A Lengthy Proposition.... and Jane Eyre

Well, long time no post. My apologies, but I have been caught up in life so to speak! Last weekend was our first wedding anniversary and we were busy celebrating that - but for the bulk of my absence I blame the ABC that waited until the end of the year to put all the good TV shows on.....The Vicar of Dibley, Monarchy, Beau Brummel, The Wind in the Willows have all been calling my name, leaving less time for reading and blogging. And tonight one of my absolute favourites - the Edinburgh Military Tattoo is on at 8:30....I just hope we get home from church in time.

Anyway, I have read a few books in the last couple of weeks which I want to briefly comment on. I saw Debs at War by Anne De Courcy yonks ago in a bookshop in Leura in the Blue Mountains. I was very tempted to buy it then, but held off - finally succumbing and buying it off the Book Depository. I am glad I did, because I enjoyed it. It is part of my pledge to my husband to read more non-fiction.

De Courcy starts off looking at what growing up in a privileged household was like in the 1920s, then how the girls made their debut into polite society. Then she looks at the options of war work available to the young women....the land army, the waafs, the Fany's, the ATS and factory work. I agreed with the sentiment of the girls that joined the waafs because of their nice uniform. I could see myself doing the same......the land army and ATS would definitely be out because I hate to get dirty. I found Debs at War a valuable read because it has provided me with an historical background for the many novels I read that are set in WW2. I will be on the look out for more of De Courcy's writing in the future.

Another non-fiction read was John Waller's The Real Oliver Twist - Robert Blincoe: A Life that Illuminates a Violent Age. I have had a newspaper cutting about The Real Oliver Twist pinned to my pin-up board since it was reviewed in The Australian last year. Still, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed reading it. I am gradually coming to the conclusion that I enjoy reading history books as long as they are domestic or social in nature.

Robert Blincoe was an orphan abandoned to St Pancreas Workhouse in the late 1790s. In an effort to cut down the cost of maintaining all the children in the workhouse, its governors started apprenticing them to trades - chimney sweeps and factory work. At age 7, Robert was apprenticed to a cotton mill in the north of England (when the original one closed he was indentured to another close by) . There he was physically abused, malnourished and worked half to death in very dangerous conditions. At age 21, with virtually no skills and a body twisted and deformed from the hard labour and poor food he was sent out into the world. What makes Robert an unusual parish apprentice is that he succeeded to make something of himself - rising to be solidly middle class. Yet, he did not forget those less fortunate than himself. He championed the rights of the young children working in factories... lobbying for ten hour days and educational rights. And, he saw his son go to Cambridge and become an Anglican rector....not many parish apprentices achieved that!

Another read (a very quick one) was Gerald Durrell's Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons. This is about his adventures in Mauritius trying to capture endangered species including skinks and pink pigeons. Durrell, as always, writes in a fun, witty style which means you just rollick through enjoying the story. I managed to pick this up in St Vinnie's for 20c....so I am sure you could find a copy at a charity shop without a problem.

Finally......and I have saved the best for last! How could I not have read this before? I am in complete horror that we didn't have this as a set text in high school - at a girls' school too. I have just read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I was inspired to read it because ABC was showing the film adaptation and I always like to read the book before I watch the film. It is just brilliant. I think Jane is a spunky, inspiring heroine. This is definitely going down as one of my favourite reads ever!

Well, that wraps up my reading reports here. I can start posting afresh in the new year. I will be taking a break for a week as we are off to the Blue Mountains to relax in a cottage for a week. We are taking our darling dogs with us....so that relaxing descriptor might not be the most accurate.

Anyhow, I want to take this opportunity to wish my readers a wonderful and blessed Christmas. Travel safely if you are going away and I hope to hear from you in the new year.

JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!

The Short Life & Long Times of Mrs Beeton

I have wanted to read The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton for quite a while. For some reason Mrs Beeton has always been an historical characterthat appealed to me. So, when I spotted a virtually untouched copy of thebook by Kathryn Hughes in the window of a second hand bookshop, I just hadto snap it up. I do not normally read historical non-fiction; and I am muchslower at reading it than I am at novel reading - save, Lady Chatterley's Lover where the dense writing took me an age to plough through. Anyhow,to the book...

Isabel Mayson married Sam Beeton in 1857 He gave her syphilis on their honeymoon - how generous! Sam had worked in publishing since he was a young teenager and, by the time of his marriage, was publishing a number of magazines including the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine. Soon after their marriage, Isabel became an active contributor to the magazine editing the cooking and fashion sections. Isabel suffered a seriesof miscarriages and lost her first little boy at only a few months of age (all symptoms of the syphilis from which she was, unknowingly, suffering). It was around this time that Sam suggested (perhaps as a distraction) that Isabel compile a book of household hints. Compile is the right word here because the book was copied either verbatim or with very loose paraphrasing from existing references. Occasionally, passing acknowledgement was given to the information's original source but, for the most part, Isabel's resources went unacknowledged. Originally the book was published in parts and it was only after Isabel's death at the age of 28 (in childbirth) that it was published as a complete volume.

One of the recurring themes in the book was class. Isabel Beeton's grandparents came from working class backgrounds. By the time Isabelwas born her grandparents and hence parents had made it solidly into thelower middle class. Her father died when Isabel was only 5 and her mother remarried - Mr Dorling, a man who was up-and-coming in the racing world. Mr Dorling's skill in managing the Epsom racetrack brought the family considerable wealth and improved their social status to such an extent that they became 'upper middle class'. Isabel's grandmother had worked in the family business, but her mother did not (a mark of her class). In marrying Sam and, by necessity,working in his business Isabel was perceived by her family to have slipped in social standing. But, Kathryn Hughes points out that it was precisely this 'slip' that allowed Isabel to use her talents in writing and finance (she was the money manager for Sam's business).

Interestingly, given its lasting fame, Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management was not an instant hit. Indeed, when Sam became bankrupt and had to sell off his titles in the late 1860s he seems not to have placed any value on Mrs Beeton's book. It was only about 20 years after it was written, and a number of appendages later, that the book began to be as recognised as it is today.

Art, Ballet and a Book.....

Well we had a busy weekend, spending Saturday in the city where we tackledthe Christmas shopping. I generally enjoy shopping, but buying presentsfor vast quantities of people becomes traumatic! Let's just say, lots of people are getting books this Christmas.

We went to see Translucent at the NSW Art Gallery, as it was ending yesterday. It was an exhibition of jade carvings from China's Forbidden City. The carvings were amazing. Some dated back from 3000 BC. I particularly likedthe carved animals of the 18th century. There was a gorgeous carving of a dog which apparently resulted from the obsession of the Chinese of that period with all things European, as the dog is of a breed not native to China. I also appreciated the detail of 'nature' as presented in the medieval pieces - the maple leaves, for instance, were so beautiful and dainty.

In the evening we saw the Australian Ballet perform Destiny. A celebration of the dance of the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo, the evening comprised two ballets: Les Presages and Symphonie Fantastique. Les Presages was a recreation of the 1933 ballet choreographed by Leonide Massine. Set to the music ofTchaikovsky it was spectacular and I loved it, which is unusual as I usually prefer ballets of the romantic era. I particularly coveted the pink and blue leotard dresses of two of the leads. The Symphonie Fantastique ballet was created specially for the occasion (though the Ballet Russes did perform a ballet of the same name). The music was that of Berlioz. I thought it was very clever; particularly the synchronous movements of the dancers used in several sections but, overall, it did not hold as much appeal for me as Les Presages. As a side note, I highly recommend the Ballet Russes documentary that was released last year.

I did manage to fit in a bit of reading too. At my husband's urging I read Undiplomatic Activities by Richard Woolcott. This is a bit outside my normal reading scope - I don't read much non-fiction. Woolcott was an Australian career diplomat; who ended up as Head of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. For the most part, this short book is a collection of humorous anecdotes about awry diplomatic incidents. However, it is complemented byWoolcott's cautionary commentary. I think an extract serves best to give a flavour of the book:

Ministers need to accept the limitations that Australia, as a middle-power, faces in the international community. John Howard's criticism of American Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama's approach to Iraq in 2007 was certainly unwise and suggests a sense of self-importance somewhat at odds with reality. Downer has a sense of humour and describes criticism of him as like 'rubber bullets of a Sherman tank'. In some cases, however, it might have been helpful to him and to the country to have taken some notice of the so-called rubber bullets.

I am reminded of two revealing historical episodes. When told of Russian naval activity in the Pacificic before the Russian revolution, a minister was quoted as saying, 'I warn the Tsar'. A British foreign secretary, taking it for granted that London was at the very centre of the world, responded to reports of damage to the undersea cables between England and France during a fierce storm in the Channel, by saying that, 'unfortunately the Continent has been isolated'. A failure to adopt a realistic perspective of a nation's place in world affairs can leave one sounding rather foolish.