Cornflower Books

Following on from ...

   ... this post, firstly, thanks to Callmemadam for pointing out that The Book People are currently selling Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles (all 5 volumes) for only £6,

    and secondly, Artemis Cooper will be in conversation with fellow biographer Selina Hastings* at Daunt Books in Marylebone High Street on Friday, 7th. October,

    ... and from this post, Sue Gee will be appearing at St. Peter's Church in London's Belsize Square on 28th. October, again courtesy of Daunt Books, to discuss Trio and other works.

 

*I've read and can recommend her Nancy Mitford and Rosamond Lehmann: A Life.

Brown paper packages

    I've received Heywood Hill's quarterly reading list for some time, and not only is it always strong, it never fails to include books I hadn't come across before but very much like the look of. Where the newly published Autumn list differs from its predecessors is that all the books are available to buy from the shop online, so if you're in the market for personal service and a handsomely wrapped parcel in the post (see above), Heywood Hill is the place to go.

    They also offer a variety of 'A Year in Books' subscriptions* which make my mouth water. I've yet to indulge, but Sunday has treated herself!

 

*Scroll down for other delights.

Can't wait to read ...

   

    ... Elizabeth Jane Howard: A Dangerous Innocence by Artemis Cooper, which has just come out.

    The author acknowledges her subject thus:

    "In giving me the opportunity to write her life, Elizabeth Jane Howard bestowed a great gift; so my first and most heartfelt thanks must go to her. I had five long interviews with Jane at her house in Bungay, Suffolk, over the course of 2013. She enjoyed the process of being interviewed and talked simply and easily about her life, more diffidently about her books. She was justly proud of what she had achieved, yet I felt it had come at a great cost. Her hands were always busy as we talked, with knitting or embroidery; and occasionally she lifted her eyes from her work to give me a glance of such startling intensity that I felt she was looking straight through me."

    For more from both ladies I can recommend Slipstream: A Memoir by Elizabeth Jane Howard, and Writing at the Kitchen Table, Artemis Cooper's biography of Elizabeth David.

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What I was reading

 

    Making an entry in my reading journal today I looked back to see what I was reading on or about this date in each of the last few years, and just for fun, here are the titles:

Astercote by Penelope Lively. The author's first novel, and while you can feel her 'writing her way in', it's worth a read.

The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart. Mentioned in passing here, it's the first of The Merlin Chronicles, a departure for Lady Stewart at the time, but a huge seller and rightly so. 

Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield.  I loved this novel.

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe. Such a moving and uplifting book - I recommend it most strongly, as you'll see here.

Ghastly Business by Louise Levene. Stylish, witty, and great fun!

The Importance of Being Seven by Alexander McCall Smith. You can't really go wrong with a McCall Smith, and this book is part of his very popular 44, Scotland Street series.

The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins. Exquisite!

Thought for the day

    "It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it."

    Oscar Wilde

Looking forward to reading ...

   

    ... Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (out early next month):

    "A book within a book, a mystery within a mystery [...] When editor Susan Ryeland is given the tattered manuscript of Alan Conway's latest novel, she has little idea it will change her life.  She's worked with the revered crime writer for years and his detective, Atticus Pünd, is renowned for solving crimes in the sleepy English villages of the 1950s. As Susan knows only too well, vintage crime sells handsomely.  It's just a shame that it means dealing with an author like Alan Conway.

 But Conway's latest tale of murder at Pye Hall is not quite what it seems.  Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but hidden in the pages of the manuscript there lies another story: a tale written between the very words on the page, telling of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition and murder."

    I can't wait!

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Topping shopping

    I paid another visit to the St. Andrews branch of Topping and Company today and this is what I bought: Warm Covers: A Scottish Textile Story by Janet Rae (I mentioned it here), biographies of Georgette Heyer (by Jennifer Kloester) and George Eliot (by Jenny Uglow), A.S. Byatt on Mariano Fortuny and William Morris (see this post), and Richard Hillyer's memoir Country Boy (full details here).

    A good haul, I think.

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