The Twelfth Hour - Ada Leverson

About a month ago, Michael Walmer sent me a couple of books to review. Simon has recently reviewed I Pose by Stella Benson, which he loved (& I'm looking forward to) & I've been reading The Twelfth Hour by Ada Leverson. Leverson was a close friend of Oscar Wilde, he called her The Sphinx, & she was one of the few friends who stood by him after his time in prison. She's probably best known for the trilogy which was reprinted by Virago as The Little Ottleys but this book, The Twelfth Hour, is her first.

The Twelfth Hour is a sparkling, witty book about love & marriage. Published in 1907, it shines a light on society & the lives of the leisured classes. The Croftons are a well-to-do family with beauty, intelligence & style. Felicity has recently married Lord Chetwode but the marriage has not turned out as she expected. Chetwode's two passions are racing & antiques & he spends most of his time traveling the country in pursuit of them. Marriage doesn't seem to have changed his routines at all. Sylvia is in love with her father's secretary, Frank Woodville, who is well-connected but penniless due to the late marriage of his uncle & subsequent birth of a son. All his expectations have been dashed & without money, Sylvia’s father is unlikely to agree to their marriage. Mr Crofton also has plans for Sylvia to marry Mr Ridiokanaki, a Greek millionaire who is in love with Sylvia.

Younger brother Savile is on holidays from Eton & in love from afar with opera singer, Adelina Patti. He is adored in turn by young Dolly Clive. When Savile isn’t wangling money from his relations to see Patti on stage, he’s trying to sort out his sisters’ problems. Felicity is unhappy & bored &, as she is also very beautiful, she soon has suitors appearing around every corner. Most persistent is Bertie Wilton, handsome, popular & determined to rescue Felicity from her neglectful husband.


Mr Ridiokanaki discovers that Sylvia & Frank are in love & offers them a solution to their financial troubles that will mean a long separation but eventual security. Sylvia is horrified but Frank is tempted. Will love or pragmatism win out?


I enjoyed The Twelfth Hour very much. Leverson has obviously learnt the art of the witty bon mot from Oscar Wilde as the book is very funny & full of funny comments & observations. Sylvia is a very modern young woman. She has no qualms about deceiving her father & ignores all his commands regarding Mr Ridiokanaki's attentions. When he persists in sending larger & larger arrangements of flowers, she puts them in the housekeeper's room. Felicity's social round of lunches, evening parties & shopping becomes increasingly hollow as she desperately tries to talk to her husband but is discouraged by his elusiveness. Bertie's persistent attentions begin to look more attractive as she feels more & more unloved.

My favourite character was Uncle William (the Croftons decided to call their Aunt by her husband's name & their Uncle by her name so he was Uncle Mary). Aunt William's house is furnished as it was in the 1880s with wax flowers under glass & circular tables in the middle of the room. "Often she held forth to wondering young people, for whom the 1880 fashions were but an echo of ancient history, on the sad sinfulness of sunflowers and the fearful folly of Japanese fans." The sunflowers are a reference to Gilbert & Sullivan's Patience, which mocked the aesthetics movement of the 1890s & its followers. Aunt William spoils Savile & gives him money & enormous lunches while also keeping a watchful eye on her nieces’ social engagements. She may be a shrewd old lady but Savile can wind her around his little finger.

The Twelfth Hour is an Edwardian confection, a lovely way to spend an afternoon. It’s good to see a publisher reprinting books from this period as it’s been relatively neglected by the other publishers reprinting 20th century fiction. I’ll look forward to any future titles from Michael Walmer.

Sunday Poetry - Robert Louis Stevenson

Stevenson again this week. I've just been listening to Laura Wright singing Over the Sea to Skye so when I came across this parody? adaptation? of the song, I couldn't resist it. It's from this anthology selected by Jenni Calder, Translated Kingdoms.

Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,
      Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
      Over the sea to Skye.

Mull was astern, Rum on the port,
      Eigg on the starboard bow;
Glory of youth glowed in his soul;
      Where is that glory now?

Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,
      Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
      Over the sea to Skye.

Give me again all that was there,
      Give me the sun that shone!
Give me the eyes, give me the soul,
      Give me the lad that's gone!

Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,
      Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
      Over the sea to Skye.

Billow and breeze, islands and seas,
      Mountains of rain and sun,
All that was good, all that was fair,
      All that was me is gone.

Ammonites and Leaping Fish : a life in time - Penelope Lively

Penelope Lively is one of my favourite writers. The first audio book I ever listened to was her According to Mark, read beautifully by Michael Williams. According to Mark has remained my favourite of her books as it combines her twin preoccupations of time & memory. Mark is a literary biographer working on the life of an early twentieth century writer. This was the era of the great biographies - Holroyd's lives of Lytton Strachey & G B Shaw, Ellmann's life of Oscar Wilde - & Mark's subject, Gilbert Strong, is one of those grand old men of Edwardian letters. It's the story of his research & the surprises he discovers. It's also the story of Mark himself, of his marriage & of his attraction to Strong's granddaughter, Carrie. It's a wonderful novel, funny but full of interesting things to say about the nature of biography & reputation.

This new book, Ammonites and Leaping Fish, is not fiction but a memoir about old age & memory. Lively looks back on her life from old age. She remembers her wartime childhood in Egypt (written about in more detail in Oleander, Jacaranda), the disorientation of returning to England after the war, her years at university, meeting her husband, Jack, her writing & the traveling that she once relished (including a farcical visit to the Soviet Union in the 1980s). She misses gardening now that arthritis prevents her from doing much more than tend a few pots & she observes that conversations with friends of a similar age (Lively is now 80) now consist of stories about visits to the doctor & heartfelt inquiries about each other's health or lack of it.

However, my favourite parts of the book are the chapters on reading & books & the final chapter about six objects that bring back memories of different periods of her life.

I can measure out my life in books. They stand along the way like signposts: the moments of absorption and empathy and direction and sheer pleasure. Back in the mists of very early reading there is Beatrix Potter, who does not just tell an enthralling story but challenges the ear. Her cadences, her linguistic flights that i repeated to myself over and over. 'the dignity and repose of the tea party', 'too much lettuce is soporific', 'roasted grasshopper with ladybird sauce', 'The dinner was of eight courses, not much of anything, but truly elegant.'

Many of the books mentioned inspired her love of history & archaeology, major themes of the novels & stories.

For me, interest in the past segued into an interest in the operation of memory, which turned into subject matter for fiction. I wanted to write novels that would explore the ways in which memory works and what it can do for people, to see if it is the crutch on which we lean or the albatross around the neck. It is both, of course, depending on the person concerned.

In the final chapter of the book, Lively talks about six items that recall her life. The kind of objects that mean very little to anyone except their owner. A pair of kettle-holders from Maine with ducks on them; a Bible given to Lively by her nanny when they were evacuated to Palestine during the war; a sherd of 12th century pottery with two leaping fish on it; a fossil with two tiny ammonites in it, millions of years old; a copy of a statue of an Egyptian cat, the original of which is in the British Museum; and a sampler stitched by Elizabeth Barker in 1788. All these objects lead to memories of bird watching, her childhood, visits to America, digging in her own gardens & finding sherds of pottery from previous households. the beauty of the King James Bible over any other version & her never-ending interest in time.

I wish the whole book had consisted of memories like these. In an earlier memoir, A House Unlocked, about her Somerset grandmother's house, Lively used a similar technique, taking objects & telling the history of the house & of her family. I found this final chapter & the chapter on reading much more engaging that the view from old age, I'm afraid. Still, Lively is always an interesting writer & I would recommend Ammonites and Leaping Fish to anyone who has enjoyed her fiction. It's sent me back to dip into her novels & maybe I'll read According to Mark again & enjoy Lively's meditations on time & the past once more.

Summer garden in shades of green & lemon

Katrina asked to see some photos of my garden & Saturday was a perfect day to take some as the weather was quite dull so no glare. The garden is mostly in shades of green & lemon at the moment. even my lemons are green!

I'm very excited about my tomatoes this year. A friend gave me some seedlings she'd grown of heirloom varieties & they've done very well. All the plants are about 5 foot high & I have fruit on all of them. This is Rouge de Marmande above.

Then there's Black Cherry,

and Red Pear.

I've been eating zucchinis for a while now. Over the weekend I made tuna & zucchini risotto & a zucchini cake to take in to work. I only have one plant but that's quite enough.

Then, there's the butternut pumpkin. I'm already looking for pumpkin recipes as there are lots of tiny pumpkins on the vine.

I'm also a bit worried as it seems to be taking over the whole back yard... How big are they supposed to grow? Just as well I like pumpkin!

I also convinced the girls to pose for a few photos. Here's Phoebe in front of the zucchini

and peering through the daphne at Lucky

who, as usual, looks as though she's about to take off.

Sunday Poetry - Scotland

I'm starting the New Year with a volume of Scottish poems about the sea. It's called Translated Kingdoms & was selected by Jenni Calder. I have a few anthologies on my shelves that I want to read this year & the Sunday Poetry post is a great way to get me started. The picture above (by Gustave Doré from here) isn't of the sea but of the Highlands but it's so beautiful that I had to use it. I also can't get to my camera at the moment to take a picture of the book because Phoebe is asleep on my lap.

Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses was one of my favourite books when I was young. I had a lovely edition with illustrations & I read it often. The poems are often about imagination & play & this one is no exception.

Three of us afloat in the meadow by the swing, 
Three of us aboard in the basket on the lea. 
Winds are in the air, they are blowing in the spring, 
And waves are on the meadow like the waves there are at sea. 

Where shall we adventure, to-day that we’re afloat, 
Wary of the weather and steering by a star? 
Shall it be to Africa, a-steering of the boat, 
To Providence, or Babylon, or off to Malabar? 

Hi! but here’s a squadron a-rowing on the sea— 
Cattle on the meadow a-charging with a roar! 
Quick, and we’ll escape them, they’re as mad as they can be, 
The wicket is the harbour and the garden is the shore.

Mozart - Paul Johnson

I love classical music but I haven't read much about the lives of my favourite composers. So, the opportunity to read this short biography of Mozart was too good to miss.

Mozart's life was short but full of incident. Many myths have grown up around his life & Paul Johnson refreshingly dismisses most of them. Born in Salzburg in 1756, young Amadeus was a prodigy, composing from a young age & proficient in several instruments, including piano & viola. His father, Leopold, was a musician & encouraged Amadeus & his sister, Nannerl, in their music. The family traveled around Europe playing to royalty & nobility in Germany, France & England.

Amadeus was lauded for his talent & he continued to write an enormous amount of music in every conceivable form - operas, symphonies, concertos & sonatas. Johnson goes into some detail about the work but I have to admit that I couldn't really follow him there. Apart from a few famous works like the Clarinet Concerto & the Piano Concertos, I don't know the work until I hear it, the catalogue (K) number doesn't help me. That's probably why I don't read much about composers. It would be wonderful if I could have tapped on my Kindle & heard the work as it was being described. Maybe an idea for the next generation of ereaders?

Johnson writes well about Mozart's love of musicians & singers & the trouble he took to direct & help them play his music. The fact that he could play many of their instruments & so demonstrate what he wanted must have helped. He also knew the limitations & capacities of instruments so he was loved & admired by his peers. Often he would compose a piece with a particular singer or musician in mind, "Nothing pleased him more than an intimate talk with a player about his instrument, what it could do or not do, and what it could be made to do by a masterful player."

Johnson discusses the contentious points of Mozart's short life. It's said that he was always in debt. He was often short of ready cash but his problems are usually short-term. A lot of letters from Mozart to his friends survive where he's begging for another loan to tide him over & this seems to be the origin of this myth. After his death, his wife, Constanze, was able to clear his debts within a few weeks so there was always money coming in. He also wasn't buried in a pauper's grave. Burial in a mass grave was quite common in Vienna at the time & had nothing to do with the financial circumstances of the deceased.

Constanze has come in for a lot of criticism over the years but Johnson believes that she's been unfairly treated. She's been called slovenly & a bad manager, dragging Mozart into debt & costing him money with her medicinal trips to spa towns. She certainly suffered from poor health at times & also suffered the loss of several children. The couple led a hectic life with Mozart traveling frequently & spending long hours composing. There's no evidence that the marriage was unhappy & their two surviving sons, Carl & Franz Xavier, grew up happy although neither had any of their father's musical talent. Maybe it's because she married again after Mozart's death & her new husband wrote a biography of Mozart. However, Constanze looked after Mozart's musical legacy with great care, ensuring that his music was played throughout Europe & his name was kept alive.

Mozart died in 1791 at the age of only 35. It's astonishing to think that he was able to cram so much into such a short life. The beauty & range of his music is truly amazing & his popularity has never waned. Classic FM here in Australia puts together a Classic 100 every year, voted by listeners. One of the most popular lists ever was the Classic 100 Mozart. I can't think of another single composer who could be the subject of such a list.

I read Mozart courtesy of NetGalley.

New Year's Resolutions & Reading Plans

Happy New Year everyone, another year begins. I hope it will be a year full of health, happiness & plenty of good books for us all. This photo isn't especially about New Year but Phoebe is sitting in the wastepaper basket (one of her favourite spots in the study although right now she's on my lap) in front of unread books which is a theme of this post.

I counted up my list of books read for 2013 & I read 115 books last year which is good but not as good as 2009 when I read 172! I know I spend more time on the internet than I did a few years ago as I now have an iPad which makes it easy to look something up from the comfort of my chair without having to start up the PC & disturb a sleeping cat on my lap. However, it also makes it too easy to be led from one thing to another & suddenly discover that half an hour has gone.

I want to read more books from my tbr shelves this year, which is a perennial resolution, I know. But, I'd like to make some sort of a dent in the shelves. I seem to collect books from my favourite publishers but then read very few of them. I don't want to be too structured as I'm not a big fan of reading challenges or being too prescriptive. I'd just like to read more of all these lovely books.

Wodehouse & Slightly Foxed editions. I bought all these Wodehouses from Clouston & Hall when they were remaindered & I'm slowly making my way through them. I subscribe to the excellent quarterly journal, Slightly Foxed, & also to their series of memoirs in these beautiful pocket-sized hardbacks. I've also subscribed to their new Slightly Foxed Cubs, the children's historical novels of Ronald Welch - even more to read!

Hesperus Press & Greyladies, two more favourite publishers. There are also a few E F Bensons & a Hugh Walpole there.

Nonsuch Press, Capuchin & Canongate.

The Folio Society (along with some Mary Stewarts, a Walter De La Mare & a D E Stevenson).

OUP & Penguin Classics.

Virago (as well as some books on mostly women's literature. You can see by the spine labels that I rescued a few of these from my library when they were being withdrawn).

I also have other tbr shelves organised by subject like this overflowing shelf of  mostly mysteries.
Some are rereads - Marsh, Fraser, Heyer, Tey - but I really do want to read them again so I haven't shelved them on the main shelves. I also picked up that stack of Arcturus Crime Classics from Clouston & Hall a few months ago.

Finally, this is the stack of books on my desk which is meant to indicate that these books are next to be read... I won't tell you how long some of them have been sitting there. The 6th book from the top does deserve special mention, though. Mary Gaunt's Kirkham's Find was republished by Penguin as part of a wonderful series of reprints of Australian women's novels. They were published in the bicentenary year of white settlement in Australia. For those of you who don't know when that was, it was in 1988. The book hasn't been sitting on the desk that long but I did buy it that year so it probably rates as my oldest tbr book. I must read it! It has one of my favourite paintings on the cover, Clara Southern's An Old Bee Farm, & this is definitely the year I will read it.

So, more reading from the tbr shelves (I haven't even mentioned library books or ebooks but they don't take up nearly as much room) & I have a resolution about blogging too. I'd gotten into the habit of posting two reviews a week as well as a poem on Sunday & I'm starting to feel a little constrained by the schedule I've set myself. I think it's stopping me from picking up longer books unless I'm reading them in installments with a reading group because I want to post those two reviews a week. I also subscribe to some lovely magazines & journals which I want to actually read rather than just pile on the coffee table. So, I will try to be less structured this year & post more serendipitously & not worry if there are no posts some weeks because I'm reading Trollope or a big biography. I may put up more cat pictures if the girls are in the mood to pose or photos of my veggie garden which is looking wonderful at the moment - green tomatoes on every plant & the promise of an awful lot of pumpkins (I only have one plant which is taking over the garden, how many do they produce??).

So, that's it. My reading resolutions for the year, such as they are. I'll look forward to hearing about everyone else's resolutions, if you make them, & reading some wonderful books in 2014.