Literary Ramblings

I have three terrific books to review but, at the moment, I don't have the will or the energy to get my thoughts together. In the last two weeks, I've been in 19th century Yorkshire, revolutionary Russia & outback Australia in the days of the pioneers. However, I'm starting three weeks holiday on Friday &, right now, I have that "just let me get to the end of the week" feeling which means that coherent thought is beyond me. So, instead of a considered review of any of the books I've been reading, here are a few links, photos & reminders instead.

The freesias are from my garden, the first freesias I've ever successfully grown so I'm thrilled. Freesias are one of my favourite flowers, I love the scent. I know the jug they're in has a Christmas theme & I hope this won't mean that I'm condemned as one of those people (usually managers of supermarkets) who put the Christmas decorations & mince pies out in August. It was just the best sized jug for the purpose. The freesias only lasted a day at home as I had to save them from the Phantom Freesia Fancier, aka Lucky. I knew she loved eating roses but I thought the strong scent & the texture of the freesias would put her off.  It didn't so, to save her from an upset stomach, or worse, I shut the flowers in the bathroom on Sunday & then took them to work. It's been a very wet Spring here & I had to squelch across the lawn to pick them but it was worth it.

The 1947 Club is only a couple of weeks away & I have some very exciting books to choose from. Simon & Kaggsy are hosting a week of reading, blogging & discussing books published in 1947.

Here are the books I've plucked from the tbr shelves & I'm having a hard time deciding which ones to read. Any recommendations? In case the titles are a bit hard to read, they are Close Quarters by Michael Gilbert,  Full Moon by P G Wodehouse, A Crowd Is Not Company by Robert Kee, Poppies for England by Susan Scarlett (Noel Streatfeild) & The Serendipity Shop by Dorita Fairlie Bruce.

I feel that I should have read a Mary Stewart novel in celebration of her centenary this month but I'm running out of time & probably won't get there. However, I'm looking forward to reading the reprint of her novella, The Wind off the Small Isles, which has been unavailable for some time.

Also looking forward to Artemis Cooper's biography of Elizabeth Jane Howard. There's an article here by Cooper on the biography & she was also a guest on BBC Radio's Open Book last week. I'm between audio books at the moment so maybe All Change, the final Cazalet novel, read by Penelope Wilton, should be next?

I bought a copy of Zola's Thérèse Raquin the other day & I was reminded of the excellent TV adaptation from the late 70s with Kate Nelligan & Brian Cox. Alan Rickman is also in this production, which I'd forgotten although I probably didn't know who he was back then! It's on YouTube here if you haven't seen it & the quality of the picture looks very good.

I'm not a big fan of those publishing projects where writers "update" the work of Jane Austen or Shakespeare. However, I'm intrigued by Margaret Atwood's take on Shakespeare's The Tempest. Hag-Seed will be published next month & here Atwood explains her ideas on the play & her version of it.

I love photos of bookshops & here are some gorgeous photos of the Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company along with Jeanette Winterson's Preface for a new book about the shop.

Finally, Scott from Furrowed Middlebrow has heroically made all of our bookish shopping sprees look positively anaemic compared to this majestic haul of 96 books from the Friends of the San Francisco Library book sale. The publication date for his new imprint, Furrowed Middlebrow Books, is fast approaching & I've already started reading A Chelsea Concerto by Frances Faviell.

Literary Ramblings

More bits & bobs of news about reprints & books in general. Scott has announced the third author to be reprinted later this year with his new imprint, Furrowed Middlebrow Books, & I'm very excited. Frances Faviell's A Chelsea Concerto is Scott's favourite WWII memoir & I've wanted to read it for ages. It's mentioned or quoted in many books about the Home Front & I love a Home Front memoir so this will be a real treat, especially with an Introduction by Virginia Nicholson, author of Millions Like Us. Scott will also be reprinting Faviell's other memoir about life in Berlin after the War, The Dancing Bear, as well as her three novels.

It's sad that a reappraisal of an author's work often has to wait until after their death. Anita Brookner has always been appreciated by a discerning audience (I have a friend who has read them all) but her reputation had declined a little. I think only her most famous novel, the Booker Prize winning Hotel du Lac, was in print when she died in March. Penguin had announced plans to reprint all her books & have now brought the program forward so all her books will be back in print in the UK by the end of the year. The covers are just gorgeous, so elegant, very Anita Brookner, I think. Here is a lovely tribute to Brookner by Julian Barnes & if you'd like to know which Brookner to read first, Thomas at Hogglestock, currently rereading all her novels, will guide you.

Fans of the British Library reprints of the novels of J Jefferson Farjeon will be pleased to hear that Harper Collins are planning to reprint his Ben the Tramp novels later this year. I think it's encouraging that other publishers are jumping on the Golden Age bandwagon & resurrecting more writers of that era.

In October, Random House are publishing Georgette Heyer's short stories in Snowdrift and other stories. This is a reprint of the collection Pistols for Two with the addition of three newly discovered stories. As I haven't read any of Heyer's short stories, I'm looking forward to this.

Finally, Kathryn Hughes has inspired me to think that George Eliot's novel, Felix Holt, might be a fascinating read after all! I love Eliot & Middlemarch is one of my favourite books but Felix & Romola have never appealed to me very much. I have this ancient copy on the tbr shelves so I may read it this year to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its publication.

Literary Ramblings

I've collected a few more literary links & interesting articles to share.

The most exciting news I've heard for ages is that Scott from the blog Furrowed Middlebrow is partnering with Dean Street Press to launch his very own imprint, Furrowed Middlebrow Books. Here's the revelation of the colophon for the new imprint & here's the announcement of the first of three authors to be reprinted - Rachel Ferguson. Scott will be reprinting three of Ferguson's novels - A Footman for the Peacock, Evenfield & A Harp in Lowndes Square - & you'll find more information on all three books plus Scott's enthusiastic reviews on his blog. Dean Street Press have done such a great job of resurrecting unfairly neglected Golden Age crime writers that I'm sure they will be the perfect partners for Scott's new venture. I can't wait to find out who the other two launch authors will be. I have my fingers crossed for more Winifred Peck.

Edited to add : I was right! I can't wait, especially for the mystery novels.

I love articles written by experts (or obsessives) who look at a book & can only see their special subject in it. This article from the Cricket Country website reviews the British Library Crime Classic reprint of Thirteen Guests by J Jefferson Farjeon entirely in terms of the cricket references.


A couple of weeks ago, ABC Classic FM revealed the Top 100 Voice over the Queen's Birthday long weekend. Every year they compile a different Top 100, voted on by listeners & this year it was the voice - opera, choral, folk song. I didn't enjoy it as much as previous years because I don't enjoy opera so a lot of it didn't interest me as much as previous years when they've featured Baroque & Before, the Concerto or Mozart. However, we're also coming to the end of a mammoth eight week election campaign & this little bit of promotion for the countdown made me smile. I don't think you need to know who the politicians are to recognize the species.

I've become aware of the very definite ideas that readers have about translation lately. I'm reading The Tale of Genji in Royall Tyler's translation but I know that there are devoted partisans of other translations. Mirabile Dictu discusses it here. Janet Malcolm has also recently written an article about translations of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. The fans of the Constance Garnett or Maude translations are passionate about their choice & I was interested to read more about the dislike of some critics (including Janet Malcolm) for the Pevear & Volokhonsky translations of the Russian classics. All the discussion & discord has made me want to read Anna again.

I read it first in my teens, influenced by the BBC TV series with Nicola Pagett, Eric Porter & Stuart Wilson. I'm still very fond of this adaptation (even though a friend to whom I loaned the DVDs laughed at the fake beards). It was the TV tie-in edition & I think it was the Constance Garnett translation. I also heard Tchaikovsky's Manfred symphony on the radio the other day & that reminded me of the series as well because it was used as the theme music.

The next time I read it was this OUP edition translated by Louise & Aylmer Maude. Now I'm tempted by the new OUP edition translated by Rosamund Bartlett. Here is Bartlett discussing whether a new translation is even needed & here's a review of several of the newer translations.

Finally, I really like Elaine Showalter's idea of celebrating Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway with Dallowday to compete with James Joyce & Bloomsday. Clarissa Dalloway's party took place on June 13th 1923 so why shouldn't it be as celebrated as much as Leopold Bloom's walk around Dublin? Frankly the food would have to be more appealing than kidneys on toast, Gorgonzola sandwiches & Guinness. We might even be offered cucumber sandwiches & a cup of tea - much more to my taste.

Literary Ramblings

I've come across some wonderful websites & podcasts recently & I do love to share. After all, if I'm going to be scrambling to fit all these into my reading & listening schedule, I think you should all be under the same relentless pressure!

First though, I want to mention an audio book. Some friends have been visiting Mitford country & that may be why, when my monthly Audible credit was due, I decided to download Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford. Read by Patricia Hodge, who is the most perfect narrator for this book that I can imagine - do admit. I haven't read Love in a Cold Climate for years & I'm loving it. It's such a witty, funny book; Lady Montdore & Boy Dougdale are so dreadful that it's a treat to revisit them all again even though there's a sadness in Polly's story which is heartbreaking. That's my Mitford shelf at the top of the post. I have quite a few Mitfords on the tbr shelves but they're scattered so not easy to photograph.
I'm so pleased that some of these older Chivers audio books are available on Audible. Chivers went through several name changes over the years & finally went under altogether a couple of years ago. I would love their editions of the Barbara Pym & Dorothy L Sayers (read by Ian Carmichael) audio books to be available but, I'll take what I can get. Apart from anything else, their cover art for their classics series was always so stylish.

I came across this article about Constance Fenimore Woolson at Lithub which led me to sign up for their newsletter which links to lots of literary articles. The Woolson article was written by Anne Boyd Rioux, author of a new biography of Woolson that I'm very keen to read. Then, I discovered Boyd Rioux's website & her Bluestocking Bulletin which began in February & I've read the back issues & subscribed.

While reading the Bluestocking Bulletin, I came across a mention of the New Statesman History podcast series Hidden Histories. It is a six episode exploration of women writers before Jane Austen, from Aphra Behn to Maria Edgeworth. I've listened to two episodes so far & it's wonderful. You can listen at the website or subscribe to the podcast.

Another new podcast is from the people who run crowdfunding publisher, Unbound. Called Backlisted, each episode highlights a forgotten book, in the manner of the website, Neglected Books.
I've listened to one episode so far, on Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes, one of my favourite novels. I found the episode a bit too long & a little self-indulgent. The three male hosts didn't let their guest, Samantha Ellis, get a word in for some time, but when the discussion did get started on the book, it was fascinating. I've downloaded two more episodes, on Nancy Mitford's The Blessing & J L Carr's A Month in the Country, so I will persevere.
I heard about this podcast from a terrific Facebook group, Undervalued British Women Novelists 1930-1960. It's worth joining if you're interested in the period & neglected women writers.

Well, that's it for now. More rambling to come when I have something to ramble about. Happy reading, listening & subscribing.

Literary Ramblings

I thought I'd do a quick roundup of events to look forward to & new books to anticipate (really old books in new covers, my favourite kind of new book).

Margaret Kennedy Day is only about six weeks away. This is organised by Jane from Beyond Eden Rock & all the details are here. I've enjoyed the Kennedys I've read so far & have several more on the tbr shelves to choose from.

Simon & Karen are planning The 1947 Club after the great success of The 1938 & 1924 Clubs. It's going to be in October but more details to come.

A new batch of British Library Crime Classics are now available for preordering. They include Crimson Snow, an anthology of winter stories edited by Martin Edwards, more titles by Freeman Wills Crofts & John Bude, two books by George Bellairs & two of the Sergeant Cluff novels by Gil North. Publication dates are from July to October in the UK.

More crime from Dean Street Press. I know there are lots of fans of Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver novels. I didn't know that Wentworth published many other novels & Dean Street Press are reprinting the lot. The first ten are available now with more to come.

Arnold Bennett is an author I want to read more of. I loved The Old Wives' Tale & now three more of his novels are about to become Penguin Modern Classics. The Card, Anna of the Five Towns & Riceyman Steps will be published from July to September in the UK.

I'm also tempted by this book, mostly because of the gorgeous cover (shallow, I know). I don't know anything about Dutch literature but this volume of short stories might be a good place to start. It's published in September in the UK.