Yammering - bawling, blatant, boanergean, brawling, clamorous, clamoursome, crying, loudmouthed, noisy, obstreperous, openmouthed, screaming,,shouting, vociferant, vociferating, vociferous, yapping, yelling
You may wonder why this definition is heading up this post. If you have read the latest Letter from Lamb's Conduit Street on the Persephone website you will see that this is what bloggers do. Only critics have the right to review books and while bloggers are entitled to their opinion 'it must not be forgotten that it is just yammering'. When I read this Letter I was sitting at my desk at work and my jaw nearly hit my keyboard. I have taken issue with Mrs Beaumann about her comments on bloggers a few months ago and now found myself so incensed by the patronising tone and condescension of this Letter, that I shot off an email immediately. I will not print the ensuing exchange as it is a private correspondence and was not written with publication in mind, but will say that I was assured I had misunderstood and that all the Letter was doing was responding to the provocative and interesting LA Times article which headed up the first paragraph.
(I have re-read the Letter since this afternoon and it seems to me that some of the more offensive comments have been very cleverly edited out. I am not 100% sure of this as I did not print off a copy when I first read it this as I was planning to do. I now wish I had as readers referring to it after hearing all the hoo hah may wonder what all the fuss is about)
Karen over on Cornflower has put into words far better than I ever could her feelings on this unpleasant polemic so I refer you to her posting and all the opinions from other bloggers who have visited. One visitor made the very pertinent comment that 'she only discovered Persephone through reading blogs'. Quite. All of us who have raved about Persephone have probably acted as unpaid marketing assistants. I know for a fact that several people have read and purchased The Making of a Marchioness after my endless witterings about how wonderful it was, ditto The Shuttle and others. I get 200 hits a day on my blog, DoveGreyReader about 500. One mention of a Persephone book from a 'yammering' blogger could translate into many many sales.
My first reaction when I read Mrs Beaumann's comments was to say Well, last time I buy any books from there, but that is very childish and silly and I reminded myself that the books published by Persephone are worth owning and the views expressed in this Letter should not deter anyone from continuing to purchase them. After all, if I did not buy a book because I disliked the writer or play a CD because I did not like the views expressed by the percussionist in the back row of an orchestra, then life would be very complicated indeed. So, I will remind myself of all the grey books on my shelves that I love and look at the endpapers and the bookmarks and put all of this out of my mind.
If I can......
