Long Live Great Bardfield - Review

Thanks to Persephone for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Eileen 'Tirzah' Garwood was born in 1908 and from  1925-8 she went to the Eastbourne School of Art where she was taught wood engraving by Eric Ravilious who she married in 1930.
She began this biography whilst recovering from breast cancer, looking back at her childhood and teenage years and then their life among some of the artists of the time who gravitated away from cities to live in Great Bardfield, and neighbouring Essex villages. Much of the book focuses on the love life of the various couples who seem to fall in and out of love with other members of the group all the time.
Her descriptions of all the people - friends, family, villagers are so good, as are the details of the places she visits with Eric when he is commissioned to paint landscapes or murals. Of Morecombe she writes" We should have to wait a whole week in this sad town that was only meant for visitors in the proper seasons; now it lay like a sluttish prostitute who hadn't yet bothered to get out of bed and paint her face". 
Eric and Tirzah had their first son - John- in 1935 and from that time Tirzah did very little in the way of wood prints or painting as she struggled to look after the children, James arrived in 1939 and Anne in 1941 and to keep house - often in very primitive conditions.
When war broke out Eric became an official war artist and was lost presumed dead while on a plane journey over Iceland in 1942. At the same time she was diagnosed with breast cancer and began an informal biography for her future grandchildren while recovering. The biography finishes in 1943 and the story of the rest of her life is told through letters and memories by her daughter Anne. Tirzah married Henry Swanzy, a BBC producer in 1946 and died when her cancer spread in 1951
The book is illustrated with black and white photos and Tirzah's engravings.

I enjoyed this book although there are so many people mentioned throughout  that I sometimes took a while to work out who was who!

It was only previously published in a limited edition hardback in 2012, so well done to Persephone Books for bringing it to a wider audience.

Back Soonish
Sue

Coincidences and books........both reviewing and selling

We watch several quizzes on TV and often the same question will pop up  on different programmes within a day or two. If I've remembered the answer then I can look really clever!
The same thing happens with books. A mention of something in one book can lead onto reading of the same thing again very soon after.
 This month Persephone Books are republishing "Long Live Great Bardfield; The autobiography of Tirzah Garwood". The title jumped out at me because Great Bardfield is a village in Essex and we've been there for their Garage Sale Day with our friends who live in the neighbouring village of Finchingfield. Hadn't a clue who Tirzah Garwood was but turns out she was the wife of Eric Ravilious,.............. hadn't a clue who Eric Ravilious was either but apparently he was an artist. Anyway I put the book on my wish list just out of curiosity. Then Dean Street Press sent me a copy of "Bewildering Cares" by Winifred Peck which they are republishing, also this month, and who is the painting on the cover by? Yep, you guessed.......Eric Ravilious.

Weird.


Cover illustration detail from "Village Street" (1936) by Eric Ravilious


I've now read Bewildering Cares and enjoyed it, although not as much as House-Bound or maybe I'm just mis-remembering.
 As the grandaughter of  bishops - on both sides of the family, and daughter of a vicar, Winifred Peck is able to write with some knowledge about the life of a vicars wife in 1940.

It starts with a letter from a old acquaintance asking what she does as the wife of a vicar "and as I am trying to do without a library subscription in Lent", Camilla Lacely tells her husband Arthur "and there are no evening meetings owing to the blessed blackout, I shall write down for her what the life of a parsons wife is like. Just one week to show her everything happens and nothing happens"
Most of the happenings during the week are the effect of the curate's sermon " I wish I'd been there instead of at the Mission" Arthur says when told of the upset Mr Strangs sermon has caused "What did he say?". Camilla casts her mind back and realizes she can remember nothing and must have nodded off!
There are quite a lot of small happenings during  Camilla's week " It's a storm in a teacup of course,but then we live in a teacup".  Two romances, an illness,  a "Quiet Day", a death, anxieties about their son in the RAF ,an inheritance and  of course Camillas attendance on many committees, which, as all the young parishioners have joined the services, are mainly attended by  the same elderly spinsters.
Some of the sentences in this book are a bit long which necessitates going back to read them again but there are many humourous and witty lines. "It was an opening for Mrs Pratt, of course, but she would find an opening in a steel wall anyhow"...............made me smile
And this observation struck a chord with me "As with so many girls who have lived in shops and offices, her values are all wrong. She looks on so many things for show as necessities which seem to me merely luxuries."

Overall a good read  ( Many thanks to Dean Street Press for sending me a copy of this book, books and magazines are the only things I will receive and review on this blog!!) and now I've ordered House-Bound from the library to re-read, thought I had a copy but haven't.


Thank you to someone for the mention on their blog of Ziffit.com. As you know we moved here with well over 1000 books, most of which are still boxed under the bed and we, sorry that should be I, seem to have acquired 30 or 40..... er 50? more in the 6 months since we arrived.

 The time has come the old woman said 

to sell  some books from under the bed.

 Ziffit.com buy books, not all books - they are quite particular on what they want -  and two of mine have been sold to them for just over £6 each! I boxed up 7 books and await a cheque for £23!

Still waiting for the Amazon voucher from the survey thing .......within 2 days the email said. It's now 5 days. Thought it was too easy to be true.
 
Welcome to Mandy, taking followers to 387 and thank you for Halloween comments, what a grumpy lot we all are!!

Back Shortly .............why can we say shortly but not longly?

Sue

Into the second half of April

Something no-one told me about in this Coping with Non Hodgkin Lymphoma thing is how weird it is to live with someone who is eating all the time. Col was  packing in as many calories as he could for the last 10 days because he knows that after chemo cycle 5 he will feel really ill again. He has lost over a stone in weight since January so he's trying not to lose more. He's been eating big meals and grazing in between.
Anyway, he was called in for the 5th cycle on Monday night, they were planning to give blood transfusions Tuesday but decided he didn't need any, then today they inserted a filter thingy into a vein (the thought makes me feel quite peculiar!) to prevent any movement of blood clots into the lungs(or worse), they will get on with chemo tomorrow and let him out Friday. This 5th lot is the short dose but with the nastier side effects.

Just finished this book, another mentioned somewhere (?) on a blog. The first 3/4 of the book was well written, but when the author gets towards the end, the story breaks in a gallop and gets a bit silly.

 

 This is what Amazon says about this debut novel

London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope. She graduated at the top of her college class and possesses all the skills of the finest minds in British intelligence, but her gender qualifies her only to be the newest typist at No. 10 Downing Street. Her indefatigable spirit and remarkable gifts for code-breaking, though, rival those of even the highest men in government, and Maggie finds that working for the prime minister affords her a level of clearance she could never have imagined-and opportunities she will not let pass. In troubled, deadly times, with air-raid sirens sending multitudes underground, access to the War Rooms also exposes Maggie to the machinations of a menacing faction determined to do whatever it takes to change the course of history.
Ensnared in a web of spies, murder, and intrigue, Maggie must work quickly to balance her duty to King and Country with her chances for survival. And when she unravels a mystery that points toward her own family's hidden secrets, she'll discover that her quick wits are all that stand between an assassin's murderous plan and Churchill himself.
In this thrilling debut, Susan Elia MacNeal blends meticulous research on the era, psychological insight into Winston Churchill, and the creation of a riveting main character, Maggie Hope, into a beautifully crafted mystery.

There are now 5 books featuring this character, with the 6th due later this year. Decided it was worth another go so I've ordered the 2nd from the library.

This morning after I'd huffed and puffed and shifted my paper storage drawers into the bedroom from the garage, I made a few cards for up-coming birthdays. I've had the paper flowers and leaves for years so it's good to see them used.

After lunch I went in to see Col and take him some more books. I've found I am the most hopeless hospital visitor because after 5 minutes in the ward I start yawning and after an hour I'm keen to get home again. I guess after nearly 37 years of marriage Col knows what I'm like and he never wants me to visit more than once a day - Thank heavens! ( I know that sounds awful- but I am nothing but honest!).
When I got home I was able to spend an hour sitting in the shed/summerhouse, out of the wind but in the sun, it's lovely to soak up a bit of warmth especially as the weather lady said we would be back to really cold weather by the weekend.

The latest Persephone Biannually arrived yesterday. I love to find out what out-of-print books they are planning to republish and was interested to read about one of the October books which is "Long Live Great Bardfield: The autobiography of Tirzah Garwood". I know absolutely nothing about this lady except it says she was married to the artist Eric Ravilious, but Great Bardfield is the next village to Finchingfield in Essex, where our friends live, so just for that reason I shall add it to my wish list.
One of the books our son gave me for my birthday was The Persephone Book of Short Stories, another to add to my Persephone collection -  wonder which box they are in?

Many thanks for the Happy Birthday wishes, although I said I groan about another birthday I don't really feel any older and I'm sure I'm still 25 inside!

Back Soon
Sue