Cornflower Books

Ladybird, Ladybird

    I'm enjoying Clare Pollard's Fierce Bad Rabbits, The Tales Behind Children's Picture Books and have reached the chapter which mentions beloved Ladybird Books (I particularly like the quote from Angela Carter at the end):

    "The Ladybird imprint was begun by Henry Wills and William Hepworth in 1915, with Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales. It was intended to produce 'wholesome and healthy literature for children'. The iconic mini-hardback format we associate with the brand, with 56 pages, roughly 4 1/2" by 7", first appeared in 1940 ... It was a response to wartime restrictions on paper supply, with the format chosen because it allowed an entire book to be printed on one large standard sheet of paper ... then folded and cut to size ...The distinct aesthetic was also created by a decision not to use children's illustrators but, instead, established commercial artists. While Ladybird soon became famous for non-fiction and nature titles, it was the 'Well-Loved Tales', designed for easy reading, that my generation learnt, stumblingly, to read from...

    My sister's favourite Ladybird book was The Elves and the Shoemaker* ... She was delighted by all the shoes the elves helped make, with their bright leathers - blue, red, yellow, green; the pink, fringed ankle boots [see them here] - and charmed by the miniaturization: the tiny outfits the shoemaker and his wife stitch for the elves, to say thank you; the absurd stockings laid out next to thimble-sized boots and hats with red feathers. It is a story in which immense powers are used to achieve small domestic goals, making me think of Angela Carter's lovely summation: 'A fairy tale is a story in which one king goes to another king to borrow a cup of sugar.' "

*I had that one but can't lay hands on it - I remember vividly all those shoes and boots!

Friday reads

   

    Niall Williams' This Is Happiness is a novel to be savoured - not least because the author is such a wizard with words - so I'm taking my time over this gentle story before moving on to (I think) Ann Patchett's The Dutch House, and if that book's cover image caught your eye, as it did mine, then this video tells all about it.

    From one story of a painting to another, as my next non-fiction read will be Sargent's Daughters: The Biography of a Painting by Erica E. Hirshler on the subject of John Singer Sargent's The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit.

    I hope your current reading is absorbing and enriching, and if you have anything to recommend do please let us know.

Design details

    I've been looking forward to Diane Setterfield's new novel for a whole year, I see!

    Publication was put back by a few months, but here it is now and no doubt reading it will be all the sweeter for the lengthy anticipation.

    Before I begin it I wanted to give you a close look at that very striking jacket by Sarah Whittaker.

On my desk today

   

    -    The Illustrated Dust Jacket 1920-1970 by Martin Salisbury - such delights here! More on it soon.

    -    Significant Others: Creativity & Intimate Partnership edited by Whitney Chadwick & Isabelle de Courtivron. "An original and revealing series of essays on artist and writer couples whose literary and artistic renown has been compounded by the fame - or notoriety - of their relationships." This looks fascinating,

    -    as does A Secret Sisterhood: The hidden friendships of Austen, Bronte, Eliot and Woolf by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney. Examining creative connections, this book "offers a new perspective on established literary figures" (Tracy Chevalier).

Monogrammed

    To be published on the 1st. of March next year, a handsome 80th. anniversary edition of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.

    I haven't a copy of the book at all so I think I shall invest in that one.

To be read: The White Hare

 

    "A lost boy. A dead girl, and one who is left behind.

    Robbie doesn't want anything more to do with death, but life in a village full of whispers and secrets can't make things the way they were.

    When the white hare appears, magical and fleet in the silvery moonlight, she leads them all into a legend, a chase, a hunt.

    But who is the hunter and who the hunted?

    In The White Hare, Michael Fishwick deftly mingles a coming-of-age story with mystery, myth and summer hauntings."

    I like the sound of this novel for children of 12 and up, described as "a mix of tense thriller, magical legend and real life," which is out early next month.

    The jacket design is by Emma Ewbank, by the way.

Going back in time

   

 

    I've been casting around today for something to read on a forthcoming plane/train journey, and in a house full of books that's harder than it should be. Whatever I take has to be easily portable, so hardbacks are out (the very interesting Tellers of Tales, my current read, will have to go in hold baggage), and nothing on the Kindle seemed to suit, so I've been scanning the shelves and literally weighing likely candidates.

    In the end I have plumped for Green Darkness by Anya Seton as the edition I have is compact enough for my purposes and came to mind the other day when I saw an Instagram post by Eva who was about to embark on the audiobook of Anya Seton's Katherine.

    I remember finding my copy of Green Darkness in a box outside a second-hand books shop in Eton. I was about fifteen at the time and was with my aunt who had read the book, warmly recommended it, and spoke of her visit to Ightham Mote, one of the novel's settings. I read it then and loved it, but will I like it now, I wonder.

    Kate Mosse says it's "seductive, atmospheric, intriguing, one of those classic novels you come back to time and again," so that's promising, as is the following from Books and Bookmen:

    "Perhaps the greatest gifts Anya Seton brings to her historical novels are the zest of her narrative, the life she breathes into the most insignificant characters, and the atmosphere of the era she evokes around them."

    Here's the blurb (albeit one with more than a glimpse of a ripped bodice): "The young Celia de Bohun has fallen helplessly in love with Stephen, the resident priest in the Catholic household of Sir Anthony Browne. Against his will, Stephen returns her love. Gripped by the sweetness of their forbidden passion, the young lovers become the victims of their savage times. Centuries later their tragedy threatens the life and happiness of another Celia. She can only be saved by piercing the green darkness of the past and revealing its mysterious truth."

    Now, about that cover ...

Period charm

    I found these three novels by O. Douglas in a local secondhand books shop yesterday and I couldn't pass them by; "nice books about nice people" are too few in number, it seems to me, and from what I know of the author, that's a fair summing up of her work.

    The House that is Our Own was first published in 1940, and it bears the following touching dedication to the author's brother, John Buchan, who died early that year:

    "To you, J.B., who with little liking for mild domestic fiction, read patiently my works, blue-pencilling when you had to, praising when you could, encouraging always, I dedicate this story, which you are not here to read, of places you knew and loved."

    I was interested to find this sticker inside the back cover of one of the other books - Binns was a well-known Edinburgh department store, now House of Fraser. That it sold books is news to me, but I suppose such shops did in those long-gone days.

    Turning to the books' dust jackets (and these have plenty of period charm), a couple of short articles on the subject - here and here - may be of interest.

 

Edited to add: I've linked above to two very striking portraits of John Buchan; here is one of his sister herself, the family resemblance marked.

Looking gratefully back and hopefully forward

   

     "If choice must be between two seasons, each so full of charm, it is at least no bad philosophy to prefer the present good, even whilst looking gratefully back, and hopefully forward, to the past and the future."

    From Our Village by Mary Russell Mitford; the cover from my 1909 edition (J.M. Dent, English Idylls series) is shown here.

   

    Wishing you a very happy new year!

Re-jacketed

 

    I mentioned in passing in this post that I wasn't keen on the current covers for my favourite Nancy Mitford novels. Happily for those sharing my opinion and looking to buy them now, the books have been re-jacketed to mark the 70th. anniversary of publication of The Pursuit of Love, so that novel along with Love in a Cold Climate and Don't Tell Alfred (among others) will be available from tomorrow in much smarter livery*.

    This page gives a flavour of NM's jackets through the ages.

    *Edited to add: designed by Luli Sanchez.

Literary links

    -    The bookshop we've all been waiting for .... (or maybe not!).

    -    What to read when you're poorly.

    -    Lottery living.

    -    Pretty things.

    -    "ideas do not come from nowhere..."

Reading rugby

   

    If you've been following the rugby world cup - and congratulations to New Zealand on an impressive win this afternoon - you might be interested in an excellent novel I wrote about a few years ago.

    The Book of Fame by Lloyd Jones tells the story of the All Blacks' tour of the UK in 1905, and "in this melding of true history and imagination, recreates an unforgettable journey from innocence to celebrity."

    Here's some of what I had to say about it at the time:

" ... Jones has taken real events and imagined the story around them, and the result, though short, has great 'presence' and power. In 1905 a group of young men from all walks of life set sail from New Zealand, bound for Britain. They were the All Blacks, then little known, but their expertise on the rugby pitch soon brought them the sort of celebrity we associate with the present day.

    On the voyage, where the backs honed their passing skills with hard young pumpkins bought in Montevideo, they had no idea that their tour would see them virtually undefeated (only the Welsh would beat them). As they played round the country, the New Zealanders' skill and excellence earned them enormous fame, with which, of course, they had to deal - hence the novel's title.

    The book reads sometimes like an extended diary entry, at others a newsreel; its reportage is mixed with list-style facts, impressions, and details which stand out. It is a very vivid book, and one written with immense sympathy and empathy for its subject. I recommend it thoroughly, as does Mr. C. who read it after me, and you don't need to have an interest in rugby to enjoy it."

    I've read a few of Lloyd Jones' novels but this one is by far my favourite.   

 

The jacket is by Petra Börner, by the way.

Books in stitches

    Penguin have just released their Penguin By Hand collection, six well-loved novels by women, all with 'handcrafted' jackets. Above is Kathryn Stockett's The Help with a beautiful quilt for a jacket; it's by Brenda Riddle, and she talks about the making of it here.

    You can see the other covers in the series on the National Book Tokens website where you can enter a draw to win the set.

    At the excellent Readers and Writers Shop at the New York Public Library this summer I bought the Penguin Threads edition of The Secret Garden

with its deckle edge and embroidered cover by Jillian Tamaki. I was reading Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina's biography Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Unexpected Life of the Author of "The Secret Garden" at the time, and there are a number of New York connections as Mrs. Burnett had a home there and there is in Central Park a memorial fountain.

    Just by the way, I noted a couple of passages from the biography:

"Throughout her life, Frances was known for five things: her unrelenting literary production, which often drove her to illness; her love of beautiful clothes and domestic surroundings; her inability to remain settles in any one place, or even in one country; her wonderful gardens; and in the second half of her life, compassion and enormous generosity to friends and strangers alike."

"With the best that was in me I have tried to write more happiness into the world."

    Would that every writer could say the same.

Looking good ...

    ... Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase, out on 2nd. July.

    "... beautiful, utterly escapist world", "a sheer delight", "a deliciously intriguing novel whose rich sense of time and place bear more than a few echoes of du Maurier's best".

    The author says, "...I'm terribly nosy, especially when it comes to houses. I have always loved the 'At Home' features in newspapers and magazines: opportunities to poke around other people's homes and unearth juicy revelations beneath the chalky layers of Farrow and Ball. In general, the more cash-rich the owner, the less interesting the house - it is easy to spot the dead hand of an interior designer. The houses that have stuck in my mind are the chaotic ones in the country with their boot rooms [...] and secrets, impossible to maintain, sprawling spaces for families to go wrong, but also for magic to happen. Powderham Castle in Devon, Hilles in Gloucestershire, Pencarrow House and Port Eliot in Cornwall were in the back of my mind when I wrote this book."

    Love that cover!

Friday round-up and a note to authors

    -    I'm so glad that the choice of Jane Eyre as the book group's April book has proved a popular one - thus far, at least! Several people have mentioned Jean Rhys' 'prequel' Wide Sargasso Sea which would make good further reading if you're so inclined.

    -    For anyone looking to buy a copy of A Work of Beauty: Alexander McCall Smith's Edinburgh, from which I quoted the other day, I'm told by Booksource that it should be back in stock in bookshops and with online retailers early next week.

    -    Those who commented on the British and American covers of Anne Tyler's new novel are all in favour of the latter design; no votes, as I write, for the less distinctive UK one. I'd love to know the thinking behind both, and ask jacket design teams why they so often opt for the bland and generic over something more imaginative.

    -    Since news of Harper Lee's 'new' novel broke last week there has been much talk in the press and online about the author's capacity, the likely quality of the work - given that it was in essence a rejected piece on which she built her classic, and the rights and wrongs of publishing it. Comment has rangesd from the cynical to the trusting and optimistic, with Miss Lee herself reported as saying she's "alive and kicking and happy as hell with the reactions to [the novel]". Regardless of of the book's merits or demerits - and we'll discover them in July - I hope that the author is indeed as strong as she indicates, and that her judgement in this matter is clear-sighted and serves her well.

-    Lastly, an important note to authors: if you haven't already signed up for PLR, or if you haven't recently updated the books/editions of yours which are registered, do so to ensure that you don't miss out on any payments which would be due to you. On the subject of libraries, the latest library loan statistics have just been published (for more statistics and regional variations follow the links here).

Cover comparison

 

    Anne Tyler's new novel A Spool of Blue Thread is just out here and in the US, and the respective covers are above. Which do you prefer, or which one - if you knew nothing about the author - would draw you to pick up the book? My vote is firmly for the American design, that is the one on the right. I would also respond favourably to this summary, again from the US:

    "Brimming with all the insight, humor, and generosity of spirit that are the hallmarks of Anne Tyler’s work, A Spool of Blue Thread tells a poignant yet unsentimental story in praise of family in all its emotional complexity. It is a novel to cherish."

Under cover

    No apologies for a further brief post on Niall Williams' History of the Rain, but this time regarding the cover.

    It was a proof of the novel I read earlier in the year, but I now have a finished copy and it's the jacket I want to draw attention to because what was not obvious from pictures I'd seen of it was the very clever and effective use of text under the images - there is probably a technical term for that, but seen at different angles and in different lights, lines from Great Expectations 'emerge from the water'.

    It's beautiful, effective, and of course relevant to the book, and is another great design by David Mann.

Books of the day

    Here are two excellent-looking books to look out for in due course, the first being The Ghost of the Mary Celeste by Valerie Martin, published in the UK next month.

    "A mystery unsolved to this day. A mystic who confounds the cynics. A writer looking for the story that will make his name.

    A ghost ship appears in the mist. To the struggling author Arthur Conan Doyle, it is an inspiration. To Violet Petra, the gifted American psychic, it is a cruel reminder. To the death-obsessed Victorian public, it is a fascinating distraction. And to one family, tied to the sea for generations, it is a tragedy.

    In salons and on rough seas, at séances and in the imagination of a genius, these stories converge in unexpected ways as the mystery of the ghost ship deepens. But will the sea yield its secrets, and to whom?

    Intricate, atmospheric, and endlessly intriguing, The Ghost of the Mary Celeste is a spellbinding exploration of love, loss and the fictions that pass as truth."

    I can't wait to read this one from the author of the Orange Prize-winning Property and Mary Reilly (which, by the way, is relevant to our CBG book for February), but meanwhile let me draw your attention to the cover design which appears as you see on the picture above left, but achieves that misty, ghostly effect by means of a semi-opaque jacket over the image in the picture on the right.

    

     I've mentioned Harriet Lane's eagerly anticipated second novel before, but details were scanty then. Her new book, Her, won't be out until June, but that gives plenty of time for library requests and pre-orders, so here's the gist:

    "Two women; two different worlds. Emma is a struggling mother who has put everything on hold. Nina is sophisticated and independent - entirely in control.

    When the pair meet, Nina generously draws Emma into her life. But this isn't the first time the women's paths have crossed. Nina remembers Emma and she remembers what Emma did.

    But what exactly does Nina want from her?

    And how far will she go in pursuit of it?"

    You will remember Harriet Lane as the author of the superb Alys, Always, a brilliant debut and one of my books of the year in 2012 - if you haven't read it you'll find a post on it here, and you'll see why I'm so looking forward to reading her new book.

A winter jacket

    I love the jacket on Elizabeth Jane Howard's All Change, the fifth of her Cazalet Chronicles, which I've started today and am greatly enjoying.

    The design is by Alice Tait, and do click there to see more of her work including covers for Jane Gardam's The People on Privilege Hill and Elizabeth Jenkins's The Tortoise and the Hare*.

    Helpfully, All Change includes a family tree to remind us how the Cazalet characters are related to one another, and the endpapers are Merton, a William Morris wallpaper design, so this is a handsome book.

 

*a memorable CBG read.

A bit of a long shot, but ...

    ... does anyone know of a site which allows you to search for books by cover artist or illustrator?

    I ask because having posted a picture by Frank Weston Benson over on Cornflower today, I was looking at some of his other works and thought I recognised one or two from book jackets. It's just idle curiosity which prompts my question, but it would be a lovely resource to browse if such a thing does exist.

Shown here is Benson's The Reader, c.1910.