Random Jottings

Mary Seacole - Time for her to be remembered

Everyone has heard of Florence Nightingale the ‘lady with the lamp’ who took her company of nurses out to the Crimea during the war after hearing of the appalling conditions wounded soldiers were enduring.

There have been films, books and programmes and all the stories, myths, legends movies and tv programmes focused on this person, another has been forgotten. This is Mary Jane Seacole.

Mary Jane was a British Jamaican business woman and ‘nurse’ who set up what was called the British Hotel behind the lines during the Crimean War. She described it a ‘mess table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers’ and provided help for wounded servicemen on the battlefield. She was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991 and, in 1994, was voted the greatest Black Briton.

Seacole applied to the War Office for permission to join the British nurses being sent out to Crimea which was refused. So she raised the funds to travel independently and set up the hotel with a business partner Thomas Day. After the war she was declared bankrupt and faced destitution but because of her popularity and affection among servicemen they raised money for her.

After her death she was largely forgotten but today is celebrated as a woman who made a success of her career despite experiencing racial prejudice.  She wrote a biography Wonderful adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, published in 1857 and is one of the earliest biographies of a mixed race woman. It should be mentioned that some aspects of its accuracy have been questioned by supporters of Nightingale who were also not happy at a statue of her being erected at St Thomas Hospital in 2016. It seems many of them view her as a charlatan whose fame is entirely due to clinging onto Florence Nightingale’s coat tails.

It is clear that Mary Seacole is a wonderful subject for a biographer and Helen Rappaport, the historian and writer who has long held an admiration for this subject and a desire to write about her, is now planning such a book.

Helen Rappaport is perhaps best known for her book on Victoria and Albert, a Magnificent Obsession and her wonderful trilogy about the Romanov family, Ekaterinburg, The Three Sisters and the Race to Save the Romanovs.   She now feels it is time for a change of direction and her next project will be a book on the life of Mary Seacole.

Helen has decided to call this book  In search of Mary Seacole: The Making of a Cultural Icon and though Seacole is well known in the UK, she is an unfamiliar figure in other parts of the world.  The USA is a case in point because, as Helen says ‘I know from past experience that the US market likes titles that really spell out the context’

She is currently working on this conundrum before the book is submitted for that market and this is where I would ask for help from Random Readers many of whom live in the US.  Helen is asking for suggestions and feedback in other countries on how well known, or not, Mary Seacole is in your part of the world and what kind of title would sell a book about her to you.

The Romanovs and Queen Victoria need no introduction and their names will guarantee sales and interest all over the world, but Mary Seacole is a story that Helen really wants to tell. She has amassed a huge amount of research material and has been waiting to tell her story since 2003.

So Random Readers can you help with your thoughts and suggestions?  I know that Helen would really appreciate it and I would be interested to see what you think as well.  Helen is a favourite biographer and historian of mine and I have reviewed her books here on Random Jottings over the years.

I would love to review her book on Mary Seacole as well....

Random Rant - and yes it is the BBC again

Many of you lovely readers sent me New Year wishes and said 'You will still rant won't you?'.  Well, yes of course I will and here is the first one of 2019. And it is the BBC - again.

For years I have been a fervent supporter of the Beeb. The programmes they produced, the wonderful literary dramatisations, superb David Attenborough presentations, the Proms, Wimbledon etc etc. But no more.  They have become a bloated, biased behemoth with an arrogance and a sense of entitlement that never fails to amaze me,

The latest Take my Breath away moment came when I read this week's edition of the Radio Times. I have taken this for years and continue to do so as it not only gives you all the programmes set out clearly and concisely, both TV and radio, but there are excellent articles from reviewers and writers and I always look forward to its arrival. I used to sit down with a biro and go through marking up all the programmes I wanted to watch/listen to and each page was well marked. A tad anal I agree but I wanted to make sure I did not miss anything.

This week there is an article by Raymond Snoddy who is described as a 'journalist and media writer' in which he posits that the free TV licence for the over -75s should be scrapped. This was introduced by Gordon Brown's government in 2000. Cameron then tried to get the BBC to take over the immediate responsibility for this in 2015. The Government backed down after a huge row but only until 2020 when the current administration says it 'wants and expects the BBC to continue this important concession"

This is not going down well with Auntie. They say the bill will cost them £745million and they cannot afford it. They say they would have to close services that the public value.

Well I am sorry and apologise for my language. These figures may well be true, I do not know, but my immediate reaction was Bollocks.  The BBC is funded by US, yes US people, the plebs who are ignored by the BBC and treated as if we were morons.  It is a payment through the licence fee that we cannot avoid. It is, in effect, a tax, a levy and you have no choice in the matter. If you do not pay your licence fee you are likely to have a visit from men carrying violin cases and dressed in black on your door step.

The BBC do not have to worry about funding, advertisers or ratings. They just sit back and the money rolls in and now they are complaining about having to fund the free licence fee for their mature viewers who, over the years, have probably paid them millions.  Yes, I agree there are rich pensioners around who do not need this bonus, just as there are those who do not need the Heating Allowance each winter that is paid out by the Government, but for many the licence fee is a tax they cannot afford and which can never be avoided. When I reached the age of 60 I stopped paying National Insurance and my pay packet (I continued working for a few years) increased in a delightful way.  But this tax never ends. 

I have written to the BBC on a few occasions when I have been really annoyed about something. You cannot do it on a regular basis else you will be filed under Persistant Pains in the Arse and your letters will be ignored. I wrote what I thought was a cogent reasoned letter to Tony Hall, the Director General of the BBC, about the over voices and continuity announcers that bounce in at the end of every programme before you have even had time to catch your breath, no matter how poignant the subject matter might have been. On BBC4 double episodes of a Scandi or European serial are shown and at the end of the first one somebody will carol cheerfully DON'T GO AWAY the second episode is coming up. Well, I bloody know that thank you very much and I am watching it so I AM NOT GOING AWAY YOU STUPID PERSON (I do not say stupid person but worse but leave that to your imaginaiton).

So as Tony hall was a former head of the Royal Opera House I wrote a letter regarding this and, in order to appeal to his operatic sensibilities, suggested that he might find it annoying if, at the end of Aida when the lovers are being entombed and Amneris is singing and it all ends quietly and the curtain falls, a voice suddenly boomed out DON'T FORGET NEXT WEEK IT IS LA TRAVIATA.

Back came a reply from a minion. He never saw the letter and the response received stated that 'my complaint was not considered of sufficient interest to take further'. Yep. True. Not making it up.

Now I don't bother.

But here is the rub. I get the Radio Times and go through it and you know what I watch each week on the BBC. One hour, Yes one hour. That is on a Monday evening when I watch Only Connect and University Challenge.   When the Proms start I will watch the ones they deign to broadcast. I simply cannot understand why more of these concerts are now shown. They are a BBC institution after all. But we cannot have too much Posh stuff on the TV. Those plebs don not watch rubbish like that and the ratings would go down.

So what do I watch? Sky mostly and now Eurosport. I love tennis. Wimbledon is the only tennis the BBC show with the odd bits and pieces throughout the year. They say it is one of their Crown Jewels and they will never let it go to a commercial channel. They said that about cricket as well which vanished off Free to Air just after we had won the Ashes in a stunning series which had the nation riveted and since then cricket has rapidly declined in popularity. I pay a sub every month to Sky for their basic package, movies and sports and extra for Eurosport.  Yes it is expensive but the point here is that I choose to do so. If I don't want to pay it, I don't and I give up access to what I want to watch.

I could go on and on about bias in reporting, the profligate spending of the management, the high salaries to people I think are overpaid (though I admit this is a personal viewpoint. If you like Gary Linekar well fine, I forgive you). The move up to Salford some years back was eye wateringly expensive and now the latest - read below

A BBC project to rebuild the set of EastEnders is expected to cost £27 million more than planned, sparking concerns over licence fee payers' value for money.

Reconstruction of the soap’s set is part of wider improvement works at BBC Elstree which are set to cost the public broadcaster £86 million in total.

The completion date is now two and a half years late.

I am not saying another word....

Random Tidy

Many of my regular Random Readers will know that I am not a lover of housework. Indeed, my motto is "Housework won't kill you but why take the chance?" a concept I have followed for years. Now I do not want you to think I live in squalor because I don't. I hate a dirty sink and a nasty bathroom as well as the next person, but a speck of dust never bothered me and heaps of books and magazines and other detritus certainly doesn't either. I like a bit of clutter, it makes me feel warm and cosy and possessive. It is MY clutter. I love it.

A couple of years ago I had new bookshelves in my living room. I designed them and a local carpenter built them for me. They are wonderful. When I returned from an Australian trip (they were done while I was away) and I saw them I was struck all of a heap and just sat and drooled. I made them deep to allow for future double stacking. Well that time has arrived and at the start of this year I decided I really needed to sort them out.  So over two days I tidied up, I shelved, I moved books and yes, I actually decided to get rid of some. These were books I had had for some time because (a) I thought I might read them or (b) thought I might read them again.  When I asked myself whether (a) or (b) was likely and the honest answer was no, out they went.   I ended up getting rid of about 100 books and staggered along to the charity shop with bulging carrier bags.  Now my shelves are neat and tidy and all in order and I am much happier. I don't mind other things being a mess but I do like my books tidy.

Since I mentioned that I have done this I have received tweets and requests for photos of the same and so here they are.  I have my Bronte shelves, Dickens shelves, Wharton shelves etc etc and they are now all tidy and together.

Later on last week I found myself sorting out my food cupboards in the kitchen as well. I know not why, a sudden impulse came over me and I got stuck in. A bit shamemaking finding fondant icing that should have been chucked out in 2016 amongst others and loads of stuff got thrown in the bin. Everything is now in neat containers and storage jars (picked up some lovely Hornsea ones in a charity shop a week ago) and all was gemutlich.

But then I looked at my cutlery drawers. and realised they were in a mess too and sorted those out. I also treated myself to some new stainless steel cutlery as my other stuff was a jumble of different designs and a bit of a mish mash.

And then FINALLY I found myself doing a Marie Kondo on my scarf drawer and rolling them all up neatly and they are now all colour co-ordinated.

I began to panic slightly and wondered if this mania for tidiness was going to continue, but I am pleased to report Dear Readers in case you were worrying, that as suddenly as the feeling came over me so it has departed.

I can now relax.

For another two years anyway...

Arrived, Read and To be Read - off we go in 2019 - Part Deux

Second post re the above as the last one was getting a bit long. Not all the books I am reading are necessarily new, some I have bought second hand and some found in charity shops, always a great source to explore.

Chocolate Wars - Deborah Cadbury.  I recently read Princes at War by this author (the princes in question being the sons of George V), and Queen Victoria's Matchmaking (she was an inveterate matchmaker and loved to organise dynastic marriages) and this is an earlier book which was a charity shop find. As indicated by her name and the title of the book it is a history of Cadbury's the chocolate people and this is going to be fun.

Once Upon a River - Diane Setterfield. This arrived before Christmas and I have heard nothing but good about it. I have saved it up and am looking forward to reading it. Over the holidays I watched the dramatisation of The Thirteenth Tale which was her first book and which I read many years ago. I enjoyed it because Olivia Colman, one of my favourite actresses was in it. This was offset by the fact that it also starred Vanessa Redgrave who is not. Will report back on her latest in due course.

The Cold Summer - Gianrico Carofiglio. An Italian crime writer, his stores are usually set in the court and are full of court procedures which I love. I read an earlier one of his An Involuntary Witness, reviewed here, which was so elegantly written so was pleased when I spotted this.

The Skylarks at War - Hilary McKay. I have read nothig but raves about this children's book and have already started it. Looks promising.

So the books are piling up again which is lovely.  I have also decided this year that I am going to revisit some of my "old" books on my shelves.  I fancy balancing out the new with the old. Just before Christmas I read Pickwick Papers by Dickens. I love Dickens. I had not read this title for many years and had forgotten just how funny it is. Mr Pickwick is one of Dicken's most endearing creations. I rather fancy David Copperfield again. I am also looking at my Trollope shelf and thinking there are some there I have yet to tackle.

Lots to look forward to.

I have just had a mammoth sort out of my bookshelves. I was ruthless and weeded out books that I know I will not read again and also those that I have kept 'just in case I ever get round to them'. After a few years it is clear I never will so out they go. I have bags full to go to the charity shop and reckon I have culled about 100. My shelves look pristine and neat and tidy and I am pleased to note that I have space left for double stacking....

Pictures will be posted. Be warned.

Arrived, Read and To be Read - off we go in 2019

I have been catching up and sorting out the last couple of days and now feel organised enough in my mind to start the reading posts for this year. On checking my blog it seems I read about 240 books last year. A huge chunk of these were read on my cruise last January-March and were all light, enjoyable reading. I have posted in the last few months about my approach to my choice of reading. I will just say it again though that I now read for pleasure. If I do not feel like reading the latest Booker or Costa or whatever, and I seldom do, then I don't. I am beyond that stage now.

I started off the year as a I mean to go on and that means Crime and Golden Age Crime in particular. I read The Affair at Little Wokeham and A Losing Game by Freeman Wills Croft. I love these books. The tiny details, the tidy mind of Inspector French as he sorts the wheat from the chaff, all wonderful.   When reading these I was reminded of an Anthony Trollope title I read a few years ago, John Caldigate, which concerns the protagonist being tried for murder and the proof of his guilt or innocence hinges (no pun intended) on a postage stamp and a post mark.  A good friend of mine who very generously loaned her collection of FWC to me said that his writing 'satisfied the pedant in me'.  I agree.

ECR Lorac is another writer I am enjoying thanks to the British Library Crime Classics. They have new ones in the pipeline but in the meantime I am tracking down other titles and enjoying them. Some are better than others which is bound to happen when you are so prolific. I have just read Rope's End, Rogue's End set in Wulfstane Manor which is loved and lusted after by Paul the elder of the Mallowood brothers. His father cut him out of his weill and left it to his sister and an ill brother. All the family loathe each other and it is at a meeting one weekend when a shot is heard and Basil, a financier who is heading for ruin, is found shot. Suicide. Yeh right. We all know it is NOT.  Totally convoluted and full of twists and turns and great stuff. I do like her Inspector MacDonald.  I found this edition on ebay. Originally 2/-!

Agatha Christie's Golden Age by John Goddard. Only to be read by those who do NOT know Who Dun It in the Agathas.  As I am aware of the identity in every single book she wrote that does not bother me but do be warned. As the author sorts out the puzzles and the clues it is inevitable that he will identify the culprit and he makes this very clear. I was looking forward to reading this and to spotting clues new and old but oh dear me, got bogged down in the turgid writing which managed to make the mysteries appear boring.  I soldiered on, but in the end gave up and on the charity shop pile it goes.

Another going to the charity shop or rather, back to the shop as I purchased it from one, are the Duff Cooper Diaries edited by his son John Julius Norwich. Duff Cooper According to the blurb  was a "statesman, soldier, Member of Parliament, wit, poet diplomat and scholar". He was married to Lady Diana Cooper one of the famous beauties of the time and a well known and admired actress, knew everybody and everyone including Edward VIII (aka the Duke of Windsor) and yes, his diaries are witty and fascinating to read. But what brought me up short was the fact that he seemed to have sex with every single woman he met. His affairs were legion and in between writing about them he assures us he loves his wife. Later on she suffers from depression and he wonders why...

 

In the end I threw it back in the charity shop bin. What an unpleasant, shallow man. No wonder he and the Duke of Windsor got on well. A disappointment as I had been pleased to find these and was looking forward to reading them. .Diaries are a give away. The personality of the writer seeps out of the entries and, in this case, I found it repellent.

After this I turned with relief to the latest Inspector Montalbano, Death at Sea which I had been saving up as I love these books so much I like to eke them out. I saw a programme on  Andrea Camilleri a couple of years ago and he came across as so sweet and charming.  He said he had written about ten books and they were all tucked away as he was not sure how much longer he could keep going. He wanted a back list for when he had died. He was at least 80 then so I am not sure how many more he can write but I am delighted with his foresight!

OK loads more still to go but I think I will turn this into two posts and return in a day or so.

 

Happy New Year to all Random Readers

Good morning everyone. I am just dropping by to wish all of my lovely readers a very Happy New Year. I am not back at home yet and when I return and go through all my books and catch up on future reading, I will return with posts.

And, at the requests received by many of you, there Will be Rants....

My Book of the Year 2018

I find my Books of the Year vary wildly between blockbusters that have captured the literary world, be it fiction or non-fiction, and sometimes something that is personal. This year my choice is very personal.

It is La Bella Figura by Kamin Mohammadi

I reviewed it earlier this year and here is my review. I will not repeat myself as the reasons why I loved it are all there. However, I just want to reiterate how much I loved this book and how much it resonated with me. Apart from the connection I felt it is so beautifully written, easy and flowing and just carries you along.

Since reading and reviewing the book I have carried on with the resolutions I made while under its immediate influence. I have learned to say no to stressful things I am asked to do; I have tried, not always successfully, to pace myself and I have concentrated on the things that mean the most to me and that is friends and family.

I regard 2018 as a year in which I have relaxed, though I know that sometimes my frenetic blogs seem to contradict this, and appreciate myself and to treat myself with respect.

So I thank Kamin  for writing this book. This book may not have changed my life in that I want to go off and climb Ben Nevis or go pony trekking in Outer Mongolia, but it has changed it in a smaller but just as important ways and, therefore, I have no hesitation in nominating it Random Book of the Year.

 

Merry Christmas to all Random Readers

I am closing down now for Christmas. I have a post on my Book of the Year scheduled to go up on 30 December but since then I am vanishing to be with my family and friends. May I thank every single one of you who visits, reads and, best of all, comments on this blog. It is now an essential part of my life and everyone has become a friends and for that I am most grateful.

So a Merry and Peaceful Christmas to you all wherever you are

Books of the Year 2018

In a previous post I made it clear that this year, with the travelling I have been doing, I decided not to embark on any ambitious reading but merely to pick and dip into what took my fancy. Therefore, my books of the year for 2018 will not reflect any great, deep tomes of philosophical thought etc (not that they ever have mind you) but reflect my relaxed attitude this year.

So here we go.

The British Library Crime Classics series continues to beguile and fascinate. If you are a fan of detective fiction, and particularly of the so called Golden Age and earlier, then all these books are worth checking out. I have read a lot of them now, thanks to the generosity of the British Library, and like some more than others.   This year I embarked on a massive read of Freeman Wills Croft.  The British Library has about five of his titles in print and it is my fervant hope that more will come through. A dear kind friend who had practically the entire oeuvre very generously loaned them all to me and I worked my way through them all. I am down to a few elusive and very expensive titles which I hope to track down in 2019.

Similarly, E C Lorac is another discovery from this series and I have reviewed the two that are in the British Library catalogue here. There is now another title but I have yet to read and review this one.  Once more, I have binged on these and started tracking them down. There are an awful lot of them and the author also wrote under another name, Carol Carnac. I have managed to get hold of about twenty titles in my searches and there are a lot to go.

Edward VIII by Ted Powell reviewed here. A very interesting take on this rather unsympathetic character and the author is clearly trying to make us feel fonder of him. I did for a bit, but then no. My feelings about this horrible little man returned. The first part of this biography which focuses on his trips around the world, was the part that evoked my short lived sympathy. He was on the go for nearly three years and it sounds totally exhausitng and pretty terrible.

Meg. Jo, Beth, Amy by Anne Boyd Rioux which have just read and reviewed here. Loved every moment of it and after reading found myself turning to my Alcott shelf and re-reading Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom and An Old Fashioned Girl and loved them all over again.

Murder by the Book by Clare Harman reviewed here. A concise, tightly written book about a real life crime in the reign of Queen Victoria.  Read it through in one afternoon.  I enjoy this author's writing very much indeed.

The Quest for Queen Mary by Hugo Vickers - unpublished notes and diaries from James Pope Hennessy when researching his biography. Delightful reading, very funny and very witty and it made me want to re-read the biography. Reviewed here.  We used to have a copy at home years ago but I do not know where it ended up so started to track down this title. Some of the prices were horrific but by a search on the internet and a few phone calls I managed to find one in a charity shop in Brighton. Complete with dust jacket and pristine I bought it straight away and when it arrived started my read. 

Queen Mary -James Pope Hennessy. Fifty years since this was written and it is as fresh and as superb as I remembered it. Masterly is the word.  He manages to get behind that somewhat forbidding exterior of the Queen and I loved every word of it. I reviewed it here. I make no excuse for putting an out of print book on this list - go look for it!

A Legacy of Spies - John le Carre.  The most recent of this author's books and featuring Peter Guillam who we met in Tinker Tailor.  Superbly written as always.

I also discovered Val Mcdermid as I mentioned in my previous post. I have now read the lot. Wonderful. Enjoyed every single one.

There was one book that stood out for me throughout the entire year, it affected me in many ways, and I have kept it by me since reading it. This is my Book of the Year and I will post about this before the year end.

Count down to Christmas

I returned from London at the weekend, totally exhausted as per, but I had a great time. I had my two girls to look after on Friday and it was super to have them all to myself, they are just such fun and interesting and growing up beautifully, and taking them out to lunch was a treat.  On the Saturday we went to see The Grinch which was a hoot and in the evening Helen and I went to the Royal Festival Hall to hear the John Wilson Orchestra performing music from the films.

Oh it was terricic. The lush glorious sound he coaxes out of the string section is quite beautiful and there are moments when the brass section let rip on their own and he just lets them get on with it. The soloist was Kim Cresswell with the most stunning voice which covered I've got you under my skin, The Sound of Music, I've got Rhythm, Don't rain on my parade, and ending up with There's no Business like Show Business which had the audience on its feet. What I love about these performances is that the conductor and the orchestra are having a blast and it shows and the audience are too.

And walking across the bridge and seeing the Thames all lit up with St Pauls in the distance. Gorgeous.

So this week I am wrapping up parcels, cooking etc. Last week I made Stollen, pate and Pantene and this week truffles will be on the menu. I shall be doing those on Christmas Eve as they consist of a lot of chocolate and double cream so need to be kept fresh.

I am compiling my Books of the Year at the moment and will be putting those up after Christmas just in case there is a late entry for the list.

I am also cat sitting for a few days for my next door neighbours.

So I am a tad busy but wanted to come on here to say I have Not Forgotten my faithful readers and will get back to you asap.

Ho ho ho ho