Random Jottings

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

It is that time of year again. The time when I trot over to my bookshelves, check the letter D and take down a copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  Please note I say A Copy not My copy. This is because I have multiple copies of this book and today have just added to them with yet another edition.

I love Dickens. Always have but I do know those who cannot get on with him at all - I freely admit I find this difficult to understand but hey ho.  Over the years I have read an awful lot about the man himself and, quite frankly, he sounds a tortured individual and not very nice, in particular in his treatment of his wife which I thought was appalling.  I really should not like him at all but somehow I find it hard to dislike someone who has created Mr Pickwick, the Fezziwigs, David Copperfield, Uriah Heep et al.  I feel that underneath all that non stop frenetic genius, there was a troubled individual. 

And this afternoon when reading A Christmas Carol for the umpteenth time I discovered passages that struck me anew as being simply wondrous, conjuring up wonderful pictures:

"The poulterers shops were still half open and the fruiterers were radiant in their glory; there were great round pot bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors and tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence. There were ruddy brown faced, broad girthed Spanish Onions, shining in the greatness of their growth like Spanish Friars, and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by and glanced demurely at the hung up mistletoe. There were pears and apples clustered high in blooming pyramids; there were bunches of grapes made in the shopkeepers benevolence to dangle from conspicuous hooks, that people's mouths might water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy and brown, recalling in their fragrance, ancient walks among the woods and pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered leaves..."

Glorious.

Which edition to read today?

There is the one illustrated by Quentin Blake which I could not resist.

A superb edition of A Christmas Carol and other Stories by OUP, a wonderful hardback with the original illustrations.

A Christmas Carol, the Graphic Novel which reminds me of when, as a child, I had this kind of illustrated version of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and other classics.

Then an edition I came across at a jumble sale and which I paid about 50p.  Inside it is inscribed, written in ink "for our dear Gloria with loving Christmas wishes from the Aunties at Ealing Village" It does not have the date of the particular Christmas which is a shame but this particular copy, which has no ISBN number or publication date to give me a clue, is published by Raphael Tuck & Sons "publishers to their Majesties the King and Queen & to her Majesty Queen Alexandra" which means it is Edwardian. This link https://tuckdbpostcards.org/history makes fascinating reading.  There is also a Wikipedia page about this company which was founded in 1866 and was granted the Royal Warrant by Queen Victoria. This copy has lovely illustrations and the title page is protected by a sheet of tissue paper, intact which is a miracle after all this time. I would love to know who once owned this and to reassure them that I am looking after it very carefully.

And finally, another edition which arrived just an hour ago from the Folio Society. I could not resist. I simply could not.  A glorious edition with illustrations by Michael Foreman which fit beautifully.  It was a pleasure to hold and read. They also sent me a free Folio diary which I thought was rather kind.....

Well you know how I am going to close this post don't you? Of course you do....

"...he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us and all of us. And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

It is that time of year again. The time when I trot over to my bookshelves, check the letter D and take down a copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  Please note I say A Copy not My copy. This is because I have multiple copies of this book and today have just added to them with yet another edition.

So this afternoon I retired to My Boudoir aka the bedroom, heater on, cup of tea, propped up in bed with blanket over my knees and read it yet again. It does not take me long - about half an hour - and, once more, felt a nice warm glow when I had finished it.

I love Dickens. Always have but I do know those who cannot get on with him at all - I freely admit I find this difficult to understand but hey ho.  Over the years I have read an awful lot about the man himself and, quite frankly, he sounds a tortured individual and not very nice, in particular in his treatment of his wife which I thought was appalling.  I really should not like him at all but somehow I find it hard to dislike someone who has created Mr Pickwick, the Fezziwigs, David Copperfield, Uriah Heep et al.  I feel that underneath all that non stop frenetic genius, there was a troubled individual. 

And this afternoon when reading A Christmas Carol for the umpteenth time I discovered passages that struck me anew as being simply wondrous, conjuring up wonderful pictures:

"The poulterers shops were still half open and the fruiterers were radiant in their glory; there were great round pot bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors and tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence. There were ruddy brown faced, broad girthed Spanish Onions, shining in the greatness of their growth like Spanish Friars, and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by and glanced demurely at the hung up mistletoe. There were pears and apples clustered high in blooming pyramids; there were bunches of grapes made in the shopkeepers benevolence to dangle from conspicuous hooks, that people's mouths might water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy and brown, recalling in their fragrance, ancient walks among the woods and pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered leaves..."

Glorious.

Which edition to read today?

There is the one illustrated by Quentin Blake which I could not resist. I bought a copy for my elder granddaughter wondering if she would read it. She did and she loved it.

A superb edition of A Christmas Carol and other Stories by OUP, a wonderful hardback with the original illustrations.

A Christmas Carol, the Graphic Novel which reminds me of when, as a child, I had this kind of illustrated version of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and other classics.

Then an edition I came across at a jumble sale and which I paid about 50p.  Inside it is inscribed, written in ink "for our dear Gloria with loving Christmas wishes from the Aunties at Ealing Village" It does not have the date of the particular Christmas which is a shame but this particular copy, which has no ISBN number or publication date to give me a clue, is published by Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd "publishers to their Majesties the King and Queen & to her Majesty Queen Alexandra" which means it is Edwardian. There is a Wikipedia page about this company which was founded in 1866 and was granted the Royal Warrant by Queen Victoria. It makes fascinating reading.   This copy has lovely illustrations and the title page is protected by a sheet of tissue paper, intact which is a miracle after all this time. I would love to know who once owned this and to reassure them that I am looking after it very carefully.

And finally, another edition which arrived just an hour ago from the Folio Society. I could not resist. I simply could not.  A glorious edition with illustrations by Michael Foreman which fit beautifully.  It was a pleasure to hold and read. They also sent me a free Folio diary which I thought was rather kind.....

Well you know how I am going to close this post don't you? Of course you do....

"...he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us and all of us. And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!

 

Current reading etc

I was sorting out my TBR pile the other day and had a sort out of those I was sent and did not particularly want (charity shop beckons) and those I pass on to friends as I think they may like them and I am not going to read them, and then those which I definitely DO want to read but gawd knows when I will get round to them....you know the drill.

Anyway, here is a round up of read, to be read and will be read but I am not sure when....

Two from the British LIbrary series of Women Writers which is "a curated collection" which description makes me want to spit feathers. "curated" and "shop the edit" are marketing expressions which are now totally overused and incredibly irritating.  If I receive something so described I feel like chucking it in the bin straight away.  Which would be a pity as some of the titles are really interesting.  Father by Elizabeth von Arnim has long been out of print and it is good to have it back. I have a battered old copy on my shelves which I am hanging onto so this new copy will be passed on to a friend.

Jennifer has devoted years of her life to looking after her writer father who is selfish and utterly vile.  He arrives home one day with an adoring acolyte who he announces as his new wife.   When they go off on honeymoon Jennifer seizes the opportunity to do a bunk and make a life of her own.   Witty, funny and delightful and written with that wonderful detached humour that EVA does so well, this is a delight only marred by the ending when I wanted to get hold of Jennifer and bash her up against a brick wall....

Another in this series Tea is so Intoxicating by Mary Essex.  A new tea garden is opened in a country village much to the consternation of the lady of the manor who wants to shut it down. It is run by David who is a rather silly man with a high opinion of himself and is thoroughly irritating.   What was also irritating about this book is the author's penchant for totally unneccesary exclamation marks which are littered throughout and I am not quite sure why.   I have to be honest and say that this was not for me though I have read other reviewers who loved it.  Mary Essex is a pen name for Ursula Bloom who, it seems, was once recognised in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most published female author a fact which fills me with astonishment.   This title is being passed on.

Business as Usual by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford. An epistolary novel novel originally published in 1933. Hilary Fane has just left Edinburgh University and is determined to support herself by her own earnings in London for a year despite the resentment of her rather pompous surgeon fiance.  She finds works as a typist in a London department store (clearly based on Selfridges) and her misfortunes and mistakes and trials and tribulations are written about with wit and style.  She rises through the ranks to work in the library where all attempts at improving the service are met with disapproval by entrenched colleagues.

At first Hilary appears as a tad snobbish with a total ignorance of how the proles live and life comes as a bit of a shock but her natural resilience and good nature see her through. Initially unimpressed with this title by the end I had come to love it and it is staying on my shelves.  As I read it I realised it reminded me in style of E M Delafield which I think is A Good Thing.

In my previous post I said I had been watching the TV and film versions of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by le Carre. I decided I would re-read the book and, once more, found it totally gripping and superbly written.   I then turned to Box88 by Charles Cumming which is a brilliant spy story and very much in the le Carre style. Both Cummin and le Carrie show us what the reality of the intelligence sector is like, no James Bond swanning round in glam locations, but unobtrusive secretive men and women going about their business in a very understated way.  (Personally, I have always wondered how Bond could be a spy seeing as how everyone knew who he was...)

It is 1989 and the Cold War will soon be over, but for BOX 88, a top secret spying agency, the espionage game is heating up. Lachlan Kite, recruited from an elite boarding school, is sent to France, tasked with gathering intelligence on an enigmatic Iranian businessman implicated in the Lockerbie bombing. Lachlan is torn with loyalty to the service that has recruited him and to the friends he is staying with.

It is now 2020: MI5 hear rumours of BOX 88’s existence and investigate Kite only to disover that Iranian intelligence have got to him first. Taken captive and brutally tortured, Kite has a choice: reveal the truth about what happened in France thirty years earlier – or watch his family die.

The Narrative goes backwards and forwards in time, a device which I always find interesting and helps with charactr development. A tight, taut thriller, excellent writing and as good as Cumming's previous spy novels, all of which I have read. There is a cliff hanger ending so more to come and that is also A Good Thing.

Brothers at War - Robert Lacey.   Just published and loving a good gossip I read this with great enjoyment. All about Harry and William and their relationship.   Not all is as it seems as reported by the Press and Lacey seems to have good reliable sources for his facts.  An ongoing saga which will run and run. Various opinions expressed on Ginge and Winge or Cash and Harry as they are sometimes referred to in our fine tabloid press.

OK now onto books awaiting my attention:

Wobble to Death by Peter Lovesey.  It is fifty years since this novel was written and I am delighted that Peter is still with us and still writing superb mysteries featuring Inspector Peter Diamond and set in Bath. This is a special anniversary edition and I am delighted to have it.

The Man who didn't fly by Margot Bennett. British Library Crime classic and I know full well that I am going to enjoy this.

The Artful Dickens by John Mullan "the tricks and ploys of the great novelist". As a Dickens fan and having read Mullan on Jane Austen I know this is going to be good and I am looking forward to reading it.

Dressed for War by Julie Summers. I know nothing about this except it is the story of Vogue editor Audrey WIthers from the Blitz to the Swinging Sixties. Sounds promising,

And I have to mention Miss Carter and the Ifrit by Susan Alice Kerby. Miss Carter by an combination of circumstances comes across an Ifrit "don't call him a genie" who is eager to do her bidding.  He brings her exotic foods and whisks her off through space to visit a nephew in Canada.  I am half way through this title and loving it - it reminds me very much of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day published by Persephone some years ago and has the same Cinderella quality. I will reveiw more fully later.   This little gem is published by Dean Street Press who are rapidly becoming my favourite place to find delightful unknown titles.

Well that is enough to keep me going for a bit methinks.

How are you all doing with your reading? Do let me know of any interesting titles and I hope everyone is keeping well in these trying times.

Recent reading and received

I have been reading in a very desultory fashion the last couple of months. I have found it impossible to settle down and concentrate. Isn’t it odd when you think you are going to have all this time and so we can do some really serious reading and then find you really can’t be bothered?  Annoying as well.

I have been re-reading a lot of crime and lots of romance as well which seems to soothe my soul and relax me.  It has given me some ideas for a future video as I get really cross when romance is dismissed and viewed with contempt as it frequently is.  But that is for another day.

So what have I got on the table at the moment?

I have just finished The Geometry of Holding Hands by Alexander McCall Smith. This is the latest in the series featuring Isabel Dalhousie, philosopher, and I find these books a great joy. I gave up on the rest of the output of this author sometime ago as I found the books were all appearing as an amorphous blob in my mind and the 1st Ladies Detective Agency just turned into a ramble. Nothing wrong with a ramble but you do need a little something to happen now and then. I came across the latest one in the library a few months ago and thought I would give it a whirl but gave up after one chapter.

Now these Dalhousie books also ramble but because Isabel is a philosopher and her musings have a point and they are interesting and amusing.  If you want a fast paced story then these will not be for you but I love them and find them enormously satisfying.  Each volume hinges on a philosophical point and idea. There is also the pleasure of following Isabel’s family life and her growing sons, her younger husband Jamie and their relationship and her niece Cat who, in this book, is clearly heading for disaster.  I have all these on my shelves and all in hardback as I am collecting the lot. This winter it is my plan to start at No 1 and read them all over again.

The Mystery of Charles Dickens by A N Wilson. I ordered this with a slight feeling of trepidation as I do find this author vaguely irritating but when he is writing about a subject or person I love then I find I cannot resist. However , the same irritations are rearing their head already and I am only two chapters in. I recently read his biography of Albert, Prince Consort so how he has had time to produce this latest tome I really do not know.  One sentence really jarred with me in that particular biography when he referred to Queen Victoria as “drooling over Albert” which I thought was totally unsuitable in a book purporting to be a serious biography.

You may think I am being picky and perhaps I am but I found myself tut tutting at the phrase, referring to Peckham where he had a house for Nelly Ternan as an area that was “fast being swallowed by by jerry built houses” and a row of villas “built on spec”.  Now I am sorry but if you are referring to a Victorian suburb you do not use these terms and I found it jarred. And I find his grammar somewhat lacking. “We know little about Nelly Ternan, she was part of this, obviously she was”. Again I found this jarred.

OK call me a pedant. I don’t mind. I shall carry on reading but but but....

As antidote to this I am very much looking forward to reading Jane Austen by Tom Keymer, subtitled writing, society and politics. It is a neat small sized book from OUP and dropped through my letter box today. I have already turned to the chapter Passion and Persuasion.  Austen’s writing was felt to be lacking in passion, not least by Charlotte Bronte, but oh my goodness, the letter from Captain Wentworth at the end, the pouring forth of his feelings - well, blimey, passion abounding and one of my most favourite pieces of all literature.

I will report back in due course but I have a feeling I am going to enjoy this.

Spam Tomorrow by Verily Anderson a memoir set in the second World War which has shades of Diary of a Provincial Lady for me, not necessarily because of the setting, but more the style and dry wit of the writing.

”when I asked the local chemist for line and disinfectant, he felt it was only fair to allow the first aid post to claim me......half a dozen VAD’s made a rush at me and treated my small abrasion as though my whole head had blown off”

Published by the wonderful Dean Street Press.

And, finally, The Woman in the Wardrobe by Peter Shaffer another wonderful title from the British Library Classic Crime Series.

Enough to be getting on with methinks.

I revisit David Copperfield and find I love Dora

There are times when the To Be Read pile is toppling over, books are dropping through the letterbox and you have so much to read and you think I don't want to read any of them. This happens to me periodically and the only way to get out of this slump is to turn to something old and loved.  This time I checked all my shelves and decided Charles Dickens was what I needed and I had a think and picked up David Copperfield.

I had not read it for years. It has always been one of my favourite, if not my most favourite, of all the Dickens that I have read but I was so familiar with it I left it for a long time. I am glad I did as when I started to read it again it was alive and fresh and gosh, simply wonderful.   Dickens can be sentimental, sometimes overley so, and some of his characters can irritate. Little Nell from the Old Curiousity Shop and Esther from Bleak House being top of the list. David Copperfield is home to Dora Spenlow who I used to find a real pain but on reading this time I found myself feeling a great affection for her.

The story of how David's mother married Mr Murdstone and was on the receiving end of what would now be called mental abuse is a familiar one. When I first read this book when I was about twelve I wept buckets. On re-reading I was again reduced to floods of tears. How does Dickens do it?

"On the last night in the evening she kissed me and said 'if my baby should die too Peggotty, please let them lay him in my arms and bury us together.....and tell him that his mother when she lay there blessed him not once but a thousand times....

Peggotty my dear put me nearer you, lay your good arm underneath my neck and turn me to you for your face is going far off and I want it to be neaer'

I put it as she asked and Oh Davy the time had come when my first parting words to you were true - when she was glad to lay her poor head on her stupid cross old Peggotty's arm and she died like a child that had gone to sleep"

Parts of David Copperfield are autobiographical, particularly the part where he was put out to work in the blacking factory and the misery and suffering he underwent. It pervades his books and affected him for the rest of his life.  I will not go into this here but recommend that you get hold of  the wonderful biography written by Clare Harman.

There are parrallels later in the book when he falls in love with Dora Spenlow, the daughter of his employer, when he is in chambers and this part when he is totally besotted is very funny indeed and shows Dickens at this best.  They marry. And it is clear that Dora is like his mother, her gentleness, naivety and, to be plain, her silliness.  And when I reread this book when I was in my twenties it struck me then, and does so now, that David began to behave towards her the way Mr Murdstone had towards his mother. It is not unkind, he loves her very much, but he decides her 'mind needs forming'.

"The formation went on very slowly....I persevered for months and it began to occur to me that Dora's mind was already formed"

Fortunately he draws back from the brink when he realises that he has made Dora unhappy and just has to accept the way she is.  On re-reading this now I have discovered that there is an underlying strength of character in Dora that I had not noticed before. She does have wisdom and realises how David feels:

"I loved my wife dearly and I was happy but the happiness I had vaguely anticipated was not the happiness I enjoyed and there was always something wanting"

We now know that this was Dickens own feelings regarding his marriage to Catherine, They married young, had many children and he became rich and famous and then found that he had nothing in common with her any more. In the book David behaves better than Charles did who treated his wife abominably and curelly and even tried to have her committed to a lunatic asylum. A letter discussing this has recently come to light and it beggers belief how he tried to manipulate  public opinion by traducing her and telling lies.

Dora loses a baby and becomes ill. We are not told what her illness is merely that she gradually weakens and fades. And this is where I truly loved Dora. She knows she is dying and accepts it with a maturity that belies her character.

"I am going to speak to you Doady. I am going to say somethng I have often thought of saying lately. You won’t mind?"

"Mind my darling?"

'Doady dear I am afraid I was too young. I don't mean in years only but in experience and thoughts and everything.....I think it would have been better if we had loved each other as a boy and girl and forgotten It. I have begun to think I was not fit to be a wife...you are very clever and I never was'

"We have been very happy my sweet Dora"

'I was very happy but as the years went on my dear boy would have wearied of his child wife. She would have been less and less a companion to him. He would have been more and more sensible of what was wanting in his home. She wouldn't have improved. It is better as it is"

By this stage I was sitting in my arm chair with tears pouring down my face.  And this is why I now love Dora.

I loved reading this again and also because it contains my favourite Dickens character - Aunt Betsy Trotwood.

I have to forgive Dickens. He was cruel and vile to his wife and yet I feel in this death bed scene with Dora when he is totally grief stricken he realises the truth of his real life marriage and knows he behaved badly. 

Just a thought...

This has sent me back to my Dickens shelf and I am now thinking of Dombey and Son which I have never read. It is time I did.

Birthday Treats (1) The Invisible Woman

Last Friday was my birthday and it seems I have only now recovered from it all. I have reached the age of 67 which is a pretty scary thought and though I am 37 in my mind, five days of gallivanting and having fun put me in bed yesterday while I recovered from my aching back, aching legs and lack of sleep.   But now I have been running around today like a spring chicken (what IS a spring chicken by the way?) and feel great. My celebrations are not yet at an end as I am being taken out to lunch tomorrow by another dear friend and then that will be that for this year.

Up in London as you all know, went earlier than anticipated as help was needed with childcare which I am always happy to give.   On my actual day Florence and I went out to lunch at a local Italian restaurant, courtesy of my daughter who was working but who entrusted Florence with an envelope full of cash to 'treat grandma'.   Meatballs and spaghetti and ice cream consumed we then went for a walk round the park. Actually that should have been 'grandma trotting after Florence on her pedal bike' in the park which was at the stage of the day when I am usually wanting to put my feet up but no matter. We got home and both collapsed on the sofa and I gave her my iPad to play with which is now stuffed with games and educational puzzles for her to enjoy. Kept her occupied while I had a bijou dosette.

Up next day and into town to meet up with Helen Rappaport for lunch and gossip and I was dying to hear all about her new book The Four Sisters (out in a week or two and I will be reviewing and it is wonderful as always) and the documentary about the Romanov daughters which will be out on BBC2 soon.   After chicken and mushrooms off we then went to the Odeon to see the film The Invisible Woman starring Ralph Fiennes as Dickens. He also produced the film and I was a little bit worried, bearing in mind that the last time I saw him he was shooting thunderbolts at Hogwarts, that he might be a tad over the top as we know many actors who play Dickens tend to do (you know who you are....) but no, he under played it beautifully making sure that Felicity Jones who played Ellen Ternan, his young mistress, was centre stage.  

Beautifully acted by everyone, particularly Joanna Scanlan as Mrs Dickens who I found most moving, it is a slow unfolding film that takes its time and does not rush.   Ellen is the least talented member of the actingfamily and is destined to find the theatrical life more difficult that her older sisters and when it is clear that Dickens is interested in her Mrs Ternan, a beautifully nuanced performance by Kristin Scott Thomas, takes a pragmatic view that Ellen would have a more secure life if she aligned her fortune with the writer.  My feeling when I first read the Tomalin book about the Ternans some years ago, that Ellen was not a totally willing participant in all this, was confirmed by the slant this film took.   In the end, Ellen did not have much choice. Women didn't then....

I wrote about The Invisible Woman by Clare Tomalin a little while ago and here is the link to that post, here. A book which I found intriguing and unputdownable when I first came across it some eight years or so ago and with a link to my family mentioned in its pages that knocked me sideways when I found it.

Ralph Fiennes does justice to the book and does not over emotionalise or overdo his own role but, as I have said before about Dickens, it is very hard to forgive his behaviour towards his wife and his family. The contrast between his love and humanity to the poor and downtrodden throughout his life and his treatment of his wife and children is very hard to reconcile.

A wonderful film and I do urge you to see it.

Post is longer than I thought and I still have to tell you about Gravity, Slightly Foxed and Persephone and tea and cake and spaghetti carbonara and books received etc so will have to come back another day.

Au reservoir

The Great Charles Dickens Scandal - Michael Slater

This is the Year of Dickens and you might think by now that you are Dickensed out and that there is nothing left to say.  Well, there might be for a while but pretty sure that sooner or later some scholar somewhere will unearth some intriguing bit of paper or document that will start us all off again.

The title The Great Charles Dickens Scandal is guaranteed to  catch the eye, the main scandal in Dicken's life being his association with the actress, Ellen Ternan or Nell as he used to all her.   And the thrust of this book by Michael Slater, author of a superb biography published a few years ago, is to trace this story and how it was suppressed for so long and how the truth finally emerged into the light of day.   OK Famous Writer leaves Wife Takes Mistress - these days would not make an eyelid bat, but while Dickens was alive and for a long time after his death, a scandal surrounding the great man would have sullied his reputation for ever and, as Ellen had reinvented herself as a woman ten years younger than her actual age, married and had a son, it was vital that her story was kept secret.  It is quite remarkable that it was only after her death that her son discovered his mother had been Dicken's mistress.

The rumour and gossip about Dickens and his relationship with Ellen Ternan started soon after he and his wife Catherine separated and really, it was Dickens who started it all off with a letter to The Times in which he denied all such wrongdoing, thus ensuring that most people who had never thought of this before certainly did now.  Because Dickens was so famous and so revered his family, friends and supporters fought to maintain his reputation and to put these rumours to flight and this continued for some considerable time until a book was published, by Mills & Boon of all people, by one C E Bechofer Roberts in which a fictionalised love affair between Dickens and Ellen was the main subject. Shock horror "had he preached cannibalism" the author was purported to have said, it would have proved less shocking than the revelation that Dickens was a "man of the world".  The Dickens Society rubbished the book and its allegations and Sir Henry Dickens, Charles's son threatened to horsewhip him.

Once the cork is out of the bottle it is very hard to put it back in and so it proved.  As the years went by more and more research and digging was done, more witnesses came forward and it gradually became impossible to cover up the fact that not only was Dickens not the paternal kindly paterfamilias so beloved of Victorian society, but he was an adulterer to boot and he had tried to cover it up all his life in order to maintain his spotless reputation.

The author of this fascinating book mentions, once again, to my joy, the episode when Dickens entered a draper's shop in Hull to buy some silk stockings and the young draper wondered who they could be for.  The young assistant, a fan of Dickens, was given a ticket to Dicken's reading that night. He had not recognised the author and found himself sitting amongst the best seats on the stage and that Dickens read from what he, the draper, had told him earlier in the day were his favourite pieces of his writing.  That young man was Edward Simpson-Long, my great great (not sure how many greats) grandfather and this story has been passed down through the generations. It is a tenuous link, I know, but as I love Dickens and his writing, it is one which gives me great pride, slight though it may be.   And I know I have mentioned this before, so my apologies.

Michael Slater works though all the evidence produced over the years by various writers and scholars, some of which can be dismissed as flimsy at best, but there is a solid body of writing about this aspect of the Inimitable's life over the last twenty twenty years or so. Peter Ackroyd in his 1990 biography holds that a 'consummated affair' between Nelly and Dickens is 'almost inconcievable'. Claire Tomalin in her life of Nell The Invisible Woman takes the line that of course there was sex, though when reading this book I did feel that Nell was not really happy with this aspect of their relationship at all.  Slater, in this fascinating book, and in his earlier biography does not come down on one side or another regarding the affair or not between Ellen and Dickens, but merely stating the facts that are indisputably known.  He does predict that the story 'will run and run'.

And it will....

A mine of information and facts for all Dickens lovers from Michael Slater whose knowledge and expertise on all aspects of Dickens life never fails to amaze.  His earlier biography which I reviewed here, has pride of place on my shelves.

Triple Delight from Yale University Press

Simply gorgeous parcel arrived this morning from Yale UP and I am gloating over its contents and have to share my delight.   These are three books high up on my reading list, but as you know, I am awaiting the birth of second grandchild and know full well these will take a while to get through so I want to flag these up and recommend them to you before I even read them.  And if you think this is being a bit precipitate, then read on...

The Great Charles Dickens Scandal - Michael Slater.   In this year of Dicken's celebration I am sure some of us are beginning to flag, but not me.   I find Dickens a totally fascinating man as well as loving his writing, and the contradictions in his character and his portayal of himself as the happy family man with the perfect life when, in fact, he was the opposite, is intriguing. I read Michael Slater's simply magnificent biography of Dickens a year or so ago, reviewed here, and said in my then post that he had concentrated on Dickens the writer.   I am glad he has now decided to analyse his paterfamilia image in more detail and if it is half as good as his biography then I shall be a happy lady.

My Dear Governess - the letters of Edith Wharton to Anna Bahlmann edited by Irene-Goldman Price.  Oh this is going to be read first. Well, not straight through, will read a bit each night as gulping down letters all at once is not a good idea in my opinion, they need to be savoured. In 2009 the papers of Bahlmann, a governess and companion to several prominent American families, were auctioned and among this collection was a treasure trove for all Wharton lovers - 135 letters from Edith to her governess.  I have already dipped in and here is an excerpt from a letter written when Edith was just fifteen: "Today is what the poets call 'halycon' weather; a word which always bring 'to my mind's eye, Horatio' a vision of becalmed ships in blue seas, with white birds swooping overhead"...OK do you think there is a fifteen year old today who would write like that?   Well, perhaps there is but I have my doubts.   SO looking forward to watching the style and expression of her letters change as she matures and grows older.

Victorian Bloomsbury - Rosemary Ashton.  Another gorgeous book which I cannot wait to read.  This is the story of Bloomsbury before Woolf et al got hold of it.   While we automatically think of VW and her cohorts whenever the word Bloomsbury is mentioned, the neighbourhood was, according to the blurb "the undisputed intellectual quarter of nineteenth century London".  Having lived in Bloomsbury for a large part of my teens and twenties and knowing so many of the parks, squares and streets of this area I know I am going to find this of great interest.  There are a lot of 'firsts' in Bloomsbury including the first kindergarten and hospital for children in Britain and first medical school for women amongst others.

So three totally drool over books to read in the coming months - think the Slater will be first off the pile and the Wharton for my bedside table and then will tackle Bloombury as soon as.

My thanks to Yale for their generosity.  I know they are a super duper publishers because of course they published Pashas by one James Mather who just happens to be my lovely son-in-law...........

Awaiting my attention - my TBR (To be Read pile)

I occasionally post on Random about books recently received and awaiting my attention.  I always have a think before I do this because I certainly don't want to crow about all the lovely stuff I get, but I do want to share it with you.  Also, there are so many of them and it is unlikely that they are all going to be read in a timely manner, so at least this way I can bring them to your attention and the publishers do know I appreciate their largesse and thank them.  Most of you know I read very very fast (two books yesterday) but I am still falling behind.

First up, lots of lovely thrillers and mysteries to discuss.

At the bottom of this pile you will see the latest Jo Nesbo, Phantom. Have just started this, am finding it a bit scary and not sure that I can say I am enjoying it, though it is compellilng stuff. Discovered this author last year when I read The Snowman and nearly scared myself witless. 

We all Fall down - Michael Harvey.  Have read a couple of this author, American, sharp, snappy and with that lovely gritty Big US City feel.

The Namesake - Conor Fitzgerald.  An Alec Blume thriller. Think this is the third in the series and set in Rome and I like them very much indeed.

Lisa Jackson - Devious.  New author to me.  Read a few of them in 2011 when sent to me and found them a tad far fetched but once started could not be put down.

Sara Paretsky - Body Work. I know she has a huge following but I have never read any of hers so looking forward to seeing what I think about this one.  Ditto, The Dying Minutes by Martin O'Brien; Spilled Blood by Brian Freeman and Guilt by Association by Marcia Clark.  I have also received, not pictured, The Summer of Dead Toys by Antonio Hill a detective story set in Barcelona. I think this may be my first Spanish detective.

OK now the next pile. Sorry this pic is a tad out of focus, think I was zooming in on the tulips which I put there because they are just so lovely.

The Last Summer by Judith Kinghorn. I have read this and will be reviewing later.  Love story starting in the glorious gilded summer before the start of World War I when the Edwardian era came to an end.  Rather delightful.

Dodie Smith - The New Moon with the Old.  Reprints of some of her titles and beautifully timed as I have been Doing a Dodie recently.

Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding.  One of the books brought home from the Bloomsbury Tea and looking forward to this.  Her earlier novel The Spy Game was brill and reviewed by moi here.

A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson.  A proof copy, again from the Bloomsbury Tea, where we were lucky enough to meet the author and hear her discuss her book.  Sounds fun.

Julian Clary - Briefs Encountered. Have already dipped into this and it sounds hilarious. Well, it would be with Julian involved.

Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins.  One of the new Persephone books which aficionados will already have spotted by the lovely grey cover.   As always, comes with a book mark matching the end paper, and the books from this publishing house are so beautiful to have and to hold as well as to read.

Titanic on Trial - Nic Compton.  This is one of the many books in the year of the Titanic Centenary and has real life accounts from the survivors.   Have read some of them and they are incredibly moving and some of them so matter of fact it beggars belief.  I do wonder how I would react when placed in a dreadful situation such as this.  Would I be calm, cool and collected or would I shriek the place down?  I shall never know - I hope.

Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World - Simon Callow. Gorgeous book from a delightfully erudite, flamboyant and witty actor whose Dickens readings I have seen on TV.  His love and delight in Dickens burst out of the pages.

OK that is it for now.   Postman delivered another five books today and am already wilting under the strain....only joking, I love it.   One of the books I read yesterday was on the Astaires - Fred and his sister Adele and could not put it down. Review imminent.

I keep some of the books I am sent, those I cannot bear to part with and which will be on my permanent bookshelves.  Others I pass on to friends and some go to charity shops so I keep everything turning over and spread the word.

Au reservoir everyone.

PS - I watched the Test Match this week with my newly purchased Sky facility.   RANT ALERT.   Will save this up for the weekend....

Dickens' Women - Miriam Margolyes

I am a member of the Amazon Vine Programme and each month receive a newsletter from which I can choose a book or two, or whatever they are offering. This is meant to be tailored to one's preferences as shown by my Amazon browsings, but I find the offerings sometimes are wildly out of my field of enjoyment.  I mean Vampire books?

I should not moan as I do end up with some fascinating and interesting stuff and this month hit pay dirt when I saw they were offering this Audio CD - Dickens' Women Miriam Margolyes one woman show. I pounced upon this with delight and finally had a quiet hour this morning to sit down and listen.  It seems that this was originally issued on cassette and was on Radio 4 back in 1993.  The BBC never miss a marketing trick and wheeled this out for the Dickens Celebrations.   I am not complaining. This was sheer delight from start to finish my only disappointment being that there was no Aunt Betsy Trotwood included in the gallery of characters. 

There was, however, a feast of readings - Sairey Gamp from Martin Chuzzlewit, one of those grotesques so loved by Dickens which sometimes grate on me, but read in such a wonderful way that I found myself laughing out loud.   An excerpt from the Commercial Traveller, so not just the well known stuff appears here, then Mrs Lirriper (I read and reviewed this a few years ago here), Little Dorrit, Rosa Dartle and the wonderful scene from Oliver Twist when Mr Bumble woos Mrs Corney.

I have always found Mr Micawber a total pain and do wonder why his wife puts up with him, but here Miriam reads Mrs Micawber's 'I will never desert mr Micawber' excerpt so beautifully and touchingly that I ended up with a lump in my throat.

I love all of Dickens that I have read, but will admit that sometimes they gain from being read aloud, as he proved himself on his wildly successful tours, and it is such a joy to listen to a marvellous actress as Miriam Margolyes bringing all the characters to life.   This was recorded 'live' so you can hear the audience reaction of laughter and applause and this creates a wonderful atmosphere. Miriam, herself, is just so witty and funny and reads excerpts from Dickens' letters and adds spot on acerbic comments which had the audience in the theatre, and me at home, in fits of laughter.

We all know how cruelly Dickens treated his wife. I have tried to find excuses for him when I have reviewed various biographies about him, but really I cannot any more.  His behaviour was appalling and his treatment of Catherine, unforgivable.   When he separated himself from her, he gave her a house, an allowance and sent her youngest child to live with her, the other children were kept away.  She lived in Gloucester Terrace for over twenty years and never saw Dickens again.   Only after his death was she reconciled with her daughters (and I don't think much of their behaviour I must say) and here is the saddest reading of all by Miriam.   As Catherine lay dying she gave a packet of letters to her daughter Kate, with the request that they be given to the British Museum 'so that the world may see he loved me once'.

I cried....

Tom all Alone's - Lynn Shepherd

About eighteen months ago I read Lynn Shepherd's first book, Murder at Mansfield Park, which I reviewed here.  I will admit that I was not sure if I really wanted to read it or not, as I am not overly keen on books that use Jane Austen as the excuse for a re-write, but Lynn wrote to me so nicely and sent me a copy so what could I do? I was worried I might not like it and simply hate having to tell an author so, but of course I was wrong and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So belated apologies to Lynn for doubting her.

I note in this earlier review that I wondered what Lynn would do next - how about bumping off Lady Catherine de Burgh or Sir Walter Eliot, neither of whom would be much mourned.  Instead I now find out that Lynn has turned her attention to the world of Bleak House and its characters and, this being Dickens Year, strikes me as being a good choice.

Before I go any further, I would like to say that knowledge of Bleak House and its story line is not necessary to enjoy Tom All Alone's. It can be read as a stand alone and you will not miss anything at all. BUT, should you know Bleak House, and I do, then another layer of enjoyment is added as, once again, the author takes the protagonists of BH and turns their characters and thoughts inside out so you expect one thing and get another.  This is very clever indeed and threw me completely.

It is London 1850.  The book opens with familiar lines "London. Michaelmas term lately begun and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln's Inn Hall" and we are off, transported to the foggy, filthy streets of Victorian London and where we meet Charles Maddox once again, struggling to set himself up as a private detective after being unfairly dismissed from the police force - he blames Inspector Bucket for this.  He is not doing too well so when the lawyer Edward Tulkinghorn offers him a handsome price for an apparently simple job, Charles is unable to resist.  Of course, all Bleak House readers will know that Tulkinghorn is a nasty devious evil man and know that something awful is going to happen. And so it does.

I am not going to go any further and tell you the ins and out of the plot, which are far too intricate for me to sum up in one post, but take it from me that there is a touch of Jack the Ripper lurking in a particularly vicious and gruesome murder, there is a lost child thrown into the mix, kindly Mr Jarndyce Jarvis is not what he seems to be, nor is his ward Esther Hester and there is a rather nasty solution to his benevolence and kindness.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book as its portrayal of the London conjures up the most wonderful pictures, much as Dickens did:

"There's no lamp at the corner of the street, just the little charcoal furnace of the chestnut seller, which throws a red glow up at her face, and onto the drawn features of four dirty little children clustered around her skirts. Not for the first time, the woman has a swollen black bruise around one eye......the afternoon seems suspended between day and dark and the circles of milky light ast by the gas lamps dispel the gloom no more than a few feet around"

The reader can almost smell the dirty and decay and the damp and the rotting air and glad I am that I found myself swept up in the narrative because, as you may have noticed from the paragraph above,  it is written in the present tense.  I have been fairly pungent in my comments on Random about books written in this style, ie - I dislike them but I have to be honest and say that when I have disliked a book written in this tense, I find it is because I don't care for the book anyway and the present or past tense has nothing to do with it.  It does make me more ready to criticise a book, ok not fair I know but that is the way it goes - on the other hand it does mean that if I enjoy a book despite this, then it must be a pretty good read to make me forget which tense it is in. 

I like the author's hero, Charles Maddox, who gets rather caught up in this mad whirl of events and, being an idealistic and earnest young man despite all his disappointments, finds he is being sucked into bewildering situations. A  little naive at times I feel, but his essential goodness and determination shine through and he does not give up. 

I look forward with great enthusiasm to Lynn Shepherd's next book and I am left wondering, as I was at the end of her first, where she will go next and which period will she choose?  I rather fancy Dark Doings at Barchester Towers in which we find Obadiah Slope is the hero, the Dean is a kleptomaniac, Mrs Proudie a serial adulterer and the Warden a fraudster who is raiding the Barchester coffers.

However, ignore my frivolity as, joking aside, this is a well written, atmospheric book which pays tribute to Dickens and stands on its own merits.  I loved it. Do read.