dovegreyreader scribbles

An Education by Lynn Barber

Events kick off today at Dartington Ways With Words, Salley Vickers this afternoon, so fasten your seat belts and we'll be off across Dartmoor any minute and I'm meant to be reading all those books ahead of myself, so that I can nod knowingly as the authors explain the nuances of their narrative voice and their plot devices.
So on my way to the armchair for another session with Henry VIII and our 'ilary I was waylaid by the Women's Lives stack.
I'm doing a bit of gentle categorising of books-to-be-read these days, so I've got a great Crime Corner ready for when I fancy a bit of murder and a Women's Lives pile over on the edge of the Virginia Woolf shelf.
That's where I'd put An Education by Lynn Barber.
On top of Eleanor of Aquitaine, right next to The Marvelous Hairy Girls and Hot Flushes, Cold Science A History of the Modern Menopause and meaning to get to it all one day.
But as I walked past it has to be said the young Lynn on the cover has a very endearing smile, so having  opened the first page and read,

'I know memoirs are supposed to begin with ancestors but alas, I don't have any, because I come from the lower, unremembered, orders on both sides, There is no Barber ancestral seat, nor even, so far as I know, any Barber ancestral village.'

I then barely glanced at the Tudors until I'd reached the end and now I discover that Lynn will be at Dartington on the final day too.
Lynn Barber (not quite a kindred spirit with Anne with an 'e' and this Lynne with an 'e')  born in 1944 studied English at Oxford in the 1960s forging a career in journalism at Penthouse, then moving onto the Sunday Express, the Sunday Independent and Vanity Fair and now writes for the Observer and the Daily Telegraph.
An Education was certainly an education for me.
I think Lynn might have been the equivalent of someone we all knew in school, though I would only presume to speak for myself here; someone I could only emulate from afar and aspire to, but I was unlikely ever to come close.
You know, the one who makes the rest of you feel spotty, geeky and stupid.
Lynn was the bright, attractive, stylish one, exempt from the exigencies of the lacrosse pitch thanks to her 'weak ankles'. The one with the older, suave and sophisticated boyfriend of whom she asked no questions and, but for a last minute discovery of a roguish nature, may have married and thus given up any thoughts of Oxford.
I very briefly had one of those, not too roguish and thankfully marriage was never an option, but I did read Catch 22 to impress him and I'm always glad to have tucked that book under my belt at nineteen.
Quite astonishing too, and testament to Simon's con-man skills, is the fact that Lynn's parents, having encouraged her to aim high, were also completely duped by his charms and pressing her into the marriage.
For Lynn Barber, the lifelong effect feels profound. How can you truly know and trust anyone, including in this case her parents, and perhaps this was the unwitting catalyst for an award-winning career spent interviewing the rich and famous in an effort to know and understand .
Given that Lynn Barber has a few years on this Coronation Year baby and lived a far more exciting life than I did during the 60s and 70s, I had a great deal to learn, and having read Katherine Whitehorn's Selected Memory last year I'm thinking what a trove of fascinating and important insights these books are.
Women journalists staking their claim, adding a new and different dimension to a changing world.
Even writing the words 'I'm thinking' would have been off-limits to any journalist worth their expenses (eye-watering, forget MPs, the journos knew how to rack up the bills)  back in those third-person days, but Lynn Barber successful challenged that 'great god objectivity' . First person writing was 'unprofessional' and 'girlie' in the eyes of the old school (male) editors but Lynn blazed a trail and set the bench mark.
I'm nerve-wracked lest Lynn Barber read this because she has an eagle-eye for the extraneous word and absent punctuation, as well as being the doyenne of the well-conducted interview, and there's me wanting to know about people's writing socks and asking A.S.Byatt whether she threw a pot in her research for The Children's Book, (I did honestly, just wait until Monday for the answer) but I've got an excuse, I'm a nurse not a journalist.
The nurse bit came in very useful towards the final pages of the book and in true litfest fashion I won't reveal exactly how because, apart from the use of past-tense with reference to 'someone' throughout the book, I still had no idea quite what was coming. When it came I understood it all only too well and though this episode constitutes a very small proportion of the book, almost too painful to examine too closely, I can only begin to imagine what a devastating event this has been in Lynn Barber's life.
The first chapters of An Education have been adapted for the big screen by Nick Hornby, with some journalistic license employed in finding more filmic outcomes for this period of Lynn's life, the film due for release here in the UK in October, but I'd say read the book first, it's a cracker...should I have put that comma before that 'but'?

An Education by Lynn Barber - prize draw copies

Don't take my word for it, names in comments (open worldwide) to win one of three copies of An Education by Lynn Barber published by Penguin and discover for yourselves.
60's Hippy cat will choose the winners eventually.

Something very special for next Monday...

dovegreyreader asks...A.S.Byatt

A Narrative Compass - Stories That Guide Women's Lives

I'm afraid there was rather an unladylike ripping open of the package when it arrived because I'd really been looking forward to this one.
A Narrative Compass - Stories That Guide Women's Lives edited by  Betsy Herne and Roberta Trites.
It's such a finely tuned book and though it has emerged from the Academy and this is women scholars talking of the impact that a story read in childhood had on their lives, I think it's easy enough for all us non-Academy women to relate to the premise and look at our own narrative compass alongside theirs.
In the words of the great man of the fairy tale, Jack Zipes

'Never before have I read such insightful and unique accounts about the power of books in determining the paths that we have taken in our lives. These extraordinary stories are counter-narratives to the dominant male discourse of academia, revealing how academia has benefited from stories that it has sought to exclude.'

It's a lesser known fact that some years ago I started and quickly abandoned an MA in Childrens' Literature knowing that I had gone in the wrong direction completely, but I was on the trail long enough to discover the writing of Jack Zipes.
I had decided to adopt Jack as my readable and accessible critic for the duration, every student needs one of those.
In a fit of wild abandon and enthusiasm I had bought all his books (and I mean all) when I started the course and in a fit of guilt I quickly sold them all again when I pulled up the stumps after one module, so sadly I have no Jack Zipes to fall back on now, but I think that accolade from him speaks volumes about the literary merits of A Narrative Compass.
I fear I'm often off on a frolic of my own with my reading, but this is all given some substance as A Narrative Compass highlights the importance of storytelling as a means of conveying emotions, gathering and processing information and the need to break down the barriers between the professional and the personal. In this case the editors gave permission to a varied cohort of scholarly women to write from the heart, and the results are as fascinating as they are profound as the women strive to describe their academic work in first-person narrative form with reference to the childhood story which may have unwittingly governed their thinking.
Interestingly a book which has been on my shelf for years was cited as a forerunner, Writing a Woman's Life by Carolyn Heilbrun
Many of the women felt vulnerable and unsafe with the idea of storytelling per se and very far from their comfort zone of academic jargon and the language of theory and quickly reverted to it, others clearly just spread their wings and flew with the writing and the chance to write about themselves, to insert their real self into the narrative and I could tell as I read who had done that.
Roberta Seelinger Trites with her wonderful essay Journeys with Little Women jumps in with both feet and gives an impressive account of her life with Jo and Amy,

'I have known and loved Jo and Amy for more than thirty-five years. I have learned much from them, and they have followed me throughout my career - or more accurately, I have followed them...the story of my academic journey, then, is a tale of conventionality and nonconformity, of renunciation and reward...'

There is a good range of stories and authors covered here among them, Alice in Wonderland, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Beauty and the Beast, E.M Forster's A Passage to India and many more.
I think you might all have to read this book for yourselves to place yourself in a schema of your own making and with reference to your own childhood reading but it's made me think with increased clarity about mine,  What Katy Did, Anne of Green Gables and The Secret Garden.
In the interests of balance, don't miss what Hilary Mantel thinks about Little Women and  What Katy Did either, it's not all sweetness and light and good news, but for me A Narrative Compass has been a catalyst to some very interesting thoughts of my own if not a timely reminder that the Mariner's Compass is another quilting narrative that remains unfinished.

Public service announcement

My thanks to Curzon for this which definitely seems worth sharing if anyone else out there hates their mobile phone as much as I hate mine, and this had certainly passed me by.

'You may or may not be aware but next week (13/07/2009), all UK mobiles will be listed on a directory which will mean that anyone will be able to access the numbers so you will be open for cold calling.  It is easy to unsubscribe but it must be done before the beginning of next week to make sure that you are ex directory. You may want to unsubscribe any personal mobiles or advise friends and family accordingly.

Go to

http://www.118800.co.uk

then select Ex-Directory at the top right and follow the instructions which are quite simple.'

Great for those emergency moments and the occasional text message or trying to find your husband/ partner/ children / dog when you are out shopping, but not for cold call double glazing and conservatory sales or cavity wall insulation.

An Awfully Big Adventure

An unusual mid-week departure from books today, and I make no excuse for the nepotism because I hope you'll understand it's all in a good cause.
We nipped in to Plymouth to be proud parents and wave Offspringette off on her latest personal challenge - awfully big adventure last week.
I have to say, probably like many of you, we're used to this. At 18 it was the solo Greyhound bus trip around America or else it's the Kayaker off to paddle the Zambezi or the White Nile.
A couple of years ago Offspringette threw in the coveted media job ('you'd better sit down'... was how that phone call started) to go and help a fund-raising trip skateboarding across Australia.
Yes, really...I know, we thought that too.
If I wonder where she's got it from, I suppose this skateboard bit and the wheels 'neath the feet thing could be partly my fault, and then we always get the 'well you did bring us up to be free spirits' explanation.
Being a garrison city and naval port, Plymouth and the surrounding area has suffered its share of tragic losses in recent months and years. All our children sadly now know how it feels to lose friends in times of war; it has touched all of them either as school friends or part of their wider social circle and prompted by the tragic death of the fiance of a good friend in Afghanistan in January this year, Offspringette is off and doing a Help For Heroes fund-raising solo skate trip of her own.
Familiar with Scotland, having studied Film & Media at Stirling Uni and then Glasgow-based with BBC Scotland for three years, the trip starts as far north as she could get on Shetland.
Then it will be off to Orkney to follow in the Tinker's wartime footsteps, before powering along on something called a long board (like a skate board but bigger) all the way down the east coast of Scotland to the English border.
Well, that's the strategy barring equipment malfunction or knee failure and already the hospitality has abounded in Shetland and the donations are coming in.
Most trips like this take along a support team but Offspringette wanted the solo endurance challenge so she's carrying everything in her rucksack and when you know she's a pint-sized 5ft 2" you'll see what a challenge that is. She's has worked incredibly hard to fund this trip herself along with some helpful equipment sponsorship (that board arrived from the US just days before, thank you America)  so every penny raised will go to Help For Heroes.
I'm not asking you for money, though she'll be thrilled and very encouraged along the way if you do donate, (and you can do it online) but please feel under no obligation; however this is the place where I can say to the world how immensely proud we are of her philanthropic endeavour and can share that with all of you.
Nothing like your children for making you realize what matters in life and for making you feel bad about lazing in an armchair reading a book, whilst occasionally indulging the thoroughly self-aggrandizing thought that perhaps you might have done something right through all those dazed and exhausting years of child-raising.
As I'm her mother I worry a little bit, so I can also say to her...STAY OFF THE MOTORWAY and thank you to RAF Lossiemouth who have promised to keep an eye out for her when she's in the vicinity.
The plan is to take all summer to do the trip, hopefully raise far more than the projected £500 for Help for Heroes, write a journal along the way and spend plenty of time pondering 'what is this thing called life' as she skates along the highways and byways, before rolling on into post-graduate teacher training in the autumn.
On reflection what a great way to arrive in the teaching profession, with a few years of work and life experience behind you.
Plymouth Hoe in the sunshine and Offspringette's real name finally revealed, fancy naming your first-born after your favourite 1980's shop, and as if you needed to ask, of course she's going to check out the knitting shops for me while she's in Shetland:-)

The Magnificent Mrs Tennant by David Waller

  A quick glance at an e mail containing the words Tennant and David in the subject line and it's a mistake there for the making.
Once I'd realised it wasn't David Tennant I was still very grateful to David Waller for ensuring that I read The Magnificent Mrs Tennant.
I love it when consecutive reads connect because I then moved on to Frances Partridge, The Biography by Anne Chisholm.
I'll explain Gertrude Tennant in a minute, but amazing to discover that by marriage she was connected to Frances Partridge.
Now you'll need to focus here...Frances Partridge's father's cousin, Frederic Myers- the psychical researcher and essayist, was married to Gertrude's daughter Evie.
There, a small world even in 1880.
In many ways Gertrude Tennant's life bears comparison to that of Frances Partridge, not only for its longevity, spanning almost an entire century from 1819 to 1918 (beautiful symmetry of numbers there), but also for its links to the literary milieu of the time and for Gertrude's own record of that life.
I can't begin to imagine what this must have felt like, but author David Waller was given access to two oak chests, unopened for half a century and stashed in the family attic containing,

'layer upon layer of books, bags, envelopes...bundles of letters...old newspapers, diaries of parchment and leather...manuscripts...someone had tied a blue ribbon around one particular bundle of letters , and in an antique hand labelled them : Correspondence From Various Distinguished Persons, Do Not Throw Away...and thousands of family letters.'

Born a few weeks before the death of George III, in the same year as Queen Victoria and just days before George Eliot, Gertrude was one of seven children adding to the extensive ranks of the Collier family, spending her childhood largely in France when the tide turned on the family's naval fortunes.
It was here that Gertrude not only met Victor Hugo but also became a lifelong friend of Gustave Flaubert.
Returning to England and now happily married to Charles Tennant, Gertrude gave birth to six nicely alphabetical children Alice, Blanche, Charles,etc and then proceeded to live her life in the shadow of many great men.
As the London hostess extraordinaire, Gertrude created a literary and artistic salon at her Richmond Terrace home. The salon, based on those she had come to know as a young woman living in France became a magnet for just about every 'it' name of the nineteenth century.
Anthony Trollope...'a large burly, bald-headed man, with a thick grizzly beard, and a strange expression about his mouth, as if continually puffing out smoke.'
Tennyson, George du Maurier, Henry James, Oscar Wilde, John Ruskin, Mark Twain, Robert Browning and many more all crossed the threshold.
What makes the book such an interesting read is not only Gertrude's many literary connections and her life events all so carefully recorded, joy at the births and then unbearable sadness and grief at lost children, but also the history ticking along quietly in the background.
'The Queen is becoming very unpopular' writes Gertrude in her diary , 'they now call her The Woman in Black.'
David Waller adds further historical context, grounding the book even more firmly in the nineteenth century.
As if it wasn't enough to entertain the rich and famous, Gertrude's daughter Dolly married that nineteenth century intrepid explorer himself, Henry Morton Stanley of 'Dr Livingstone I presume fame'.
Think of the biggest celebrity wedding of recent times and there you have Dolly and Henry's.
This all makes for very revealing reading because all was not as it seemed with this hero of the times. Stanley, despite a knighthood,  was snubbed by the establishment and permission was refused for his burial next to Livingstone in Westminster Abbey.
A book I might never have found and a read I have really enjoyed for its difference, the voice of an ordinary woman who was actually quite extraordinary in her provision of a social record of the times.
Never one to mince her words I'll give you one guess as to which of Flaubert's novels, a signed first edition sent as a gift, is causing our hostess such anguish,

'but I will tell you straight that I am astonished that you, with your imagination, and your admiration for everything that is beautiful, that you have written, that you have been able to take pleasure in writing something so hideous as this book! I find it all so bad! '

Now an afterthought suddenly occurs, might book blogs be the literary salons of the 21st century?
Might they be those virtual trunks in the virtual attics?