Dorothy Whipple and Carola Dunn...........

Two authors recently read and very far apart in terms of content. If I had to write a exam answer ...............compare and contrast there would be no comparison!

 Dorothy Whipple wrote Greenbanks in 1932 and it was reprinted by Persephone Books in 2011. It is the second of nine novels that were all well received at the time..................Greenbanks was chosen as The Book Society Choice for that summer. Although written in 1932 it is set in the years before, during and after the Great War.
Novelist Hugh Walpole wrote about Greenbanks at length in The Book Society Magazine.

‘To put it plainly, in Dorothy Whipple's picture of a quite ordinary family before and after the war there is some of the best creation of living men and women that we have had for a number of years in the English novel. She is a novelist of true importance.' He went on: ‘I believe Greenbanks will be remembered for a long time to come because of the characters of two people in it, the grandmother Louisa and the granddaughter Rachel. In them Dorothy Whipple has performed splendidly the great job of the novelist, which is to increase for us infinitely the population of the living world. Every character in this quiet book is alive. Louisa is an old woman rather muddle-headed, generous, sometimes irresponsible, always governed by the emotions of a loving, anxious heart, which is at the same time never sentimental, who has become as real to me as any of the ladies in Cranford. Rachel is alive from the first instant. She, perhaps, is more of an achievement than Louisa, for kindly dear old women are frequently successful in novels, but a child who is real and charming and quite natural, moving through those difficult years from 10 to 18, cannot be easy to create. This is a quiet and a true book. It is also a beautiful book.

The book starts "The house was called Greenbanks,but there was no green to be seen today; all the garden was deep in snow"
It is Christmas day in Edwardian England and 19 people had gathered round the expanded table 
 "The leaves which had been taken out one by one as the family diminished were all put back today to accommodate the returned Ashtons and the husbands, wives and children"

The main characters in the story are Louisa and her granddaughter Rachel who is 4 years old at the beginning and at University at the end. It is a story of a daughter stuck in an unhappy marriage, a favourite son sent off to Africa by his jealous brother, a "companion" whose life was changed years before and other family members.
It shows how attitudes changed due to the First World War and the difference in ideas of what was "proper" between generations.
A good story which I enjoyed immensely and I'll have a look to see which of her other books are in the library stock.

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Carola Dunn's new book is "The  Corpse at the Crystal Palace" and is also set in the 1920's but that is the only similarity. This is the 23rd in a series featuring Daisy Dalrymple and her husband, Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard. These are light crime set among the rich and titled with Nannies, Butlers and Chauffeurs.
It is 1928 and Daisy takes her young cousins, step-daughter Belinda, her twins and their nannies to visit the Crystal Palace, but when Nanny Gilpin doesn't return from the Ladies room things start to be very strange. There's a dead  man dressed as a Nanny in the conveniences (The first public Ladies Convenience in London) and Nanny Gilpin is in a pond and can't remember what happened.
The first book in this long series is Death at Wentwater Court which introduces the main characters.
A light quick read but historically correct.

Thank you for comments yesterday.
(Painting of big back bedroom has begun. A commentary on progress may ensue!)

Back Tomorrow
Sue

August WI

The speaker at the  August meeting of big WI was the daughter-in-law of one of the members. I'm not sure if she had done a talk like this before but it was a bit dis-jointed with lots of "um's" and looking at her notes. But never mind - everyone has to start somewhere!

Rajal was born in Kenya and lived there until she was 14. She was a teacher but then after the birth of her son she suffered from severe Post Natal Depression. This happened as the family moved from a small London flat to a home with a blank-canvas walled garden in Norwich, Norfolk. She got a teaching job in Norwich but suffered panic attacks and became very ill. Her refuge was her garden and she started to become interested in finding things to grow to suit the various spots in the garden. This interest grew so she did garden courses at two agricultural colleges  to become a professional garden designer and a Royal Horticultural Society course to extend her knowledge of plants. She said that they had to learn the Latin names of 10 new plants every week!

She also has a blog, which started when she began gardening (https://www.thesmallgardener.co.uk).
She had some lovely photos of the plants in her garden and the designs she has done for clients. She prefers to draw and paint her designs rather than to use computer designing. One of her clients loved her painting of the garden design so much that they had it framed to hang in the house.

Cakes and coffee of course and I was presented with my prize for the marble cake, the WI  entry at the Bacton Fayre. Very handy loaf tin liners and cup cake cases. Good job I've not given up baking!

The people who entered the WI flower arranging class won prizes of flower arranging accessories - also useful.

In the business part of the meeting we are discussing ideas for 2019 which is the 100th anniversary of Bacton WI and also the centenary of The Suffolk East Federation of WI's - lots of events to get involved with next year.


Back Tomorrow
Sue

Saturday Fails and Successes and Sunday at Home

I shopped in Tesco first on my way into town because they had things I wanted on offer but somewhere between Tesco check-outs and the town my shopping list vanished and at the moment I can't remember a thing without a list, it was a frustrating morning as I forgot where I was supposed to be going in town. So went home without the things that I hadn't got in Tesco and should have got from Asda. Duh!

In one charity shop I found four books** and two packs of curious craft stuff *, (do I need books and craft stuff? er................. no but yes)

but then forgot to go back to the charity shop that wasn't open when I arrived, the one that is jam-packed full of bits and bobs! Bother.

Got home and found a couple of things that were on offer in Tesco had gone through the till at full price - so annoying and  then remembered what it was that I'd forgotten which wasn't on the list. Bother again

Also found the £1 off voucher I should have handed in for cat food I bought. - Hopeless!

Oh well, it's a new  week  and maybe I'll get myself organised.

The afternoon was better as Son and DIL popped round with Willow, 4 months old next week and such a cutie.

 Son came to help me shift the other wardrobe out of the back bedroom, I thought I could do the decorating round it but decided it was too much in the way. They've also carted off a chest of drawers that I'd emptied by jiggling stuff around in other cupboards. They're going to sell it online for me. I'm trying to do a little bit of sorting from the garage or indoors each day, just a few things into a bag for charity shop or into the bin. Saturday it was  the chest of drawers out and  books and  vases went into two carrier bags and out into the car ready for the next time I'm near a charity shop and an ad sent to the Suffolk Smallholders Newsletter for something Col bought and wasn't able to use.
There is so much stuff in the workshop that  needs sorting, I want to get the garage done to make room for the things that need keeping they'll then be moved there from the workshop.

Didn't bother with boot sale on Sunday as it was spitting with rain first thing although we didn't actually have any proper rain until much later. I put a few more plum tomatoes into the freezer - I'm collecting them a few at a time until I've got enough for my favourite Red Hot Relish. Also a couple of peppers added to the freezer bag. Finished sanding down the bedroom walls and ceiling. Sundays tidying was finding £20 worth of books to go off to Ziffit and a couple of bits of old junk from the garage into the bin.

*When I opened them I found the curious craft packs are  3D decoupage sheets for making Huge A4 greetings cards. 2 for Christmas and 2 others. Bit big for posting!.
** I'm pleased with the books as The History of Stowmarket is a facsimile re-print of a very old book from the C19 full of fascinating information. We had a re-bound copy of the original when I worked in Stowmarket Library, but it wasn't allowed out of the library. I've never seen The History of Ipswich book so that will be interesting to look at. The crime novel by Cyril Hare is a reprint from the 1950s and co-incidentally I have just read one of the two of his books I have from the library. I'm not sure what the Georgette Heyer Christmas mystery will be like, it was originally published in 1941.

Back Tomorrow
Sue