Thanks!

Thank you everyone for your lovely congratulations and successfully guessing what my wonderful news is! We actually got engaged on Christmas Day, but have been waiting for the ring to make things "official". Isn't it gorgeous?! I couldn't resist putting this picture up as well - it's not completely off-topic as after all the bit in my profile says that I love baking, books and my boyfriend. Might have to make a change there, although fiance doesn't begin with B! No plans to set a date yet, it won't be for a year or so, and I need to get used to the sensation of having something on my finger!

It was a lovely Valentine's weekend as we had a wonderful trip on Saturday to see Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Opera house. It was an absolutely fantastic ballet - although it was 3 hours long it went very quickly, and we were wowed by the sets, huge cast and the dancing. This was good as I could easily have spent the whole performance staring at my left hand! On Sunday I baked, as you saw earlier, and we went to a special showing of Breakfast at Tiffany's at the cinema, before having some heart shaped pasta for supper!

Valentine's Day Baking

It's been a while since I've done any baking on the B files (for reasons of special diets and economy), but I hope you will make a cup of tea and sit down with some cake today. I asked my partner what he would like as a Valentine's Day treat, hoping to make white chocolate and cranberry brownies, a heart shaped mincemeat tart, a cherry pudding in heart-shaped ramekin, or something suitably wonderful to demonstrate my love. However, he requested fairy cakes with butter icing. Not particularly exciting, but I did manage to Valentine-ise them with some red icing, pink sprinkles, and pink cases.

I also have some exciting news - can you guess from the books that I've chosen? And the small object in the middle...

Cornish cornucopia #2 Some memoirs

Fleurfisher mentioned The magic of a line, the memoirs of Dame Laura Knight, when she brainstormed ideas for Cornish books and I was immediately intrigued as I am familiar with Dame Laura Knight as an important war artist during the Second World War, producing paintings such as the one above to help maintain morale.

The memoirs are certainly interesting, although obviously written by an artist rather than a writer. We learn about Laura's early life, and having to go to university at the age of 13 to tran to be an art teacher due to impecunious family circumstances. There is some interesting information about being an artist, and the edition of the book that I borrowed from the library was heavily illustrated with wonderful plates of her drawings. The range of her work was extremely broad; in addition to war artistry, she also did a lot of painting of dancers such as Pavlova. The book also tells the story of her friendship and subsequent marriage to the artist Harold Knight.

Laura and Harold went to Cornwall after hearing that it had light that lasted longer than anywhere else in the country, obviously important for an artist, and settled briefly in Lamorna. There is unfortunately only really one chapter in the book that touches on their experiences in Cornwall but a lot of what she said about Cornwall rang true.

Towards the end in a "retrospective" on her life she writes:
"Cornwall is not like any other sort of country-it's no use trying to comapre it with any other place. There are times when you think everything is quite ordinary; and there are times when you feel you are not properly you, but someone else whom you don't in the least know; and an atmosphere prevails which takes away any sense or belief you have ever had, and you don't know why, but you aren't in England any more"

"I have to admit too that a longing for the sight of the Atlantic ocean and its constant change of mood often irks my mind"

***
After reading a review of Land girls gang up by Pat Peters in Cornwall today, I was keen to add this to my collection of Cornish memoirs. Although again not hugely literary, this is a fantastic story of the misadventures of some girls who go from London to Cornwall to be land girls during the Second World War. Long days, back breaking work, and little social life weren't easy but there were humorous events too, such as when the girls opened their packed lunches on the first day...
Taking a half moon shape from her food box Nell exclaimed "I've got a bleedin' piece of pie crust!"
"Don't be a chump, it's a pasty and its filled with something" Pauline told her.
Jackie eyed her half moon with suspicion before breaking it in half. Jame spilled from the pasty onto her dungarees "God how I hate jam"...
Those who had pasties were to find that something was almost anything. Kay and I found ours to be filled with potatoes, meat and onions while Pauline and Phyllis's held egg and bacon. Bunny's had apples and Jimmy waved hers aloft proclaiming "currants!".
Set in and around areas that I love in North Cornwall, it was interesting to have a historical perspective on what to me are holiday destinations.
***
Another set of memoirs which mention Cornwall briefly are those written by Molly Hughes, starting with London Child in the 1870s. This is the first in a series of wonderful autobiographical books by Hughes, the first of which has recently been republished by Persephone books. Hughes also wrote Vivians, a tale of her Cornish ancestors which is mainly set in Cornwall.

***
I then read Village by the ford by Gordon Channer. This is the story of a family who leave their life in a city to set up a caravan site in a wild valley in South Cornwall. A quote on the back of the book compared it to A town like Alice; I thought this was stretching it slightly. It's an entertaining story, but not hugely literary. Channer has written three more books about the adventures of the family, and although I won't rush to read them I'd be interested to find out how it all pans out!

***

I spent a lovely evening with Mary Wesley's Part of the scenery which is partly memoir, partly description of life in the Westcountry, and partly photographic illustration. Although its remit goes beyond the Cornish county, as as Devon-baby I was interested to read about other places that I know. Mary Wesley confesses in the text that she can't really remember which locations inspired her books, often they are a mishmash of several places that she knew. But I was tickled to find that like me she spent her childhood holidays in Polzeath, although this was many years earlier than I did, during the First World War. The wonderful photographs by Kim Sayer really complement the text and make for a virtual holiday.

***
Memoirs which deal more overtly with Cornwall which I have read are Myself when young (Daphne Du Maurier), A Cornish childhood (A.L. Rowse), Kisses on a postcard (Terence Frisby), Great Western Beach (Smith), We bought an island (Atkins) and its sequel Tales from our Cornish Island)

***
Another memoir that I intend to read is Schoolhouse in the wind (Anne Treneer). Does anyone have any other recommendations?

Cornish acquisitions

Ahead of this week's Cornish post, I thought I'd share some of the Cornish acquisitions that snuck into my flat just before the book-buying ban was enforced. With the exception of the Cornish recipes book (which has some wonderful sounding bakes in), these are all novels set in the county which I hope to read over the coming months. I'll be writing reviews in due course, as they are lesser known Cornish books, but the next few weeks I'm going to concentrate on some genre posts, highlighting a range of books, and asking for more suggestions! Come back on Friday for some Cornish memoirs.

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.