)
Past Imperfect - Julian Fellowes (2009)

2010s
E.M. Forster: A New Life - Wendy Moffat (2010)
Room - Emma Donoghue (2010)
The Temptress: The Scandalous Life of Alice, Countess De Janze - Paul Spicer (2010)

Published posthumously
Arctic Summer - E.M. Forster (2003)

2010 Reading in Review: The Meme

2011-01-05T09:17:00.000Z

Below is a bit of a mish-mash of Stuck in a Book, My Porch and fluerfisher's end of year memes for 2010.

How many books read in 2010?
56 books read last year. Although I don't have reading figures for 2009, I think that I probably read less books last year than the previous one, but to be honest I am more concerned about enjoying what I am reading rather than the number of books read.

Fiction/Non-Fiction?
49/7, which compared to 2009 when I read no more than 2 non-fiction books is pretty impressive. No small thanks are due to Molly Vivian Hughes' immensely readable memoirs (The Victorian Family trilogy and A London Family Between the Wars).

Male/Female authors?
22/34. A lot closer than I expected, but the ladies have still piped the men to the post.

Favourite read?
To be revealed in my top 10 reads post ...

Least favourite read?
This rather dubious honor goes to The Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. A clunker of a book, this felt a bit like painfully wading through thick mud - a forgettable and unrealistic love story, characters I couldn't empathise with and countless pages that could very easily have been edited out.

Most disappointing read?
This will probably be an unpopular choice, but I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. I think I probably would have loved this if I had read it while growing up, but coming to it for the first time while in my 20's I couldn't get along with the narrator, Cassandra. I found her to be childish and self-centred, and wanted to shake her frequently (especially for not fully appreciating the rather lovely Stephen).

Most surprising (in a good way) read?
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. Told over three different periods in post-war Germany, The Reader centres on Michael's relationship with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz. As the novel develops, it is revealed that during World War II Hanna served as an SS guard in one of Auschwitz's satellite camps. The Reader refuses to portray Hanna as a monster. She is shown to have hopes, fears and insecurities, just like anybody. It is through this human portrayal of a war criminal that we are forced to examine what makes an otherwise ordinary person commit such inexcusable and horrifying acts. Hanna's very ordinariness makes her even more chilling than if she was simply portrayed as a monster. A fabulous book that stays with you long after you have finished reading, and a book that I could never have pictured myself reading a few years ago.

Best series discovered?
Molly Vivian Hughes' collection of memoirs about her childhood and early adulthood. Molly's lust for life jumps from the pages, and her often funny anecdotes frequently had me laughing to myself (and sometimes out loud). A wonderful piece of social history showing that a Victorian childhood was not always as repressive as we sometimes like to think.

Most memorable character?
Sugar, the 19 year old prostitute from Michel Faber's magnificent The Crimson Petal and the White. Woe behold anyone that gets in the way of Sugar's goal of freedom from her sad existence as a slave to mens sexual desires.

Favourite new authors?
A bit of a male dominated list here - E.M. Forster, Somerset Maugham and Richard Yates, alongside the rather wonderful Miss Read.

Oldest book read?
Jane Eyre, published in 1847.

Newest book read?
E.M. Forster: A New Life by Wendy Moffat and The Temptress: The Scandalous Life of Alice, Countess De Janze by Paul Spicer, both published in 2010.

Longest book title?
Discounting subtitles, this is May Sinclair's depressingly titled The Life and Death of Harriett Frean.

Shortest book title?
Room by Emma Donoghue.

How many re-reads?
11 re-reads.

Most read author?
A fair few multiple author reads this year! Richard Yates was my most read author this year, with five books, followed closely by Molly Vivian Hughes, Louisa May Alcott and Laura Ingalls Wilder with four books each, and E.M. Forster and Miss Read with three books.

Any in translation?
Just one - Bernhard Schlink's The Reader.
Edited to add: Of course, how could I have forgotten Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White and his short story collection The Apple? It's a testiment to the translator(s) that these books read as if written in English!

A book read this year which was recommended by a blogger?
I finally got around to reading Michel Faber's subliminal The Crimson Petal and the White purely on the back of Desperate Reader's wonderful review.

2010 Reading in Review: The Book List

2011-01-03T16:36:00.000Z

As we welcome in 2011, below is my list of books read in 2010. At the beginning of 2010 I had only been blogging a couple of months, so this is the first time that I have been able to look back on a whole year of reading. Last year I read 56 books, which is pretty good to say that I do the bulk of my reading when commuting to work. Looking closley at my list, there is a good mix of fiction and non-fiction, classics (both childrens and adults) and some recent books, as well as some of my most beloved reads (re-reads made up 11 of my 2010 reading, and are marked with a star). It will be interesting to see how this list compares to my 2011 reading.

1. The Lady Elizabeth - Alison Weir
2. The Reader - Bernhard Schlink
3. A London Child of the 1870s - Molly Vivian Hughes
4. A London Girl of the 1880s - Molly Vivian Hughes
5. A London Home in the 1890s - Molly Vivian Hughes
6. A London Family Between the Wars - Molly Vivian Hughes
7. Nightingale Wood - Stella Gibbons
8. Daphne - Justine Picardie
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
10. The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
11. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
12. A Room with a View - E.M. Forster
13. Arctic Summer - E.M. Forster
14. Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories - Truman Capote
15. The Painted Veil - W. Somerset Maugham
16. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
17. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
18. Scarlett's Women: Gone with the Wind and Its Female Fans - Helen Taylor
19. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell *
20. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - Winifred Watson
21. Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier *
22. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott *
23. Good Wives - Louisa May Alcott *
24. Little Men - Louisa May Alcott *
25. Jo's Boys - Louisa May Alcott *
26. March - Geraldine Brooks *
27. Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
28. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
29. The Moon and Sixpence - W. Somerset Maugham
30. Village School - Miss Read
31. Village Diary - Miss Read
32. Storm in the Village - Miss Read
33. Room - Emma Donoghue
34. Past Imperfect - Julian Fellowes
35. E.M. Forster: A New Life - Wendy Moffat
36. Peking Picnic - Ann Bridges
37. The Temptress: The Scandalous Life of Alice, Countess De Janze - Paul Spicer
38. The Rhythm of Selby: A Gently Mysterious Novel of the South - Marti Healy
39. The Fountain Overflows - Rebecca West
40. The Life and Death of Harriett Frean - May Sinclair
41. The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
42. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
43. The Apple - Michel Faber
44. Howards End - E.M. Forster
45. Friends and Relations - Elizabeth Bowen
46. The Easter Parade - Richard Yates
47. Cold Spring Habor - Richard Yates
48. Young Hearts Crying - Richard Yates
49. Disturbing the Peace - Richard Yates
50. A Special Providence - Richard Yates
51. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
52. Little House in the Big Woods - Laura Ingalls Wilder *
53. Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder *
54. Farmer Boy - Laura Ingalls Wilder *
55. On the Banks of Plum Creek - Laura Ingalls Wilder *
56. Old Town in the Green Groves: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Lost Little House Years - Cynthia Rylant

Farewell to 2010 ...

2010-12-31T20:35:00.000Z

... and here is to 2011! Best wishes for the new year to you all.

Ho Ho Ho ...

2010-12-25T20:04:00.000Z

Merry Christmas!!! I hope that you are all enjoying this magical day surrounded by family and friends, yummy food, twinkling decorations and some bookish shaped parcels!

Today my boyfriend and I are celebrating our first Christmas together in our own house. We have just finished my first ever attempt of a Christmas dinner (I should hopefully be an expert after a few years practice!), and are settling in front of the television in anticipation of a new episode of Poirot shortly (Murder on the Orient Express - one of my favourite Poirot's).

Comfort Reading

2010-12-05T14:04:00.000Z

Brrrrrrr!!! There is something about the cold weather that makes me seek out firm favourites to help banish the chills. I am currently re-reading my much loved Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Written in the 1930s and 1940s, this series of books are a fictionalised, yet at the same time semi-autobiographical, account of Laura's childhood in pioneering America in the late 19th century.

My American Auntie bought me a box-set containing five of the Little House books (there are nine in the series overall) as a Christmas or birthday present. I re-read these wonderful books countless times during my childhood. They saw me through my primary and secondary school life, and are now providing comfort in my adult life. You can see from the photo accompanying this post just how well-loved, and slightly dog-eared, they are.

Do you have any trusted favourite books that you bring out when the cold and short days drive you to the comforts of comfortable clothing, blankets and duvets, and a good book?

A list of one hundred (and so) books ...

2010-12-01T11:13:00.000Z

The below list has been making its way around the blogosphere recently. It is a bit of an odd list, containing a few duplications, however, I am not one to say no to a book list. The books that I have read are in bold, and those books partially read are in italics. How do our lists compare? Are their any howlers that I haven't read yet?

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible (I doubt that my The Children's Bible counts)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (Very partially read - I read A Midsummer's Night Dream at school and Romeo and Juliet for pleasure)
15. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks (Reading at the moment)
18. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
19. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dosoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (For my sins ...)
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
47. Far From the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
60. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possesions - A.S. Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazu Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Happy birthday to me ...

2010-11-30T14:05:00.000Z

It is hard to believe that it is one year today that I made my first tentative step into blogging. Since then I have been overwhelmed by the number of you that have welcomed me into the blogosphere, and who have taken the time to read and made comments on my blog. Thank you so very much - you have truly made this year a wonderful experience for me! Because of you, I look forward to many more blogoversaries to come!!!

My journey into blogging has been one of happy accidents and coincidences. I first discovered blogs when searching online for a pattern to make a peg bag, to store my clothes pegs in. Needless to say I never did get around to making my peg bag, but I did come across a blog offering a tutorial on making a peg bag. Thus I was introduced into the world of lifestyle blogs.

It took me a little while yet to stumble across the world of book blogs. The book posts on Ragged Roses' blog made me keen to seek out blogs dedicated to things of a bookish nature; however, it seems that bookish blogs are a hidden world, as searching for 'book blogs', 'blogs about books', etc in Google got me nowhere fast. As luck would have it, a few months afterwards the Persephone Post included a link to a bookish blog, and from there to a whole world teeming with bookish blogs!!!

I would like to end this self-indulgent post by saying a heartfelt thank you to my wonderful boyfriend. If he hadn't been anything other than enthusiastic and supportive when I shyly suggested that I would like to start my own bookish blog, I would not have had the confidence to have started this little blog. Thank you!!!

Some famous literary faces ...

2010-11-29T11:27:00.000Z

Despite living in London for just over three years, yesterday was my first visit to the National Portrait Gallery. It was so strange to see so many famous portraits in the flesh, so to speak. While exploring the gallery, I came across a few familiar literary faces ...

There was this instantly recognisable portrait of Jane Austen produced by her sister Cassandra.

Another painting by a sibling, this is the only surviving group portrait of the Bronte sisters (left to right, Anne, Emily and Charlotte) painted by their brother Branwell. Indeed, if you look close enough, you can see an image of a man, thought to be Branwell, between Emily and Charlotte.

Emily Bronte is again captured here by her brother Branwell. Ever the man in the shadows, it is thought that the male shoulder to the left of this painting is that of Branwell.

Completed within a year of each other, these chalk portraits by George Richmond are of two great literary friends, Charlotte Bronte and Elizabeth Gaskell.

Continuing on the theme of friendship, this is a portrait of E.M. Forster painted by his friend Dora Carrington ...

... as well as a well-wrapped Beatrix Potter, surrounded by her beloved Lake District, painted by her friend and neighbour Delmar Banner.
.
And finally, although not a famous literary face (although she did write a number of books including A Miracle in Rabbits and Etiquette of Good Society), this striking portrait of Lady Gertrude Campbell by Giovanni Boldini has featured on a Virago edition of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth.

The Apple - Michel Faber

2010-11-25T11:29:00.000Z

Michel Faber's refusal to write a sequel to his magnificent The Crimson Petal and the White is devastating for those who, like me, were captivated by Sugar and the world she inhabits and who are keen to discover the fates of Sugar and the other Crimson Petal heroines. Although not an answer to calls for a sequel, The Apple is a collection of seven short stories that give a peek into the lives of some of the characters from The Crimson Petal - some before the events of the book, some after.

The Apple does not provide answers as to the fates of Sugar and Sophie, although from the short stories set after the events of The Crimson Petal there are some tantalising clues (especially from 'A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing', the final short story and the longest). Anges' fate is left completely in the dark. However, this ensured that I found myself thinking about Sugar, Sophie and Anges long after I had finished The Apple. Like The Crimson Petal, it leaves you wanting more.

Although not the focus of any of the post-Crimson stories, two of the short stories are dedicated to Sugar: 'Christmas in Silver Street', which follows Sugar as she tries to eke some Christmas spirit (and a Christmas dinner!) from the depressing surroundings of Silver Street, and 'The Apple', where the abuse of a small child by an evangelist, ironically trying the save the souls of Silver Streets inhabitants, hardens Sugar's resolve to escape from her life at Mrs Castaways. The pre-Crimson stories also includes a glimpse into the early philanthropic endeavors of a young Emmeline Fox ('Chocolate Hearts from the New World') and the effects of a fly on Mr Bodley's state of mind (and sexual appetite!) ('The Fly, and Its Effect upon Mr Bodley').

For those intrigued by events after The Crimson Petal, 'Medicine' reacquaints us with William Rackham, 15 years after - full of cold and full of regrets, William is even more so the pitiful man of The Crimson Petal. The intriguing titled 'Clara and the Rat Man' reveals the result of William's spiteful reference for Clara, Anges' former lady's maid and fellow conspirator against him. Finally, 'A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing', one of the most illuminating stories of the collection, is a memoir written by the son of one of the characters from The Crimson Petal.

The Apple is a treasure trove for those of us not quite ready to say goodbye to The Crimson Petal. Although in his introduction to this collection Faber states that the stories can be read without having read The Crimson Petal, to truly appreciate The Apple I would only really recommend it to those familiar with the earlier book.

An apology and some fun with tiny woollen hats ...

2010-11-24T10:43:00.000Z

I've been a bit of a rubbish blogger lately; things have been busy both at home and work again leaving me little time, and motivation, to blog. So as a sorry, and to help cheer up a cold November morning, here is some fun with some tiny knitted hats that were being given away with special bottles of Innocent smoothies at the beginning of the month.

A fantastic initiative, Innocent asked people to knit tiny hats and for each hatted smoothie bought, 25p went to Age UK (more details can be found here).

On Reading

2010-10-26T12:31:00.000+01:00

She [Sugar] turns her face away from the stack of books and periodicals. She was foolish to buy them in the first place. (Well, granted, a few of them she stole.) What is the point of reading other people's stories? She ought to be writing her own. Reading, by its very nature, is an admission of defeat, a ritual of self-humiliation: it shows that you believe other lives are more interesting than yours. Sugar suddenly wishes she could scrape her soul clean of all the fictional heroines she has ever cared about, claim back all she hours she has wasted worrying about star-crossed lovers and tragic misunderstandings. All of it is trickery, a Punch and Judy show for the gullible masses.

The Apple by Michel Faber

The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber

2010-10-17T11:55:00.000+01:00

The Crimson Petal and the White is an extraordinary book. There are some books that subtly draw you into the lives and world of its characters. There are others that demand your attention from the very first sentence. The Crimson Petal is one of these rare and oh-so-wonderful books.

A huge tome of a book, The Crimson Petal follows Sugar, a 19 year old prostitute in Victorian London, in her attempts to escape her life at Mrs Castaway's brothel in Silver Street. Forced into prostitution by her mother ('Here is a gentleman to keep you warm'), the disturbing red-clad Mrs Castaway who spends her day, when not selling the wiles of Sugar and her other ladies to the gentlemen of London, cutting and pasting images of Mary Magdalene into her scrapbook, Sugar is renowned for her submission to anything her clients desire. It is this reputation that draws William Rackham to her bed and into her life.

William Rackham is a pitiful man. Married to Agnes, a beautiful and accomplished gentlewoman (at least only in those arts that are needed to be a perfect, submissive companion), the father to a little girl, Sophie, and the heir to Rackham Perfumeries, William's life should be perfect. Unfortunately it isn't. Although seemingly perfect when William petitioned Anges' step-father, Lord Unwin, for her hand in marriage (and he, the son of a mere manufacturer being accepted!), married life has slowly revealed to William that is not well with his bride. Essentially the 'madwoman in the attic' so beloved of Victorian fiction, Agnes is now little more than a prisoner in her own home, where William seeks to shield his great shame from public scrutiny and polite society. Sophie is an emotional orphan; her very existence is hidden from her mother, whose fragile state of mind is unable to cope with the knowledge of being a mother, and to William Sophie is a reminder of the mental deficiencies of his wife and that fact that he will never have a male heir. And Rackham Perfumeries is yet another burden he does not need, nor wants. The second son, William expected to live his life as a gentleman of leisure, pursuing whatever trends and hobbies take his fancy and sampling the delights of the underworld with his friends Brodley and Ashwell. However, his brother's rejection of his birthright, in favour of his desire to be a man of religion, has meant that it is to William that the responsibility of Rackham Perfumeries falls.

Hardly the most inspiring of men, yet it is in this man that Sugar sees the potential of leaving her sordid life behind.

In Sugar, Michel Faber has created a remarkable character. A victim of circumstances, Sugar is a strong, intelligent woman who seeks to manipulate and contrive situations for her own salvation. She is more than a match for any of the men that use her for their own satisfaction. She is also an utterly believable character; she is not perfect. Yes Sugar may be well read, but some of her understanding of current affairs is superficial, patchy and a bit shaky. And although she may an abundant of healthy, shiny auburn hair and a slim, lithe figure, she also has a skin condition that makes her lips dry and flaky and her body covered in livid stripes.

Although Sugar is the main heroine of The Crimson Petal, Faber also allows the voices of the other female characters to be heard. No matter how small their part is in the book, we are given some glimpse into their lives. For instance, Claire and Alice, 'the twins' whose inability to satisfy William's lust first leads him to Sugar, would have been callously dismissed by any other author now that they had served their sole purpose of bringing together two of the main characters. In Faber however, we are allowed to learn their story of how they were tricked and forced into prostitution. The Crimson Petal gives a voice to those women that may easily be suppressed: prostitutes, servants, 'mad' wives and little girls. In contrast, the men of the novel are largely exposed as being weak, perverted, ridiculous little boys.

Faber's style of writing is also intoxicating. In The Crimson Petal, we are guided through the events of the novel by an unnamed character who acknowledges our presence and guides us in our acquaintances with the various characters. I have come across books where the author acknowledges the reader ('Dear reader', etc), but never one that invites you to participate in the events of the novel; for example, telling you to follow this or that character, or even inviting you to lie down in bed with one of them!

You can come out of hiding now. Make yourself comfortable, for the room is utterly dark, and will remain that way until sunrise. You could even risk, if you wish, lying down beside Caroline, because once she's asleep she's dead to the world, and won't notice you - as long as you refrained from touching.
Yes, it's alright. She's sleeping now. Lift the blankets and ease your body in. If you are a woman, it doesn't matter: women very commonly sleep together in this day and age. If you are a man, it matters even less: there have been hundreds here before you.

Completing The Crimson Petal I felt bereft, not least because of the controversial, abrupt ending that leaves the lives of the female and male characters open and unresolved. I found myself thinking about Sugar and her acquaintances long after I closed The Crimson Petal, a sign, if one was needed, of just what a captivating book this is.

On London at Night

2010-10-12T21:43:00.000+01:00

London was beginning to illuminate herself against the night. Electric lights sizzled and jagged in the main thoroughfares, gas-lamps in the side streets glimmered a canary gold or green. The sky was a crimson battlefield of spring, but London was not afraid. Her smoke mitigated the splendour, and the clouds down Oxford Street were a delicately painted ceiling, which adorned while it did not distract. She had never known the clear-cut armies of the purer air. Leonard hurried through her tinted wonders, very much part of the picture.

Howards End by E.M. Forster

On London

2010-10-08T20:12:00.000+01:00

This famous building had arisen, that was doomed. Today Whitehall had been transformed: it would be the turn of Regent Street tomorrow. And month by month the roads smelt more strongly of petrol, and were more difficult to cross, and human beings heard each other with greater difficulty, breathed less of the air, and saw less of the sky. Nature withdrew: the leaves were falling by midsummer; then sun shone through the dirt with an admired obscurity.

Howards End by E.M. Forster

100 Years of Howards End

2010-10-04T13:35:00.000+01:00

October celebrates 100 years of the publication of E.M. Forster's Howards End. Those that read this blog will know that E.M. Forster has been one of my most beloved bookish discoveries of this year. To celebrate 100 years of one of E.M. Forster's most celebrated and much-loved works, I am planning of reading this book for the first time during this month. Should anyone also wish to read Howards End with me, or even watch the much admired Merchant Ivory adaptation, then please feel free to join me. The more the merrier!

Howards End has inspired some truly stunning cover designs; at the top of this post of some of my favourite designs. My version is the top-left Penguin Modern Classics one, which puts me in mind of a Virago's VMC design.

On Literary Characters

2010-10-02T15:45:00.000+01:00

Even when Agnes is not bedridden, novels are such a boon, for they bring a steady supply of noble and attractive human beings into her life which, it must be said, the world at large is not generous with. A sympathetic heroine, she finds, is almost as good as a friend of flesh and blood. (What a repulsive expression 'flesh and blood' is, though, when one thinks about it!)

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The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber

The Life and Death of Harriett Frean - May Sinclair

2010-09-08T12:57:00.000+01:00

The Life and Death of Harriett Frean is about the life story of a Victorian child and woman, from babyhood to her death. A short novella, the book is made up of a series of important or defining moments from Harriett Frean's life.

From a young age, Harriett's parents instill in their daughter the virtues of being dutiful and beautifully behaved. A pivotal part of their moral code is the importance of self-sacrifice. Hattiett's mother prefers that her daughter went without a dessert at a school-treat rather than to be perceived as being greedy and grasping. The novel examines how these codes of behaviour shape and define Harriett's life and decisions.

The Life and Death of Harriett Frean can be read as a criticism of the practice of self-sacrifice. The novel exposes the futility and waste of those small self-sacrifices that each of us make on a daily basis. A poignant example of this is that after her mothers death, Harriett now feels free to have her cutlets breaded, rather than broiled plain, which was the way her mother preferred them. However, when Harriett asks her servant to prepare her cutlets breaded, she is informed that this is the way her mother always had them when Harriett was away from home. Oh the waste of half-understandings!

While the novel critiques these small acts of self-sacrifice, it is the larger acts which incur particular ridicule. In her youth Harriett falls in love with Robin, the fiancé of her great friend Pricilla. When Robin declares his love to Harriett, she rejects his declarations and derives great satisfaction and self-worth from what she sees as an ultimate sacrifice. However, the result of Harriett’s great sacrifice is that Robin and Pricilla are unhappily married. Pricilla, uncertain in Robin’s love for her, develops in an illness that results in her becoming wheelchair-bound (there is a hint in the novel that Pricilla’s illness is a psychology one only, caused by her distress). Pricilla tries to tie Robin to her by becoming increasingly needy and making constant demands of him. Robin for his part seethes under this constraint, for which he cannot give voice to. In time, he grows to hate Harriett for the life he feels she has forced him into. Upon Pricilla death, Robin marries her nurse in an indecently short period of time. His own store of self-sacrifice being used up in his demanding marriage to Pricilla, Robin becomes a tyrant over his new wife, a drudge who submits to his demands willingly, to the detriment of her own weak health. And so the cycle of self-sacrifice continues, to questionable success.

Although the novel critiques self-sacrifice, neither do acts of selfishness go unpunished. Harriett allows her servant to have her baby in the house while she is working, as Harriett believes that this is the beautiful way to act (although really this is because Harriett feels lonely without her trusted servant). However, Harriett is uncomfortable with a baby in the house (perhaps it is an unwelcome reminder of the family she could have had with Robin); and so on the pretence that the quality of her servant’s standards have declined as a result of the presence of the baby, Harriett dismisses her servant. This selfish act ultimately results in the tragic death of the child.

It is this mixed message of you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t regarding self-sacrifice and selfishness that made the novel unsettling for me. Acts of self-sacrifice are presented to be pointless or damaging to those involved, yet selfishness is also shown to have its consequences. I also felt slightly alienated by the concept that those sacrifices that we make for those that we love are at the least pointless and at the most damaging to those around us. Perhaps there was a subtlety that I missed.

A Bookish Morning

2010-08-26T14:38:00.000+01:00

One of my friend's is getting married this weekend, so to celebrate a group of us are going to one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants later today for a cooking class on how to make filled pasta. I'm really looking forward to the class, and hopefully by the end of it I will be able to make some delicious homemade pasta for my boyfriend.

Rather than having to leave from the restaurant straight from work, I took the opportunity to take the day off. So what better way to spend my morning than to browse through the numerous shelves and the basement (!) of the Notting Hill Comic and Book Exchange. This shop is such a treasure trove of books and it would take a much better person than me to be able to leave empty-handed. I know that I wrote only last month of my book buying ban, but I must confess that my good intentions have come to no good. Although I'm sure that I will be forgiven once you see my haul.

Three new Viragos to add to my collection: The Lacquer Lady by F Tennyson Jesse, The Lost Traveller by Antonia White and Testament of a Peace Lover: Letters from Vera Brittain (my first black spined Virago!). The cherry on the cake though was finding two pristine Persephone's, complete with bookmarks: The Far Cry by Emma Smith and Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey. Aren't those end papers a feast for the eyes!
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A Highland Fling at 10 Curzon Street

2010-08-15T17:45:00.000+01:00

Oh dear, this is actually a longer gap than I was intending between my teaser post and the 'reveal' (reveal is perhaps too grand a word, but I'm stuck for an alternative at the moment!). Once again the demands of life and work have left me with very little free time of my own, but fingers crossed things are slowly reverting back to their gentle, uneventful, but utterly welcomed, pace.

So, back to the ‘reveal’ ...

Last month I was extremely lucky to be able to attend the book launch for Nancy Mitford's debut novel Highland Fling, which has been brought back into print by Capuchin Classics. The launch was rather aptly held at Heywood Hill bookshop at 10 Curzon Street, which is where Nancy Mitford worked between 1942 and 1946. Regardless of the Mitford connection, Heywood Hill is a perfect location for a book launch, surrounded as it is in an wonderful assortment of old and well-chosen new books. A book lovers haven!

So it was that in this atmospheric environment that that I found myself (and the rest of the room of course!) being treated to a reading from Highland Fling by none other than Julian Fellowes, an extremely talented man with many strings to his bow, including novel writing, screen-writing, directing and acting, and who has also written the introduction to Highland Fling. The Capuchin Classics Blog includes a photo of Julian Fellowes' reading, and while I am out of the frame, my boyfriend can be seen enjoying the reading!

But that was not all that the evening had in store for us, for Deborah Cavendish, more affectionately known as Debo Mitford, also attended the launch and signed copies of Highland Fling along with Julian Fellowes. What an unexpected honour and delight it was to be in the presence of, and actually be able to speak to, one of the Mitford sisters, whose antics, marriages and political affiliations both shocked and enthralled British society!

The evening also revealed some news that I am very excited to be able to share with you. Capuchin Classics are also going to be publishing Nancy Mitford's Pigeon Pie and Christmas Pudding, which will mean that soon all of Nancy's fictional novels will be back in print for new generations of readers to enjoy!

My warmest thanks to Capuchin Classics and Heywood Hill for such a surreal and truly unforgettable evening.

I'm still here ...

2010-07-25T18:28:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post to let you know that I haven't disappeared; Life has been particularly demanding recently, but I will be posting again regularly (or at least, regularly for me) soon. Until then, below is a clue of my next post.

2010 Bookish Resolutions: June

2010-07-02T12:15:00.000+01:00

June from Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry)

I can’t believe that we are already in the second half of the year! Hasn’t June (and come to mention it the previous six months) just flown by? Not that I am complaining as I love these summer months, when the sun is shining gloriously and there is such a feeling of possibility in the air (although I admit that I am not so lyrical about the sunshine when I am stuck in a crowded train or tube with no air conditioning and the tinniest of windows letting in only a faint whisper of air into the stifling carriage!). All too soon I will be huddling up in warm winter clothes, the summer just a distant memory. Until then, I intend to make the most of these months of favour!

So … back to books! June has been a bit of a hotchpotch of reading, which you can see from my list below. There has been the reading of classics (both children’s and adults), a book inspired by a classic, as well as a couple of other types of books here and there. My favourite read of the month, without a doubt, has to be Village School, which has been my introduction to the wonderful stories of Miss Read. I am now nearly finished reading the second book of the Fairarce series, Village Diary, and have the other books of the series lined up. These gentle, nostalgic, humorous, yet sharply observant, books are fast making a place in my heart alongside my other favourite books.

Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott
March by Geraldine Brooks
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
Village School by Miss Read

Being half way through the year is a good point to take stock of my progress over the last six months in terms of my bookish resolutions. My most enjoyable resolution has been to broaden the type of books I tend to read by reading more classics. Through this, I have encountered books like Jane Eyre and A Room with a View, which I know will stay with me forever. It has also led me to the writings of E.M. Forster that I fear would have been criminally neglected by me otherwise. Through the works of Molly Vivian Hughes, as well as Helen Taylor Scarlett’s Women, I have already more than doubled the number of non-fiction books that I read last year (although there is always room for more non-fiction in my reading). I have also made some headway into tackling my tbr piles, although I fear that this will be one of those lifelong challenges.

I have been so inspired by my good progress so far that I have set myself a mid-year challenge … I have decided to impose a book-buying ban as of today. I have not thought through the finer details yet (such as how long it shall last, if there is any leeway should I spot a book that I have been coveting, etc), but in the main I think that the ban will last as long as I can stand it, and should be no shorter than a couple of months. Oh dear, what hardships I have in store for me!

I hope that you are all experiencing a little bit of sunshine where you are – if not actual sunshine, then the warm feeling you get when reading a favourite novel or when treating yourself to an indulgent cup of hot chocolate or slice of cake.

On Literary Groups

2010-06-28T21:12:00.000+01:00

It is long since I frequented it [literary London], and if the novels that describe its present singularities are accurate much in it is now changed. The venue is different. Chelsea and Bloomsbury have taken the place of Hampstead, Notting Hill Gate, and High Street, Kensington. Then it was a distinction to be under forty, but now to be more than twenty-five is absurd. I think in those days we were a little shy of our emotions, and the fear of ridicule tempered the more obvious forms of pretentiousness. I do not believe that there was in that genteel Bohemia an intensive culture of chastity, but I do not remember so crude a promiscuity as seems to be practised in the present day. We did not think it hypocritical to draw over our vagaries the curtain of a decent silence. The spade was not invariably called a bloody shovel. Woman had not yet altogether come into her own.

The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham

I'm afraid that here I must show my ignorance and ask for some help. I am familiar with the Bloomsbury Group mentioned by W. Somerset Maugham in the excerpt above, however, I am at a loss of who the literary groups linked with Chelsea, Hampstead, Notting Hill Gate, and High Street, Kensington are. Is anyone able to enlighten me about these literary groups and perhaps recommend some novels by these associated author?

Bookish Haul: Non-Fiction

2010-06-25T09:21:00.000+01:00

And here are some of my recent non-fiction bookish purchases ...

Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 by Lisa Appignanesi
This is an exploration of the study of the female mind over the past two centuries. At university I studied Sociology, and a few of the modules I studied were concerned with the way in which the study of Medicine, rather than helping and supporting women, was one of the institutions used to subordinate them. For instance, we studied how the medical professions claimed that women were controlled by their womb, and how this made them susceptible to moments of hysteria and that menstruation meant that women were not strong enough to work (although during both World Wars, when there was a shortage of people available to work and thus women were needed to take over the jobs of men fighting, the 'medical opinion' was that actually menstruation did not in actual fact affect women's ability to work). I am therefore quite interested in reading this.

Mistress of the House: Great Ladies and Grand Houses 1670-1830 by Rosemary Baird
Through focusing on ten historical women who were wives to powerful men, this book examines the role of women in the domestic sphere through their responsibility of the home - in this case large town houses and country estates. This is the type of historical books that I enjoy - those that explore the private sphere.

Ladies of the Grand Tour: British Women in Pursuit of Enlightenment and Adventure in Eighteenth-Century Europe by Brian Dolan
Usually the grand tour refers to privileged young men with means, such as Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, who travelled around Europe to experience its history and culture, as well as a symbol of their status. This book examines some of the women who also undertook a grand tour of Europe.

Her Own Woman: The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft by Diane Jacobs
Mary Wollstonecraft led an eventful yet short life. By the time of her death aged 38, ten days after giving birth to her second child Mary Shelley, she had witnessed the turbulence of the Terror that followed the French Revolution, had several ill-fated love affair, and was abandoned by the father of her illegitimate child. However, what Mary Wollstonecraft is more well-known for is her seminal A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which is considered by some as being the first major text of modern feminism and the manifesto of modern feminism. Within A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Wollstonecraft applied the contemporary liberal egalitarian principles of the time to women, and she also took the private morals and manners of middle class women and made them political. Her Own Woman explores the the life of this extraordinary woman.

Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and her Father by John Matteson
This book explores the relationship between Louisa May Alcott and her father, which I bought as part of the All Things Alcott challenge. I'm intrigued to read this as I enjoy reading literary biographies and how authors life experiences are reflected in their works.

A Country Calendar and other writings by Flora Thompson
I am cheating a little by adding this to my non-fiction haul, as A County Calendar and other writings includes a combination of fictional and non-fiction works. Included in this volume are some Flora Thompson's naturalist articles that were first published in the Catholic Fireside magazine, some pieces of poetry, and Heatherley, which is the sequel to the fictionalised semi-autobiographical Lark Rise to Candleford (reviewed here).

Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser
I seem to have accumulated quite a collection of biographies by Antonia Fraser but have yet to read one. Mary Queen of Scots has always fascinated me, so this is sure to be an illumining and interesting read.

Bookish Haul: Fiction

2010-06-22T20:58:00.000+01:00

I realised recently that it has been an age since I have shared any of my bookish purchases. So without further ado here is a selection of some of the fiction books I have picked up over the past couple of months:

An Old-Fashioned Girl, Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott
I bought these for the All Things Alcott Challenge that I joined last month. While I have read the Little Women series, I haven't read anything else by Louisa May Alcott so am looking forward to reading these.

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
I bought this on the strength of Stuck in a Book's wonderful review about this book last year (plus it has a rather lovely cover). While I have a couple of books by Elizabeth Taylor, I haven't read any by her yet. I suspect this books will be my introduction to Elizabeth Taylor's writing.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
I adore Amy Tan's books for their portrayal of Chinese culture and for their exploration of the relationship and bond between women - mostly between mothers and daughters. I have read all of Amy Tan's books apart from this one, which was her first novel, although I did enjoy the film adaption based on this book. What is of particular interest to me is how her books are inspired by her family history and her various life experiences. I really do recommend her autobiography/memoir The Opposite of Fate to truly appreciate the inspiration behind her books.

K: The Art of Love by Hong Ying
Set in 1930s China, this book is inspired between the real life relationship between Julian Bell, the son of Vanessa and Clive Bell, and Lin Cheng. I have recently become interested with the Bloomsbury Group, so am intrigued about this book.

The Listeners by Monica Dickens
After reading a few reviews about Monica Dickens on the blogosphere, I picked up this book. I've not read any reviews about this one, so maybe this wouldn't be the first place to start with Monica Dickens, but at only 50p how could I resist?

Howards End by E.M Forster
After falling in love with E.M. Forster recently, of the books by E.M. Forster I haven't read yet, this is the one I am looking forward to the most. I intend to save this for October, which marks the 100 year anniversary of Howards End's publication.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
I have been interested in Sylvia Plath since watching the devastating Sylvia staring Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig. Unfortunately I cannot really appreciate poetry, but I was interested to find out recently that Sylvia Plath did write one novel, The Bell Jar. This is a semi-autobiographical novel about the protagonists descent into mental illness. Only one month after its publication, Sylvia Plath committed suicide.

The Moon and Sixpence and Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham
Another author I have recently discovered and fallen in love with is W.S. Maugham. I couldn't resist picking up these gorgeous classic Penguin editions (even though I do already have a copy of The Moon and Sixpence). Also, isn't Cakes and Ale a wonderfully delicious title for a book?

The Bell by Iris Murdoch
I've been looking out for The Bell since I read this wonderful review on Bloombury Bell's blog. A couple of weeks ago I got lucky.

Past Imperfect by Julian Fellowes
A novel about class, the Debutante Season of 1968 and family secrets, this sounds just my kind of book. Although chosen as a Richard and Judy Summer Read, I won't let this dubious honour put me off. Julian Fellowes, an author, screenwriter, film director and actor, is a man of many talents, and has also written the introduction to Nancy Mitford's Highland Fling, which will be published by Capuchin Classics next month.

Arctic Summer - E.M. Forster

2010-06-15T20:29:00.000+01:00

Still heady with my first experience of E.M. Forster, the rather fantastic A Room with a View (which I reviewed here), I grabbed my only other book by E.M. Forster to hand, Arctic Summer. For someone who was only just making an acquaintance with E.M. Forster and his works, I admit that this is was a strange one to read next, as Arctic Summer is only a fragment of a story, an incomplete manuscript discarded by E.M. Forster.

E.M. Forster started writing Arctic Summer in 1911 after the success of Howards End, developing and revising this numerous time until about 1913. In the same period E.M. Forster was also working on A Passage to India, Maurice and the short story The Other Boat. Where as these finally saw their way to completion, Arctic Summer was put aside, and although E.M. Forster did shortly revisit it again in 1951, it was eventually abandoned when he couldn't decide what should happen in the story.

Although Arctic Summer was discarded by E.M Forster, that is not to say that it should be ignored by readers. By any other author this might be considered a completed short story or novella. It reads coherently and clearly, although admittedly without the polish and editing of a completed work (the edition published by Hesperus Press preserves E.M. Forster's errors and inconsistencies within the text). There is also a clear progression of events and an ending of sorts, even if this does feel somewhat hastily drawn. The story even includes some of E.M. Forster's appreciation for the comic and ridiculous. A fantastic illustration of this is the opening paragraph of Arctic Summer:

'Gentlemen! Gentlemen!' Basle station echoed to the cry. 'If only other people would behave like gentlemen.' It was early on an August morning, and the passengers from the Boulogne train, mostly English, were trying to decant themselves into the train for Lucerne and the south. Difficult, for the Lucerne train was smaller, and they were beginning to fight. They did not want to fight, but by Jingo they could not avoid it; there was nothing else to do. Without losing their tempers, they scrummed and wedged ad hot one another behind the knee with suitcases, and snatched at the brass bars of the train as it backed itself to a standstill. Some had ladies with them, and claimed prior treatment on that account. 'Steady on, sir, you might consider the ladies.' Others cried, 'Bother the ladies.' One tourist was pushed beneath the incoming wheels, another rescued him, and still the appeal for gentlemanliness arose, that password into a city whose gates are barred for ever.

Yet despite these glimmers, Arctic Summer does not sparkle in the same way that A Room with a View does. Also, although the progression of the story is clear, this is to the expense of the characterisation of the story's participants. There is a promise in Arctic Summer certainly, but this is a promise that unfortunately was not fully developed by E.M. Forster, which is a great pity.

Somehow I seem to have managed to write a review of Arctic Summer that neglects the actual plot. So to rectify this ... Like A Room with a View, Arctic Summer explores the Englishman (and woman) abroad and examines the conflict between the classes. Arctic Summer centres around the acquaintance of, and subsequent clash between, Martin Whitby and Clesant March. Martin is travelling to Italy with his wife and mother-in-law, when in the struggle to secure seats he is pushed underneath the moving train. Luckily Martin is rescued by a stranger, Clesant. Martin tries to repay Clesant's act of heroism, but the young man is obtuse and difficult. Clesant belongs to the old world, where as Martin, a civil servant, represents the new middle class who discard the values, ethics and relationships so valued by Clesant. The two men quarrel and part suddenly, but are brought together unexpectedly when both are back in England ...

One person's rubbish is another person's treasure

2010-06-06T15:39:00.000+01:00

Today was one of those extraordinary days that just come out of nowhere to totally surprise, delight and slightly sadden you. Finding ourselves in the inconvenient position of having no milk for breakfast, my boyfriend went to the local convenience store to stock up. Taking longer than usual, my wonderful boyfriend finally returned slightly out of breath with the milk ... and a handful of books. While returning home, he had discovered three cardboard boxes filled with books, discarded next to some recycling bins. Having had a quick rummage to salvage the ones that he knew I would like, he rushed home with the prizes in hand and the command to go forth and gather more! Needing no further excuse I made myself quickly ready and rushed, dragging my poor boyfriend with me for his carrying skills, to see what other books were awaiting a new home.

The photo at the top of this post shows a selection of the books that we discovered this morning. Indeed in all we rescued just over 40 books, having to leave more than that number behind. The majority of the books we took home with us were Penguin classics - some D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Graham Greene, George Orwell, and even a classic orange and white edition of Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate! I also spotted an edition of E.M Forster's A Passage to India to further my Forster addiction. Although I am of course delighted to have been showered with these riches of a bookish kind, it is also quite sad that these books were dumped when they could have been donated to a charity shop instead. However, I don't think these books will be left to spoil as we spotted more than one group of people coming away with books too!

... or two

2010-06-03T20:22:00.000+01:00

A couple of days ago I spotted this interesting meme about reading habits on Cornflower Books' blog.

Do you snack while reading?
Very rarely. I like to keep my books as pristine as possible (I know, it's an affliction), so no bending of spines, folding of corners or eating while reading for me. Although in saying this I don't mind old books to be a bit battered, as they hint at a mysterious life before I came across them.

What is your favourite drink while reading?
Unfortunately no drinking while reading either, for fear of spoiling my precious books!

Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
I never write in books now, although I used to write my name in my books when I was younger. I also have cringe worthy memories of highlighting a certain boys name in a book I was reading at the time whenever it appeared because it happened to be the name of the object of a schoolgirls crush.

How do you keep your place? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat?
I mark my pages with whatever comes to hand - receipts, post-it notes, leaflets, anything really. I am physically unable to fold over corners of a page or bend a spine!

Fiction, non-fiction or both?
I read both although mostly lean towards fiction.

Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere?
It really depends where I am reading. If I am on public transport, and it is my spot, I will spot anywhere. If I am reading in bed or somewhere else relaxing I try to read until the end of a chapter, although if I am tired I will abandon a book there and then.

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?
Never!!!

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?
As I do a lot of my reading on public transport (and because I am lazy), I tend to just skip over unfamiliar words - I will only forget them straight after anyway.

What are you currently reading?
I'm currently reading Jo's Boys, which is the last of the Little Women series, as part of the All Things Alcott Challenge.

What is the last book you bought?
Oh dear, it looks like a confession is in order, as today I bought not one, but four books. To my already bountiful collection of books I added three of the classic orange Penguin Books (The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, Antic Hay by Aldous Huxley and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith) and Antonia Fraser's biography on Mary Queen of Scots.

Do you have a favourite time/place to read?
Sadly most of my reading takes place while on public transport, so my favourite places are the entire opposite in terms of comfort: laying in the grass in the sunshine or while in bed.

Do you prefer series books or stand-alones?
I enjoy both series books and stand-alone novels.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?
Strangely for someone for whom books are an important part of my life, not many of my friends are actually keen readers. Indeed it was this desire to discuss books with like-minded people that inspired me to start my own blog. If I recommend anything however, rather than a specific book or author, I tend to just recommend picking up any books published by Virago.

How do you organise your books (by genre, title, author's last name, etc.)?
When I first moved into my house I was very good and neatly organised my books. There were separate shelves for fiction and non-fiction, and each shelf was ordered alphabetically by author's last name. As I have added more books to my collection however, and still have the same amount of shelf space (which wasn't adequate to begin with), my bookshelves are now in disarray and I also have a ridiculous number of piles of books here there and everywhere.

Barbara's additional question: background noise or silence?
Silence please.

A meme ...

2010-06-02T13:09:00.000+01:00

Over the past few days I have spotted a couple of interesting memes floating around the blogosphere, one of which is from Stuck in a Book and involves posting a photo (or more if you like) that sums up your reading tastes.

My first photo is of the rather glorious and historic Chatsworth House, which I think nicely represents the various period and historical books* that I am so fond of, and which make up such a big chunk of the types of books read. Indeed, looking at the list of books I have read so far this year, of the few books published in the last decade or so all are historical novels. The image of Chatsworth House also reflects my interest in royalty and the upper classes, from kings and queens (biographies on Marie Antoinette and Charles II) to the aristocracy and gentry (Brideshead Revisited, Jane Eyre), from plantation owners (Gone with the Wind) to ‘respectable’ society (A Room with a View). Finally, although a rather grand one, Chatsworth is a house, and so reflects my enjoyment of gentle, domestic books, which focus on everyday occurrences and hopes and dreams.

* By period I mean books written in the period they were set, and by historical books that are set in another time to which the author is writing in.

My second photo is a court photograph of the Empress Dowager Cixi, taken in 1905. Whereas my first photo of Chatsworth House can be said to represent all that is quintessentially English, this second photo reflects my interest in Chinese history and culture, particularly of Imperial China. Cixi also represents my interest in women – their history, status, everyday lives and the way in which they are represented. Look at my bookshelves and you will see that the vast majority have a female focus – either they are written by women or they are books that centre on female characters or are biographies on historical women.

2010 Bookish Resolutions: May

2010-06-01T20:07:00.000+01:00

If January was the month of non-fiction and March that of discovering classics, then May was characterised as a month of rediscovering old favourites. This month I was inspired to re-read Gone with the Wind, after reading Scarlett's Women by Helen Taylor, which in turn led nicely to re-readings of Cold Mountain and the Little Women and its sequels (I am currently near the end of the third book in the series, Little Men), as these books, like Gone with the Wind, are set in the periods during and after the American Civil War.

In terms of my bookish resolutions, May was not exactly a very productive month for these, so it is just as well that these 'resolutions' are only reading guidelines! Although Little Women and Good Wives were a nice big tick for my classics resolution, I didn't read any non-fiction this month, and by re-reading some old favourites, rather neglected my tbr pile. I refuse to feel guilty though as there is something immensely satisfying about re-reading old favourites; I find their familiarity to be comforting and soothing and I always find that I take something different from each re-read, so no matter how many times I have read a book, there is always something new to discover!

May was also an enjoyable bookish month because I joined my first reading week and reading challenge. Verity at The B Files and Claire at Paperback Reader hosted their second Persephone Reading Week, for which I read my first every Persephone Book, the utterly captivating and charming Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (you can read my thoughts here). I am also taking part in the All Things Alcott Challenge, which is being hosted by Margot at Joyfully Retired. As you can see from my May reading list below, I have already made a good start on this challenge, and am looking forward to the opportunity of discovering other books by Louisa May Alcott.

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott

I hope that May was an enjoyable reading month for you all, and that for those that set themselves bookish challenges, that these are going going well!