Reading and Dancing

April 10, 2019April 10, 2019 / Eleanor Jane / 1 Comment

This past weekend I went away for a few days folk dancing at Halsway Manor. I recently treated myself to a copy of the first Abbey School book by Elsie J Oxenham – The Girls of the Hamlet Club and although I have only read a couple of books in the series before but I knew the girls were very keen on folk dancing so it seemed the perfect choice to take away with me.

The house is absolutely beautiful. I had been particularly looking forward to seeing the library and it did not disappoint.

In fact, it was even better than I had hoped as I found half a shelf of Abbey School books in there which made me very happy indeed.

The weekend was very full but I still found plenty of time for reading and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I had the most wonderful windowsill in my bedroom.

It was perfect for sitting and reading and I could have quite happily spent the whole weekend there!

Fangirling in Bloomsbury

February 20, 2019February 21, 2019 / Eleanor Jane / 6 Comments

The day after my Jane Austen Society annual study day last week I was due to meet a friend for brunch. Naturally that meant I had to stay in town which I was more than happy to do! I was very impressed to find that my hotel had Foyles marked as a place of interest on its map.

I had never been to Foyles before so I had planned to visit on the Saturday evening and it was definitely worth the trip – I spent well over two hours browsing the shelves and had to exercise great restraint not to come away with half the books. I especially loved the children’s classics section which had six whole shelves of Enid Blyton and even some books from the Girls Gone By Press. Foyles is much bigger than any bookshop near me and it was wonderful to be able to properly browse and find new (to me) titles. In the end, however, I managed to restrict myself to just two books and a tote bag.

I was meeting my friend at King’s Cross so the next day I wandered through Bloomsbury, picking out as many literary sights as I could. I made a slight detour to find Mecklenburg Square and the house where Dorothy L Sayers once lived. Harriet Vane is mentioned as living in the square too so it was doubly interesting to me.

I had toyed with the idea of having my picture taken with the trolley at Platform 9 3/4 but having seen the length of the queue I decided I could manage without!

After brunch I visited the Charles Dickens museum which I loved – my favourite room was, perhaps unsurprisingly, Dickens’ study.

I was very impressed with the setup of the house – they used the house next door for things like the gift shop and had a door knocked through so that the house itself was more or less as it had been in Dickens’ time. I thought it was an excellent use of the space!

All in all, it was quite a literary pilgrimage of a weekend and I had the most wonderful time. I must do things like this more often!

Being a Janeite

February 13, 2019 / Eleanor Jane / 2 Comments

Last Saturday was the Jane Austen Society’s annual study day and for the first time I made the trip up to London to attend. I was very excited about going but more than a little nervous about being on time – my train was due to arrive 40 minutes before the first lecture started and as trains were delayed by the weather that weekend I was convinced I would be late. However, my journey ran perfectly and I arrived at Senate House with time to spare.

The talks were all based on the theme of reading but took us in a wide variety of directions and I found them fascinating. I was greatly interested in the Reading with Austen project and I would highly recommend having a look at their website. They are trying to locate all the books which were in the Godmersham Park library when Austen was there and the virtual bookshelves are wonderful.

I also particularly enjoyed the talk on 19th century illustrations in Jane Austen. I found it fascinating that the illustrations focused so much on typically feminine objects like dresses and bonnets and pictured very few books. The speaker suggested this gave the impression that the books were very frivolous and I think this is an idea which continues today. Certainly I have heard people writing off Jane Austen as ‘just’ a romantic novelist when in reality she is so much more. On the other hand, some illustrations made the books look like highly sensational novels – I found them rather amusing!

The break times were an excellent chance to chat with other Janeites and I was in my element with so many other like minded people. It might have been my first study day but it’s certainly won’t be my last.

A Bookish Restorative

November 28, 2018November 28, 2018 / Eleanor Jane / Leave a comment

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that it has been a busy few months for me. I was feeling very tired and drained so I have just spent a week in Dartmouth to recuperate.

I intended to have a week doing not very much at all and I relished the time I could spend curled up with a book or my crochet. It being November, most of that was indoors – I particularly loved this corner by the fire.

However, as long as one wore enough layers it was definitely possible to read outside. This little beach was wonderfully quiet and secluded.

It was definitely a good week.

Cheltenham Literature Festival 2018

October 10, 2018 / Eleanor Jane / 2 Comments

I am just back from my first ever visit to the Cheltenham Literature Festival where I had the best time. The whole festival village was amazing and there were three separate festival bookshops – one of them dedicated to children’s books. I was in heaven.

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I was there for a long weekend and in that time managed to fit in ten events. It was wonderful to find so many fascinating talks – Sarah Dunant’s on the Borgias was especially interesting (and entertaining, as all the best talks should be).

My favourite events were on the Saturday afternoon. Two talks about children’s books which were brilliant and after which I got to meet Anna James – author of Tilly and the Book Wanderers – and Jessica Townsend – author of Nevermoor. They were both lovely people (and their books are wonderful too – go and read them!).

To round off the evening we went along to the lit crawl to take part in the quiz. It had a classics theme which I obviously loved and we managed to come third which made me very proud, especially as we were the smallest team there. We received some fabulous prizes too, including two books – Frankenstein and La Belle Sauvage – and four tickets to festival events. I practically danced my way back to the hotel!

One of the best things about any festival is the amount of reading time. There were plenty of lovely places to sit and my favourite was the Book Stand – a cosy sitting room set up on the band stand. I spent some very happy hours there with my book and a cup of tea.

It was a brilliant weekend and I would definitely love to visit again.

The Joy of Serendipity

September 12, 2018September 12, 2018 / Eleanor Jane / Leave a comment

On Monday I was hurrying along the street towards the railway station when I came upon an Oxfam bookshop. I didn’t really have time to stop but I could see a very attractive classics section just inside the door and decided I could spare a couple of minutes to browse that at least.

There were some good books there but nothing I wanted to buy and I was just turning away when my eye fell on the poetry section – specifically a book of medieval Latin lyrics.

In a few weeks I will be going to the Cheltenham Literary Festival and I am especially excited about a talk on how to read a Latin poem. This focuses specifically on two poems – one (part of Ovid’s Amores) I have already and the other the Confession of the Archpoet which I have been struggling a bit to find. The problem is that I want an edition with both the Latin and the English translation – although I have done some Latin I am not yet good enough to read a whole poem easily but I didn’t want to just have the translation which would kind of defeat the point!

Anyway, there I was in the bookshop with the Latin lyrics in my hand and thinking that the Confession is a medieval poem – and a pretty famous one at that. Surely it might well be in this very book? A quick flick through located it and even better it was there in both Latin and English. I snatched it up. Thankfully I also managed to catch my train home.

It just goes to show – it is always a good idea to visit any bookshop you may come across!

Visiting Agatha Christie

August 29, 2018August 29, 2018 / Eleanor Jane / 2 Comments

I am just back from a week’s holiday in Dartmouth. I had a lovely, restful time and got to do a lot of reading.

No trip to Dartmouth would be complete without a visit to Agatha Christie’s house Greenway. She described it as, ‘The loveliest place in the world,’ and it really is beautiful. You can see that the views when she lived there must have been amazing, although the trees have grown up a bit now and obscure the view somewhat.

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Some of the nicest things about the house are the bookshelves. A great many National Trust houses have libraries which are filled with books bought by the yard – all matching and never read. The books here were completely mismatched and looked very well read which made me so happy. There were naturally many different editions of Agatha Christie’s own books and I fell in love with this little bookcase on the landing. I want one!

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Perhaps my favourite thing though was the drawer of imaginatively addressed envelopes which found their way to the house.

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Of these, I was especially fond of this one which is just wonderful.

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Of course, we had to walk down to the boathouse which features so prominently in Dead Man’s Folly. We had been listening to the audio book on the way down to Dartmouth and I finished it after our visit. I have read it before but it was fascinating to read it again and be able to picture the scene exactly.

Once in the boathouse we spent a long time watching the river from the balcony. It is such a peaceful spot and it is a lovely place to sit. There is a fireplace inside so I should think it would be wonderfully cosy in winter too. Whilst there I also got to sit in Agatha Christie’s own chair – it was made especially for her and she used to sit in it to look over her manuscripts. One couldn’t read anything but Dead Man’s Folly there and there was a handy copy lying on the chair with a useful label pointing me to the relevant pages.

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We left by ferry and so walked down to the quay through the woods – the shortcut which so infuriated Sir George Stubbs. It was a lovely day and I’m sure I will be back again in the future.

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