Random Jottings

The Brontes - Oxford Companion Guide

I recently posted about my visit to Haworth. I first went there when I was about 21 and in the grip of my Bronte fascination after reading A Man of Sorrow by Lock & Dixon, a biography of Patrick Bronte. It is a fascination that has never died and shared by millions as Haworth remains one of the most visited literary locations in the world.

We are in the throes of bicentennial festivals - 2016 it was Charlotte, in 2017 Branwell, this year Emily, and in 2019 it will be the turn of Patrick to be in the limelight as it will be 200 years since taking up the curacy of Haworth. And in 2020 Anne who, more than any of the sisters, deserves to be more appreciated that she is. That I am very much looking forward to.

A couple of months ago I received a lovely email from Oxford University Press who asked 'Elaine would you like an updated Anniversary Edition of the Bronte Companion for review?'.  A response was sent within ten seconds of reading the email and a few days later this gorgeous book was delivered.

Before I mention the content I have to repeat what I have said before on Random Jottings just how lovely the books are from OUP. They are always beautiful to touch and feel with silken paper and with a clear and elegant font. They are also satisfyingly heavy, if that does not sound too daft, they are books of substance and a pleasure to have.

And of course I have spent many happy hours dipping in and out and reading it over the last few months wondering where to start to extoll is virtues and joys. The two editors are Christine Alexander and Margaret Smith (whose edition of the Bronte letters I have on my shelves) and has a preface by Claire Harman whose biography of Charlotte is, without doubt, the best I have read (and I did start it wondering if anything new could be written about CB - how wrong I was).

Everything you could wish to know about the Brontes is here: homes of the Brontes; Life in Haworth Parsonage; Education and teachers of the Brontes; Places of Education and employment of the Brontes; Travels by the Brontes and places visited....you may think this sounds emphemeral but to Bronte lovers it provides a background and detail for which we all crave. To know that Charlotte visited Bolton Priory where I was a week or so ago, Keighley where I visited East Riddlesden Hall (did she I wonder) to know that she loved the Lake District and to see so many places I have visited also, gives me quite a thrill.

One section I really enjoyed was the Biographies of the Bronte from 1940 many of which I have read and owned. I first read the Winifred Gerin on Charlotte in the sixties after the above mentioned biography of Patrick. Gerin lived in Haworth and was thus able to write with authority about people and places in Yorkshire. Her biography remains one of the definitive books on Charlotte. Juliet Barker's book about the entire family was a tour de force and had me up at nights for a whole week until I finished it and Clare Harman, who I have already mentioned was the author of a superbly written book on Charlotte which may just be the best yet.

The Companion mentions that relatively few 20th century biographers have chosen to study Anne but recent work on her suggests that she may be emerging as the most interesting and positively portrayed of the Brontes.  Last year I read and reviewed Nick Holland's superb biography of Anne, link here, and was totally delighted to see she is now being given the attention she deserves.

There are sections on Sequels (Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea being mentioned), film and stage adaptations and as I have seen many of those featured I read this with great enjoyment. Out of all the versions of Jane Eyre that I have seen my favourite remains the film made a few years ago with Michael Fassbender as Rochester and Mia Wasikowska as Jane. I felt it was very true to the story and not wildly over the top as some others have been. And the one and only BBC version of Tenant of Wildfell Hall remains a must watch as far as I am concerned.

This really is a glorious book, it is a treasure trove of information and a must have for all Bronte lovers. The Companion draws together an amazing amount of information in a single volume and 'such rounded coverage enables the reader to see them in their family, social and literary context, and to trace their continuing influence on the work of other writers'

Well, that is the scholarly summing up on the back of the Companion. My less scholarly summing up is that it is a glorious book packed full of great reading and a must have.

My grateful thanks to Oxford University Press for their generosity - they have made this Bronte fan very happy indeed.

The Swish of the Curtain - Pamela Brown

Miss Collins, the junior librarian knew me well. She should do. I practically lived in the library. 'Oh Elaine' she said when I took The Swish of the Curtain to be stamped out 'you are not reading this again are you?'. I lost count of the number of times I borrowed this book. I remember looking at the dates stamped in the book and checking them and realising that nearly all the dates pertained to me. I knew this book so well I could quote bits of it. The book fell open at my favourite pages. And now it has been republished and issued for a new generation of theatre mad, or not so theatre mad, children to read. I could not be happier.

The story features seven children from three different families who meet, become friends, and form an amateur dramatic group, the Blue Door Theatre Company. They find an old unused property and decide to do it up and make a theatre. Yes OK right. Wildly improbable and as an eleven year old when I first read this I realised it was highly unlikely that any child could do this. I was a cynic even then. But, I was also a huge fan of MGM musicals where shows were put on at a drop of a hat, where Micky Rooney and Judy Garland would say 'hey let's put the show on in the barn' so I happily suspended disbelief.

My favourite of the children was Nigel who was tall and dark and handsome - well I imagined him to be so anyway - and I always wanted him and Lyn to fall in love and get married. There are slight hints of this which I seized upon happily. Then there was Sandra, quiet and even tempered who was wonderful at making costumes. "Bulldog" who played comic roles but was more interested in practical matters and who spent months trying to work out how to make the curtains swish and not rattle.

There was also a character called Mrs Potter-Smythe who was portrayed as a bit of a laughing stock who ran the equivalent of what I now recognise as the Women's Institute and who had ideas about drama herself. She had a rather alarming preference for dressing her ladies as nymphs and shepherds and cavorting about the vicarage gardens when putting on an entertainment. I laughed at her when I was young, but now I rather warm to her. Women like her are stalwarts and the backbone of village life and she always does her best.

One of my favourite chapters is the part when Lyn and Nigel do the Balcony Scene from Romeo and Juliet

"Lyn and Nigel went from strength to strength, Lyn continually leading him on and forcing him to act. He was so happy to find himself acting well that he forgot the argument in which he said the balcony scene should be acted soberly and once or twice laughed gently gazing up at Lyn with adoring eyes..."

My eleven year old self found this scene soooo romantic.

This is a gorgeous book and I thank Pushkin Press for sending me a copy to review. When I have read it, again, I am going to give this to my granddaughter to see if she will love it as much as I did at her age.

She is obsessed with Harry Potter so not sure it will appeal but it will be there and one day she may pick it up and read it.....

Books Read and Books To be Read

It has taken me a few days to recover from the drive back from Yorkshire so apologies for absence. I love Yorkshire and could visit there all the time, but the journey is now exhausting. Going up over six hours because of road works etc and though coming back was more straightforward, it was still tiring. So going to stay nearer home next summer.

Anyway, back to books. I recently discovered the crime novels of E C R Lorac, thanks to the British Library and reviewed the two they published here, and I liked them so much I have been tracking down others by this author. Luckily my good friend who I was on holiday with is a member of the London Library and managed to get hold of a few for me which went up to Yorkshire. I will be writing about these at a later date. So here are a few others I have recently read:

A Family Recipe - Veronica Henry.  I love this author's books. They are packaged and designed to look very 'chick litty' which always annoys me (as with Erica James, Fanny Blake and others) and this does them a disservice as they are always well written, heart warming and full of insight into human emotions. Laura Griffin finds out in a shocking and upsetting way that her husband is having an affair. Her daughter has just gone to University and she has a double blow to deal with.  Laura turns to her grandmother's recipe box, a treasured collection dating back to the Second world War and inspired by the interest in her pickles and chutneys sends her down a new path. Now, you may think this is all a bit simplistic and yes, she easily achieves success, and in a way, it is. But it is often the smaller things one does in a crisis that get you through. Something you can deal with and manage when chaos is all around you. And I know from personal experience that it works. A lovely book. I had the pleasure of introducing the author and Fanny Blake at a book festival a few years ago and they were both simply delightful. One member of the audience was an ex Mayor of the town and she told me she read all of Veronica Henry's books because 'they make me feel happy'. No finer compliment in my opinion.

Last time I Lied - Riley Sager. This dropped through my letter box yesterday and sounded intriguing. Emma was just a child when she attended a summer camp and three girls disappeared never to be seen again. Now many years later she has returned and, once again, three young girls vanish.  I won't go into the somewhat prepostrous plot but what started out promisingly soon degenerated, in my opinion, into a morass of wild surmises and overwrought writing. The story line was a good one but I do feel a good editor would have reduced some of the hyperbole. But I gather the author's first book was a huge success so what do I know?

I had been reading the Max Tudor books of G M Malliatt and found then witty and great fun and discovered she had written three others featuring DCI Just so I got hold of those as well. I like this author's sarky amusing style and read these pretty quickly. One featured the death of a 'cosy murder' author and the other the death of a 'chick lit' author and, one again, I liked them and did not guess Who Dun It.

Sleeping in the Ground - Peter Robinson. A DCI Banks story and, as always, well written and tightly plotted. A wedding in a village church turns into carnage as a shooter kills the bride and groom and guests. The trail leads to a local member of a shooting club who is found dead having committed suicide. As all experienced thriller readers will know a suicide is ALWAYS a murder and so this proves. Excellent read though I do wish the author would stop rabbiting on about the music he likes. Does it every single book and it does get tedious. But a small winge and I tend to skim over those bits anyway.

Money in the Morgue - Stella Duffy. This is a Roderick Alleyn story from notes left by Ngaio Marsh and, therefore, I was looking forward to it immensely. Sadly, I read it with great disappointment. Perhaps my expectations were too high. The characterisation of Alleyn was spot on and his reactions to murder and his assessment of the suspects, but the story just got bogged down. I found the ending totally ludicrous and wildly improbable. I am a member of a Face Book group which discusses Golden Age of crime and when I gave my opinion I was shot down in flames by one of its members who seemed to think I was dissing the entire Duffy oeuvre. Told him that this was the first I had read by this author so he was totally wrong.  But a bit of a misfire in my opinion.

So a mixed bag of books though I enjoyed nearly all of them and, as you will see from the picture above, I have a load more goodies to come.

 

At Haworth - home of the Brontes

Off to Haworth yesterday, one of my favourite places in Yorkshire.  Decided to drive as we had to change buses and it was a bit of a pain. Set the satnav and prayed, though I had checked the route beforehand in my trusty map book, and off we went. Got there no problem and was able to park right next to the Parsonage Museum thus obviating the need for The Hill.  We had arrived nice and early and so were through the door before the hordes descended (by the time we left at 1pm the place was getting pretty full) and were able to wander round and read and note at leisure.

I never tire of visiting Haworth. My first visit was about fifty years ago and I have been back many times in between. I was a member of the Bronte Society in the dim and distant and attended a meeting or two (the Yorkshire tea served up remains in my memory) but the members seemed, without exception, to be very odd. In fact, some of them seemed to be bonkers. One woman kept me pinned to the wall for about fifteen minutes while she told me she was the reincarnation of Emily and I had some difficulty getting away. Others were of a similar ilk. If any current members of the Bronte Society are reading these, then my apologies, that was my experience at the time. I did pick up a membership pack from the Parsonage today so may rejoin. I am pondering on it.

Anyway here are some photographs taken on this visit. First up, the living room and the table around which the sisters Emily, Anne and Charlotte used to pace in the evenings, reading and discussing their work:

Then the street. I decided to be brave, bearing in mind my dodgy knee, to walk down it. Of course that means I have to walk back up but decided I was game for it. And I did it. And the knee ok.  Halfway up or down whichever way you look at it, is a wonderful second hand bookshop which I had my beady eye on. It was closed. Cue much lamentation. As I have already bought seven books this week I suppose it was just as well.

Here is the sign outside the Parsonage. When I first visited Haworth all those years ago I stayed with a Mrs Scarborough and her husband was the local blacksmith and he made this sign. It is still there.

Of course you cannot leave the Parsonage without going through the obligatory shop, but they do have some classy stuff there amid the usual pencil sharpeners and fridge magnets. I came away with three books, one for me and two for grandchildren, a note book which I do not need but I love notebooks, a bag which I do not need but I love bags and a bookmark which I always need.   This is why I always drive to places nowadays, no matter how far, as I always get loaded with stuff and could never get it home otherwise.

Incidentally, the Parsonage has the portrait of the Three Sisters painted by Branwell on loan from the National Portrait Gallery which is great as you can get really close to look at it - at the National it is fairly high up on the wall.

Oh and I purchased a bijou snackette from the Villette tea shop - I kid you not that was its name. (There used to be a Bronte Balti but that seems to have gone now)

Getting back to Skipton was a leetle complicated in that I turned left when I should have turned right and the satnav then started giving me a route which felt as if I was being sent to Newcastle. Not too bothered as we were driving through the most glorious countryside with wonderful views of the Dales (oh I could live here quite easily) but when we got to a turn signposted Keighley which was the direction we wanted to go and we were told to go the other way, I rebelled and ignored the bossy woman and off we went. Went through Oakworth where the wonderful scene at the end of the Railway Children was filmed ('Daddy Oh my Daddy' who could forget) and through Keighley and then I knew where I was and all was well.

The drive to Yorkshire is always a pain but I so love it when I get here that I tend to forget until the following year when I do it again and wonder why .......

Bolton Abbey

I love Yorkshire. I really do. I have visited many times over the last forty years, with my children when they were small on family holidays, prior to that when I was a member (short lived) of the Bronte Society and now as I am older, and still enjoying the glorious countryside.

Today we went to Bolton Abbey in Wharfedale. We caught the bus from Skipton and went through winding uphill and downhill roads, through small villages with tiny front gardens all crammed with roses and lupins and hanging baskets and shrubs, sun shining and blue skies. When you arrive at Bolton Abbey you open a gate in an arch in a stone wall and step through and there in front of you is the valley falling away, the river Strid glinting in the sun and the ruins of the abbey forming the most wonderful shape against the sky. I never tire of seeing it and it always takes my breath away.

There are a series of stepping stones across the Strid and I always get a feeling on nostalgia when I see them as I have photos in old albums of my two girls picking their way very carefully across and today there were plenty of children doing the same. Happy memories.

The views on the bus there and back were quite beautiful and it was one of those simply gorgeous days in the English countryside which makes me feel that there is nowhere I would rather be.

And just to add to the day when I got off the bus back at Skipton bus station it was to find my blue jacket which I had left behind when getting on the bus, draped over a bar near the bay waiting for me to come back and claim it. I do not know who put it there but I thank them. Somehow I knew I would get the jacket back safely.

Random in Yorkshire

Up in Yorkshire again - this is the fourth year my friend Daphne and I have visited. This year we are staying in Skipton in the Dales. Before this we had stayed at Robin Hood Bay near Scarborough, we simply loved it but, alas, an arthritic knee (me) and hip replacement (Daphne) made climbing the hill there rather diffy. It is practically vertical so we decided we might give it a miss and go somewhere flat.

We are staying in a lovely little cottage with a view over a beck and the Skipton canal, in fact the street is called Back O the Beck. Two tiny bedrooms and bathroom upstairs and an open plan room downstairs, all beautifully fitted out with everything one could need. Parked the car for the week in the local car park, £15, which I thought was pretty good and we are about five minutes from the High Street etc. I brought the girls here when they were small and visited Skipton Castle and we also visited Bolton Abbey which we plan to do this weekend. So beautiful there.

At the moment I am resting on my bed writing this with cup of tea and biccy to hand after the most horrendous journey. We forget just how long it takes and add in huge construction works on the A14 and then ditto on M1 we were crawling along.  My satnav has been playing up as well and I set it from the M1 nr Leicester as I know the route to there, and off we went. 'turn left onto the M1' said the melifluous voice from the speaker so we did. I did not expect constant guidance as we were going straight up and would be for some time, but dead silence and the map did not move. According the the screen we were still at the Service station at Leicester and there it stayed the entire time. We just had to make do with a ghostly voice which gave the route at very short notice indeed.   For some reason we ended up going through Bradford. I have yet to work out why. I have a sneaky feeling we took a wrong turning off an A road because the direction was given far too late and so we had a wonderful look around Bradford. I have often wondered what it looked like, well now I know.

Anyway, we got here in the end and all is well and we are settled in. We have had fish and chips and are now in a state of total and utter knackerhood.  We have decided that next year we will go to Norfolk.... 

The Max Tudor Books of G M Malliet

I was staying with a friend a couple of weeks ago and found a book by GM Malliet on her To be Read pile (which makes mine look puny I can tell you now). It had a rather delightful cover and I picked it up, read the first page and thought This sounds Fun. And it was.

Max Tudor used to be in MI5 and was becoming disillusioned with it all. When his friend and partner died in an explosion he left it all behind him and went to Oxford, read theology, and became a priest. He is sent to Nether Monkslip (gorgeous name for a village) to become their vicar and electrifies the neighbourhood with his dashing good looks and his charm. Fights break out over the flower arrangments between the women who have their eye on him. I will not give away who he marries in case you have not read the books and I do want you to do so.

There are a wonderful disparate collection of characters in all the books but there are a core who appear in each title. Among these are his housekeeper, Mrs Hooser, who is pretty incompetant and is a vague mother to two children, Tom aged three and his elder sister Tildy Ann who keeps him under iron control.

Athena Owen, who owns a New Age shop Goddesspell and is a pagan and a hearler. Suzanna Winship, sister of the local doctor who is glamorous and sexy and has her eye on Max and Elka Garth owner of the Cavalier Tea rooms which is also known as Gossip Central where nothing is missed and much discussed. A bit like the High Street in Tilling where everyone goes out on their daily shop to ask 'Any news?'

In every murder case, and Nether Monkslip certainly has its fair share (bit like Midsomer really) Max aids and helps Detectve Chief Inspector Cotton, very dapper and superbly dressed who I think has a bit of a man crush on Max. They work well together this country Holmes and Watson.

So far there are six books in this series, though the author has written others featuring a different cast, and after reading the first one I did what I always do, got on line, tracked down the rest and ordered the lot. I bought them second hand I hasten to add, I was not that extravagant and have spent the last two weeks motoring through them all.

They are tremendous fun with characters rejoining in names like Carville Rassmussen, Lord and Lady Bayer Baaden-Boomethistle of Totleigh Hall (positively Wodehousian) and Baron and Baroness Sieben-Kuchen-Backer to name but a few.

The writing is witty, amusing and to the point, no superfluous waffling and the narrative bounces along at a lively speed. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's style.  I understand that G M Malliet went to Oxford but now lives in the USA so I am not sure if she is British or American. The books seem essentially English to me but the use of words like 'gotten' and 'the fall' for Autumn remind us that perhaps she is not. The odd Americanism sticks out like a sore thumb in this St Mary Mead type setting and I do wish they could be edited out, but I know I am being over pernickety.

I really really like these books and apart from being fun, the mystery is each one is pretty tight and exciting. Especially the one set in a nunnery.

I shall say no more.....