Lorna Hill

After going to two ballets in the space of two weeks (Tales of Beatrix Potter/Les Patineurs and The Nutcracker), I had a real desire to re-read some ballet books. Ballet books were one of my favourite genres as a child, starting with Ballet Shoes, and other Noel Streatfeilds, but also covering other authors such as Lorna Hill and Rumer Godden and Dorothy Richardson. For some reason it was Lorna Hill that I wanted to turn to, and although I had the first two titles of her "Wells" series, I had read them quite recently. It was not therefore surprising, that in an idle moment I found myself investigating the books on Amazon marketplace, and not long before I had bought most of the collection (see below for the full list)

I found that the first four books in the series are relatively easy and inexpensive to obtain, the next six relatively easy to obtain (although I did not manage to get them all in the blue Piccolo editions that I remember reading as a child) and the last four virtually impossible to obtain.
Girls Gone By Publishing have published the last four books, but unfortunately these are now out of print. I have managed to find copies of two of them (beautiful editions featuring the old dustwrappers), so I am only missing the last two titles of the series - Vicki in Venice and The secret, but these will be expensive, so they are definitely wish-list titles for the future.

I love the idea of these books, the concept that ordinary girls can pursue their dreams and become ballerinas. How many little girls don't want to dance? Every time that I see a ballet I am overcome by the beauty of dancing and wish that I had kept up my ballet lessons for longer than a term. The ballet is also hugely romantic, and I am very lucky that my partner also likes the ballet and that we can go together.

My shopping also led me to the discovery that she has written some other series, including another ballet series called The Dancing Peel books. I ordered a couple of these to sample as well. She also wrote some non ballet books which I would love to see and a handful of books for adults.

As we have three more trips to the ballet lined up between now and the end of March (Romeo and Juliet this Saturday, Cinderella and La Fille mal gardee (all ballets which I have not seen before), I am sure that I will enjoy indulging myself in these comfort reads.

Are there any ballet books that you loved as a child?



*
(The full list is:

1. A Dream of Sadlers Wells (1950)
2. Veronica at the Wells (1951)
3. Masquerade at the Wells (1952)
4. No Castanets at the Wells (1953)
5. Jane Leaves the Wells (1953)
6. Ella at the Wells (1954)
7. Return to the Wells (1955)
8. Rosanna Joins the Wells (1956)
9. Principal Rôle (1957)
10. Swan Feather (1958)
11. Dress-Rehearsal (1959)
12. Back-Stage (1960)
13. Vicki in Venice (1962)
14. The Secret (1964))

10 books meme

At the beginning of the year, I spotted this meme on Stuck-in-a-book, and then almost every book blog I read (well, it felt like it anyway!). It's probably a bit late to jump on the bandwagon but it was so interesting to read about the books which people chose that I thought you might like to see mine too.

(The original instructions for the meme are:
1.) Go to your bookshelves...
2.) Close your eyes. If you're feeling really committed, blindfold yourself.
3.) Select ten books at random. Use more than one bookcase, if you have them, or piles by the bed, or... basically, wherever you keep books.
4.) Use these books to tell us about yourself - where and when you got them, who got them for you, what the book says about you, etc. etc.....
5.) Have fun! Be imaginative. Doesn't matter if you've read them or not - be creative. It might not seem easy to start off with, and the links might be a little tenuous, but I think this is a fun way to do this sort of meme.
6.) Feel free to cheat a bit, if you need to...)

I'm afraid that I shamelessly chose all of mine...here they are...

and this is what I have to say about them.

How to be a domestic goddess (Nigella Lawson)
Regular readers will know that I love baking, and I have found much inspiration from this cookbook full of wonderful things such as these muffins. I aspire to being a domestic goddess, and feel that being able to make tasty cakes and biscuits and keep the house tidy is an important part that I have to play in the relationship I'm in.

Our hidden lives (Simon Garfield).
My first degree was in history, and whilst studying I developed a huge interest in the social and domestic history of the Second World War. I found out about the Mass Observation Archive from which these diaries are selected and have loved reading people's accounts of life in wartime Britain. I was not a distinguished scholar at university, but I did win a "Collection Prize" for an in-house exam on my WW2 paper, and it was with the book token I recieved that I purchaed this book.

Liquid Assets (Janet Smith)
Some of you may know my penchant for swimming, and in particular swimming outside. From an early age my Mum spent many summer days with me at an outside swimming pool and I am sure it was this which makes me feel so holidayish when I get to swim in an outdoor pool. In 2007, my partner and I tried to swim in as many different outdoor pools as possible; I think we managed about 15.

White bird flying (Nicholas Orme)
My father is a historian with a number of erudite history books to his name, but when I was small, he also had a book of children's short stories published (in fact, it was taken on by the Longman's Books for Schools project and is probably his bestselling work as it got sold to schools across the country). Before it was published, he appointed me to be his "publisher's reader" and say whether or not I thought it should be published! Unfortunately, Longman's wouldn't let him include a dedication, but luckily the main character in one of the stories is called Verity.

Astonishing splashes of colour (Clare Morrall).
I have only been given a handful of books in adult life, mainly because people worry that I will have already read what they choose, and this is one of them. I hadn't heard of it before I was given it and really enjoyed it, so it proves that it is worth taking the risk! It was a 20th birthday present from a friend who is no longer alive and hugely special. Incidentally, the author went to the same school as my friend and I!

Frost in May (Antonia White)
Some of you may have seen my other Virago Venture blog. Frost in May was both the first Virago Modern Classic, and the first one that I read..

Vanishing Cornwall (Daphne Du Maurier)
This book is no surprise to those of you who know how much I love Cornwall. I spent so much time there on holiday in my childhood and teens. This book is special because it combines my favourite place with one of my favourite authors.

Sunbathing in the rain (Gwyneth Lewis)
Subtitled "A cheerful book about depression", I was lent this in 2003 when I was extremely ill with depression. The book showed me that other people suffered from depression too, and that it was ok to feel like that. Hugely affirming for me at the time, I occasionally like to revisit it to remind myself how important it is to stay well.

One pair of hands (Monica Dickens)
I am a big fan of autobiographies, and I think that this started with this book, which was on the shelves of the flat we used to stay in in Cornwall. Every year as we arrived for our holiday, I would rush to check that this book was still there and reread it several times during our fortnight's stay.

The school at the chalet (Elinor M Brent-Dyer)
It seems strange that only one of these ten books is a children's book but this book is important for a number of reasons. It was a present from my Mum when we went to Austria for the first time, aged 8, and it was fantastic to be able to read a book set in the place we were visiting, sparking off an interest in "themed" literature. This book is the first in a series of over 60 books, and later in my life it provided my first impetus towards collecting, as I tried to obtain a complete set of the series (I was successful, but only by mixing different editions).

Cornish cornucopia #1 : The camomile lawn (DVD)

I was absolutely overwhelmed by the response to my post last week about my plans to read plenty of Cornish books this year, so thank you to everyone for your suggestions. Fleurfisher has put together a wonderful list of ideas giving me even more inspiration, and I've made a list in a notebook of the titles that I definitely want to read. I've read quite a lot of Cornish books already, so at some point I think I will make a list of those for "completeness" sake. I am so very excited about it that I think there will be posts on this theme far more regularly than once a month, perhaps even once a week in the next nine weeks running up to Easter, which I am spending in the county.

I decided to kick off with a film rather than a book. I found a good long list of films made in the county, some of which I'd seen (Saving Grace, Ladies in Lavender, Rebecca, Jamaica Inn), some which didn't particularly appeal (Straw dogs, Johnny English), some which are completely out of print, and some which are on the "wish-list" of films I'd like to see: Amy Foster, Next of Kin, Johnny Frenchman. I have long been a fan of the Wycliffe tv series, and wish that they would bring them out on DVD, and I'm wondering about getting hold of Doc Martin, since that was partly filmed in Port Isaac which is very close to where we will be staying at Easter.



A trip to the library enabled me to borrow The camomile lawn, which is an adaption of the book by the same name by Mary Wesley. It was originally a television drama, and for my £1.25 rental fee I got 264 minutes of watching. It's been a while since I've read the book so I can't comment on how faithful the adaption is, but it was most enjoyable. Set mainly in Cornwall, on and after the eve of the Second World War, the drama tells the story of the Cuthbertson family - an aunt, uncle, cousins and an orphan, and some of their neighbours and how they are affected by the arrival of the war. They are all from the upper middle class, and from the richer section of society. Some of the book is set in London, reflecting their wartime experiences. There is love, drama, relationships and above all the lifechanging experience of living through the Second World War.

If I'm honest, the coastal scenery could have been anywhere, and not specifically Cornwall, although it was filmed in Veryan and Portloe (admittedly areas that I am not familiar with). But the period detail, especially in the parts filmed in London is fantastic - if you like wartime dramas then this is also one for you. The excellent cast includes Felicity Kendal and Paul Eddington (familiar from The Good Life, although here they are married rather than neighbours), Tara Fitzgerald (another favourite of mine), and Jennifer Ehle.

I'm not sure which of Mary Wesley's novels are set in Cornwall, but I have discovered that she wrote a book called Part of the scenery, which is about the Westcountry region and her life, and have reserved this at the library. More on that in due course I expect!

Anyway, do let me know what your favourite Cornish films and television are, I'd be fascinated to know if there is anything else that I'd like that I might have missed.

Library loot

As you can see, I've been flexing my library card already, both to mitigate my self-imposed book buying ban and also to pursue some Cornwall themed reading. I had an excellent visit on Monday, picking up three brand new chick lit books, an older male-chick-lit book, and four Cornish books.

On the left-hand Cornish pile I have:
Careless in red (Elizabeth George) - I am already most of the way through it, and will be writing a post about Cornish detective fiction soon.
The magic of a line (Laura Knight) - the autobiography of an artist, which I have already read, and will be writing about along with other Cornish memoirs next week.
Plotted in Cornwall (Janie Bolitho) - another Cornish crime book from the Rose Trevelyan series.
Village by the ford (Gordon Channer) - another Cornish memoir which I hope to read before I write about Cornish memoirs

On the right-hand light reading in bed pile I have:
The life of Reilly (Paul Burke)
Seven secrets of happiness (Sharon Owens)
Moonshine (Christina Jones)
Twenties girl (Sophie Kinsella)
I've read books by all of these authors before, and as I like to read something light before I put the light out, I am stocked up for a while.

January Reading

I've resolved to keep better track of my reading this year; I've been using a notebook to record it all in since 2003, but it is very difficult to track back what I have read by a particular author. I've been making a hasty transcription of years 2003-2008 (title and author surname), and a better one for 2009 (which I might post in due course if anyone is interested), and a proper one for 2010 showing whether the book was a re-read (RR), a Persephone (P), a Virago Modern Classic (VMC), an autobiography (AB), a biography (B), non fiction (NF), or a children's book. I'm also going to star my stand-out reads on a monthly basis.

People often wonder how I manage to read so much - well I should point out that I often read recipe books and children's books which don't take so much reading. I read at lunch, coffee and teatime, as well as in the evening and before I go to sleep. Having started a new job, I have been too tired to do much more than lie on the sofa with a book in the evenings!

So, here are the January "statistics", in order that I read them. My standout books for this month were Saplings (Noel Streatfield, a re-read), Brooklyn (Colm Toibin), Not so quiet
(Helen Zennor Smith), The pastor's wife (Elizabeth von Arnim), The happy foreigner (Enid Bagnold (review on VVV to come next month) and Minnie's room (Mollie Panter-Downes).

In February, I'm looking forward to reading some more Elizabeth von Arnim, re-reading some of Lorna Hill's children's books (more on that soon), and starting my 2010 Cornish Cornucopia in earnest.

Man in the picture Hill, Susan
Smile Please Rhys, Jean AB
The runaway Hart, Elizabeth P
Samantha Smyth Cavendish, Lucy
More to life than this Matthews, Carole
Saplings Streatfeild, Noel P, RR *
Misses Mallet Young, E.H. VMC
Gut Symmetries Winterson, Jeanette
On Roads Moran, Joe NF
Last year of being married Tucker, Sarah
Brooklyn Toibin, Colm *
Trust Flanagan, Mary
Daphne Du Maurier Country Shallcross, Martyn NF
Laurie and Claire Rowntree, Kathleen
Land of Green Ginger Holtby, Winifred VMC
True Deciever Jonsson, Tove
Eunice Fleet Tobias, Lily
The closed door and other stories Whipple, Dorothy P *
Stress family Robinson Plass, Adrian
Country Housewife's book Yates, Lucy P
Good evening Mrs Craven Panter-Downes, Mollie P
The shuttle Burnett, Frances Hodgeson P
Accidental marathon Hawking, Laura
My Antonia Cather, Willa VMC
The ghostly lover Hardwick, Elizabeth VMC
The tennis party Wickham, Madeleine
Not so quiet Zennor Smith, Helen VMC *
Good food on the aga Heath, Ambrose P
The pastor's wife Arnim, Elizabeth von VMC *
Dancing backwards Vickers, Salley
No great place Webb, Mary VMC
Tea with Mr Rochester Towers, Francis P
Rosettes for Jill Ferguson, Ruby C
The golden spur Powell, Dawn VMC
Plan B Barr, Emily
The Beth book Grand, Sarah VMC
When good friends go bad Campbell, Ellie
Blue skies Hodgman, Helen
Letty fox : her luck Stead, Christina VMC
Bradshaw variations Cusk, Rachel
Miss Chopsticks Xinran
Four frightened people Robinson, E. Arnot VMC
The south Toibin, Colm
The other family Trollope, Joanna
Peyton place Metalious, Grace VMC
Undercover mother Thompson, Erin
The happy foreigner Bagnold, Enid VMC *
The sheltered life Glasgow, Ellen VMC
Flush Woolf, Virginia P
Snoop: what your stuff says about you Gosling, Sam NF
Minnie's Room Panter-Downes, Mollie P *
Aleta Day Beynon, Francis VMC
Confessions of a reluctant recessionista Silver, Amy
Kate and the mystery pony Fielding, Kate C
Stone angel Laurence, Margaret VMC *
Time of secrets Pagnol, Marcel AB
Time of love Pagnol, Marcel AB
Tom tackles the Chalet School EBD C RR
A woman's place Adams, Ruth NF P
The curate's wife Young, E.H. VMC
The thinking reed West, Rebecca VMC
The thinking reed Llewellyn, Julia
Daughter of earth Smedley, Agnes VMC
Captivated Dudgeon, Piers B
We have always lived in the castle Jackson, Shirley
Jest of god Laurence, Margaret VMC
This charming man Keyes, Marian

A frugal (and fairtrade) February (and March)

Owing to Christmas, an excess of book-buying necessitating new bookshelves (as you can see from the picture), having had a break between jobs, an unemployed partner, and the imminent arrival of Lent, I have decided that it's time for another spell of non-essential spending. We hope to buy a house this year, so I have a big incentive to save the pennies. The last time I did this, the support of those who read my blog was absolutely invaluable, and I'm sure I'll need it again as February is such a miserable time of the year. I intend to keep this up from now until my birthday (3rd April) which is Easter Saturday. So, no book-buying, clothes buying, DVD buying...and trying to cook from things in the cupboards where possible (we have a huge amount of food at home, yet still end up buying masses of groceries...however, if we are going to move house then I definitely don't want to move all of my supplies, so now is a good time to start getting things streamlined).

Fairtrade fortnight is also coming up, and one area where I don't plan to skimp is on fairtrade goods (particularly as they are often on special offer during this time). This year, the Fairtrade foundation are running The big swap and encouraging people to swap the items they usually use for fairtrade equivalents. I'm quite conscientious about using fairtrade items where they are available, and we always use fairtrade sugar, coffee, tea, and bananas. It's a little difficult for me to extend this with my current dietary restrictions, but I'm going to see how many extra things I can include (rice, honey, juice, herbs and spices...), and I'll do some fair trade baking for my partner, and hopefully resurrect bake of the week.

Cornish cornucopia in 2010

Regular readers will be aware of my love for Cornwall, and of Cornish books, arising from spending so many holidays and weekends in the region as a child. Fleur_fisher recently mentiond her own Cornish reading challenge and I thought that that sounded like something that I'd like to try. She's planning to read at least one Cornish book a month, and I think I'll do the same, although I'd love to try to read one a fortnight, or certainly more when I am on holiday in the county over Easter. Cornwall is a very diverse country, and having holidayed mostly on the North Coast, many of the books I have previously read have been set in the West and the South of Cornwall so I'm hoping I may encounter more reading which mentions the places which I know.

Cath at read_warbler has a wonderful list here of books set in Cornwall, many of which I have read - the Daphne Du Mauriers, the Wycliffe, Mary Wesley, Rosamund Pilcher, Alan Titschmarsh.

I already have some Cornish themed reading on my TBR pile
Summer in February (Jonathan Smith) (next month's read for obvious reasons)
Rambles beyond railways (Wilkie Collins)
Hungry hill (Daphne Du Maurier)(set in Ireland but apparently mentions Cornwall)

Otherwise, I am hoping to read at least one of Winston Graham's Poldark books, the two Susan Cooper novels (Over sea, under stone and Greenwitch), Thomas Hardy's Pair of blue eyes, Deep down by Ballatyne (if I can get hold of it) and maybe I'll give the Rose Trevelyan novels a go too. I've found an author called Gordon Channer who I haven't yet heard of, and I've ordered his first from the library. Fleur fisher mentioned Laura Knight's autobiography, so I have ordered a copy of that from the library too. Travelogues are good; so along with the Wilkie Collins I might check out Craik's An unsentimental journey through Cornwall.
I'm also hoping to read some non-fiction and maybe do some baking along the way too - Cornish Hevva Cake and Saffron Loaf are two bakes that I have in mind.

This post is as much a brainstorm for me as anything else, but I'd love to hear about books set in Cornwall that you have loved, or anything Cornish related...

The chalet girls cook book

Regular readers will know my fondness for Chalet School books and my delight in Girls Gone By Publishers who republish them and have made available the titles which are more difficult to get home of, or which were heavily abridged when they were brought out in paperback.

It had escaped my attention that they had republished The chalet girls cook book, but shortly before Christmas I stumbled on it, and it finally arrived last week.

The book was originally a compilation of recipes which appeared in the Chalet Books for Girls (a sort of Chalet School annual that appeared three times). Rather than being a straightforward recipe book, it is set shortly after Frieda, Joey, Maria and Simone have left school, and features plenty of chat between the girls about various aspects of food and cookery. The recipes are broadly divided into sections - meat, fish, vegetables, cheese, eggs, desserts - and the girls bring together an explanation of a wide variety of recipes from English, Austrian, German and French culture.

I wouldn't recommend this as a cookery book at all, but if you enjoy Chalet School books then this is a must-have for your collection. The recipes are at best somewhat sketchy and rarely give quantities or cooking times. The GGBP edition has the wonderful addition of a chapter at the end where two of the editors test the recipes for modern cooks, with mixed results!

The south (Toibin)

I very much enjoyed reading Brooklyn by Toibin over the Christmas period, I liked his style of prose and was absolutely gripped to the final pages of the novel, and was thus keen to read more by him. In a departure from the norm, I dispatched my partner to the branch library to find me some more books while I was at work, and he came back with two Toibin books for me - The south and Story of the night.

Set in the 1950s, The south tells the story of Katherine Proctor, who leaves Ireland for Barcelona in an attempt to fulfil her desire to become a painter. The reader never really learns why she chose to leave her husband and small son but we follow her in a determination to create a new life for herself. Part of the story is the desire to escape from political troubles, having spent many years being ostracised as a protestant in Southern Ireland. But when she meets Miguel, another painter with whom she has a child, she finds that it is not so easy to escape, since he was involved in the Spanish civil war. When she separates from Miguel she suddenly desires to return to Ireland and find her son and attempts to rediscover Ireland. Painting is one of the ways she tries to do this.

I was a little frustrated by the amount of loose ends in the story, both at the beginning, and at the end - the story did not come to enough of a conclusion for me. However, in some ways that was similar to Brooklyn, where I was left wondering what happened after Eilis returned to America. I will be interested to see if this happens in The story of the night.

Has anyone else read any other Toibin apart from Brooklyn?

The bookseller

Shortly before Christmas, I appeared in the Bookseller's weekly column that features librarians and booksellers highlighting a pair of books from a similar genre called I'm loving/I'm not loving. As I don't see The bookseller, I had to wait for a copy to be posted to me, which took forever due to the snow, but I finally saw myself in print last week. I chose to feature reprinted books and chose to love Miss Buncle's book, recently republished by Persephone Books, and decided that I didn't love Miss Hargreaves, recently republished by Bloomsbury.


Here's what I wrote:
Miss Buncle’s Book (D.E. Stevenson)

Persephone books specialise in reprinting neglected classics by 20th century authors, and my favourite of their recent reissues is this story of a spinster who tries to augment her income by writing a novel about the village where she lives. The villagers are incensed by the caricature made of their lives and try to work out who is responsible. Miss Buncle is a charming heroine and this book is a wonderful light read, perfect for the holidays.

Miss Hargreaves (Frank Baker)

Bloomsbury are also reprinting “lost novels”, and although this particular title was recommended to me by several friends, I was ultimately disappointed. Miss Hargreaves, an imaginary character created in a game played by two young men, mysteriously comes to life and causes havoc by her appearance. The unsettling premise of the story felt implausible, and I did not warm to the character of the querulous and somewhat interfering Miss Hargreaves at all.