Man and Superman - George Bernard Shaw

One of the weirder tangents my thesis has taken me on is the depiction of Satan in 20th-century literature... not a topic I feel entirely at ease with, but needs must, and it has led me in the direction of some intriguing texts.  Most entertaining was George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman (1903) - which helpfully ticks off one of the tricky years at the beginning of A Century of Books.

Although I've read a few Shaw plays, I don't think I've ever seen one performed.  This one would be great fun to watch, although it is apparently rarely performed in its entirety.  There are four acts - Acts 1, 2, and 4 are set in upper-class society with Shauvian topics of marriage and left-wing morals.  Act 3, normally excised, is... set in hell.  As you do.  But I won't jump the gun - let's rewind back to Act 1.

Ann has recently lost her father, and is waiting to hear whom her father appointed her guardian (for, although her mother is still alive, she seems fairly useless).  Most likely candidate is Roebuck Ramsden, a no-nonsense, traditional sort of chap, whose chief horror is the spectre of Socialism.  Said spectre is represented by Tanner, something of a pessimist but rather a wordy, witty one.  To Ramsden's horror, Tanner and he have been chosen to be co-guardians.  Tanner sees through Ann's guise of unworldly innocence, to the determined young woman inside:

She'll commit every crime a respectable woman can; and she'll justify every one of them by saying that it was the wish of her guardians. She'll put everything on us; and we shall have no more control over her than a couple of mice over a cat.

A man who certainly does not see through this guise is poor hapless Octavius.  He's very sweet, but utterly besotted with Ann and incapable of seeing her faults, even when Tanner points them out to him.  Especially then.  And we're all set up for a lovely comedy of manners, with some handy dichotomies thrown in: right-wing/left-wing, conventional/'advanced', romantic/cynical, serious/playful.  Being Shaw, it's not quite as insouciantly blithe as it would be in the hands of some playwrights.  He gets his politics in - gently, in the first two acts, in the linguistic tussles of Ramsden and Tanner, which are great fun.

The big moral quandary comes in with Ann's sister Violet, who (we find out) is pregnant.  Ramsden and Octavius are horrified, while Tanner congratulates her on her progressive nature.  All is not quite what it seems, and it's a rather clever bit of playing with a common early-20th century dilemma.

Then Act 3.  Which is set in Hell, and features Don Juan, a statue, and the Devil (amongst others).  This act is almost invariably omitted from productions of Man and Superman, and one can see why.  Shaw intends to draw parallels between these characters and those of the play proper - indeed, the play started in response to the challenge to write one in the tradition of Don Juan - but it's all a little heavy-handed (as Shaw can be) and probably rather costly to stage.  The Devil is not an unsympathetic character, and has very advanced views on warfare, considering this is pre-WW1:

In a battle two bodies of men shoot at one another with bullets and explosive shells until one boy runs away, when the others chase the fugitives on horseback and cut them to pieces as they fly.  And this, the chronicle concludes, shews the greatness and majesty of empires, and the littleness of the vanquished. Over such battles the people run about the streets yelling with delight, and egg their governments on to spend hundreds of millions of money in the slaughter, whilst the strongest Ministers dare not spend an extra penny in the pound against poverty and pestilence through which they themselves daily walk.

On and on this act goes, until eventually - with an intellectually improved audience, I daresay, but also a rather bored and confused one - we return to the characters we know and love, and witty wordplay becomes, once more, the order of the way.

And Shaw is witty!  He doesn't specialise in those twisty, meaningless bon mots of Oscar Wilde, which are so clever and a little wearing (except in the incomparable Importance of Being Earnest) but a more extended pattern to his writing.  Wilde relies on the epigrammatic individual line; Shaw's paragraphs flow, with ingenious pacing and regulated logic, and produce humour that way.  Just as an example, here are Tanner's thoughts on marriage:

Marriage is to me apostasy, profanation of the sanctuary of my soul, violation of my manhood, sale of my birthright, shameful surrender, ignominious capitulation, acceptance of defeat. I shall decay like a thing that has served its purpose and is done with; I shall change from a man with a future to a man with a past; I shall see in the greasy eyes of all the other husbands their relief at the arrival of a new prisoner to share their ignominy.

Man and Superman ended up not being useful for my chapter, but it was great fun to read.  I think I might return to Shaw's plays in December, if the 1900s and 1910s are still proving tricky years to fill...

And what happened to Ramsden, Ann, Violet, Tanner, Octavius and all?  I bet you can guess at least one outcome...

A Gallico Giveaway!

The lovely people at Bloomsbury have got in touch with me: they have eights sets of Mrs. Harris MP and Mrs. Harris Goes To Moscow to give away, and decided that the wonderful readers of Stuck-in-a-Book were the right types to receive them!  Trâm-Anh knew that I loved Gallico's novels Coronation and Love of Seven Dolls, and though somehow I've only just started Mrs. Harris series (halfway through Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris and loving it), it was always more in the way of saving-something-brilliant than uncertain-I'll-enjoy.

So, if you live in the UK and fancy the chance to win those two books (pictured below, in situ in Bloomsbury's offices - aren't they striking and gorgeous?) just leave a comment with the place you'd most like to visit, but have yet to see.  (Mine, by the way, is vague - Scandinavia.)

I know that quite a few people have trouble commenting here - if you want to enter but can't comment, email me simondavidthomas[at]yahoo.co.uk and I'll put you in the draw.

In about a week's time, I'll do a draw.  Good luck!  With eight sets of two to win, your chances are pretty good... do feel free to spread the word :)

Dusty Answer - Rosamond Lehmann

Despite packing and moving and all sorts, I have managed (just in time) to finish Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann, and thus I am participating in Florence's Rosamond Lehmann Reading Week!  I also realise I've been spelling it 'Rosamund' up until now.  Sorry, Ros.

I bought Dusty Answer (1927) eight years ago, and it's been on holiday with me a couple of times, and yet I hadn't read it (or any Rosamond Lehmann novels) until this week.  I had intended to read a different Lehmann novel, but then decided to start at the beginning, with the novel Lehmann had published when she was 26, the same age I am.  I'm glad I did.  Dusty Answer is brilliant, and fulfilled all the expectations I've been building up in my head over the past eight years.

The papier-mache dog (Pastey) was made by my friend Mel's boyfriend...
Mel insisted that he make an appearance.

The novel concerns Judith Earle, an only-child who is mostly solitary, but who becomes friendly with the children who visit next door - and who end up figuring hugely in her life.  They are Mariella, Roddy, Julian, Charlie, and Martin - mostly cousins, but Julian and Charlie are brothers - and have a busy, high-spirited life which Judith joins in nervously but so very whole-heartedly.  They are her life, for a summer or two - and ice-skating a while later - and have a huge significance in her otherwise lonely upbringing.   It takes a talented writer to write about childhood without the novel feeling like a children's book, and Lehmann achieves this wonderfully.  The cast is well-drawn - foolish but amiable Martin, above-it-all Julian, unusual Roddy, beautiful Charlie, and self-conscious Mariella.  Lehmann captures childhood, and the fleeting but all-absorbing interaction with other children, even when it lasts only a little while.  Although nothing exceptional happens in these chapters, the atmosphere is consumingly beautiful.  Part of me wishes the whole of Dusty Answer dealt with their childhood, from the subjective but astute gaze of Judith.  It would have been enough.

But, we learn in the first page or two, Charlie is killed.  The children grow up and don't see each other.  Judith must start to make a life for her own - which she does, as a student at Cambridge.  This was the section I liked least.  The character who looms largest in Judith's life at this point is Jennifer - they bond over insulting a chubby, ugly girl behind her back; they are essentially horrified by a lack of beauty.  This was where I lost a bit of sympathy for Judith.  But a novel - even one which looks through the eyes of one character - doesn't fail or succeed on the sympathetic qualities of its protagonist.  Lehmann still writes engagingly and Cambridge life, but I missed the cousins.  I wanted them back.  That group was what gave the novel vitality for me.  And, luckily... they came back!  I shan't spoil any more, but things get increasingly complex...

Dusty Answer spans Judith's life from childhood to her early twenties (I think) and Lehmann is convincing at the subtle ways she changes as she ages - and the same for all the children as they become adults (except poor Charlie, of course.)  Only Julian and Roddy got rather confused in my mind, and we might be able to lay the blame at the door of the hot weather this week.  As a central character, Judith is convincing in her thoughts and responses, irksome in her self-consciousness and occasional hysteria, and an odd (but believable) mix of concern for the lives of others and intense introspection.  Perhaps common traits of the only-child with distant parents.  One character sums up her approach to life rather well:

Have you ever been happy?  No.  Whenever you come near to being, you start thinking: "Now I am happy.  How interesting... Am I really happy?"

Yet, although she has a few off-putting qualities, these only serve to make her more interesting and rounded as a focal pair of eyes for the novel.  She seems to have been based on Lehmann herself.  None of the characters are saints or sinners; the good do not end happily and the bad unhappily - Lehmann's novel reflects the highs and lows, obsessions and irritations of life itself - albeit rather heightened at times.

But the reason I loved Dusty Answer was Lehmann's writing, especially in the first section.  It's another of those novels which starts with a little bit of prolepsis (starting with some information, then skipping back into the past) but it worked well here, because we are going back to Judith's childhood.  The effect lends an air of added nostalgia to the early chapters.  It actually reminded me of a couplet written by Miss Hargreaves (!) - her poetry is usually nonsensical, but there was a definite sense at the beginning of Dusty Answer of 'Halcyon, halcyon, halcyon days / Wrapped in high summer's indigenous haze.'    And Lehmann writes so, so beautifully.  As with Sybille Bedford, it's difficult to pinpoint sections which are especially brilliant, because all of it flows exquisitely.  Karen (whose review is here) wrote on the LibraryThing discussion of Rosamond Lehmann: 'What beautiful, dreamy, atmospheric prose she writes!'  And she's spot on.  As I say, picking out an excerpt is tricky - indeed, it somehow seems rather like purple prose in isolation, which it never does in context, but I thought I'd better not write a whole review without any quotations...

Into the deep blue translucent shell of night.  The air parted lightly as the car plunged through it, washing away in waves that smelt of roses and syringa and all green leaves.  The moon struggled with clouds.  She wore a faint and gentle face.

"I shouldn't be surprised if there was rain before daybreak," said Martin; and, reaching at length the wan straight high road, accelerated with a sigh of satisfaction.

"Faster, Martin, faster."

Faster and faster he went.  She settled herself close against him, and through half-shut eyes saw the hawthorn and wild-rose hedges stream backward on either hand.  The night air was a drug from whose sweet insinuating caress she prayed never to wake.  Soon, through one leafy roadway after another, the headlights pierced a tunnel of green gloom.  The lanes were full of white scuts and little paws, paralysed; and then, as Martin painstakingly slowed down, dipping and twinkling into the banks.  Moths flickered bright-winged an instant in the lamplight before being dashed to their fried and ashy death.  Once or twice came human beings, objects of mean and foolish design, incongruous in the night's cast grandeur; and here and there, under the trees, upon the stiles, in the grass, a couple of them, locked face to face, disquietingly still, gleamed and vanished.  She observed them with distaste: passion was all ugliness and vulgar imbecility.

But I think the only way to see whether or not you'd like Dusty Answer is to pick up a copy and start reading.  Since it was on my shelf for eight years, you'll have gathered that a synopsis alone doesn't sell it as a must-read.  But if, like me, you've somehow gone through your life without reading any of Rosamond Lehmann's output, then - hie thee to a library!

Thanks so much, Florence, for running Rosamond Lehmann Reading Week and for making me finally read this novel.  It's so, so good!

A Favourite of the Gods - Sybille Bedford

Let's take a moment, before I begin, to praise how beautiful this book is - the book-as-object, I mean.  Well, you can only see the picture - sadly, you can't feel it.  It is beautiful to read.  The cover flips closed with a beautiful soft clunk; the pages slip beautifully together.  It is a little soft to the touch.  It's delightful.  This is why I love books, not just reading.  This is why I won't get an e-reader.

But, thankfully, it didn't end there.  A Favourite of the Gods (1963) is also a really good novel, which Daunt Books kindly sent me a few weeks ago, along with the sequel A Compass Error, which I've yet to read.  You might already have spotted Rachel's enthusiastic review of the books - and I'm jumping on the same bandwagon, because I think Sybille Bedford might be something rather special.

A Favourite of the Gods concerns three generations of women - Anna, Constanza, and Flavia - over several decades, dealing with Italian and English society, living lives governed by different moral systems, yet somehow inextricably bound together, even when understanding each other least.

The novel opens with Constanza and her daughter Flavia on a train to Paris, intending to meet Constanza's fiancée.  Everything goes rather awry when the train stops and Constanza realises she has lost her ruby ring... they get off the train and stay locally for a while.  And then we leap back to the beginning of the story... as with Wise Children, this technique irked me a bit, but I'll let them get on with the show...

Since the plot is the least important part of the novel, I'm going to whizz through part of it... Backtrack to 1870s American Anna - who heads off to Rome and falls in love with an Italian Prince, as you do.  Marriage and a baby girl, Constanza, swiftly follow.  Some years later, Anna discovers something that makes her whisk Constanza away to England, forbidding to let her ever see her father again.  When Constanza becomes of age, she resolves to see him anyway, now she is no longer under her mother's well-meaning but possessive control - only, war is declared.

Right, that's as far as I'll go - but, obviously, somewhere along the way Constanza's daughter Flavia appears...

Thinking back over the novel, there are a few significant moments, but for the most part the events don't particularly matter.  Bedford writes, instead, about relationships between mother and daughter; how people come to understand the world around them, while relating their new-found understanding to their upbringing; how children grow to see their parents as people, and not simply parents; how events affecting the whole of Europe can equally affect tiny family units.  And, throughout all this, Bedford has an astonishingly subtlety.  Nothing is overstated; a lot is barely stated.  Bedford depends upon her fine character drawings, rather than exclamatory narrative interjections.  Anna is dignified and calm, but very proud; Constanza is more rebellious, but ultimately loyal.  Their mother/daughter has a thousand shades in it, and is wholly believable.  I loved how Bedford managed to convey this with tiny linguistic decisions.  For example...

Constanza said: "There hasn't been one word of marriage; and there won't be."

"But dearest girl, why?"

"One doesn't marry like that," said Constanza, "just like that.  For a bit of love."

Anna chose to laugh.  "You don't know yet, my dear, what one marries for."

I think the 'chose' is really clever there.  A lesser novelist would elaborate about Anna's shock and discouragement, and her decision to put a brave face on matters - but Bedford captures it all in a word.

It must be so difficult not simply to show how these characters are and interact, but how they change over the years.  We see Constanza growing from a baby to a mother, and Bedford writes her life without a false step or unbelievable move.  Often characters seem the same from cradle to grave, but Bedford is cleverer than that.  Here is Constanza as an adult, and a passage about change:

She had learnt to travel light.  In her youth she had looked at fate as the bolt from the clear sky, now she recognized it in the iron rule of time on all human affairs.  Today is not like yesterday; the second chance is not the first.  Whatever turning-points are taken or are missed, it is the length of the passage, the length of the road that counts.  She realized that she would never again entirely belong, but also that a large part of her belonged nowhere else.  Once more she basked, volatile and melancholy: the sun, the fruit, the colour of the stones were her inheritance as well as the sad pagan creed of carpe diem and stoicism for the rest.

In terms of her writing, Bedford belongs (to my mind) with the small and disparate group - as diverse as George Orwell and Elizabeth Taylor - whose style does not clamour and shout, but has a rich beauty in its consistent balance and measure.  It is difficult to point out a phrase which is exceptionally brilliant, or a piece of wit which ought to be repeated - but she is a subtle prose stylist par excellence all the same.

The best novels are the most difficult to write about, I find, especially where the novelist is not highly stylised - there are no grotesques or eccentrics in Bedford's writing, however welcome these features may be in the hands of other novelists - so I don't think any review could quite convey the feeling of reading A Favourite of the Gods any more than I can make you understand how it feels to hold the book.  But I hope I've encouraged you to seek out this book.  We've heard a lot this year about how Elizabeth Taylor is a Well Kept Secret and a dazzling writer.  Well, I think it's time that Sybille Bedford stepped out onto the stage.

Here we go again...

Moving house today...  I have a post automated to come out tomorrow, but no guarantees after that!  See you on the other side...

A Card From Angela Carter - Susannah Clapp

When I was given A Card From Angela Carter at a Bloomsbury party a while ago, I was excited to read it - but, at the same time, I worried that it might be a bit barrel-scrapey.  The barrel that, as far as I know, has in fact scarcely been investigated.  The publication of some of Carter's postcards seems as though it would be the afterthought to a long series of edited diaries and letters - none of which have been published (or have they?)

But I needn't have worried.  The selection of postcards Angela Carter had sent to Susannah Clapp was really just an ingenious way for Clapp to organise her thoughts about a dear friend, and a refreshingly original take on the memoir genre.

I love biographies where the writer knew and loved the subject.  Indeed, I'm reading one at the moment that is a strong contender for my favourite book of the year.  So it is lovely to see Angela Carter as Susannah Clapp saw her - witty, a little rude, loyal, colourful, more political than I expected, and a lover of literature.  It is the last quality which I noted down most (perhaps unsurprisingly).  I was surprised, though, to learn that she didn't like Dickens - that she didn't find him funny.  I know some people do not, but having read Wise Children (which, thankfully, is the novel Clapp talks about most in A Card) I assumed Carter had been influenced by Dickens' own extravagant joie de vivre.  But there are plenty of writers Carter did admire:

Yet for her deepest admiration she went further back.  Chaucer - who was "so nice about women" and who, in the Wife of Bath, created a character she loved - was to her the "sanest, the sweetest and most decent of English poets".  She liked the idea that he wrote "before English became a language of imperialism".  She liked the notion that The Canterbury Tales, coming from an oral tradition, had to be direct and forceful enough to transmit when read aloud to a room full of people who were busy "sewing or shelling peas".  She liked the aspects of Chaucer's work that pre-dated the novel, and half-disapproved of the genre in which she made her name.  "I'm sufficient of a doctrinaire to believe that the novel is the product of a leisured class.  Actually."  That 'actually' dangling from the end of a sentence was habitual when she spoke.  Dainty but adamant, it was like the flick of a heel or the toss of her head.  It warded off objections but also slightly invited contradiction.  It both emphasised and slightly undermined what she had just said.  Actually.

And then, of course - of course - there is Shakespeare.  Wise Children is a love letter to Shakespeare - and Clapp's first-hand knowledge of Carter offers an interesting perspective:

She favoured the bland lines that moved the plot on: "a ship has come from France".  She was dismissive of the routine idea that had he been alive now he would have been writing for television: he would more likely have been a used-car salesman.

As for the cards themselves - they're reproduced in b/w in the book, and are mostly a little silly.  There's the car which looks like a chicken; the myth of mountains in love; the Charles/Diana divorce card... the Statue of Liberty in a lake; Betty Boop as a geisha, and (but of course) Shakespeare.  Clapp uses these cleverly to organise her thoughts about Carter, only occasionally seeming to read more into the choice of card than was probably intended.

It could have all been the scraping of a barrel, but it actually turned out to be very innovative, and rather moving.  For a writer as unusual as Angela Carter, only an unusual form of memoir would do, wouldn't it?

Writing Anxiety

by Barbara Claypole White

When Luke Skywalker tells Yoda he’s not afraid, the Jedi Master replies in a voice that sounds more appropriate for an Exorcist movie, “You will be. You will be.” Fear—it’s an inescapable fact of being book pregnant.

As the mother of a teen who has battled OCD for most of his life, I’ve learned a few things about diffusing fear. OCD, an anxiety disorder that can feed off anything, is Doubting Thomas on speed. While the fear it generates is irrational, the anxiety one experiences is real.

The hero of my debut novel, The Unfinished Garden, is an obsessive-compulsive entrepreneur who’s terrified of everything except snakes. Which gives him one up on Indiana Jones. But the brain tricks James deploys against OCD can be used to defeat any anxiety—real or imagined. Here are a few of my favorites:

Boss it back: This is a staple of cognitive-behavioral therapy and can fry those niggling doubts. Re-label an unwanted thought as junk mail and imagine tossing it in the recycling.  Say aloud,  “The doubt’s not real; I’m not going to listen. Ha.” (Hais vital. It’s a battle cry.)

Logic is your friend:  Yes, you will get at least one lukewarm or negative review, but reading is subjective, and you’re still going to write. Nothing is going to change those facts.

Laugh like you mean it: Have you ever tried laughing when you’re worried? Watch a silly video on YouTube and giggle like a preschooler with Tickle Me Elmo. Now tell me you’re anxious.

Pick a calming phrase and practice: Inspired by the aging rock star and ex-heroin addict in Love Actually, my son and I use “shit, f**k, bugger, damn,”  as our om phrase. You’ll have to trust me on this one…

Tinker with the worry: Dress up the worry, put a hat on it, turn it into a slapstick movie. I had a nightmare that I was going to spend launch day tearing my novel off bookstore shelves, screaming, “I can do better.” So I turned it into a romantic comedy with George Clooney.  It’s my party—why not?

Two can play the what-if game: OCD is all about what if, but when fear strikes, ask yourself what’s the worst that can happen. Yes, I could stand up at my first reading and develop a severe case of late onset Tourette’s, but really, what are the chances?

Mindfulness, man: In my OCD support group, we talk about mindfulness. Truthfully, I never believed I was the meditative type. Then one day I was watering my garden, a chore I denigrated as a total time-suck, when I realized my mind was still. Now as I water, I consciously listen to the hawks, watch the hummingbirds, and enjoy the moment. I’m in the zone…

And we’re breathing: Sometimes it really is all about the breath. “Slow the breath, and the heart and the mind will follow,” my yoga teacher used to say. Inhale to the count of four, hold to the count of two, exhale to the count of four.  Repeat. Feel better?

Think small: Don’t focus on the big picture. Create a mega marketing plan but break it into manageable chunks. To avoid freak-outs, I concentrate on my daily goal: the page count for novel two plus one promotional activity that can be as simple as emailing my pre-order link to an old friend.  Fear is all about control. By thinking small, you can take back your universe. 

Expose yourself to fear: Full-blown fear is like grief. Avoidance is bad, very bad. So when your first bashing on Goodreads drives you to imitate Howard Hughes—who lived naked in his screening room for months, peeing into bottles—read and reread that silly review. At some point, your mind will get bored and wander off to the grocery list.

Give in to the dark side: If the anxiety keeps rising, let it blow. Fear can be graded on a scale of one to ten, ten being pray-the-tornado-passes-quickly. Hitting a ten, however, can be liberating. Logic tells you there’s only one way for the fear to go—down; science tells you the human body can’t sustain a high level of anxiety for long. Bingo.

And finally, guard your writing time well, young padawans. Writing is the best therapy I know.

Wise Children - Angela Carter

Twins. Theatre. Shakespeare. Eccentrics.  There was never really any chance that I wouldn't like Wise Children (1991) by Angela Carter, was there?

Everything kicks off with 75 year old twins Dora and Nora Chance (with Dora as our narrator) getting an invitation to their father's 100th birthday party.  Only he (Melchior) has always denied his parentage, instead claiming that his twin brother Peregrine is their father.  They're understandably a bit miffed by this, but nothing keeps them down for long.  They really are eternal optimists - and delightfully over the top.  They prepare for going out...

Our fingernails match our toenails match our lipstick match our rouge.  Revlon, Fire and Ice.  The habit of applying warpaint outlasts the battle; haven't had a man for yonks but still we slap it on.  Nobody could say the Chance girls were going gently into that good night.

That's a pretty good example of the tone of the novel, actually.  It's the heightened, slangy voice of Dora, a little coarse but endlessly cheery heroine, along with a good dose of literary references (but the sort that even someone with my rather fleeting familiarity with poetry will get.)  (Yes, I have studied English literature for eight years now - argh! - but I've always avoided poetry wherever possible.)

It took me about half the novel before I realised the significance of the title, but I'll save you some time - it is a wise child that knows his own father, as the proverb goes.  Oh, and if you've got the edition pictured (and probably others) then there's a Dramatis Personae at the back - I didn't find that until the end, but it would have been VERY useful, as the family is complicated beyond measure.  Heaps of twins, heaps of multiple marriages, and all manner of possible and probable illicit parentages.  All very Shakespearean - which, of course, is precisely the point.  I learnt, in Susannah Clapp's A Postcard From Angela Carter (which I'll be writing about soon - maybe tomorrow?) that she intended to get in references to every one of Shakespeare's plays, but missed out Titus Andronicus.  I wish I'd known that before I started - I'd have had my checklist!  Some are more obvious than others (they film A Midsummer Night's Dream, for instance) but some are fun to try and spot (is the mysterious resurrection of a character presumed dead a reference to A Winter's Tale?)

A little while ago I mentioned my literary bête noire, of novels starting in 'present day' and then going back to the beginning.  I would probably have loved Wise Children more if Carter had chosen a different narrative structure, but that is what happens here.  We reverse back to Dora and Nora's youth, their early activities in theatre and film, and their various beaus.  Not to mention the increasingly complex family.  Melchior's various wives make for fun reading.  Then there is Nora's boyfriend whom Dora rather likes, so they swap perfumes (the only way they can be told apart, apparently) and Dora has her wicked way with him... and there is a fire.  Everything is gloriously over the top.  So much happens, to so many people, that it is a little dizzying in a short novel, and impossible to recount in detail.  But that is what I loved most about Wise Children - it is mad.  Dora Chance is wonderful - particularly in old age (which is why I wished we'd spent more time there, and less on the past) and the whole novel is wonderfully exuberant - mostly because of the inexhaustibly optimistic voice of Dora, and her turns of phrase, her cheekiness, and her ability to laugh at everything life throws at her.  And Carter is obviously having a whale of a time - it must be an author's dream to be able to use the most excessive and absurd images all the time - par example:

Flash! A passing paparazzo took a picture of an old lady who looked like St Pancras Station, monumental, grimy, full of Gothic detail

- and to concoct the most extraordinary plots and interrelations, while still able to point over her shoulder and say "Well, it's no more zany than Shakespeare."

It's such a fun book, and a good introduction to Angela Carter for me.  It was her last novel, and I have plenty more to explore now - maybe I'll even work my way backwards?  But my second dip into Carter territory was, as mentioned, the book Susannah Clapp wrote about her postcards - more on that coming up shortly!


Others who got Stuck in this Book:

"Angela Carter’s last novel is an over-exuberant bear hug of a book; it’s the literary equivalent of being dragged into a conga line at a party, and it does this with such big-hearted, good-natured cheeriness that it is quite impossible to resist." - Victoria, Tales From The Reading Room

"I think that Angela Carter is like what I imagine marzipan to be like, or maybe this particular sort of chocolate mint cake my father has: delicious and rich but you maybe wouldn’t want a massive lot of it at once." - Jenny, Jenny's Books

"The novel succeeds on multiple levels, and on a uncomplicated plane it sincerely argues for the recognition of simple joy under the long and often theatrical masks of seriousness and complexity." - Leif, Leif and the Pages

Song for a Sunday

A lovely lady called Diana got in touch with me a while ago to recommend Christian artist Sara Groves as a Sunday Song singer.  Well, I know and love Groves' album The Other Side of Something, but Diana sent a few links to more recent songs, and I liked them.  I picked 'Childhood Summer' more or less at random, because it seemed appropriate for the last-ditch effort at summer we've been having this weekend.  Thanks, Diana!

Stuck-in-a-Book's Weekend Miscellany

My weekend is looking pretty busy - a wedding later today, and then packing, packing, packing.  For I am moving house - to Headington, just east of Oxford.  If anyone would like to update their address books, email me and I'll let you know my new address...  My actual move date is next Wednesday, so I may go a bit quiet, depending on how internet goes in the new place, and whether or not I manage to prepare some blog posts in advance.


1.) The book - nearly two years ago, I was surprised by how much I liked Ned Beauman's Boxer, Beetle, and now his next novel has been published by Sceptre.  It's called The Teleportation Accident (great title; great cover) and you can read more about it here.

2.) The link - is hilarious.  Fancy eavesdropping on a sleep talking man?  His wife records his alter ego (he does know about this!) and then transcribes.  It's so funny!  Have a listen here.

3.) The blog post - it's that time already!  Rosamund Lehmann Reading Week starts on Monday.  When I first heard about it, I didn't know I'd be moving house... I'm still very, very keen to join in, but... well, I'll try really hard.  If you're not in the process of packing up all your belongings, you should definitely join in. Let Florence tell you more here.

Have a great weekend!

His Monkey Wife - John Collier

Some titles are metaphors.  Some titles seem to suggest one thing, only for the book to be about something completely different - from The Silence of the Lambs to A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.  And His Monkey Wife (1930) is also a bit false... but only because he isn't married to the monkey.  There is some question of it later.  But, as the novel kicks off, it's simply that a monkey is in love with him.  That's all.

Mr. Fatigay is an English schoolmaster in the Congo whose charms (mostly of a scholarly nature) win him the love and affection of Emily, a chimpanzee.  (I'm afraid I don't know the difference between monkey, ape, and chimp, or where these things might overlap - for the sake of argument, I'll refer to Emily as a chimp [which she definitely is] rather than the title's monkey [which she might or might not be.])  Emily is rather a dear.  She is incredibly intelligent, and with an eavesdropping sort of learning, manages to become an expert reader - although she cannot talk.  You might remember that last October I wrote about G.E. Trevelyan's Appius and Virginia, where a woman tries - with a limited sort of success - to educate an ape as her son.  Well, Mr. Fatigay is a fairly oblivious man, and has much greater success without even meaning to.

Is it so hard to understand how she came to a comprehension of the function of books, and even, perhaps, of the abstracter functions of language?  Our scientists may think so, who have chosen to measure the intelligence of the chimpanzee solely by its reactions to a banana.  They suspend the delicacy from the ceiling of a cage and assess the subject's mentality in terms of the number of boxes he or she will pile one upon another in order to secure it, failing to see that nothing is revealed except the value which that particular chimp chooses to set upon the fruit.  And, beyond a certain low limit, this surely is in inverse ratio to intelligence.  What boy of ten would not pile up a dozen boxes in an attempt to climb within reach of it?  How many would Einstein clamber upon?  And how many less would Shakespeare?  Emily, though a fruitarian by instinct, would have disdained an eagerness capable of more than two and a jump.

For Emily is quite concerned with etiquette, and wants to do things properly.  And thus it pains her to break into Mr. Fatigay's desk and read the letters from his fiancée in England - but she is not perfect, and not unafflicted by jealousy.  She is all ready to sacrifice her love at the altar of Mr. F's happiness, but when she has read the letters, she (and the reader) realise how callous his fiancée, Amy, really is.  She is stringing out the engagement, clearly not eager for Mr. Fatigay to return from Congo.

But they do go back to England.  Emily is thrilled to be accompanying Mr. Fatigay... but less thrilled when she realises why.  He is giving her to Amy as a present, to be Amy's maid!  Emily is not averse to a little hard work, but it is hardly dignifying to be the maid of your rival in love... especially one who shrinks from Mr. Fatigay's touch, and treats him appallingly.  What can Emily do?....

Celebrity librarian (!) Nancy Pearl apparently called Emily one of the best characters in modern fiction, which is quite the claim -  but I can see where she's coming from.  Emily is so charming.  Besides being besotted with Mr. Fatigay, she is wholly enamoured with books.  She manages to sneak out of Amy's apartment to visit the British Museum - and becomes quite a cult figure there.  Apparently the simple expedient of wearing clothes renders her more or less indistinguishable from a human (and there is, sad to say, a bit of 1930s racism in this section, when various gents try to guess her country of origin.  For the most part, they settle on Spain - but because of her spirit, rather than her appearance.)

"Well, I like her," said a simple fellow, "because she's a little woman.  A bouncing little woman.  I like them like that.  My first wife was not.  I was deliriously happy with my first wife.  With my second - not altogether so.  I like a bouncing little woman." 

"Well, gentlemen" said the senior member of the company, who ignored the last remark as being the probably carnal utterance of one whose work was merely the compiling of a cyclist's encyclopaedia.  "Well, gentlemen, we had better make a move if we're to catch a last glimpse of her, for like all that's best in life, she comes late and departs early, Heaven knows where."

I always find it impossible not to love a bibliophile in a novel - and Emily's love of the written word is a joy.  Indeed, she is a joy altogether.  As Osbert Sitwell writes somewhere, she is in many ways the least animalistic of all the characters.  She is certainly more sophisticated, responsible, moral, and caring than Amy - although things do take rather a twist later in the book... and the ending came as quite a surprise...

Collier has picked an eccentric theme for his novel, and sometimes that might have hindered rather than boosted my interest in his writing.  Sure, I wouldn't have read this novel if it weren't relevant for my thesis - but I can't help wondering how his talent for characterisation and writing would fare in a more quotidian novel.   The only other thing I've read by him (and this will serve as my post to link to from A Century of Books, as I don't think I'm going to blog about it fully) is Green Thoughts (1932), a short book (c.50pp.) where people metamorph into plants - also well-written, but absorbed by the strange.

What I liked most about his writing were the incidental similes he used, and they crop up a lot.  Here's one:

Fate, whose initial gifts to lovers are supplied as generously as those free meals an angler offers to the fish[...]

And there are plenty more to look out for!  He's also pretty witty, adept at turning a sentence in a semi-Wildean way:

The men were the sort who have given up art for marriage, but, as if nature was scheming to restore the balance, many of their women appeared likely to give up marriage for art.

Collier really is quite an impressive prose stylist, finding that middle ground between modernist experimental and simple storytelling.  There are loads of literary references throughout, from Virginia Woolf to George Moore: Collier clearly respects his audience's intelligence.  I don't really know what else he wrote, but I think this might be a case where the novelty of his topic overshadows the talent Collier simply has as a novelist.  I admired His Monkey Wife, and I'd be intrigued to read something else... does anybody know anything else about John Collier and his work?

Manguel on... the Destruction of Books

For a while I've been reading Alberto Manguel's wonderful The Library at Night, given to me by my brother last year.  It's the perfect book to have next to my laptop while I'm writing my thesis - when I need a quite break, rather than browsing Facebook I read a few delightful pages of Manguel.  And, like I did with Stop What You're Doing And Read This, I'm going to be posting quite a few funny, recognisable, thought-provoking, or simply good, excerpts from The Library At Night, along with some paintings I like, preferably of readers (following Harriet's great ongoing series - I may accidentally use pictures which have already featured over there!)  First off is 'Reading Room at Buxton Library' by Robert McLellan-Sim, from the 1930s..

"As repositories of history or sources for the future, as guides or manuals for difficult times, as symbols of authority past or present, the books in a library stand for more than their collective contents, and have, since the beginning of writing, been considered a threat.  It hardly matters why a library is destroyed: every banning, curtailment, shredding, plunder or loot gives rise (at least as a ghostly presence) to a louder, clearer, more durable library of the banned, looted, plundered, shredded or curtailed.  Those books may no longer be available for consultation, that may exist only in the vague memory of a reader or in the vaguer-still memory of tradition and legend, but they have acquired a kind of immortality."

--- Alberto Manguel, 'The Library at Night' (p.123)

How to Staunch Voice Bleeding

by Mindy McGinnis

I've coined a new term that some of my fellow writers have latched onto - voice bleeding. It exists. It's a nasty little burrowing virus that will slide inside your brain and infect the gray matter with the voice of whatever writer you may be reading at the time. The voice bleeding virus thrives on creative minds, reducing us to a toxic replica of whoever we happen to be reading at the moment, especially if they hail from the same genre as our own.

How do you combat this virus? Is it something you will never be free of, like herpes? Is this a long-term infection requiring dose after dose of antibiotics? Should you lie quivering in fear under your blanket whenever a tasty looking bit of fiction tempts you?

Don't worry, my friends. There is an answer.

You CAN read while you're writing. You CAN free yourself from the scourge of voice bleeding. You CAN indulge in some published pages while whaling on the WIP.

It's called non-fiction.

Now don't get me wrong, non-fiction requires voice as well. But the chances of a well-styled narrative NF voice sliding into your YA paranormal are significantly less than if your brain is munching on the latest urban fantasy beach candy.

I hear your cries of pain. But non-fiction!!! It's so.... true. And... boring!!

Not so my friends. Hit up some of these titles if you want to learn more about why we're alive, what happens when you're not, and how to avoid people, places and diseases that might make you that way:

WATER: THE EPIC STRUGGLE FOR WEALTH, POWER & CIVILIZATION by Steven Solomon - So you're aware that we need water, but do you know the ins and outs of the political maneuvering, wars, and untold deaths of millions that is intertwined with the story of water? Prolly not.

STIFF by Mary Roach - You're dead! Great - now what? You'd be surprised how many options you've got. Mary Roach explores the myriad of choices your corpse has. Me? I'm going with composting.

THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY by Erik Larsen - Wanna know more about America's first serial killer, and how he used the World's Fair to his advantage? Sure you do.

THE BEAUTIFUL CIGAR GIRL by Daniel Stashower - Mary Roger's murder in 1841 was the first instance of a media frenzy, and it had the makings of a blockbuster. A renowned cigar-peddling beauty with a checkered past winds up dead... and nobody knows who did it. The murder got under the skin of New Yorkers, including one troubled genius named Edgar Allan Poe, who was inspired to write "The Mystery of Marie Roget."

THE LOST CITY OF Z by David Grann - A mysterious city in the jungle, explorers disappearing into thin air, obsession and madness. You're interested, right?

THE SPECKLED MONSTER by Jennifer Lee Carrell - Read this history of smallpox and the people who willingly infected themselves with it in order to create a vaccine and you'll never be more thankful for the CDC.

And while I'm sharing, there's currently a voice bleeding related post over on my personal blog, along with a giveaway!

______________________________________

Mindy McGinnis is a YA author and librarian. Her debut dystopian, NOT A DROP TO DRINK, will be available from Katherine Tegen / Harper Collins Fall, 2013. She blogs at Writer, Writer Pants on Fire. You can also find her on Twitter and Facebook.

Five From the Archive (no.5)

I hope the Canadian bloggers among you don't mind my affectionate teasing in the sketch(!)  Although I've never been to Canada, I feel a certain affinity with that nation - we Brits (when we're not binge-drinking football fans) also radiate politeness (even when seething), and apologise when someone bumps into us.  Kate Fox's Watching the English is a brilliant read for this sort of thing, and will probably appear in a Five from the Archive at some point - but, for today...

Five... Books By Canadians.

1.) Too Much Happiness (2009) by Alice Munro

In short: A collection by one of the world's most acclaimed short story writers.  Munro examines many themes, but particularly death and intrusion.

From the review: "In playing with the short story genre, Munro invents a formless form appropriate to her superlative talent as an observer of human nature and human interaction."

2.) Literary Lapses (1910) by Stephen Leacock

In short: Very amusing sketches by an exceptionally gifted comic writer, not well known outside his native land.

From the review: "Stephen Leacock is a humorist par excellence. If I utter his name in the same breath as PG Wodehouse, it is not because their styles are all that similar (though both make fantastic use of stylistic exaggeration) but because Leacock is the only writer I would dare hold up to Wodehouse."

3.) Crow Lake (2002) by Mary Lawson

In short: A sister returns to visit her family, feeling guilty that she has studied for a PhD while her siblings have had to sacrifice their education... but things become more complex than that...

From the review: "Lawson writes with so many character nuances, and is concerned with subtle issues of empathy, sympathy, unity, hope, hopelessness, courage, foolishness, pride, misunderstanding - it's all there."

4.) The Penelopiad (2005) by Margaret Atwood

In short: A re-telling of The Odyssey from Penelope's perspective.

From the review: "The 'hook' of Atwood's narrative, though - a more original feminist viewpoint - is the death of Penelope's twelve maids. Odysseus apparently had them hanged upon his return from his voyage. I suspect this is a footnote in Homer's original, but Atwood plays it to its full potential, and it really is an ingenious angle: why were they killed, when they had aided Penelope?"

5.) Let's Kill Uncle (1963) by Rohan O'Grady

In short: A troubled orphan, Barnaby, is sent to a Canadian island and befriends a local girl, Christie.  Nobody would believe that Barnaby's kindly uncle is, in fact, a manipulative, evil man, intent on killing him.  Barnaby and Christie hatch a plan to kill the uncle first...

From the review: "When I read in the blurb that Donna Tartt had called Let's Kill Uncle a 'dark, whimsical, startling book', I was a little confused. Surely those words clash a bit when placed together? And I'm still not sure that there is much whimsy in the novel, unless you describe any scene without blood as whimsical - but it's certainly the lightest dark book I've ever read. Or possibly the darkest light book."

*  *  *

Over to you!  Which would you suggest?  (I chosen this 'five' theme because I've read so few Canadians - I imagine many of you would be able to suggest dozens.)

I should add that I loved The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence, but apparently never blogged about it.  And, before you suggest it, I really did not like The Handmaid's Tale...

Unconventional Book Marketing: Outside the Reader Box

by Lydia Netzer

That's me with Keith, who won my book!

Selling to book clubs, book blog readers, book social media users, and bookstore goers is a science. Authors all over the place are pitching to bloggers, interacting with Twitter followers, and reading in stores. I am too. I also find myself looking for weird, off-the-beaten-path methods of promoting my book and others' books. This summer I found one in an odd place: a bike race.

In June I read an amazing book: The Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson. It really struck me how wonderfully Joinson portrayed the experience of riding a bicycle, and how elegantly she connected it to the female identity in the early 20th century. I mean, just the tag line, "Mount and away" sort of thrilled me and I can't ride my bicycle more than 16 mph. Just imagine, I thought, what the female cyclists who race around here in Virginia will think of it. They'll love this book! I thought.

My husband is a cyclist. We know lots of cyclists. He's been racing for years and I've been traipsing around to races with him, meeting cyclists and hanging out. Cyclists are literate, educated, interesting people. They've also got enough cash on hand to drop ridiculous (debatable) amounts of money on knobs and pipes (or whatever) so they can be reasonably expected to spend $25 on a hardback (or $12 on an ebook). I thought I'd mention the book to some cyclists I knew. 

Jr. Champion with Gold in his prize basket.

Then another book struck my eye. My novel shared Amazon's Editor's Picks List for Summer with a book by Little Bee author Chris Cleave, who has written a new book about Olympic cyclists called Gold. What? Another cycling book? And while I hadn't read it yet because it wasn't yet out, I knew based on Chris Cleave's other work that it was going to be fabulous. 

Coincidentally (yes, it is pure coincidence!) my own novel has a cyclist in it! In fact, the male main character rides a road bike, is familiar with Tegaderm, and follows the Tour de France by running around France dressed up like a microchip! Three cycling novels in the same summer... it was an opportunity for cross promotion that my guerilla-marketing brain couldn't pass up. When it was time for my husband's cycling team's annual race, The Franklin Omnium, I knew we had to include these books somehow. 

Simon & Schuster and Bloomsbury Press were kind enough to contribute copies of The Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar and signed copies of Gold, and I tossed in signed copies of Shine Shine Shine, three days before the release. We included novels in the gift baskets for the overall winners, gave them away as prizes in the individual races, and put them on display at the registration area so we could chat them up all weekend to the riders. I was so pleased and happy with how these prizes were received and thrilled to see riders talking about the books with each other, promising to spread the word and let other cyclists know about these books. I really hope our attempt to connect books with target readers they might not otherwise have found will be fruitful for all the authors.

When you're thinking about marketing your book, let your mind go down tangents as you brainstorm where your readers might be. Maybe they're at a sporting event, a concert, a charity event, a farmer's market? A garden store? The history department of your local university? Don't be afraid to look outside the traditional book markets to connect. 

Check out this photo set for more pictures of books in the bike race, and if you're a cyclist, or a space nut, or a mom, a student of Myanmar, a parent of an autistic child, please visit my web site to check out my book. It launches today!

STW on VW

Sylvia Townsend Warner (photo source)

Sylvia Townsend Warner on Virginia Woolf

Diaries 26^thJanuary 1942

‘At Boots Library the young woman put into my hands Virginia Woolf’s last book [Between The Acts].  And I received an extraordinary impression how light it was, how small, and frail.  As though it was the premature-born child, and motherless, and literally, the last light handful remaining of that tall and abundant woman.  The feeling has haunted me all day.’

Coronation - Paul Gallico

God bless the Queen!  And God bless lovely Alice at Bloomsbury, who recently sent me a copy of Paul Gallico's Coronation (1962).  I wish I'd had this in my hands over the Jubilee weekend, because it would have made perfect reading.  It still made pretty darn brilliant reading this weekend.

Here's how the novel opens:

The wheels of the Coronation Special from Sheffield, due at St. Pancras Station at six o'clock in the morning of Coronation Day, 2nd June 1953, sang the steady, lulling dickety-clax, dickety-clax of the British Railways.  Approaching a crossing, the engine shrieked hysterically into the drizzly night as it pulled its heavy load through the countryside, London-bound.  In the third-class compartment occupied by the five members of the Clagg family and three other passengers, no one slept, though Granny kept nagging at the two children to try to do so because of the long exciting day ahead.

The Clagg family are absolutely adorable.  One can't help love them.  They are the every-family, so resolutely normal, and excited to be on this once-in-a-lifetime trip.  The Claggs are Will (salt-of-the-earth foreman at a mill, hard-working and kind, never quite as eloquent as he'd like) and Violet (slightly fraught wife, anxious to please her children and society equally), Violet's crotchety mother (known simply as Granny) and two children, Johnny and Gwenny (11 and 7 respectively.)  They're both rather lost in worlds of daydreams - for Johnny, it is the prospect of being a soldier (preferably one who dies to save the Queen - good man!) and for Gwenny it is princesses et al.  Not really challenging gender stereotypes, Mr. Gallico, but nobody could describe Coronation as a challenging book in any way.  No, it is instead a delightful whirlwind through the Claggs' day out in London for the Coronation, with occasional parallel glances towards the service itself.

The Claggs have managed, through Cousin Bert, to secure rather impressive tickets.  Initially 25 guineas each, they snapped them up for only £10 a piece (still rather a hefty sum in those days, of course - they have had a family vote to forfeit the annual seaside holiday in favour of the Coronation trip, despite Granny's moanings.)  The tickets include shelter, seating, and - to Violet's almost childlike excitement - champagne.  It isn't just the children who engage in daydreams; Violet is pondering how it will feel to be like a lady in the films, having champagne poured for her by a butler...

Over this first section of the novel, as the train speeds towards London, there is an undertone that, perhaps, things are all a little too good to be true...

I shan't spoil anything, but let's just say that things don't go entirely according to plan...

But this is not a dark tale like Gallico's (brilliant) Love of Seven Dolls, nor overly sickly-sweet, as I found Jennie.  Although it does have something of the structure of a fable, the utter believability of the Clagg family prevents it feeling like something Aesop would have penned as a moral warning.  Each member of the family has their vices and irritations, but you can't help desperately wanting good things to happen for them.  Creating one well-rounded, sympathetic, good-but-not-cloying character is impressive.  To give us five in one cohesive family, each yet different from one another, is sheer brilliance.

And then, of course, there is the Queen.  Although we don't see anything directly from her perspective, Gallico captures the love which many Britons (and others) felt towards the Queen - and which monarchists like me still feel: 'the journey to London was something very ancient in his blood, a drawing of himself as a loyal subject to the foot of the throne, a gesture, a fealty and a courtesy as well.'  It is too great a feat for me to put myself in the mind of a republican, but I'll go out on a limb and assume that you would still be able to love this novel for its delightfully accurate portrayal of family dynamics, not to mention Gallico's wit and sensitivity.

Oh, what a lovely little book it is!  It doesn't match Love of Seven Dolls for me, because I think that is a novel of very rare excellence, but, in a different mould, it is a sheer joy.  I raced through the novel in less than 24 hours, and I'm sure I'll read it again.  Hopefully for the Queen's 75th Jubilee!

To finish - it doesn't hurt that Bloomsbury have produced an exceptionally beautiful volume, with the incomparable David Mann designing the cover.  It's a special little book - and perfect to read in this Jubilee year.

(Long live the Queen)

Chatsworth: the photos!

It's felt like quite a long week, and my energy levels are about up to posting a whole bunch of photos... so here are some snaps from my day at Chatsworth!  The weather wasn't great, but the company was, and the house and gardens are beautiful.  I didn't spend all that much time in the garden, but last time I went I spent more time in the garden than the house, so it evened out nicely (and this time Colin wasn't waiting in the car park!)  So... photo post ahoy!

This was the carriage they used at the
Coronation, I think -
included a great metal horse...

There is plenty of slightly unusual sculpture around -
this was probably my favourite bit.
Note the gilded balcony!

The order of service for the Coronation!

A whole Coronation room!  I was in Heaven.

Here we all are, standing looking regal on a staircase.
(l-r: me, June, Carol, Barbara - who has a blog)

Even on a gloomy day, not a bad view to have, eh?

For those who watched the BBC series, here's a close-up of the gilding...
I also saw the Head Tour Guide (whose story was in ep.1) walk past me.

A rather striking room - but, wait, what is that behind the door?

My dark, blurry photo doesn't really show it  -
but this is the most amazing piece of
trompe-l'oeil I have ever seen

My favourite part of a rather over-decorated house was this
beautiful wallpaper.  It might be a little overpowering 
if one had less capacious rooms, though...

The library!  It was actually very cosy.

Library Part 2.
Claire - how does this do on Library Lust?

Not, as June (I think) whispered, for a TV dinner...

The most wonderful baked cheesecake, which I ate in the cafe.

Into the garden - the spraying willow.

The gardens are a great mix of formal and unusual
- and I love steps anywhere.

From the highest point, looking across...

Just one of many separate sections, all with different characters

The house which supposedly made Elizabeth love Darcy(!)

Can't say I was wholly enamoured with the art in the grounds... 

No escape!  While waiting for my train at Chesterfield,
I saw that the Duke of Devonshire had donated
various pictures to the train station.