10 Books of Winter - Tick off Two

Cold, wet wintery days and two books with less than 300 pages have meant a strong start to the 10 Books of Winter Challenge. After standing on one leg scratching my head and constantly changing my mind I decided to let random.org decide for me the order I would read them in.

News From The City of the Sun by Isabel Colegate

 To nine-year-old Dorothy Grant, the abbey is an enchanted new world. Here, in the drab, conventional Thirties, the Whitehead brothers - autocratic but non-violent anarchist Fisher, Arnold, the practical plodder, and visionary, depressive Hamilton - have collected together a colourful array of adherents to their co-operative Utopia.

Living near and intermittently attached to the community, which shelters under the northern escarpment of Salisbury Plain, Dorothy observes the ebb and flow of its shifting and sometimes mismatched philosophies from the Thirties through to the flower children and mind-expanding drugs of the Seventies.....until beautiful Marilyn Skinner's revolutionary ideals lead to violence and death.

I like Isabel Colegate's writing style and enjoyed the first part of the book, up to the end of World War II, very much but then it seemed to start rushing through the decades, characters were growing up in a few paragraphs , which was all a bit muddled and confusing.
The ever-changing social background of England through four decades was most interesting and something the author portrays very well.

The title puzzled me all the way through. I couldn't see the relevance to the story so I did some googling and discovered that in 1602 a gentleman called Tommaso Campanella wrote a work of utopian fiction called City of the Sun so there is the connection to the abbey and the Whitehead's vision. I might have to read it again and look at from a different perspective.

Bound Feet & Western Dress by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang

The author spent many hours with her great-aunt, Yu-i, drawing forth the story of her life. Born at the beginning of the 20th century Yu-i grew up in the perilous years between the fall of the last Emperor and the Communist Revolution, her life marked by a series of rebellions , including the first and most lasting: her refusal to have her feet bound. An early,unhappy marriage to a well-known Chinese poet brings her to England, a divorce and being left to raise her son alone. It's the story of a strong woman struggling to emerge from centuries of custom and tradition and find independence.

Listening to Yu-i, Pang-Mei begins to understand her own ambivalence towards her Chinese heritage, the tug-of-war between her American upbringing and the familial duties still expected by Chinese parents.

Fascinating reading!




 

Tuesday Intro: Going into Service

One Pair Hands by Monica Dickens

'I was fed up. As I lay awake in the grey small hours of an autumn morning, I reviewed my life. Three a.m. is not the most propitious time for meditation, as everyone knows and a deep depression was settling over me.

I had just returned from New York, where the crazy cyclone of gaiety in which people seem to survive over there had caught me up, whirled me blissfully around, and dropped me into a London which seemed flat and dull. I felt restless, dissatisfied, and abominably bad-tempered.

 " Surely," I thought, " there's something more to life than just going out to parties that one doesn't enjoy, with people one doesn't even like? What a pointless existence it is - drifting about in the hope that something may happen to relieve the monotony. Something has got to be done to get me out of this rut."

In a flash it came to me:

"I'll have a job!"

*****

Monica Dickens

In the 1930's it was not the thing for gently-bred unmarried girls to 'have a job.' Helping at home, sitting around idly or filling the long hours with social occasions was enough for any young woman until her prince whisked her down the aisle.
Monica decides otherwise - bored and adding the equation work = money = independence she enters the workforce as a hopeful cook-general. A strange choice as she couldn't even boil an egg but then domestic service in Britain at the time was on its last legs and employers couldn't afford to be choosy.
Monica's descriptions of her time spent in several positions ranging from city flat to aristocratic manor are very amusing and makes this memoir a fun book to relax with.

What did you think of the opening paragraph? Would you keep reading?

*****

Tuesday Intros is a meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea which bloggers can join in with by posting the first paragraph (or two) from a book of their choice. 

The Diaries of Ethel Turner & Seven Little Australians

Ethel Turner has charmed generations of readers with her delightful children's books, including Seven Little Australians, Miss Bobbie and Family at Misrule.

For 62 years she also kept a diary and in this book her granddaughter, Philippa Poole, has selected the most interesting passages which, together with her commentary on each chapter and the inclusion of wonderful photographs of the time give a fascinating peek into the life of an Edwardian young woman.

Ethel's diary entries which begin in 1889 when she is 17 are really only a simple record of each day ......of shopping, tennis and picnics, garden parties and balls....

"This morning I made myself a black lace hat. Idled in  afternoon. At night went to Articled Clerks dance and wore my white liberty again, this time with crimson flowers and snowdrops. M.Backhouse asked me for a dance and then did not account for it. I shall never notice him again. He was a bit intoxicated last night, I think, it is pity, he might be a very nice boy. I'm awfully sorry for him."

If the endless round of social gaiety was enough for most girls Ethel and her sister Lilian had other ideas. Having gained experience editing their school magazine, in 1889 they launched their own monthly publication called the Parthenon which would have considerable success during the next three years. Her love of literature and writing becomes more noticeable in the diary entries as she records the books she buys and reads...

" I read the loveliest book or part of it after 11pm last night Not All In Vain by Ada Cambridge - I think I like better than any book I have read.'

 She began writing stories, poems and articles for a Sydney newspaper,  recognising that she had a talent that could earn her money and help her gain independence.

In 1894 Seven Little Australians was accepted for publication.

'Here is the Miss Louisa Alcott of Australia - here is one of the strongest, simplest, sweetest, sanest and most beautiful child-stories that I have read for years.'

Set in Sydney in the 1880's it tells the story of the seven children of a very authoritarian father and a flighty stepmother. By informing her young readers at the beginning that they are about to hear the tale of 'very naughty children' Ethel Turner immediately grasps their interest. 
She was also ahead of her time with her writing by capturing a warm relationship between parents and children and by going against the 'happy ever after' ending. This is a story of fun, adventure and and a tear-jerking tragedy and it was this that most probably prompted the Louisa Alcott comment.

Despite warnings that marriage would mean the end of her writing career , in 1896 Ethel married her long-time suitor Herbert Curlewis and bore two children, Jean and Adrian early in the new century.
She continued to write prolifically - more than 40 novels, short stories and poems for children.

In 1928 her beloved daughter was diagnosed with tuberculosis and after a prolonged illness died in 1930. Ethel was heartbroken and never wrote again.

Ethel Turner died in 1958.

The diary entries were a delightful piece of history and I loved rereading the Seven Little Australians.

AusReading Month

Mrs Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale

The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady

'A compelling story of romance and fidelity, insanity, fantasy and the boundaries of privacy, Mrs Robinson's Diary brings brilliantly to life a complex, frustrated Victorian wife, longing for passion and learning, companionship and love in an unsettled world which - as yet - made no allowance for her.'

" One day in May, Henry looked in on Isabella in her sickroom to find that she had become delirious. As she lay in her bed, restless and raving, he heard her muttering the names of other men. His suspicions again aroused, he went to her desk and lifted out the journal that she had brought with her from England. She had always kept her diary 'private' from him, he said later. Perhaps in her feverish distraction she had left her desk unlocked; perhaps she half wanted him to find her secrets and blow their life apart. Henry opened her journal and began to read."

Henry Robinson reads in intimate detail how intensely his wife loathes him, of her 'affair' with Edward Lane and her infatuations with other younger men. A year later in 1857 he takes advantage of the newly passed Matrimonial Causes Act which made divorce accessible to the middle classes, and sues for divorce. Isabella's diary would provide the evidence of adultery, excerpts would appear in the newspapers and scandalize society, her reputation would be destroyed yet despite the reforms the double standard still held sway......her husband's infidelities are not mentioned.

Kate Summerscale gives a detailed account of Isabella's unsatisfactory and lonely marriage, of her increasing obsession with the younger Edward Lane and her passionate and lustful record of their 'affair' confided to her diary.

Did she or didn't she? Edward Lane denied it and Victorian society struggled to believe a respectable middle-aged, middle class woman could pen such words. The only recourse her defense counsel had was to plead insanity, that Isabella's diary was the result of delusional fantasies brought on by  'uterine disease'.........a vague term that appears to have been used to cover anything a woman suffered from that men didn't understand.

The divorce case is fascinating but is not the only subject Of Mrs Robinson's Disgrace to provide an interesting look at Victorian society.
Edward Lane was a hydrotherapist with a clinic at Moor Park in Surrey and among his patients were recognisable names like Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin.
His brother-in-law, George Drysdale, author of The Elements of Social Science in which he advocated free sexual unions before marriage , contraception and the limitation of families.

The extensive notes and bibliography at the end show the thoroughness of Kate Summerscale's research, the narrative is both interesting, easy to read and entertaining and I liked that the author didn't impose her opinions or judgements but allows the reader to come to their own conclusions. 

A book that will appeal to anyone interested in the Victorian era - I enjoyed it very much.

Thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review.

Rose: My Life in Service to Lady Astor

"The choice of a career for girls born into our circumstances presented no difficulty. Almost inevitably we were bound to go into service."

Rosina Harrison was born in Aldfield, North Yorkshire, in 1899, the daughter of a stonemason and a laundry maid. While there was little choice as to what her future would be Rose had ambition and was fortunate in having parents prepared to help her achieve her dream. When she confides that she longs to travel the world her mother replies that the only way that would be possible was by being a lady's maid. Somehow the money is scraped together to further Rose's education and to pay for lessons in French and the art of fine sewing and in 1918 she takes up the first of two positions she will hold as lady's maid to the daughters of a house.

In 1928 she takes the eye of Lady Nancy Astor who decides Rose will be her personal lady's maid, a role that the butler warns her will not be easy. Lady Astor is renowned for her difficult temperament and for a while makes Rose's life as awkward as she can.....until the day Rose realises....

"I'd allowed her ladyship to walk over me and make mincemeat out of me. I now knew my work had been right; where I'd been wrong was in not defending it and myself when we were both under attack. I saw her in a different light, not as a mean spiteful person any more, but as someone who in her own way was putting me to the test. She wanted a maid in her own image and she thought she could get one by destroying me and then building me up again as she wanted me to be. She hadn't succeeded and from now on she wasn't even going to get the chance."

The two women would remain together until Lady Astor's death .

"What had begun as a battle gradually mellowed into a kind of a game between us. It went on for thirty-five years; neither of us won, neither of us lost."

It is an interesting relationship to read about. Separated by the barrier of their different social class it would have been unthinkable to call it a friendship but they formed a bond founded on trust and mutual respect that never wavered. Rose achieved her ambition to travel , she stayed in palaces, country houses and the finest hotels and she met royalty, politicians and famous people of the day. Not bad for a Yorkshire country lass!

The memoir, first published in 1976, is written in a simple, straightforward and honest style that makes it a pleasure to read. . It offers a  fascinating glimpse of real-life 'upstairs and downstairs'  in both the post WWI & WWII eras and I enjoyed it immensely.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin USA for the opportunity to read and review.

Review: No Simple Passage by Jenny Robin Jones

The Journey of the 'London' to New Zealand, 1842 


'Wednesday 29th December 1841


First, Introductions. I'm your great-great-granddaughter, Jenny. You begat Mary Ann who begat Eva who begat Barrie who begat me. So I'm creeping onto the London with you, Rebecca, hiding under your skirts, a wraith of the future. I'm sidling up the gangplank, glad to leave these murky London waters.
      The voyage to Port Nicholson will take four months, so I'm going to keep a diary for the 124 days until you and your husband, John Remington touch land again, and I'll try to beguile you during some of those weary hours with stories of your lives to come.'


Those are the opening lines of a book that definitely had me beguiled from start to finish. It's non-fiction but written in a narrative style that makes it as fascinating as any historical fiction. Using the journal of the ship's surgeon and that of a cabin passenger the author has created a daily record of the lives of the 258 steerage emigrants on board the ship 'London' bound for New Zealand in 1842. Each chapter begins with a journal entry and it is the doctor's that make the most heartbreaking reading.

"Henry Edwards much worse, diarrhoea still continues, child evidently dying."

Day after day the entries record the sick and the dying - children lose parents and parents lose children. The conditions were appalling, cramped and unsanitary accommodation and  poor food meant sickness and disease was rife. As the journey progresses the author breathes life into names on a passenger list ; we discover the lives they left behind and share their dreams for the future. Who will flourish , who will founder and who won't even make it to their new homeland?

Jenny Robin Jones has researched the families and moved ahead 20 years to answer those questions and give an account of how the emigrants will fare as they struggle to survive in the early days of the founding of Port Nicholson (now Wellington, our capital city).  Fascinating to experience major historical events and natural disasters like floods and earthquakes through the eyes of ordinary people rather than detached accounts in a history book.

The book is enlivened with delightful pen and drawings, some lovely photographs of paintings and at the back there is a list of notes, illustrations, an index and a bibliography.

A lovely book which was a pleasure to read and high on my list of favourites for 2011.

Publisher: Random House, 2011
Non-Fiction - Dewey No 304.893
350p

Review: Bonobo Handshake by Vanessa Woods

A memoir of love and adventure in the Congo.

"I've been warned to expect pillaging, vehicle thefts, carjackings, extra-judicial killings, rapes, kidnapping, ethnic tensions, and continued military operations. Every foreign office I've spoken to said we would definitely be robbed and would almost certainly be killed.
Excellent!"

Australian scientist Vanessa Woods thought she had found her true love: chimpanzees. But in a reckless moment, she accepts a marriage proposal from a man she barely knows and agrees to join him on a research trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. All she knows is that they'll be studying bonobos, an extremely endangered species of ape with whom humans share 98% of our DNA.

This was the reason I initially chose to read Bonobo Handshake. I love any sort of animal story and not knowing anything much about bonobos was interested in learning more about them but was soon to discover there was more to this book than I thought. Vanessa Woods skilfully weaves together three separate threads to create a story of personal growth, animal science and history.

With honesty and a wonderful sense of humour she tells of the difficulties of adjusting to marriage in a strange and frightening country, of learning to work alongside her husband in harmony, and her growing love for Congo, its people, and the bonobos.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (once Belgian Congo/Zaire) is the only place in the world where bonoboes live and the santuary at Lola ya Bonobo rescues orphans and captured bonobos and cares for them until they can be released back into a safe and natural environment. These remarkable animals are unique in that they live in a peaceful society based on cooperation and sharing, where females are in charge, war is non-existent, and sex is as common and friendly as a handshake. They're a joy to read about even if some of the stories of the individual bonobos are heartbreaking.

Then there is the history of Congo which I wasn't expecting but was interesting, informative and often very hard to read. A country constantly exploited for its natural resources, torn apart by genocide, rape, disease and starvation and endless atrocities - when you read the personal tales of the suffering of ordinary men and women it becomes so much more real than a newspaper headline and almost too dreadful to believe.

"I could despair, like every foreigner who understands a fraction of the challenges that have to be overcome. I won't. Because I know the spirit of the Congolese. The Mamas, Suzy, Fanny - all of them have been through so much and yet they are not the walking dead. They are living, and they are living as though they believe they will become free.............the children will bring Congo her future. And I hope it is a bonobo one."

So do I!
Bonobo Handshake is a well written and compelling book which I'd recommend to anyone.

There is a list for further reading, a bibliography and links to websites of interest. The book contains no photographs which was disappointing until I visited Friends of Bonobos where there are plenty of bonobos to see.

Aussie Author Challenge

Review: Catherine de Medici by Leonie Frieda

Genre:Non-fiction/Biography
Dewey No 923.144
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003
456p


Orphaned in infancy, imprisoned in childhood, heiress to an ancient name and vast fortune, Catherine de Medici grew up to become one of the most important figures in European history. Three of her sons became kings of France, including the eldest who married Mary, Queen of Scots. It is a story of incest, vicious religious wars, assassination, poison, the occult and in Catherine's own words.........

'passion, hatred and vengeance'.

The opening paragraph of the prologue is an example of how easy to read Leonie Frieda's narrative is .......

" On the late afternoon of Friday, 30 June 1559 a long splinter of wood from a jousting lance pierced the eye and brain of King Henri II of France. The poisonous wound bloated his face, slowly robbing him of sight, speech and reason, and after ten days of suffering he died...."

......and is the moment that would change Catherine's life from that of a Queen Consort living in the shadow of her husband's long-time mistress Diane de Poitiers, to Regent of France. Her eldest son died soon after his father leaving a 10-year-old as king and Catherine at the helm of a country torn apart by civil and religious conflicts.

While one can't overlook the part she played in the of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre it's not so well known that from the beginning of her regency she attempted to implement a policy of religious toleration but was unable to reconcile the fanaticism of both Catholics and Protestants. The mere fact of her being a hated Italian gave both sides a target and a scapegoat .

Catherine's achilles heel would prove to be her children. Everything she did was for them and to keep the throne of France securely in Valois hands. Unfortunately they were rather a pathetic brood.......unhealthy and constantly at each other's throats , their behaviour and sexual deviancy alienated the court and did little to gain popular support . Catherine would see three sons become king before she died .......her death spared her from the murder of her favourite son, Henri III and the knowledge that the Valois dynasty was no more.

It took me a while to read this book because it is so much more than a biography . Leonie Frieda provides a fascinating and detailed account of a complex time and to understand these events and sort out the participants takes slow reading at times. I enjoyed it very much and would recommend to anyone wanting a balanced and well researched study of this remarkable and much-maligned woman.

Includes illustrations, maps, family trees, a list of principal characters, authors note , source notes, bibliography and index.



Classics Circuit: Ngaio Marsh

Today's post is for the Classics Circuit tour The Golden Age of Detective Fiction and the obvious choice for me was to feature New Zealand's Dame Ngaio Marsh, one of the four great Queen's of Crime from this era. I read two books, one a biography and one Ngaio Marsh mystery.

Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime by Joanne Drayton

A beautifully presented and well written biography of a woman with a huge public image and a fiercely protected private life. Even the autobiography she wrote in the 1960's revealed almost nothing not already known and she destroyed all her personal papers and letters before her death.

In New Zealand she is recognised more for her services to the theatre , a huge contribution for which she received her 'dameship' as she called it, and much of the book follows her career in that area. I was more interested in her writing and the chapters on this are interesting and informative not only about the books but also as a glimpse into the rise and fall of this golden age of detective fiction. Her first book was written in a London flat in 1930 - nineteen years later she would receive the ultimate distinction when her publishers released the 'Marsh Million' , 100.000 copies of ten of her titles on to the world market.
In 1932 , a family tragedy brought her home to New Zealand and from then on her life would be divided between the two hemispheres, between passionate relationships at home and abroad, and between the world of publishing and her life as a stage director.

It becomes clear that her writing self belonged in England. Her Detective Roderick Alleyn was upper class British, educated at Eton and a former member of the diplomatic service - a reflection of the sort of people she mixed with in both countries. Of her 32 novels only four are set in New Zealand which is not surprising considering a British detective could hardly be taking a six week boat trip to the other side of the world too often. I chose to read the first of these published in 1937.

Vintage Murder by Ngaio Marsh

The story follows the classic structure of these murder mysteries. It begins on a night train on which a touring English theatre group is travelling ......as is Detective Alleyn who is in NZ on holiday following an illness. When one of the actors claims someone has tried to kill him by pushing him off the train Alleyn is brought into the action and the reader is introduced to the standard assortment of characters .
Everyone then arrives at the town where the group are next playing, preparations are made for the performance and also for the birthday party of the leading lady......and the murder!
In later years Ngaio Marsh was to earn a reputation for highly original and slightly implausible murder methods and this one is no exception. Suffice it to say it involves a bottle of vintage Moet. From then on it is investigation and interrogation and the usual red herrings until the murderer is revealed - none of which I found particularly enthralling.
The author's knowledge of the theatre is evident and there is some nice descriptive prose which show her love of New Zealand's natural beauty but they don't make up for what I really didn't like about this book.
She uses her main characters to portray social issues and attitudes of the time - Maori/Pakeha, New Zealander/Englishman - and she does it in a way that I found quite awful. Detective Alleyn , while appearing genuinely sympathetic to a different culture on the surface, reveals himself in letters home to a friend as a condescending snob. New Zealanders spend all their time mumbling crikey and blimey in 'that accent', the Maori Dr.Te Pokiha is acceptable because he's Oxford educated until he loses his temper and then he's a savage and the racist comments are appalling. Too close to home, maybe, but it spoiled any entertainment value the story may have otherwise had.

I might have appreciated her writing more if I'd chosen a different book but I'm definitely not inspired to read anything else written by Ngaio Marsh.
At least the biography was interesting and worth the time spent reading it.

Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xinran

Title: Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother
Author: Xinran
Translator: Nicky Harman
Genre: Non-fiction (Dewey 306.8743 - Cultures/Mothers)
Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2010

209p

Stories of love and loss: Ten chapters, ten women and many stories of heartbreak, including her own: Xinran takes us right into the lives of Chinese women - students, successful business women, midwives, peasants, 'extra-birth guerillas' - all with memories that have stained their lives.. Whether as a consequence of the one-child policy, destructive age-old traditions or hideous economic necessity, some women had to give up their daughters for adoption, others were forced to abandon them - on city streets, outside hospitals, orphanages or on station platforms - and others even had to watch their baby daughters being taken away at birth and drowned.

The book sends a heart-rending message from their birth mothers to all those Chinese girls who have been adopted overseas, to show them how things really were for their mothers, and to tell them they were loved and will not be forgotten.

The author: Xinran was born in Beijing in 1958 and became a journalist and radio presenter in China. In 1997 she moved to London, where she wrote her best selling bookThe Good Women of China. Her charity, The Mother's Bridge of Love, was founded to help disadvantaged Chinese children and to build a bridge of understanding between the West and China.

A book that will make your heart weep!
A book that will leave you filled with gratitude for a life that allows you to welcome your little girl with joy!

Review: Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin

Title: Mao's Last Dancer
Author: Li Cunxin
Genre: Non-Fiction/Biography
Publisher: Penguin, 2003

445p

This is the true story of how one moment in time, by the thinnest thread of a chance, changed the course of a small boy's life in ways that are beyond description.

Born in 1961, Li Cunxin was the 6th son of a Chinese peasant family living in poverty-stricken conditions near the city of Quingdao.Struggling to survive on a diet that seemed to consist mainly of boiled yams this close and loving family could see no future other than what already was.
At the age of 8 he began school where his learning consisted of reading, reciting and writing 'Long Live Chairman Mao' and the contents of the Red Book.
Until the day the talent scouts came - Madame Mao was reviving the Beijing Dance Academy and they were seeking recruits. The finger of fate pointed at Li Cunxin and he was chosen.

The book is divided into three parts and it was this first part , Childhood , that I found most interesting. I had to keep reminding myself that this was not some long ago tale of peasant suffering - this is the 1960's and an account of how Chinese people were living under the oppressive regime of the time. But it also contains some lovely old folk stories that I enjoyed reading and the deep ties of family love and filial duty that Li Cunxin felt for his parents and brothers shines through.
The randomness of the selection process is mindboggling. This little boy who had never danced a step in his life was not chosen for his talent or potential but simply a 'What about this one".

In Part 2 we travel with Li Cunxin to the Beijing Dance Academy.........share the long , lonely months of homesickness , the physical pain of his tortuous daily training and the arrival of  a new teacher Xiao Shuhua who will provide the encouragement and inspiration he needed to become the best. He's also fully committed to serving Chairman Mao and becomes a member of the Communist Youth Party.
A visit from Ben Stevenson, the artistic director of the Houston Ballet, to teach two master classes was to bring another opportunity - he offered two scholarships to his summer school and again Li Cunxin is chosen.
This first journey out of China is another fascinating part of the story. To view the western world through the eyes of someone from such a different background, the observations and comparisons he makes about simple things we take so much for granted and the difficulties in adjusting to a complete new culture. The sadness and disillusionment as his loyalties and beliefs are stripped away. He returns to China determined to return which after some difficulties he manages to do.

Part 3 follows his career and his rise to become one of the world's greatest dancers. There is the drama of his defection, his ill fated first marriage, his longing to see his family......

He spent 16 years in the USA , married an Australian dancer , Mary McKendry and eventually made his home in Melbourne, Australia where they live with their three children. After retiring from ballet he began a new career as a financial analyst.

It's an inspiring story. That one moment in time gave him a chance - what he achieved was the results of hard work, determination , self discipline and the courage to follow his dreams despite seemingly overwhelming odds against him.