Ringing Church Bells to Ward off Thunderstorms - ed Justin Lovill

Ringing Bells to Ward Off Thunderstorms is a collection of letters & replies from Notes and Queries. This magazine started in 1849 & is still published today. The idea was that people, mostly fussy antiquarians & clergymen by the querulous tone of the letters, wrote in with interesting facts about history or language or with a question like Were animals put on trial in the Middle Ages? or Was Clarence really drowned in a butt of Malmsey? or Do game bird's feathers in a pillow or quilt stop the ill from dying? This last made me think of the scene in Wuthering Heights where Catherine has fasted for three days & tells Nelly that she couldn't die because there were pigeons' feathers in her pillow. Very obscure & pedantic but interesting all the same.

The modern editor of the book, Justin Lovill, gives a history of the magazine & often adds some context & extra information to the entries. It's the perfect book to dip into in an idle moment. I kept it beside my reading chair & read a few entries every day as well as looking through the table of contents to find entries that piqued my curiosity. Who wouldn't be intrigued by entries such as

BOILING TO DEATH : A punishment for cooks?
BYRON'S BRAIN : How much did it weigh?
CUSTARD : Why did the Puritans abominate it?
DEAD MEN'S HEADS : Unusual attachment to
LIVERS, WHITE : A sign of murderers and cowards?
MELANCHOLY : Does it cause waistcoat-bursting?
SWEARING : An Act of Parliament against

I found it fascinating that people could write in with their queries & someone fossicking in their library would come up with an answer or a reference to the original  account of a legend or the derivation of a word or phrase. The book is illustrated with woodcuts & other pictures of the time. As Justin Lovill explains, Notes and Queries was the first magazine almost entirely written by the contributors & readers & can be compared with internet communities like Wikipedia. The contributors used pseudonyms such as Bookworm, Mr Blink, Dryasdust & Old Fogie to protect their anonymity so they weren't without a sense of humour. Lovill has picked the plums from the original volumes of Notes and Queries & if you're at all interested in history, the etymology of words & phrases or even just about the kinds of subjects that interested the 19th century scholar, this book has a lot to offer.

Sunday Poetry - John Clare

Another poem by John Clare this week. After over a week of hot days & no rain in sight, I'm looking for a little wish fulfillment. A cool early Spring day in the English countryside is just what I need to imagine during a Melbourne summer. The Pale Sun is something I can only dream about at this time of year.
I've also discovered this lovely blog about the life & works of John Clare. I'm going to enjoy exploring the archive over the next little while.

Pale sunbeams gleam
That nurtur a few flowers
Pilewort & daisey & a sprig o' green
On whitethorn bushes
In the leaf srewn hedge

These harbingers
Tell spring is coming fast
& these the schoolboy marks
& wastes an hour from school
Agen the old pasture hedge

Cropping the daisey
& the pilewort flowers
Pleased with the Spring & all he looks upon
He opes his spelling book
& hides her blossoms there

Shadows fall dark
Like black in the pale sun
& lye the bleak day long
Like black stock under hedges
& bare wind rocked trees

'Tis chill but pleasant - 
In the hedge bottom lined
With brown seer leaves the last
Year littered there & left
Mopes the hedge sparrow

With trembling wings & cheeps
Its welcome to pale sunbeams
Creeping through - & further on
Made of green moss
The nest & green-blue eggs are seen

All token spring & every day
Green & more green hedges & close
& everywhere appears -
Still 'tis March
But still that March is Spring

Emily Dennistoun - D E Stevenson

Emily Dennistoun is one of the manuscripts by D E Stevenson discovered in the attic a few years ago & now published by Greyladies. It's the story of a woman who has to learn to assert herself & fight to avoid succumbing to loneliness & depression & find happiness.

Emily lives with her stern, sarcastic father at Borriston Hall, a Georgian house on the coast of Scotland. Emily was always the neglected child. Both her parents preferred her younger brother, Charles, who was educated with a view to him joining the family firm after university. Emily's education would have been completely neglected had it not been for Miss Helen Roe. Miss Roe was more than a governess to Emily; she was her only friend & champion. When the story begins, however, Emily's mother has died after many years as an invalid & her father has sent Miss Roe away as he considers that his daughter has no need of a governess & is quite capable of running his home.

Emily is certainly capable but, at nearly 30, she realises that there's little hope of her ever being able to leave her father. Charles is now 21 & he returns from college with a plan to open a furniture restoration business rather than go into the family firm. His father is furious &, although Emily sympathises with Charles, there's little she can do. Charles introduces Emily to his friends the Murdochs, an artist & his wife who live nearby. Emily also meets Francis Hood, a doctor who has been a hero to Charles since their school days. There's an immediate attraction between Emily & Francis but he has a secret that he's reluctant to disclose & Emily's shyness & his own diffidence mean that they part at the end of his visit with no clear understanding of each other's feelings.

Charles has returned reluctantly to college & soon forgets his furniture idea when he falls in love with Alice Brunton, a pretty but shallow girl & they soon become engaged. Charles brings Alice home to meet his family & Harry Murdoch decides to paint her portrait. Unfortunately he's a weak man only kept on track by his devoted wife, Laura, & he becomes infatuated with Alice. She's flattered by his attentions &, after a fancy dress party where their mutual infatuation becomes obvious, they decide to run away together. At the same party, Francis & Emily have revealed their feelings at last, oblivious to the undercurrents affecting the others, & plan to meet the next day so that Francis can make a clean breast of his dreadful secret. However, Francis ends up chasing Harry & Alice to the railway station to try to stop their elopement, missing the meeting with Emily & causing old Mr Dennistoun to assume that it's he rather than Harry Murdoch who was about to elope with his son's fiancée. Francis's efforts to set things right are thwarted by mischance & malice & he leaves for his new post at a London hospital without seeing Emily.

The shock of Francis's departure & her father's unkindness to her maid, Kitty, lead Emily to take decisive action. She goes to stay with Helen Roe, who has inherited a cottage in the south of England, taking Kitty with her. She decides to support Charles in his furniture business using the money she's made from her writing, her only resource in the lonely years at Borriston. She also meets Sir Joseph Leate, an older man who is attracted to her. Francis, meanwhile, imagines that Emily has rejected him & buries himself in his work.

I enjoyed this book very much although there were a few too many coincidences & surprises in the plot. Emily's writing is one of these surprises. One day, talking to Francis in the study at Borriston Hall, she calmly pulls a couple of books from the shelf & says that she's written them. This is the first mention of her writing. It seems that she's been using a pseudonym & Miss Roe has been acting as her agent, readying her manuscripts for publication & dealing with the publishers. Francis's life story is another problem of believability for me. I won't reveal the secret that he fears will prevent Emily marrying him but the resolution of his story is like a fairytale. However, these points didn't stop me enjoying the story & being eager to get back to it every evening. Emily is a lovely character. Warm, intelligent, caring but a little naïve, I was desperate for her to escape from her bitter, uncaring father & find a life of her own. Francis is an attractive hero. Not physically attractive but honest, a bit blunt but very clever & determined to overcome the hindrance of his background. It struck me while reading Emily Dennistoun how similar the plot is to Fanny Burney's Camilla which I'm also reading at the moment. The lovers separated by endless coincidences, plots by malicious people & unhappy chances; the spoilt, rather selfish brother providing another complication. There really are only so many plots in the world.

This edition comes with an interesting Introduction by D E Stevenson's granddaughter, Penny Kent, about the rediscovery of the manuscript & her memories of her grandmother. She speculates on when the book was written & the possible reasons why it was never published. She thinks it was probably written in the 1930s but doesn't know if it was ever submitted for publication. Maybe the War intervened or maybe it was because Stevenson's eldest child, Patsy, died suddenly at the age of 11. I'm very pleased that it's been published at long last.

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death - James Runcie

This book almost made it on to my list of Books I Didn't Quite Get To in 2012. I was very excited when I read about it pre-publication. I ordered it for the library & reserved it. Then, it arrived & I looked forward to reading it. Then, I read a couple of lukewarm reviews & I dithered. I took it back to the library, borrowed it again, kept it much too long, returned it then finally borrowed it again & told myself sternly to at least read the first chapter & either finish the book or return it for good. So, I sat down last week & read the first chapter - and read on.

Sidney Chambers is a young clergyman living in a Cambridgeshire village. He divides his time between his parish duties & his appointment as a tutor at Corpus Christi, his old college although we see little of him at Cambridge in this book. The stories in The Shadow of Death follow the seasons of nature & the Church from autumn through Advent, Christmas, Lent & summer. The crimes include a murder made to look like suicide, the suspected mercy killing of an old lady, the theft of a Holbein portrait of Anne Boleyn & the murder of a man during a performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Sidney becomes involved in these cases reluctantly but once involved, he feels compelled to ask questions & he uses his position as a clergyman to gain the confidence of the people involved. He's encouraged, if not bullied into investigating by his friend, Inspector Keating & his sister, Jennifer, among others. Sidney is rather an ambivalent man. We don't get much insight into his real feelings. He seems swept along by events much of the time, doubting his abilities as a clergyman, unable to assert himself with his housekeeper & unsure of his feelings for two women - rich, beautiful Amanda Kendall who would be a disaster as a clergy wife & quietly attractive widow, Hildegard Staunton.

I read The Shadow of Death in a couple of days but didn't find it completely satisfying. I think that I was put off by the feeling that the author had planned the series (there are going to be six books taking Sidney from the 1950s to the early 1980s) rather cold-bloodedly. He's chosen all the elements that appeal to readers of cosy English mysteries. A clergyman (reminiscent of Father Brown & the Trollopes - Anthony & Angela) living in a Cambridge village & in Grantchester of all villages with its Rupert Brooke associations. There are numerous references to events & the attributes of austerity Britain in the 50s (the housekeeper's dreadful food, the Coronation, jazz clubs) that feel rather self-conscious. The crimes are neat, not too violent or if it's murder, then it takes place off stage. Sidney's friendship with a policeman gives him the entree, sometimes surprisingly, to various crimes & their regular Thursday evening games of backgammon in the pub are cosily nostalgic of a time when pubs were for playing backgammon or darts & drinking warm beer. He even has a black labrador called Dickens.

This book reminds me of all the reasons why I prefer to read books written in the early to mid 20th century rather than novels written now that are set in an earlier time with their product placement (the housekeeper leaves a note asking for more Vim & Harpic) & mention of current events that would have been taken for granted in a book of the period. The second book in the series, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night, is to be published in May & I'm not sure if I'll read it. If I do, it will be because I've been seduced again by the gorgeous cover art & maybe because I'm curious to see if Sidney settles into his life & his role as unofficial sleuth.

Sunday Poetry - John Clare

I've decided to start the New Year with some Romantic poetry. I have a copy of the Penguin Book of Romantic Verse edited by David Wright & published in 1968 so I'll be choosing my Sunday poetry from here for the next little while.

I became interested in John Clare last year when I chose one of his poems for this spot so here's another one. I tend towards the melancholy in my choices of poetry so I thought I should make a resolution to find something a little more cheerful & I think this lovely poem, Meet Me In The Green Glen, is perfect.

Love, meet me in the green glen,
    Beside the tall elm-tree,
Where the sweetbriar smells so sweet agen;
    There come with me.
        Meet me in the green glen.

Meet me at the sunset
    Down in the green glen,
Where we've often met
    By hawthorn-tree and foxes' den,
        Meet me in the green glen.

Meet me in the green glen,
    By sweetbriar bushes there;
Meet me by your own sen,
    Where the wild thyme blossoms fair.
        Meet me in the green glen.

Meet me by the sweetbriar,
    By the mole-hill swelling there;
When the west glows like a fire
    God's crimson bed is there.
        Meet me in the green glen.

Reading Plans for 2013

I've been making a few plans for my reading this year. I only read 106 books last year which is way down on the 143 I read in 2011. I think one of the reasons for this is that I'm spending more time on the internet now that I have an iPad. I joined Facebook to keep up with friends overseas but, even though I don't post very often, I spend half an hour nearly every night reading other posts, following links to articles & blogs & it's cutting into my reading time. It's so convenient to be able to settle down with Lucky on my lap & play with the iPad. I'm planning, as always, to stop buying books for a while & concentrate on my tbr shelves which are overflowing & full of riches. So, my reading needs to be more focused this year & there are a couple of anniversaries that I'm looking forward to as opportunities to reread two of my favourite authors.

Pride & Prejudice was published 200 years ago this year. A perfect excuse to read it again & I have lots of books about Jane Austen & her work on the tbr shelves that I'm looking forward to reading as well. A new book that has just been published & is on the way to me right now is by Susannah Fullerton, President of the Jane Austen Society of Australia. It's called Happily Ever After : Celebrating Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Fullerton discusses how the book was written, its early reception & growing popularity. I'll probably need to watch the BBC series again as well.

2013 is the centenary of the birth of Barbara Pym. There are plans around the blogosphere to reread all Pym's novels. You can see the details at Heavenali's blog here. I'm not sure I could keep up with one a month but I will read my favourites again - Excellent Women, A Glass of Blessings & Some Tame Gazelle. I'm also going to read the Pym I've been saving, the only one I haven't read, A Quartet in Autumn. What I've been saving it for, I'm not sure but I liked the idea that I hadn't read all Barbara Pym's novels, there was still one more treat in store.

My other project is to celebrate Persephone Books & their 100th title which was published a few months ago. I'd like to catch up with the Persephones I still have to read & hopefully find time to reread & review some of my favourites. I read most of my Persephones before I started the blog so I'd like a chance to revisit my favourite titles & reflect on how important Persephone has been to me reading over the last 12 years.

Then, there are a couple of reading projects I'm right in the middle of. I'm reading Fanny Burney's  Camilla with Dani at A Work in Progress. I'm nearly half way through, just about to finish Volume 3 & enjoying it very much. Although I do have to wonder just how many more misunderstandings Camilla & Edgar can endure without running mad. This is a long book, over 900pp, & I think it could definitely have been shorter. However, as it's my lunchtime book, I'm able to keep track of the plot without becoming overwhelmed by the complications & the urge to want to just put Edgar & Camilla in a room together & make them talk honestly to each other!

Then, Team Middlemarch at Dovegreyreader is coming to an end. Only the last two instalments to read & we'll be finishing appropriately in the middle of March. I've enjoyed the chance to read this brilliant novel again after many years. Maybe I'll be finishing Middlemarch & Camilla at around the same time?

That's probably enough to be going on with. Does anyone have any reading plans?

The books I didn't quite get to in 2012

I think this post is going to become an annual event! Compiling it certainly encourages me to stop buying books for a while in the New Year. Every year I make the same resolution & my best effort was three months without buying a single book. After such abstinence, it was quite hard to get back in the habit of buying, but I managed it eventually! It is quite a good feeling, especially when I know I have so many lovely books on the tbr shelves - not to mention on the e-reader & at the library. It did lead to my wishlists at various bookshop websites getting longer, but that's a great way to remember what I want.

So, here's my list of books that I was desperate to read when I ordered them & was determined to drop everything as soon as they arrived on the doorstep & read them first. Only, I didn't & they're still sitting patiently on the tbr shelves waiting their turn.

Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins had so many enthusiastic reviews from Desperate Reader & Book Snob, among other respected bloggers & friends & it's a Persephone so what was I waiting for?

The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher was recommended in my online bookgroup by Diana, Austen devotee & writer of the lovely blog, Light, Bright and Sparkling. In a flash, I'd ordered it & was determined to drop everything when it arrived, but I didn't, as you can see.

The first two volumes of Agnes & Elizabeth Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England was eagerly awaited & then completely ignored.

Desperate Reader's review of Arabella Boxer's Book of English Food only confirmed the fact that I'd been right to order it. It's been sitting by my reading chair ever since it arrived & I'm only halfway through the Introduction.

I seem to be collecting books about Jane Austen (I have two more on the way) but not actually reading them. Maggie Lane's Understanding Austen is one of these. Hopefully with the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride & Prejudice coming up this year, I'll be inspired to read this.

I read a lot of books by Dickens & a few books about Dickens in his Bicentenary year - but this wasn't one of them. I love letters & I hope to get to the Selected Letters edited by Jenny Hartley sooner rather than later.

Shamefully, I read no Elizabeth Taylor in her Centenary year although I enjoyed reading lots of reviews of her novels around the blogosphere. At least I've read quite a lot of her novels, just not in 2012. I couldn't resist her Complete Short Stories published by Virago & introduced by her daughter, Joanna Kingham, & even though Harriet reviewed it glowingly here, it's got no further than the Virago shelf of the tbr shelves.

Sylvia Townsend Warner is another writer that I want to read more of. Simon reviewed this volume of her Selected Writings called With the Hunted & I was keen to read it, especially the section on Jane Austen (see above). I don't promise to read the whole book this year but I will at least read Sylvia's thoughts on Jane. I can console myself with the thought that Simon hasn't read it all either - or, at least, he hadn't when he reviewed it in August.

Well, there you have this year's list. Writing a post like this does spur me on to read the books. Last year, I read all but two of the books in the 2011 list.

Happy New Year to everyone. Here's to a happy, healthy year with lots of reading - & a bit less book buying!