‘Landing Eight’ Progress (or lack thereof): Primo Levi

Aug18

It is time to return to my self-imposed Reading Challenge task of tackling the ‘Landing Eight’ selection. After several literary distractions (of which more below) I have decided to tackle The Periodic Table by Primo Levi which I have long intended to read. I have been racking my brains trying to recall where and when I acquired my copy. It is an Everyman Classics hardback edition with an introduction by Neal Ascherson. I am almost sure that I bought this one new (I often put my name and date of purchase or gift on the title page, but not this time) when I was a student in Preston. If I remember correctly, I bought it with the proceeds from winning a student prize. Of course, next week I might have a blinding flash of memory and recall the real circumstances. Anyway, as The Periodic Table has languished patiently on my TBR Pile ever since then, the moment to read it has finally arrived.

It’s the fifth one down

I mentioned the literary distractions that have lured me away from my blogging mission. One such diversion was Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, which I found recently on a bedroom shelf. I had completely forgotten that I had ever bought it. It just goes to show how beneficial it can be to clean ones shelves on occasion. The results often amaze me: gems from a foray to a charity shop tucked away for safe keeping. I should make a memo to self about cleaning book cases more often.

There was a Guardian interview with Mantel this week in which the author talks about the ending of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy. I can see that I might need the tissues handy at the end just as I did in the closing pages of A Place of Greater Safety when I was crying over the execution of Camille Desmoulins. You know how the story is going to end, but it is just the way she tells it. Mantel manages to bring historical figures that you may never have thought too much about before, alive and kicking. I have a feeling that I may resort to the tissue box once more when Cromwell’s story draws to a close.

Other digressions have involved reading books (with my bookseller’s hat on) for reviewing on the brilliant writers’ website www.writing.ie . Recent reviews have been on Tana French’s Broken Harbour and Chris Ewan’s Safe House. I have also been trying to keep up with my commitments to Irish News Review with this piece on the sand sculptures on at Dublin castle this month. I have a notebook with ideas jotted down for articles from various activities, so I have no excuse not to keep writing.

At the same time I must push on with Primo Levi; more next time!

From Landing to Walls: Romans and Rows in Chester

Aug8

Chester Guide

The landing has been rather quiet of late as I have been away visiting my family in Birmingham for a few days. On my travels, I spent a day in Chester for the first time in many years. Though I did remember some of the city’s general features, my memory failed me on the detail. I definitely remembered the Chester Rows and I knew there were Roman remains somewhere in the city but the rest was rather hazy. Therefore, I was delighted to discover an informative souvenir-walking guide at the railway station.

Chester Inside Out by Gordon Emery (1998) is as much of a pleasure to sit and read, as it is to use as a conventional guidebook. The book abounds with maps, sketches, suggested walks (with detours) and snippets of Chester’s long history. The landscape orientation of the book’s page layout and its facsimile handwritten text owe a debt (acknowledged by the author) to Mark W Jones’ A Walk Around the Snickelways of York (1983, 2010).

Passages, walls and alleyways…

The latter title is now on its 10th edition so the formula obviously works. This type of guide has plenty to offer and can be enjoyed in different ways. I have been sitting reading my Chester guide and traversing the streets in my mind’s eye. Sadly, I have also been realising what we missed seeing on our short trip. An added bonus to walkers is the spiral binding on the book; a plastic rain cover would be perfect but you cannot have everything I suppose.

York and Chester have much in common, both being fine examples of walled cities with a history stretching back to the Roman occupation. What better way to get to know a city than to be able to walk around it atop a wall with wonderful views of the neighbourhood. In both York and Chester you really get a sense of how the cities have developed over the centuries, as the inhabitants gradually built beyond the old city walls.

Where Chester is unique however is in its galleried streets of shops known as The Rows whose origins lie in the 14th century. The guide-book tells us that the first shops were probably built as a result of a disastrous fire in 1278. I could have spent hours just wandering up and down and window shopping (see picture below, courtesy of Wikipedia). Much more atmospheric than browsing in a glass and concrete shopping centre.

The Rows have certainly changed over the centuries:

If you could make your way along the creaky boards from one shop to another you would have to dodge displays of goods on the floor, walls, and hanging from the rafters; while stalls on the outside of the galleries dimmed the light.

A view of some of Chester’s Rows

The Chester guide is also handy if you want to go Blue Plaque spotting around the city as each one is marked on the walking route maps. At a reasonable £7.95 it was well worth the money and it will now nestle on a shelf next to my York Snickelways guide until called into service again. I wonder if anyone else has produced a similar style of city walking guide for other historic cities? I can feel a quest coming on (and a possible new collection).

If any readers have come across any such books I would love to hear (purely in the interests of research of course!)

From Landing to Garden: Sunflowers and The Pip Book:

Jul31

Home grown sunflower

As a heavy rain shower has just stopped play (or rather work) in the garden I now sit diligently in front of my computer waiting for inspiration to strike. At the same time, I am endeavouring to keep one eye on the kitchen window to see what the weather is up to now. If however the sunshine does break through again, I will have to dash back to the lawn mower leaving you to carry on regardless. In the meantime a smidgen of writerly inspiration has struck The Landing regions so I will devote this post to a garden theme.

This flurry of garden activity has reminded me of the garden diary that I have been keeping intermittently for around twenty years. The diary now in fact has spawned a sequel co-written by The Bookworm. However, I doubt whether our efforts at a garden diary will ever be published and attain legendary status among future generations of gardeners. Nevertheless it will serve a purpose as a piece of family history as will the pictorial evidence (shown here) that we did once manage to grow a substantial sized sunflower. I am sure that Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville-West would not be overly impressed but it was a first for us.

My (or rather our diary) contains notes of what has been planted when and where and is copiously illustrated with pictures from seed packets. Also it tends to note the rather frequent occurrence of cases of seed non-germination and slug depredations in the flower and vegetable borders. When I first started the diary I lived in a small flat so the entries were all about houseplants. Looking back through the pages I realise just how many plants I used to have. I wonder how there was room for anything else in such a domestic jungle. At the beginning of 1993 the grand plant total was thirty-two plus a variety of herbs.

Cover of The Pip Book with an avocado plant.

Mine didn’t look like that…

You might be surprised to hear that my library of gardening books is not (and never has been) very extensive. The sum total is four volumes, including one very small paperback book called The Pip Book by Keith Mossman which tells you about growing plants from almost any variety of fruit you can think of trying. I first came across this book when I was working in a bookshop in Birmingham several years ago and ordered a copy. According to a diary entry for 27th May 1994 I had recently bought this and another (un-named) gardening book. It is a great book full of helpful advice and I have tried growing several varieties of seeds and stones as a result. I have to confess though, that despite Keith Mossman’s book I have never yet had great success with avocados.

The illustration below is of a more recent edition from 2011 and I assume the book has been revised but even if it has not it would be well worth buying if you enjoy a growing challenge.

cover of the Pip Book with plants in pots

More Gardening Inspiration..

Now I really must show willing and get back to the lawn mowing (though that topic isn’t covered in The Pip Book) before it rains…

ps: Feel free to boast about any gardening successes in the comment box below:

John Buchan on film: those elusive thirty-nine celluloid steps

Jul25

Orange Penguin cover of The Thirty-Nine Steps

Our edition of The Thirty-Nine Steps

As I mentioned previously, I watched one of the film versions of John Buchan’s classic adventure The Thirty-Nine Steps after reading it recently. The Hitchcock re-telling was one of my favourite screen versions, made in 1935 and starring Robert Donat (as Richard Hannay) and Madeleine Carroll (as Pamela). It was not until I read The Thirty-Nine Steps that I realised just how far were the screen versions from Buchan’s original story. I thought I knew the plot (more or less, a variation here and there perhaps) but now I concede that I knew absolutely nothing. Except that, thirty-nine steps (albeit with variant meanings) were involved and so was a large segment of rugged, almost deserted (except for the baddies) Scottish landscape.

For those of you who have never read The Thirty-Nine Steps, I will give a brief outline of the plot before

A first edition of the novel

confusing you with the plot of the film: Hannay is a Scot, recently returned to the Old Country from South Africa who is heartily bored after three months. After an evening at dinner and a music hall show, he has determined to leave for the Cape if nothing interesting turns up within another day. Something certainly does turn up and Hannay finds himself fleeing across Scotland in several different disguises while in possession of a secret that could mean the difference between war and peace. Figuring out what or where the thirty-nine steps might be is a vital part of his un-looked for mission. As Buchan wrote the book in 1915, the plot’s threat, which involved the assassination of a European leader, was rather apposite. The Thirty-Nine Steps was Richard Hannay’s first adventure and it involves him in some tight moments and plenty of narrow escapes.

Moving on to the film version: I found to my surprise that whereas in Buchan’s original novel I found a distinct lack of women characters, two feisty ones pop up in the screen action. In the book, an occasional anonymous female supplies much-needed sustenance (fleeing dastardly spies is hungry work), but where, oh where is the glamorous Mata Hari type figure (Annabella Smith, played by Lucie Mannheim) that I saw in the film? In Buchan’s spy yarn, a mysterious American called Franklin P Scudder gives the vital information to Hannay. He does eventually wind up dead, but not as soon and arguably not as splendidly dramatically as Smith does. In Buchan’s world, spying is obviously strictly a man’s game.

Film Poster

Hitchcock’s film further alters the female/male balance of the cast by adding the cool and elegant Pamela, to function as the ‘love interest’ part of the chase. I wonder what Buchan, who died in 1940 thought of the changes made to his story. He did not live to see the further screen adaptations, none of which was any more faithful than the 1935 film to the original tale. Carroll’s character is noticeably less exotic than the deceased Annabella Smith is but sparks soon fly between her and Hannay. Initially she disbelieves Hannay’s far fetched claims so betrays him to the police before finally realising that he was telling her the truth all along and so she helps him.

One side effect of playing with Google to research for blog pieces is that you find out other snippets of information. I found a site set up in tribute to Madeleine Carroll, who was apparently one of the few film actors to make a successful transition from silent movies to talkies. She was born in West Bromwich, England of an Irish father (Co Limerick) and a French mother and spent part of her early career with Barry Jackson’s Birmingham Repertory Theatre. A memorial was set up in her hometown in 2010 and an account of her life by Derek Chamberlain was published by Troubadour Publishing Ltd. If I manage to get a picture of her memorial next time I am in the area, I will post it up.

Follow the links given in the text for further information. Thanks to Wikipedia for the gorgeous The 39 Steps film poster and the shot of the first edition jacket.

If you are interested in further information about John Buchan’s life and work, I found a link to the John Buchan Society which has plenty of useful material.

Now, after John Buchan, which of the ‘Landing Eight’ shall I tackle next….Any thoughts?

Literary graveyard visiting in St Nahi’s Churchyard

Jul18

Before I get stuck into my latest post I want to thank all of the people who have followed this blog so far. I am very grateful for the vote of confidence and I shall try to keep up my blogging efforts. Now, down to business….

This is an out-and–about post which ties in with the The Blurb page on the Cuala Press that I mentioned in the last post. I said in that piece that I had discovered to my surprise that the Yeats sisters Lollie (Elizabeth) and Lily (Susan) were buried in St Nahi’s Churchyard, Dundrum (part of Taney Parish). It has taken me some months but I finally got around to visiting the churchyard last Saturday afternoon.

For a short while, the sun shone so The Bookworm and I decided to look for the Yeats grave and generally explore the churchyard a little (possibly this is not everyone’s idea of summer holiday entertainment). After wrestling with the latch of a squeaky iron gate we let ourselves in and located a sign with the map of the burial plots.

Fortunately, an enterprising person has prepared a Podcast tour of the churchyard featuring notable names buried at St Nahi’s. While this was not on our agenda for the day, it did mean that the numbers allocated to the stops on the tour came in handy for our mini self-guided tour. We therefore found the grave (number 7) we were searching for easily enough, which looks towards the nearby Luas Green line (not that it was around at the time the sisters were buried I hasten to add).

I forgot to take photographs of the graveyard but I did find this video tour of the churchyard produced by Taney Parish on You Tube. The video has a bonus in that it shows the interior of the church (closed when we were there) with some shots of tapestries behind the altar that were made by Lily and Lollie Yeats. The video was made in 2009 and so is fairly recent and gives a useful overview of the history of the church and burial grounds, as well as highlighting the particular bit in which I was interested. Look out for the lovely stained glass (including some by Evie Hone) too.

I am still amazed that my technological skills have stretched as far as putting a copy of the video into my post so I might just quit while the going’s good and go and put the kettle on. Many thanks to Taney Parish for the fascinating tour of St Nahi’s Church and grounds. I would still like to find out exactly where Cuala Press was situated and whether the building still exists so I would love to hear from anyone who can point me in the right direction. I believe it was on Lower Churchtown Road but as I can’t be sure if the building still stands I’m a bit stuck at the moment.

Next time I post I will hope to have a positive report on the progress of the ‘Landing Eight‘ Reading Challenge to give you…..

March 2024 update:

Follow the link to The Yeats Sisters website celebrating the life and work of the sisters, with information about the first Yeats symposium in 2023 and advance notice of the second one due to be held in July 2024.

John Buchan and the Arts and Events File

Jul9

Since my last post I have been busy getting stuck into The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan so I will shortly be well on the way to ticking off another title from the ‘Landing Eight’ selected recently. More on this in the next post. I have recently watched one of the film versions of the book (Robert Donat as Richard Hannay) thanks to one of those free DVDs you sometimes get with the Sunday papers. The comparison of page to screen was interesting.

Progress…

Other News: I have also been busy trying to add new chapters to my site to incorporate more cultural bits and bobs than I can include on the main blog stream. In my Arts and Events File I have added a few pieces that were previously published elsewhere and that I have tweaked and edited slightly before posting up here.

This bit will be a random collection of arts related topics – anything that grabs my attention really. Another section called The Blurb features small publishers, one current (Red Fox Press) and one the iconic Cuala Press run by the Yeats sisters in Churchtown, Dublin. There will also be other literary related articles, such as one on Marsh’s Library, Dublin.

I have included links on these pages so anyone interested in following up any of the information can easily do so. I test the links as I go along but would appreciate feedback if any of them fail to connect.

Yarn Bombing by Mandy Moore

Another of my arts pages highlights the fantastic ‘knitted graffiti’ (or yarn bombing) trend, which is something that I came across at an exhibition in the Royal Artis Zoo in Amsterdam last year. I just wish my own knitting was up to the challenge!

Last, but by no mean least I have posted up a page about a famous American Civil War quilt and Jane Stickle who created it so beautifully. This was inspired by a visit last year to the Knitting and Stitching Show at the Royal Dublin Showground (RDS).

I hope these pieces in the Arts and Events File and The Blurb pique your interest in the topics; if anyone has any ideas for future posts I would love to hear them.

Thanks for reading!

Honno Press: Welsh Women’s Press (Gwasg Menywod Cymru)

Jun30

Honno Press

This post is another one of those detours from the Landing Bookshelves that keep happening despite my best intentions. My only excuse is that if you discover a new (to you) author or publisher, you have a bounden duty to pass it on to anyone who may be interested. Well, as excuses go…

I came across Honno Press for the first time while book reviewing for www.belletrista.com The novel in question, Winter Sonata (Dorothy Edwards, originally published in 1928) was part of the Honno Classics imprint. As I rather shamefacedly confessed at the time, I mistook this Dorothy Edwards for a children’s writer of the same name and when I realised my error did a bit of research into the other Dorothy Edwards at the same time as researching Honno Press.

Dorothy Edwards (1903-1934) was a very talented Welsh writer who published a collection of short stories called Rhapsody the year before her first novel in 1928. Winter Sonata contains a useful essay by Clare Flay about Dorothy Edwards and I also found a link to a copy of the original press account of her death by suicide. A sad loss to women’s literature indeed. After reading her novel (see review here) I will try to get hold of her short stories.

Honno (Welsh feminine form of ‘that’) Press was set up in 1986 with the twin aims of giving a wider platform to Welsh women writers and for increasing the opportunities in the publishing industry for the women of Wales. The company was set up as a co-operative with around 400 shares sold to members of the public in the first six months of trading.

The press, based in Aberystwyth, still operates within its original remit of only publishing work by women from Wales. Prospective writers either have to be Welsh or living in Wales or have significant Welsh connections. Apart from its shareholders’ continuing support, the press has received financial support from The Welsh Books Council and the European Union for its worthy endeavours to promote Welsh women’s literature. The publisher’s list boasts an impressive 450 authors whose work covers fiction (contemporary and classic), poetry, memoir and non-fiction as well as children’s and teen fiction.

Winter Sonata

The catalogue has a strong Welsh language list as well, including books by well-known teen author Malorie Blackman translated into Welsh by Gwenllian Dafydd. Browsing through the Classics list has given me plenty of authors that I had not previously come across. As with the Persephone Books reprints (of which more another time perhaps) books that have slipped out of the reading public’s consciousness are given the chance to live again. Honno Classics provides a great opportunity to explore some rediscovered gems. I was particularly interested in the memoirs and some fiction reprints from the 1930s.

Over the years of Honno’s existence, many books have been prizewinners or have been included on awards shortlists. During the early years, Carol Anne Courtney won the 1989 ‘Wales Book of the Year’ for Morphine and Dolly Mixtures. More recently, Kitty Sewell’s thriller Ice Trap was shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger in 2006. Coming right up to date Lorraine Jenkin’s comic novel Cold Enough to Freeze Cows won one of the top three prizes in the finals of the ‘Peoples Book Prize’ 2011.

To further the aims of the press in encouraging fresh new talent, Honno runs a programme of regular writing workshops (the next one is in January 2012) and hold ‘meet the editor’ sessions for prospective writers. Editors actively seek new writers for Honno Press with regular calls for submission for work they wish to include in the Honno short story collections. I am certainly planning to treat myself to couple of new books now that I have discovered this publisher; there might yet be a rival to my Persephone collection.

For further information on publications and workshops check out the website www.honno.co.uk

If anyone else has got any Honno Press favourites I would love to hear about them. Until next time…

A Centuries Old Mystery: Josephine Tey and Richard III

Jun25

Cast your minds back to the post with the selection of the TBR Pile featured. I did say that I would be tackling them ‘in no particular order’ but the one I have been reading for the past few days was indeed at the top of the list. See photograph below for proof. The book in question is The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (real name Elizabeth Mackintosh) about Richard III and the Princes in the Tower mystery.

This was I think always going to be my first choice (it was the first one that I picked out as well as being the first listed). The reason being as I am sure you have guessed by now that this is a re-read of an old favourite of mine. The book was originally published in 1951 (the last book to be published in Tey’s lifetime as she died in 1952) and issued by Penguin Books in 1954. My edition is a 1969 reprint bought second-hand and it certainly shows: foxed is not the word for it I am afraid. The pages are heavily discoloured and threatening to fall out; both the front and back covers are damaged. Maybe one day I’ll treat myself to a new edition (I am not sure if the title is still in print) or a fine second-hand copy.

Working from the top down…

Two things make this book an old favourite: my affection for Josephine Tey’s crime novels and my long fascination with Richard III and the mystery of the princes in the tower. This fascination was in fact inspired by reading Tey’s book as I am sure was the case with many other readers. Indeed the Richard III Society credit her with helping to rehabilitate the king’s reputation and restore him to his rightful place in history. Shakespeare has much to answer for in his creation of the wicked hunchbacked uncle with a rather long crime sheet.

Tey’s novel features her regular detective character Inspector Alan Grant who is laid up in hospital after an accident and is terribly, mind numbingly, bored and frustrated. When his fascination with faces (from the bench or the cells?) causes him to become interested in the mystery surrounding Richard Plantagenet, the scene is set for a modern-day investigation into a historical crime. With the help of an amiable American student as his able-bodied research assistant, Grant delves into the murky doings of the fifteenth century. He is surprised by what he comes up with during his quest and is by no means impressed with your average historian’s powers of reasoning.

On the strength of reading this investigation into the Yorkist monarch several years ago, I did some further digging around and discovered more novels and academic studies on the subject. I then read as much as I could find on Richard and the Wars of the Roses and his eventual demise fighting at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. I was keen enough on the topic to become a member of the Richard III Society though I eventually let my membership lapse. Having looked at the website recently I am tempted once more to become a Ricardian.

Meanwhile, back to the novel to follow-up a few leads! Are there any more Richard III enthusiasts out there? If so, let me know what you have been reading lately, I would love to know.

Just to finish with, here is a link to a fascinating site on Josephine Tey which is well worth a look if you are a fan of her writing.

A Glimpse of the TBR Pile: A Reading Challenge

Jun13

Tantalising Glimpse

A friend has given me a suggestion for a way of tackling my TBR Pile Reading Challenge, so I am basing this piece on that feedback (thanks Teri!). Never let it be said that I fail to listen to sensible advice (especially when I asked for it in the first place).

Various tantalising glimpses have been given of my Landing Bookshelves, but I have not actually written down any of the titles that I may tackle during my trek around the TBR Pile. This post is an attempt to remedy the lack thereof. It will probably be a random list as I am about to leave my computer and browse the shelves for ideas. The plan is to simply jot down any title from the TBR Pile that takes my fancy and present the list to you, dear reader, as an indication of my future (good) intentions.

Before I set off for uncharted (and possibly shockingly dusty) territories, I will just draw to your attention that I have set up a Bibliography page on the site, where I plan to list all of the books mentioned (however briefly) in the Reading Challenge blog posts. Some titles may be out of print, but I will try to remember to give details of dates, publishers etc in case anyone wants to follow up on anything. I hope to update the page regularly and even to maintain strict alphabetical order (that might be a challenge in itself).

(Noises off...)

Now, that was quick; I am back already from the cobwebby wastes of the upper storey with my list of books; in no particular order I hasten to add.

On the menu: The Landing Eight

Progress…

The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey (Orange Penguin)

The Frontenac Mystery François Mauriac (Penguin Modern Classics)

The Go-Between L P Hartley (Penguin Classics)

In a Free State V S Naipaul (Orange Penguin)

The Periodic Table Primo Levi (Everyman)

The Diary of a Nobody George & Weedon Grossmith (Guild Publishing)

Murderers and Other Friends John Mortimer (Orange Penguin)

The Thirty-Nine Steps John Buchan (Orange Penguin)

Some of the above will be re-reads but most of them are genuinely from the TBR Pile that constitutes much of the Landing Bookshelves, but I will leave it until a future date to disclose which are which, thus creating a modicum of suspense. I will not promise to read them in any particular order, but rather as the fancy takes me. I have also spotted a more few books that I would like to write about, but I will tuck them in here and there as a surprise literary morsel in between courses.

Feel free to suggest any preferences as to reading order. In the meantime, I will be busy cleaning my bookshelves; I may be some time.

Until we meet again behind the TBR Pile…

A Tale of Four Sisters: revisiting Little Women

Jun7

colour illustrations of the March sisters

The March family

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I had bought a biography of Louisa May Alcott at the Trinity College Book Sale. This book by Martha Saxton conveniently ties in with my Landing Project since Alcott’s best-known novel Little Women and its sequels are residents on the landing. Little Women was written in 1868 and Good Wives, the second volume in 1869. Both stories were published together in 1880 as Little Women. Alcott continued the saga in Little Men (1871) and Jo’s Boys (1886). Sadly, none of my volumes dates from that early on so they have no financial value. I think I bought all of them in second bookshops several years ago to replace my original childhood copies. They are from a series called Juvenile Library and all have a colour plate in the front depicting the characters. Only Jo’s Boys still retains its illustrated dust jacket. As you can (just) see from the photograph the girls are depicted as rather more glamorous than is consistent with the novels.

In common with so many other teenagers, I read and loved Little Women and I am sure that I was not the only one to identify with and be inspired by, the lively, tomboyish character of Jo March. In sharp contrast, Meg was too good and youngest sister Amy was too fine and fussy. Poor saintly Beth died after illness and decline, which would not have inspired anyone a great deal. I also remember being deeply disappointed that Jo eventually married Professor Bhaer instead of Laurie, the wealthy boy next door. I wanted fun, romance and frivolity but got practicality and companionship instead.

It is strange to pick up an old childhood favourite to re-read and then perhaps to revise long held memories of a cherished book. I started to read the opening chapters of Little Women, revisiting the March sisters as they prepare for their Christmas festivities. After such a lengthy passage of years, I now find myself not particularly in sympathy with the constant striving for goodness and selflessness on the part of the girls. While I can appreciate the solid work ethic and the ability of making the best of what they had, so much virtuousness is hard to take. The emphasis on womanly attributes and virtues is of course strange from a twenty first century perspective. During the progress of the novel, poor Jo is urged to put away her boyish ways and become a woman; an angel of the home. This is in contrast to the eldest sister Meg who is already well on the way to conventional, domestic womanhood.

Until I picked up Martha Saxton’s biography, I had not read anything about Alcott’s life. I had always assumed that her own family inspired the March family portrayed in her work. Which indeed it did, but there was much more to the story than a straightforward re-working of her family life. The March sisters were fictional versions of Louisa and her sisters: Anna (Meg March), Louisa (Jo March), May (Amy March) and Elizabeth (Beth March). Similarly, Bronson and Abba Alcott inspired the characters of Mr and Mrs March; but Louisa’s relationship with her parents was much more problematic than her fictional counterpart’s was with her parents.

I would like to return to Louisa Alcott and her family in a future post, but meanwhile please let me know which was your favourite March sister and why…