Cornflower Books

Advice to writers

   

     " 'If it were not impertinent to lecture one's publisher,' [Beatrix Potter told Harold Warne], thoroughly exasperated with his literary timidity, 'you are a great deal too much afraid of the public for whom I have never cared one tuppenny-button. I am sure that it is that attitude of mind which has enabled me to keep up the series. Most people, after one success, are so cringingly afraid of doing less well that they rub all the edge off their subsequent work.' "

    Beatrix was writing to her publisher about The Tale of Mr. Tod, a departure from her previous books in that the principal characters were villains. Her original opening lines ran, 'I am quite tired of making goody goody books about nice people. I will make a story about two disagreeable people, called Tommy Brock and Mr. Tod.'

    In the end a compromise was reached, 'Beatrix agreed to drop "goody goody books" and substituted "well-behaved" for "nice" ', but it's her self-assurance in the face of her publisher's conservatism which I find so interesting.

    Again, this is from Beatrix Potter: The extraordinary life of a Victorian genius by Linda Lear.

Bookshopping

    Yesterday I had a lengthy browse in Topping & Co., St. Andrews and bought a lovely lot of non-fiction.

    I covet the library ladders which they have throughout the shop.

    I'd have taken more pictures if I'd been bolder, but I'd urge you to go and see for yourself if you're near this branch or their others in Bath and Ely.

Book of the day - Signs for Lost Children

 

       I was thrilled to open a publisher's package this morning and find inside Sarah Moss's new novel Signs for Lost Children, "the triumphant continuation of [her] ongoing examination of women's lives, and a radical inquiry into the workings of the human heart".

    If you've read her excellent Night Waking (there is a post on it here) and her more recent, superb Bodies of Light (post here), then you'll be familiar with the Moberley family, specifically sisters Ally and May; the new book takes up Ally's story.

    Set in 19th. century England and Japan, it begins with a six month period of separation for the newly married Tom Cavendish and Dr. Ally Moberley-Cavendish. Tom goes to Japan to build lighthouses, while Ally stays in England and works at the Truro asylum. "As Ally plunges into the politics of madness, Tom navigates the social nuances of Japan - both to the detriment of their love for each other.

    With emotional insight and an eye for historical detail, Sarah Moss builds a novel in two parts from Falmouth to Tokyo - two maps of absence, two distinct but conjoined portraits of loneliness and determination. What can befall the human spirit when separation disturbs the fragile calm of a relationship, when the ghosts of an unhappy childhood resurface?"

    The book isn't out until early July, but on the basis of Sarah Moss's earlier work this is one to look forward to - and meanwhile, if you haven't read her others, do so now!

As lovely reviews go ...

   

    ... this one's hard to beat -

    "Beatrix wrote to Norman Warne just after Christmas with obvious pleasure, 'Did you ever happen to see a review of the Tailor in The Tailor and Cutter, the paper which the mouse on the bobbin is reading?' She had given a copy to her old Chelsea tailor, who in turn, had shown it to a traveller from the trade journal telling him how Beatrix had sketched his shop. The 'beautiful review', as Beatrix called it, appeared appropriately on Christmas Eve. It read:

    ... we think it is by far the prettiest story connected with tailoring we have ever read, and as it is full of that spirit of Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men, we are not ashamed to confess that it brought the moisture to our eyes, as well as the smile to our face. It is got up in choicest style and illustrated by twenty-seven of the prettiest pictures it is possible to imagine."

    I so agree!

    That passage is from Beatrix Potter: The extraordinary life of a Victorian genius by Linda Lear.

Lady of the House

   

    I'm grateful to Jeannine for visiting and leaving a comment on the Instagram post - I didn't know that the latest edition of the Historical Novels Review is out, and I have an article in it.

    If you are a subscriber to the HNR you can read Lady of the House, my interview with Erika Robuck on her new novel The House of Hawthorne. The book tells the story of Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family from the 1830s to the 1860s but in the words of his wife Sophia. Erika drew heavily on Sophia's journals and letters to create this portrait and in doing so she became "enamored by her enthusiasm, her stubborn optimism, and her almost childlike view of the world. It was a challenge to write in her voice, and I hope I rose to the occasion.” I think Erika did.

Book of the day - The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins

    

    Antonia Hodgson got rave reviews - and won the CWA Historical Dagger Award - for her first novel The Devil in the Marshalsea, "a riveting, fast-paced story" set in London in 1727. I have yet to read it ('twas ever thus ...), and now her second book is about to come out, and this one picks up where the first one left off.

    The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins is both a sequel and "a standalone historical mystery" beginning with the eponymous Thomas en route to the Tyburn gallows where he's to be hanged for a murder he did not commit. As he rides beside his own coffin towards the noose, he hopes for a last minute pardon from the Queen, but why should she become involved?

    "Antonia Hodgson has created a totally immersive world set in Georgian London: the smells and rickety buildings; the seedy, garbage-packed back streets; the wretched existence of so many, set against the grandeur of the court; the arrogance of the aristocracy and the scheming, bullying violence from both rich and poor."

    "Tom Jones noir," said Andrew Taylor of Antonia's first book, "wonderfully entertaining, twisty and claustrophobic as an underground maze," said Maria McCann; the new one sounds just as good.

It works for books, too

    As I mentioned over the way, I've recently joined Instagram, and it's great for a quick snap and a brief comment on current reading or something I've just acquired, say.

   Yesterday I posted this picture of Linda Lear's biography Beatrix Potter: The extraordinary life of a Victorian genius which I'm greatly enjoying. I've known of the book for some time, but it was James Rebanks' mention of it in The Shepherd's Life which prompted me to buy it, as, in later life Miss Potter - by then Mrs. Heelis - was of course a noted breeder of Herdwick sheep.

    I'm still on the early chapters covering her youth, and always interested in the genesis of creativity, I noted the passage on her childhood reading (which included " 'Miss Edgeworth and Scott's novels' ") which culminates, " ... this rich diet of art and literature contributed to a lifelong delight in rhythm, cadence, wordplay, humour, dialect and dialogue: all nourishment for her imagination and the creation of her own literary style."

The Shepherd's Life

   

    If you're interested in reading about a timeless - and highly demanding - way of life; living with a deep-rooted connection to a place, and all that that means; a necessary, keen awareness of the natural year; farming sustainably in respect of the landscape; people who are "tuned to a different channel"; shepherding, and the ways of sheep, then I strongly recommend you get hold of The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District by James Rebanks.

    It's a very down-to-earth, clear-eyed account of the author's own family history and how it has formed him, and of the rhythms, customs and practices which make up a Herdwick sheep farmer's life in the valleys and on the fells of the Lake District. It's illuminating, engrossing, and excellent.

Soon to be reading ...

 

    ... As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust.

    Flavia is back!

    If you haven't already seen it, you may like to have a look at the At the writing desk post with Flavia's creator Alan Bradley.