Reading England 2015 - Cornwall Calling

Of all the English counties Cornwall is the one I feel most familiar with even though I've never actually been there except as an armchair traveller. Adventuring with the Famous Five and immersing myself in Rosemary Sutcliff's historical world when I was very young and later loving the Gothic Romances of Victoria Holt and Madeleine Brent, Susan Howatch's wonderful family saga Penmarric and let's not forget Daphne du Maurier and Winston Graham. 
 
 I've been recording the new series of Poldark and saving it to watch as I revisit Cornwall this month. I remember the old one well, especially Angharad Rees as Demelza, and keeping my fingers crossed that this one will live up to expectations. I've borrowed Poldark's Cornwall from the library to read along with it.

When we were making our lists for Reading England Jane recommended the following title which I hadn't heard of but am really looking forward to.........no fiction this time, I'm going walking!

Rambles Beyond Railways: or Notes in Cornwall Taken A-Foot by Wilkie Collins

 In 1850 Wilkie Collins and his artist friend, Edward Brandling, set out on a walking tour of Cornwall. At the time the railway stopped at Plymouth and travelling further west meant sailing to St Germains....but not for long.
This account of their travels with illustrations by Brandling was published in 1851 and in a second edition the following year Wilkie notes ' Since this work first appeared, the all-conquering Railway has invaded Cornwall; and the title of my book has become a misnomer already.'

So I am ready to walk...

'...walk, and be merry; walk, and be healthy; walk, and be your own master! - walk, to enjoy, to observe, to improve, as no riders can! - walk and you are the best peripatetic impersonation of holiday enjoyment that is to be met with on the surface of this work-a-day world.'

10 Books of Winter

Cathy @ 746 Books has a challenge to read 20 books between 1 June and 4 September with an option to read 10. I doubt I'd manage to stick to a list of 20 so will try for the 10. I have had to desecrate her nice button because down here in the Southern Hemisphere summer seems a long way away.

The books I've chosen are the bits and pieces I've picked up at sales and fairs, put away in a cupboard where they languish out of sight and out of mind. This month I finally bought a secondhand bookshelf and brought them out into the light and this will be an opportunity to finally get some of them read.

My 10 Books of Winter

Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
News From the City of the Sun by Isabel Colegate - read June
The Winter Book by Tove Jansson
A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
The Traveller Returns by Patricia Wentworth
Bel Canto by Ann Pratchett
For Love Alone by Christina Stead
Bound Feet and Western Dress by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang - read June

May Update

Any thoughts I may have had that May would be a quiet month I soon discovered was mere wishful thinking and so far the month has been very busy with a mix of both sad and happy times

At the beginning of last week Hubby's sister-in-law passed away after a long illness . 

We returned home from that sad farewell as our daughter and family arrived for a four day visit ending on Sunday with a lovely Mother's Day lunch outing. 

Then the computer which I've known for some time was failing fast chose the weekend for its swan song (disaster!) and for the sake of my sanity buying a new one was top priority. Fortunately the service from the store was fantastic and they came and installed it immediately.

More sad stuff yesterday as we had to say goodbye to our lovely old cat - so many times we've been through this but it never gets any easier. 

Today the newly widowed brother-in-law arrives to stay with us for a while and I'm hoping the brothers will entertain themselves and I can get back to some semblance of normality. The last ten days have been an emotional roller coaster and I'm feeling just a bit frazzled.

Virginia Woolf by Vanessa Bell

Blogging there has been none but reading when I can. Before chaos descended I finished Vanessa and her Sister by Priya Parmar which I loved. It is the story of the Stephen sisters, Vanessa and Virginia, told from Vanessa's perspective and being set in the early 1900's gives a very interesting glimpse of the young Bloomsbury set before any of them became famous.
Read Jane's review. 

Also finished The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse by Piu Marie Eatwell, a non-fiction account of the Druce-Portland affair ' one of the most notorious, tangled and bizarre legal cases of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras.' Perfect non-fiction - as easy and entertaining to read as fiction while still being aware of the meticulous research the author has done. Enjoyed it immensely.

Keeping up with reading Beowulf for Cleo's readalong
- loving it and the challenge of actually having to think about what I'm reading.  

Currently reading:

The Kill by Emile Zola 
The Long Fall by Julia Crouch - bedtime psychological thriller

On the Horizon:

 
I am so behind in everything I'd planned for May but don't want the pressure of trying to play catch-up so will read what takes my fancy and not worry about any of it!

Monthly Roundup - April 2015

I seem to be constantly chasing my tail and trying to catch up! All was well in April until after Easter when a nasty sinus flare-up laid me low and I really didn't feel at all like blogging. So a brief roundup of what I've been reading.

To celebrate the bicentenary of Anthony Trollope's birth I first read Rachel Ray and then Nina Balatka/Linda Tressel which I picked up at the library sale simply because it was a Trollope. Originally published anonymously in an attempt to move away from his recognisable style these two novellas are the rather depressing stories of two young women whose families will do anything to stop them marrying the men of their choice. I didn't like them - I missed England and the English but most of all I missed the humour.

Another novella - Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M.Forster. His first published work it contains the same themes that he developed to better effect in his later novels - the hypocrisy of Edwardian society, the difficulty in reconciling opposing forces and lush descriptions of the Italian landscape. I thought the opening chapter was one of the funniest I've read and overall it was enjoyable reading for the Back to the Classics challenge - read a novella. 

For Reading England 2015 I was in Devon with Rachel Ray and also with Gentian Hill by Elizabeth Goudge.

There were books started prior to April that I needed to finish. To Let by John Galsworthy brought the first three book volume of the Forsyte Saga to completion. 

A reread of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte has been on my Classics Club list since the beginning and I took advantage of the Cornflower Book Group reading to get this achieved. It's been many decades since I first read it and I certainly had a far deeper appreciation of Charlotte's writing this time and some fun thinking about the reliability of first person narrators but it took me two months to finish which is not a good sign. I enjoyed the first half but, dare I say it, became increasingly bored with Jane and Mr R. and the second half was a struggle. I know many readers would disagree but for me Jane Eyre is a book to read and love when one is young.

The only non-fiction I read was Behind the Mask: the life of Vita Sackville-West by Matthew Dennison which I found extremely disappointing. The author seemed to be able to find nothing to write about except an endless list of Vita's love affairs.

Not a lot of contemporary fiction - I finally got around to starting Susan Hill's Simon Serailler series with The Various Haunts of Men, another thriller Missing You by Harlan Coben, Jo Walton's latest My Real Children and one of my favourite books for April..

Aren't We Sisters by Patricia Ferguson

Initially I passed this over at the library because its cover looked too much like chicklit but when I saw it on the Bailey longlist I changed my mind.
Set during the early 1930's in a small town in Cornwall and focusing on women - childbirth , sexual ignorance and contraception the story revolves around three women. Letty is a disciple of Marie Stopes who travels the country in a mobile van strong in her belief that a woman should ' have as many children as she wants, when she wants.'
Norah is upper middle class, totally repressed by a domineering mother whose death has now left Norah struggling to make ends meet and having to take in a lodger - Letty.
Rae is an incognito and pregnant movie star hiding in an old
house on the outskirts of town. Woefully ignorant her only experience of childbirth comes from reading 19th century novels.
If you like good old fashioned story-telling with great characters and lively dialogue, humour, and even a thriller element, I recommend. I loved it!

Onward into May and I'm trying not to look too far ahead.
Currently I have four books on the go .....

Beowulf - for Cleo's readalong
Vanessa and her Sister by Priya Parmar
The Kill by Emile Zola
The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife and the Missing Corpse by Piu Marie Eatwell (NF)

The Spin Winner is...

No 2

Which means I will be reading...

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

Oh dear!! It has been on every spin list I've made - I really want to read it and I know I will love it when I do........but not right now.

Obviously the spin fairy wasn't listening to my wish for something short and easy because at over 600p it is one of the longest books on the list.....and I've only just finished Mary Barton by the same author.

I don't own a copy and went over to the library catalogue to place a hold but it seems they no longer have a copy so next stop the Book Depository to buy one but that will be at least two weeks wait. This is definitely a book I want to be able to enjoy at my own pace so am not going to pressure myself into getting it read by a deadline.

You can't win 'em all!

Look forward to seeing what other spinners will be reading. 

Classics Club Spin #9

March has come and gone and I've been MIA throughout for a variety of reasons - some good, some not so good. That's life and I'm not even going to try to catch up but am letting last month go and looking ahead to April.

Another spin from the The Classics Club is just what I need to get things rolling again.  
The Goal - to make a list of twenty unread titles from our list and on Monday 6 April one number will be chosen. The challenge is to read the book that corresponds to the number by May 15.

My Spin List

Five Lovely Ladies

1. All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
2. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

3. Red Pottage by Mary Cholmondeley

4. The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
5. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

Five that have been on the shelf too long

6. The Odd Women by George Gissing
7. The Story of a New Zealand River by Jane Mander

8. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

9. The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

10. Vanity Fair by William M Thackeray

Five  about the Boys

11. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

12. Adam Bede by George Eliot

13. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

14. Maurice by E M Forster

15. Dr Thorne by Anthony Trollope

Five by authors I haven't read before

16. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
17. Highland River by Neil M.Gunn
18. The Good Companions by J.B.Priestley
19. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
20. Helen by Maria Edgeworth.

Keeping my fingers crossed for something short and easy!

Library Loot - Books for The Begorrathon

March brings The Begorrathon - a month long cultural celebration of all things Irish hosted by Cathy@746 Books and The Fluff is Raging . You can read all about it at either of those links.

With the end of the month rapidly approaching I set off to the library to pick up the three books I had planned to read but old habits are returning and I came home with a couple more than expected. 

Through Connemara in a Governess Cart by Somerville & Ross.......I have always enjoyed Lisa's reviews of the books of S & A and have had this one on my TBR for quite a while. It is the only one my library has but fits in nicely with The Begorrathon.

Laws in Conflict by Cora Harrison.....In 2010 I read the first in this mystery series set in 16th century Ireland, really enjoyed it and was looking forward to more. Unfortunately the library never bought any more  until last month when I noticed they had added all further seven of the series - I have some catching up to do.

A History of Loneliness by John Boyne.....'a courageous, deeply moving account of a nation and a man living through a period of cataclysmic, irreversible change.'

Academy Street by Mary Costello .....' the heartbreaking and evocative story of one woman's life spanning six decades.' The sort of book I would have expected to be of chunkster proportions and I'm interested to see how a lifetime can be portrayed in 178 pages.

The Doll's House by Louise Phillips ... Irish Crime. Criminal psychologist Dr Kate Pearson is called in to help in the investigation of a murder after a body is found in a Dublin canal.

*****

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Linda @ Silly Little Mischief that encourages bloggers to share the books they have checked out from the library.

I'm reading....

......more books at once at once than I usually do. There are books all over the house with bookmarks inserted at various points of progress and when I look for something to write a post about I come up empty handed......nothing is finished. So ....I'm reading -

The Brontes by Juliet Barker, although browsing is probably a better description, and discovering the pleasure of owning a book that needs time and concentration to appreciate. I love finding threads that link one author to another and here I read of Charlotte Bronte's visit in 1850 to Fox How, the home of the Arnolds. Having a ' highly idealized impression of the deceased Dr Arnold........it was an intense disappointment to meet his widow and daughters' who she found to be ' lacking that genuineness and simplicity one seemed to have a right to expect in the chosen life-companion of Dr Arnold..........neither she or her daughters were intellectual.'

Dear me! Charlotte - a touch of intellectual snobbery there.

Mary Arnold (Mrs Ward) speaks of the same occasion in an address given to the Bronte Society at Bradford in 1917. You can read this article here - it's very entertaining if inaccurate at times and is only one in a collection from various people written to celebrate the 1916 centenary of Charlotte's birth. Which means we have a bicentenary next year and I should have saved all this Bronte reading until then. 

I'm rereading Jane Eyre now - it's the choice of the Cornflower Book Group and as it has been on my Classics Club list for almost three years I thought this was a good opportunity to reacquaint myself with a book I read in my teens and  know I'll be seeing from a completely different perspective.


The King in the North by Max Adams - NF

Seventh-century Britain and the biography of King Oswald - considered the first great English monarch (634 - 42) he re-united and re-Christianised the Northeast; founded a monastery on Lindisfarne and forged a hybrid culture of Briton, Irish, Scot and Anglo-Saxon. Much of it is set in Northumbria around Bamburgh Castle with its glorious coastal views although nothing remains from Oswald's time except the gateway that bears his name. 

Bamburgh Castle

St Oswald's Gate

  







I'm really enjoying this and it's providing some 
excellent background for Beowulf but can only read it in small doses so can't see me finishing it before the end of the month.

Finally two light and relaxing books for bedtime..

The Second Deadly Sin by Asa Larsson - scandinavian crime.
One Pair of Feet by Monica Dickens - the second in the author's chronicles of her working life - this time she's doing her nursing training. Easy reading but not as funny as One Pair of Hands.

Helbeck of Bannisdale by Mrs Humphrey Ward

Reading England 2015 - Westmoreland. ( now a part of Cumbria)

Lyth Valley, Cumbria

The setting for the story is the beautiful Lake District and the Lyth Valley a few miles SW of Kendal where Mrs Ward's grandparents had a summer home, Fox Low, at which she spent time during her girlhood. Her descriptions of the countryside are lovely....

" A Westmoreland wood in daffodil time - it was nothing more and nothing less. But to this child with the young passion in her blood, it was a dream, an ecstasy. The golden flowers, the slim stalks, rose from a mist of greenish-blue, made by their speary leaf amid the encircling browns and purples, the intricate stem and branch-work of the still winter-bound hazels. never were daffodils in such a wealth before. They were flung on the fell-side through a score of acres, in sheets and tapestries of gold....."

Levens Hall which she rented while writing Helbeck was the inspiration for Bannisdale.

"It was built of grey stone, covered with a rough-cast, so tempered by age to the colour and surface of the stone, that the many patches where it had dropped away produced hardly any disfiguring effect. The rugged pele tower, origin and source of all the rest, was now grouped with the gables and projections, the broad casemented windows, and deep doorways of a Tudor manor-house."

Bannisdale is the home of the Helbecks, one of the northern Roman Catholic families that for centuries stayed true to their faith . For Alan Helbeck it is a struggle to keep the house and estate solvent and the interior of his home has slowly become a shadow of its former self as he sells more and more of the family possessions. He takes his responsibilities seriously but knows if it hadn't been for Bannisdale he would have become a Jesuit priest. 

Alan has a sister, Augustina, who he has not seen for seventeen years. She married out of the faith and he refused to have anything more to do with her. Now she is widowed and returning to Bannisdale to live with her brother, accompanied by her stepdaughter, Laura. 

Laura's father was an atheist and he raised his motherless daughter according to his beliefs, emphasising freedom for the self without any controlling forces. Alone and grieving in a strange household she is appalled by daily prayers, the chapel, the visiting nuns - the routine of a Catholic family.

She turns to her father's farming relatives who live nearby but only finds an equally fanatical Protestant home.

Despite their differences Alan and Laura are drawn to each other and fall in love. Laura is unable to reconcile herself to living under the conditions his faith would impose on her and leaves to stay with friends in Oxford but is forced to return when Augustina is dying.

It is a story of a relationship between two people with completely opposing religious beliefs. Mary Ward's family circumstances gave her an inside view of the conflict and resulting unhappiness of such a situation and has tried to give a balanced account but it is impossible not to feel more for Laura who is expected to give up everything.

If it gets a little melodramatic now and then it's forgiveable and overall I found it powerful and moving. The ending was a bit disturbing and I don't fully understand Laura's actions - I thought she had other choices - will maybe have to reread the final chapters.

It is a tragedy and I cried! What more can I ask for.

I recommend!

About the Author

Mary Augusta Arnold was born in 1851 in Hobart, Tasmania, the daughter of Thomas and Julia Arnold.

* Her grandfather was the Dr Arnold of Rugby School renown.

* Matthew Arnold the poet was her uncle.

*Her sister Julia married biographer Leonard Huxley and was the mother of Julian and Aldous Huxley.

Thomas Arnold, a Professor of Literature, was appointed inspector of schools in Tasmania in 1850. In 1856 he converted to Roman Catholicism with the result he lost his job and the family returned to England. He later reconverted back to Anglicanism and then again back to being a Catholic. It did not make for a happy childhood and the affects can be seen in her writing. Mary Ward was an interesting woman who achieved more than being a novelist and probably deserves to be remembered more than she seems to be today.

Read more about her life

Reading England 2015

Back to the Classics 2015 - a forgotten classic

On the Lighter Side

Four mini-mentions from the crime & psy.thriller library shelves.

The Crooked House by Christobel Kent

Alison has put her past behind her and lives a very quiet life which is exactly how she likes it. Until a wedding invitation takes her back to the coastal village where she once lived.
When her name was Esme.
Where she was left the only survivor of a terrible tragedy.
Now Alison must confront the past and seek the truth of what happened.
I loved The Crooked House. It has everything I like in a psychological thriller - an atmospheric, slightly spooky setting, a fast pace with a continuous escalation of tension and suspense. Hard to put down!


The Winter Foundlings by Kate Rhodes

Taking a break from her London life psychologist Alice Quentin has the opportunity to study treatment methods at Northwood high-security hospital. One of the inmates is child killer Louis Kinsella and when young girls begin going missing and are later found dead a link is suspected between him and the murders. Alice is once again called in to help the police.
This is the third in this series and having enjoyed the first two I was looking forward to this one and it didn't disappoint. Well-written and suspenseful.

The Girl on the Train


Every morning Rachel takes the same train and every morning the train stops at the same signal and Rachel watches the same couple. She fantasizes about what she imagines their perfect life to be and compares it to her less than happy existence. 

I tend to avoid over-hyped books like this one but have to admit it was easy, and at times compulsive, reading but I also found it too repetitive and lacking in the surprise twists I expected. It wasn't that hard to see where it was going. Good but not great!

The Mangle Street Murders by M.R.C.Kasasian

March Middleton is the ward of London's most famous personal detective, Sidney Grice and she is determined to help on his next case. He thinks women are too feeble for detective work but soon discovers how mistaken he is.
Set in Victorian London this new detective  series strikes a perfect balance between the relationship of a duo constantly at loggerheads and an interesting and complex criminal investigation . Original and very funny I enjoyed it immensely and look forward to bringing home the second book very soon 

Shirley Country: A Visual Tour

Gomersal and the Spen Valley

" They looked down on the deep valley robed in May raiment; on varied meads, some pearled with daisies, and some golden with king-cups. Today all this young verdure smiled clear in sunlight; transparent emerald and amber gleams over it. On Nunnwood - the sole remnant of antique British forest in a region whose lowlands were once all sylvan chase, as its highlands were breast-deep heather - slept the shadow of a cloud; the distant hills were dappled, the horizon was shaded and tinted mother-of-pearl; silvery blues, soft purples, evanescent greens and rose shades, all melting into fleeces of white cloud, pure as azury snow, allured the eye as with a remote glimpse of heaven's foundations. The air blowing on the brow was fresh, and sweet, and bracing.
'Our England is a bonny island,' said Shirley,' and Yorkshire is one of her bonniest nooks.'

Shirley is set in the Spen Valley around the village of Gomersal in West Yorkshire. Six miles south of Haworth it was an area Charlotte knew well as her friend Ellen Taylor lived there at The Red House which is now a museum. In Shirley it is called Briarmains and is the home of the Yorke family.

The Red House, Gomersal, West Yorkshire

" It whitened the pavement in front of Briarmains ( Mr Yorke's residence), and made silent havoc among the tender plants in his garden, and on the mossy level of his lawn. As to that great tree, strong-trunked and broad-armed which guarded the gable nearest the road..."

" Those windows would be seen by daylight to be of brilliantly stained glass, purple and amber the predominant hues, glittering around a gravely tinted medallion in the centre of each, representing the suave head of William Shakespeare, and the serene one of John Milton."

A great many of the novel's characters were drawn from life, including the Yorkes who Charlotte based on the Taylor family she knew so well. If she thought she was safe in her anonymity she was mistaken and it didn't take long for the community to recognise themselves. Described as ' a large, gloomy censorious woman ' it is not surprising that Mrs Taylor took offence.

Also now a museum is the Elizabethan manor, Oakwell Hall, - Shirley's home, Fieldhead.

Oakwell Hall, Birstall, West Yorkshire

" If Fieldhead had few other merits as a building, it might at least be termed picturesque. It's regular architecture, and the gray and mossy colouring communicated by time, gave it a just claim to this epithet. The old latticed windows, the stone porch, the walls, the roof, the chimney stacks, were rich in crayon touches and sepia lights and shades. 

"Mr and Mrs Helstone were ushered into a parlour: of course, as was to be expected in such a gothic old barrack, this parlour was lined with oak: fine, dark, glossy panels compassed the walls gloomily and grandly."

" As to the mill, which was an old structure, and fitted up with old machinery, now become inefficient and out of date he had from the first evinced the strongest contempt for all its arrangements and appointments. His aim had been to effect radical reform.....

......He never asked himself  where those to whom he no longer paid weekly wages found daily bread; and in this negligence he only resembled thousands besides, on whom the starving poor of Yorkshire seemed to have a closer claim."

*****

Reading England 2015: Where to Next?

I finished Shirley by Charlotte Bronte and although I will still have one foot in Yorkshire as I write a post reading wise it's time to move on.

I have books set aside  for several of the counties that border Yorkshire but as I looked at them one in particular held

my attention. Every time I look at its cover I have the same thought - 'I bet that's a Grimshaw!' And so it turned out to be.

Waterloo Lake, Roundhay Park, Leeds - J Atkinson Grimshaw

John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836 - 1893) was a Yorkshire painter who I discovered back in 2012 when I was writing a post for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. A connection to the Brontes which feels like a signpost showing me the way forward and a moment to remember a very happy day!

On holiday for a limited time and with other people's wishes to consider there often has to be a compromise and mine was Haworth or Scarborough? I chose the latter because it was tourist season and I had visions of hordes of visitors overrunning Haworth - I don't like crowds.

It was the most beautiful summer's day in Scarborough. Far below the sea glittered in the sun, the castle wall loomed on my left and the bells of St Mary's church were ringing for a wedding. Hard to believe that I'm here, sitting beside the last resting place of Anne Bronte and wishing I had brought flowers to replace the dead ones . Magical!

After my family managed to drag me away it was a short stroll to look over the other side of the harbour and a stop for refreshments at The Castle by the Sea. Gorgeous views, my first taste of elderflower cordial and egg sandwiches so freshly made the filling was still warm.

I wanted to have a look inside this unusual Victorian building and there beside the door was a plaque..

John Atkinson Grimshaw liked to spend his summers in Scarborough and had this house specially built to suit both his artistic needs and to accommodate his large family.He named it The Castle by the Sea from a Longfellow poem. Today it is an hotel and restaurant but inside there are many prints of his paintings on the walls and the interior still retains many of its original features like this beautiful door with the stained glass panels and the elaborately carved and tiled fireplace.

It was the sort of day that special memories are made of!

Back to the books. I am travelling to Westmoreland (now a part of Cumbria) and I'll be reading...

Helbeck of Bannisdale by Mrs Humphry Ward.

'written in 1898 it has as its theme the love between a man and a woman which tragically clashes with their personal beliefs.'

I'm looking forward to reading an author who was apparently very popular in her time but one I had never heard of before.