Finding Lark Rise

November 24, 2021 / Eleanor Jane / Leave a comment

I have stayed in Dartmouth many, many times and I thought I knew all about its literary connections (Agatha Christie, Christopher Robin…) but it turns out that there really is always something to learn. Flora Thompson lived there from 1928 to 1940 and in fact wrote Lark Rise to Candleford there.

I discovered this purely by chance when we were booking our cottage – we stayed in a house called Larkrise and when I Googled ‘Larkrise Dartmouth’ I got several results about Flora Thompson. Of course, I had to do a bit of research then and find out all I could! Once we were there I made sure I found the house where she lived and although I didn’t get to her grave (with a book shaped headstone) this year I will make sure I do next time.

Lark Rise had been on my TBR for years so naturally I had to take it with me. My copy is such a lovely little book and it felt wonderful carrying it about with me – and reading it in the places Flora would have known. I have always loved taking books back to their roots and it is definitely something I can recommend.

Recharging

November 17, 2021November 17, 2021 / Eleanor Jane / Leave a comment

Having just spent a week away in Dartmouth I have been reminded once again just how good reading is for me. I had been feeling pretty stressed and wound up and that time away – where I did very little other than read, walk and paint – was exactly what I needed.

I rediscovered all my old reading haunts and even found some new ones. Just sitting on the rocks away from the hurly burly of life is a wonderful balm for the soul.

Also lovely were the evenings. On several days I sat out until it was too dark to read and was very grateful for the warmth of the flat when I got back. Then I could settle down with hot chocolate and my book or a board game and watch all the lights of the harbour. Bliss.

Christie Immersion

November 10, 2021 / Eleanor Jane / Leave a comment

Over the past couple of days I have been exploring round Dartmouth and enjoying it very much. There are so many gorgeous houses on the edges of the town – and over the river around Kingswear – and what with those and the palm trees I feel as if I am in an Agatha Christie novel. I can practically see people walking to tennis parties. This is the heart of Agatha Christie country after all

Unfortunately whenever I am here there seems to be an awful lot of building work going on. The walls and fences springing up around those houses make them look more like fortresses and I am convinced they looked much more welcoming in their heyday. I appreciate that the owners don’t want people all over their lawns but four private notices on one gateway does seem excessive. All the pretty blocked up gateways make me very sad too – and it doesn’t help at all that most of the houses are not lived in all year round.

However, I try not to dwell on that and just enjoy the sea air and gorgeous views. I neglected to take a Christie book with me but I did have A Tourist’s Guide to Murder by V M Burns which – completely fortuitously – involves a trip to Dartmouth and so was very appropriate. It is definitely the perfect place for reading cosy crime.

Cosy Reading

November 3, 2021 / Eleanor Jane / 2 Comments

Now that the evenings are most definitely dark all I want to do is hibernate. By which I mean light the fire, light the candles and curl up with hot chocolate and a book. Or sometimes a nice cosy film.

Of course, that isn’t actually an option but I do manage to get a good number of cosy evenings which most definitely help. I have brought my copy of Imagining Anne – the book of L M Montgomery’s scrapbooks from Prince Edward Island – back down to the living room and am devouring it by candlelight as it should be read.

It just wasn’t getting read upstairs (it’s a bit big for bedtime reading!) and that was making me very sad as it is a gorgeous book which I really did want to read. The pages from the scrapbooks are beautiful and absorbing and I lose myself in them.

The lesson for this week is clearly not to take coffee table type books away from coffee tables!