An article about EM Delafield appeared in the Independent the other day and, though brief with not a huge amount of background, I am linking this into my post here so that, hopefully, anybody out there who only know her for Diary of a Provincial Lady will be spurred to seek further and track down her books in secondhand bookshops.
While the Provincial Lady is unsurpassed and one of my favourite all time books, she wrote many others and the themes and topics contained are as relevant today as they were then, albeit in changing circumstances. My daughter Helen had 'Faster Faster' by EMD on her recommended 'if you can get hold of a copy reading list' for her thesis (soon to be published and I will be boring the pants off everyone - just thought I would warn you so you can flee the country now...), and my street cred shot up several hundred notches when I received a call 'Mum have you heard of this book at all?' and was able to say in a very off hand careless sort of way 'Oh yes I have a copy on my shelves'
Another writer, also Unustly Neglected, is Dorothy Whipple. I posted about her at some length some months ago now so will not repeat all I said. If you wish to have a look at this earlier blog entry the link is here. As a huge fan of DW I was delighted to receive a link this morning from Adele Geras who has written a very perceptive article on this author for Normblog and as I really enjoyed reading it, would encourage you to nip over to http://normblog.typepad.com/ and have a look (am having trouble with the link so just scroll down a bit please!)
Had never heard of these writers until about ten years ago and the list of books which I still have to track down and locate by these authors, adds a certain zest to bookshop hunting.
Lots of clicking this morning on links but wanted to share with you all.