Weekend Miscellany

Hello there, hope all’s well with you and yours. This weekend we’ll be having murder-afoot at our house, as it’s my birthday murder party. My actual birthday isn’t til the 7th November, but the Saturday nearest to that is always Bonfire Night at South Parks in Oxford. Lots of fun stuff in the weekend miscellany…

1.) Starting with the winner of The Love Child by Edith Olivier. Thanks for all your fantastic suggestions of ‘E’ titles and authors – I especially loved how often Enid Blyton, Emma, and E.M. Delafield came up – all ones I’d have chosen. But, without further ado, the copy of this brilliant novella is going to… (one random number generator later) SPOTS OF TIME. I don’t remember seeing your name before (have I?), so welcome, welcome, and well done! Send me your address to simondavidthomas[at]yahoo.co.uk, and I’ll get the book off to you…

2.) Speaking of books (aren’t we always?) the wonderful Persephone Secret Santa is happening again this year. Head over to Paperback Reader/Claire’s post for more details… it’s good fun, very festive, and guilt-free book buying. She’s said we can use her fab image, so thanks Claire!

3.) Here in Britain we have some wonderful publishers – Persephone being just one of the companies which make me pleased to live in this scepter’d isle. The one time I get jealous is when the New York Review of Books Classics are mentioned. I own a few, but they’re difficult and pricey to get here – they are such beautiful books, in terms of design, touch, the way they open… and, of course, they have printed some brilliant titles, including Tove Jansson’s novels, one by Barbara Comyns, Sylvia Townsend Warner, etc. etc.

Anyway, Mrs. B and Coffeespoons are organising a NYRB Reading Week – see here. Also see Thomas’ post on this – he gave me permission to reproduce his stunning and jealousy-inducing photo of his NYRB Classics collection (below). I think it’s my favourite photograph I’ve ever seen on a blog – I could stare at it for hours, hoping somehow to master self-teleportation. I thought I’d read all my NYRB books, but I’ve just remembered I have Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner waiting in the wings, so perhaps I will join in…

I’m writing from deepest, darkest Somerset – having spent the evening playing with adorable Sherpa – and have that old weekend miscellany to give. A bit different from usual, as today all the things I’m pointing out are blogs or blog posts….

1.) I’ve been meaning to read more E.H. Young ever since reading Miss Mole, more here, and although several months have passed and I still haven’t done, my determination has been renewed by this enthusiastic review of Young’s William from Harriet Devine.

2.) For those of you with a fondness for Our Vicar’s Wife (and she did make me a lovely dinner tonight, so I am even more fond of her than usual) – do go along and have a gander at her recently-overhauled blog. She’s now joined the WordPress masses…

3.) I thought I’d mention that family friend and poet Mary Robinson has started up a blog called Wild About Poetry… job done!

4.) Simon S. often has interesting blog-posts-about-blogging, and the most recent is a discussion about whether we prefer blogs with lots of reviews or lots of non-review bookish posts (lists, questions, books we’ve bought, etc.) I suspect the answer – both from the perspective of blogging and that of blog-reading – will be ‘a mixture’, but it’s interesting to discuss why. Have a gander, and throw your tuppennyworth in, here.

Oh, and happy birthday to regular SiaB reader, and real-life friend, Lucy! She opened the present I gave her yesterday – she asked for books I thought she’d like but probably wouldn’t come across otherwise, and I picked Christopher Morley’s Parnassus on Wheels and Saki’s Beasts and Super-Beasts.

Happy Weekend, one and all – I am rising after almost twelve hours asleep, which will hopefully throw off the remainder of the cold I’ve had for a bit now. It does mean that I haven’t been reading much of late – even though I’m in the middle of one or two really good books – but there should be enough going on in the back of my head to cobble together a book, a blog post, and a link!

1.) The blog post – is the new(ish) site called Austen Authors, and more particularly the post by/about SiaB-favourite Diana Birchall. The site collects together lots of people who have written about Austen, or in the style of Austen. It would be too catty for my taste to call Diana’s sequel Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma a rose among thorns, but… let’s just say her novel is inspired by Austen’s prose, and not Colin Firth’s wet shirt…

2.) The link – is to the South Asian Literature Festival, which is taking place between 15th-31st October, in London to start off, and then the rest of the UK. I know less about South Asian literature than most of you, I suspect, but I might well try and make it along to a session or two, time permitting.

3.) The book – is the forthcoming (on October 14th) autobiography by the very-much-loved Judi Dench, And Furthermore. I’m sometimes a little exasperated by celebrities who think that being famous = having writing ability, and who knows whether or not Dame J can hold her own as a prose stylist, but I think I would love this book whatever she wrote. With some people, I am besotted to the point of blindness…

Happy Weekend, one and all! Colin is coming to visit this weekend, and will be roped into all manner of baking tomorrow, as we prepare for our housewarming on Sunday. Should be fun – but will not conducive to me finishing Villette by next Wednesday. Oh well, fingers are crossed…

The Weekend Miscellany is a bit more disorganised this week, as there were so many things I wanted to mention, and I thought I’d forget about them if I decided to wait til next week. They’ll all be a bit of a jumble…

1.) Elizabeth Jenkins died this week, aged 104 – she wrote novels and biographies including Cornflower Book Group choice The Tortoise and the Hare. Nicola Beauman (of Persephone Books) wrote her obituary, a link brought to my attention by Lyn.

2.) Hannah Stoneham alerted me to Dorothy, a publishing project. They have a website and a Facebook page, and describe themselves as publishing ‘works of fiction or near fiction or about fiction, mostly by women.’ The reason I’m excited is that one of their first books (in November) will be a reprint of Barbara Comyns’ incredibly good Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead with fantastic cover art by Yelena Bryksenkova. Bad news for me – and good for a lot of you – is that they’re based in the US.

3.) Several people alerted me to an interview with Debo Devonshire on Radio 4 this morning – if you happened to miss it, you can listen to the interview here. It’s rather wonderful, and has me chomping at the bit to read Wait for Me.

4.) A book that sounds fun is Matthew J. Dick’s Pistols for Two – Breakfast for One. Hugo Hammersley is formerly of the HM diplomatic service, and is investgating the murder of a notable British citizen in Italy, and the disappearance of the priceless gold coin he had carried. That’s before the Mafia get involved…

5.) Other people who know me well have alerted me to these videos – the first is the latest Ikea advert; the second is the ‘Making of’ that advert. Ikea and cats are two of my favourite things (along with, of course, brown paper packages tied up with string) so I am naturally besotted.

Hello there, hope you’re all set to enjoy a Bank Holiday Weekend if you’re in Britain – and hasn’t the weather really made an effort? Ahem. Great answers on yesterday’s post, keep ’em coming. And so many reviews and things to come next week – so many great books waiting for me to squeak about them! And Tara Books – I absolutely must talk about them this week. Watch this space…

1.) The blog post – is my very favouritest brother’s. He’s been reading Orlando by Virginia Woolf (as part of a deal – I have to read one of the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan. Each one in the series is the size of a hill.) We both set off enthusiastically in March. I read 550 pages (HOW can that not be the whole of a book?) but have 200+ left – Col is staggering towards the end of Orlando, and I thought I’d share his review of it – which is here (entry for August 25th). I wholeheartedly disagree with it – but it serves as nice proof that twins do not have the same tastes. Oh, and I should say that Colin’s blog is nearly seven years old, so twice as old as mine…

2.) The book – I like Gallic Books – because they’re so friendly, because they link to Big Green Bookshop on their website, and (of course) because of their range of books. So I was pleased to see further innovation on their part – their book The Baker Street Phantom by Fabrice Bourland (translated by Morag Young) is being offered as a complimentary copy to anyone who books into the Park Plaza Sherlock Holmes Hotel, on Baker Street in London, during September. The novel is set in 1930s London, and I love the ingenuity of the whole thing.

3.) The link – is staying with Gallic Press, and throwing another Stuck-in-a-Book favourite into the mix – Peirene Press. I do so love it when publishers cooperate with each other, and realise that the world should be a friendly, book-fuelled place… and Gallic Press have got on board with that idea, as exemplified by their series of posts called ‘Publisher Spotlight’. This one interviews Meike, the doyenne of Peirene Press.

Why, hello there. I’m all geared up for my weekend of novellas – in fact, I’ve snuck another one in by Violet Trefusis, just in case my whim takes me in that direction – but I thought I wouldn’t leave you adrift… before I tuck myself up in my room with the world of short novels, here’s a link, a book, and a blog post.

1.) The blog post – Peter mentioned Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson when I was asking for suggestions for books about moving house, and my curiosity was definitely sparked – now Jodie’s blog post has sealed the deal. Rarely has a review made me so very keen to read a book, and it’s absurd that I haven’t any Moomin books, given how much I love Jansson’s novels and short stories for adults. Is it going to be next on Project 24? Maybe maybe maybe…

2.) The link – thanks to all those people who spotted The Great British Bake Off and told me it would be right up my street. Of course it was! If you’re familiar with Masterchef, basically it’s that format but with baking. The first episode (which was on last Tuesday, but which I’ve only just seen) specialised in cakes – the contestants had to make their own speciality cake, then a basic Victoria sponge, and finally a chocolate celebration cake. The judges then sent two bakers home… I was surprised that I found the programme quite genuinely moving! I started off laughing a bit at the idea of competitive cake baking, and the serious tones everyone had, but I felt all anxious and sad when people had to go home… But anything presented by the fab Mel and Sue can’t be *too* serious…

Oh, and thrown into the mix is a bit of cake history – including some quite astonishing pictures of the wedding cakes Queen Victoria ordered for her children’s weddings! Of course, this is all leading up to a link – until the 14th September you’ll be able to watch the first episode here. Episodes continue on Tuesdays… as usual, I don’t know whether or not it’s available outside of the UK. Hope so!

Appropriately enough, I watched The Great British Bake Off whilst baking a cake. It’s a coconut and lime sponge – a combination I haven’t tried before, so the proof is in the, er, pudding. Chocolate/lime sponge and coconut sponge with raspberry jam are my favourite types, so I thought combining bits of both might work… it’s out the oven and cooling, so I can’t show you a pic yet.

BUT (gosh, this is getting more loquacious than most Weekend Miscellanies) this is a good opportunity to show you a piccie or two of a 1950s cakestand I bought last weekend… so I have. I would have loved a three-tier cakestand, but the one I got is pretty darn beautiful…

3.) The book – is getting a bit ahead of myself, but Lyn (of I Prefer Reading) mentioned in our online book group that Capuchin Classics are reprinting Stephen Benatar’s When I Was Otherwise next March. His novel Wish Her Safe at Home rather charmed me recently, and with great titles including A.A. Milne’s Two People on their backlist, Capuchin may well have scored another triumph..

Oh dear… well, it is still the weekend. But I’ve been busy planning a murder mystery party, so that’s my excuse for not blogging earlier! And great fun it was too – we played it out this evening, set in a cake shop called For Goodness Cake! (aka our lounge) and gave me an excuse to splurge on a beautiful tiered cake stand, which I’m show off soon. And I already had a beautiful non-tiered cake stand… I may be developing an obsession.

Anyway, I wrote a murder with nine parts, all unisex so they could be distributed randomly, and I think it worked quite well. Lots of fantastic acting going on all round! Great fun – and all to celebrate my housemate Debs’ birthday. The present I gave her was, of course, books… some gems I found in Malvern. I thought I’d give her books I’d loved, and hope for the best – so she got rather lovely old copies of The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, Mrs. Miniver by Jan Stuther, and the Collected Short Stories of Saki.

Anyway, enough of my news – let’s leap towards the book, blog post, and link. Not much colour this weekend, as that’s the bit which takes the most time, and I need to sleep…

1.) The link – comes courtesy of Nancy, thanks Nancy – fancy living in the house in Rye which has housed E.F. Benson, Henry James, and Rumer Godden? (Not all at the same time, you understand…) Well, you can rent it! I can’t believe this is true, and wish I had the money and the desired ability to garden… I’d love it if a SiaB reader got the gig. Have a look here.

2.) The blog post – is Simon S’s very interesting post on blog commenting. Some people find blogging-about-blogging (meta-blogging, if you will) tiresome, some find it fascinating – I am one of those who finds it fascinating, and could read about it all day. The ways people go about it, the decisions they make, etc. etc…. so interesting. And so I’ve enjoyed everyone’s thoughts on commenting on blogs. And apologise once again for my laxness in replying to comments – Must Do Better.

3.) The book – I spent much of today reading The Uncanny by Nicholas Royle. When a publisher told me they were issuing his novel Quilt, and would I like a copy, I thought – gosh, how uncanny (ahem). And said yes. And it sounds right up my street – here’s the blurb:Facing the disarray and disorientation around his father’s death, a man contends with the strange and haunting power of the house his parents once lived in.

He sets about the mundane yet exhausting process of sorting through the remnants of his father’s life – clearing away years of accumulated objects, unearthing forgotten memories and the haunted realms of everyday life. At the same time, he embarks on an eccentric side-project. And as he grows increasingly obsessed with this new project, his grip on reality seems to slip.It sounds like a combination of things I’ve loved in novels by Edward Carey and Stephen Benatar, as well as reminding me of ‘Daughters of the Late Colonel’ by Katherine Mansfield… and utterly irresistible. I think it may form part of a little project I’m intending to undertake next weekend, which I’ll tell you about soon…

As promised, I won’t leave you without a book, a blog post, a link. And I should have time to create a post about the books I’m taking on holiday…

1.) The book – is Remember, Remember by Hazel McHaffie, which the author recently sent me for review. McHaffie is an expert in medical ethics, but turns her hand to fiction-writing with this novel about a lady with Alzheimer’s and her daughter… and family secrets being unearthed. Sounds really intriguing, and has a lovely cover to boot.

2.) The link – I’m spoiling you; there are two, because one of them might only be available in the UK. Thanks Carol N for mentioning this link to a BBC documentary about literary editor and memoirist Diana Athill called ‘Growing Old Disgracefully’. And thanks abebooks for doing a fun feature on 75 Years of Penguin. Plenty to keep you amused there… (photo credit)

3.) The blog post – is my Mum/Our Vicar’s Wife/Anne’s blog, which I don’t mention enough here. Go and be welcomed to July by Mum with this post! It’s a Windows Live Spaces blog, so commenting might be tricky, but *hopefully* viewing is possible for all…

My best laid plans to type out a week’s worth of reviews this evening have rather crumbled and fallen. Instead, I did my ironing, baked a cake, and watched soap operas online. I feel a little like a 1950s housewife… but I’ve read/seen The Hours and I know how that ends.

Off to a wedding tomorrow, should be fun – and will hopefully avoid dancing. As Mary Bennett once said before me, “I should infinitely prefer a book.” And, had she found her way to Stuck-in-a-Book, she’d get even more than that: a book, a blog post, and a link. Don’t say I don’t spoil you.

1.) The book – I was wondering to myself what else Nicola Humble might have written, except the very Simon-friendly The Feminine Middlebrow Novel 1920s to 1950s (see more here) and came across this rather winning title: Cake: A Global History. It’s advertised on Amazon as Cake: A Global History (Edible) which I thought was an exceptionally clever gimmick, but turns out Edible is the name of the publishing company. Basically it looks like it does what it says on the tin – a history of cake! What’s not to like?

2.) The link – is to an Oxfam Bookfest. Includes a day-long readathon… Click the link to find out more.

3.) The blog post – I’m a sucker for so-I-went-bookshopping sorts of posts (especially since I’ve been on rations myself) so hive on over to Thomas at My Porch and his latest spree…

By the time this comes up on Blogger… well, hopefully I’ll be tucked up in bed, but chances are I’ll be on the way back from a birthday dinner in London. That’s right, the Big City three times within a week – I’m quite literally hip and happening. But not too hip for a book, a blog post, and a link…

Before I do that – please note that you can now search my reviews by decade of first publication! It took ages, so I hope *someone* uses it…(!) Have a look in the left hand column, and there’s a drop-down menu for it… also for publisher, but there I’ve only included a select few of favourites whose names are synonymous with certain types of book – i.e. not the big publishers, who are also wonderful but publish many different sorts of thing…

1.) The book – arrived through the letter box this morning, to my happy surprise. It’s a new OUP edition of Cousin Phillis and other stories by Elizabeth Gaskell, which is rather lovely – thanks OUP! I reviewed Cousin Phyllis (sans other stories) back here, during I Love Hesperus Week – and I assume the ‘y’ instead of an ‘i’ doesn’t denote a different book? Gaskell is a really good short story writer, as well as novelist, so I encourage you to go and explore…

2.) The link – came courtesy of my very good friend Lorna, who saw it and thought of me… Here it is. It’s not book-related, but it does concern the other burning passion in my life… (and, no, I don’t mean Neighbours. Or even, unfortunately, Jesus. It’s cake I’m talking about.)

3.) The blog post – is from the rather lovely Rachel at Book Snob, and her rather lovely thoughts brought about by her first blog birthday. If you’re not feeling warm and fuzzy after reading that, then you must be lying in a bath of ice, drinking iced tea, and wearing a penguin for a bonnet.