Virago assistance required

Justine is asking for thoughts on Virago books, what they have meant to you and the old versus the new Virago covers over on her blog for a piece for The Sunday Telegraph magazine, so hotfoot over there if you want to have your say. I've waxed lyrical off the top of my head over the original Elizabeth Taylor covers but am going off to do some evidence-based research on my shelves before I condemn the more recent covers out of hand. It might still not be good though.
Meanwhile I've fortuitously had to whizz The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte to the top of the reading pile. I'm reading it for a reason and thought I had six weeks from early April before commenting, now I read the email properly and my comments are required BY early April.
It's a good thing that my recent read of Daphne has plunged me into du Mauriermania, Foweymania, Brontemania and all things Haworth because now I can't wait to get started, and even better and talking of old versus revamped covers, I have been sent the new Oxford World's Classics edition to read and it's a cracker.

Comments

[Cristina]

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is hard but great (and sadly and unjustly overlooked). I'm sure even at this point we'll be reading your thoughts before the required date. I for one look forward to reading your comments on it.

[justine picardie]

You're going to be thoroughly steeped, I can tell, by the time we get to meet at the Du Maurier festival in May. Good luck with Anne Bronte. Apparently Daphne was introduced to the works of the Brontes as a child by her governess, Tod. And at the very end of her life, she was nursed by a Yorkshirewoman, who reported afterwards that talking about Brontes sparked Daphne into animation, when all else failed.
Meanwhile, I'm back at my blog, waiting eagerly for comments about Virago!

[dovegreyreader]

Justine, we are off to Fowey for the day next week once I'm back from Oxford.That bookshop looks too tempting for us to leave it unvisited any longer.

[justine picardie]

I'm so pleased! You must go and visit Ann Willmore, who runs Bookends. It is an absolute treasure trove. What day are you going?

[Sarah]

I hope you like The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, it's an old favourite of mine which is too often overlooked amongst the Bronte canon.

[Sarah]

I hope you like The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, it's an old favourite of mine which is too often overlooked amongst the Bronte canon.

[Margaret Powling]

I adore the VMCs and at one time had a poster with all the covers in miniature, like rows of postage stamps, which had been published up to that date. My favourites are the von Arnims and I also like the covers of Mollie Panter Downes' One Fine Day and Elizabeth Jenkins' The Tortoise and The Hare (details from Harold Knight's painting, Girl Reading.) Sadly I have parted with some VMCs during regular book weeds, and one which has gone is May Sinclair's Three Sisters. (I hope Justine picks this comment up here as I cannot leave comments on Google which never accepts my passwords, no matter how often I've changed them or been 'accepted' by Google!)

[Bela]

1) I have a friend who works for the BBC French Service (I myself used to be employed there); over the years, he has phoned me to ask what I thought about this or that topic. The first time, I thought he just wanted my opinion and I was glad to give it to him, then I heard him use my words as if they were his own on the radio. I was annoyed at being exploited in that way. I got caught again a couple of times. But no more.

2) For several years, I was a member of an American forum devoted perfume (a nice escape from the daily grind). One of the women managed to get a contract to write a book about fragrances with a very famous author in that field. She still posted on the forum and, little by little, her posts turned into polls. She was using us as ‘research’.

At least JP is honest about why she wants us to contribute. However, I’m done helping other people do their jobs for free and for no credit.

[Rob]

Last April, I visited Anne Brontë's grave in Scarborough. So many tourists stopped, looked at the grave, and asked, "Who was she?" I knew who she was, but I had never read either of her novels. I'm happy to say that I have now read both The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Agnes Grey. Both were wonderful discoveries. My habit of wandering through churchyards yielded a marvelous dividend!

[dovegreyreader]

Bela, valid points both and thanks for making them.Yes it would now be very easy for a writer to scour blogs and snaffle research without ever declaring the source and we'd be none the wiser even given the Creative Commons Licence that many of us use. Justine was quite up-front about her reasons as you say and I'm sure she'll credit accordingly. Interestingly I've been writing my thoughts down on blogging for my talk at the Oxford Lit Fest next week and ethics, trust and honesty come very high up the list, but there is also a generosity of spirit which goes hand in hand with that. I think unwritten rules apply and anyone who abuses them would lose all credibility in the blogworld.
Rob I've made a good start on The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and so far so good, I read Agnes Grey only last year and also enjoyed that

[justine picardie]

Absolutely -- I would always credit other people's responses and ideas; apart from anything else, I want to represent a broad cross-section of views, the wider the better. I am very new to blogging -- just started last week -- but I have been so heartened by the warmth and vitality that emanates from the ether/ blogosphere. It makes me feel part of a much larger community of like-minded people, which is good for a solitary writer! And the comments in response to my blog on VMC have been so interesting (and have also been read by the relevant editor at Virago, which means that everyone's suggestions on covers, contents, etc, won't go unnoticed).
And Margaret -- I have seen your comment -- for which many, many thanks. I'm longing to track down a copy of Three Sisters, which is sadly now out of print.

[Cristina]

Rob, the amount of people taking a picture at Anne's grave (because she's clearly someone famous - a writer, a singer, a fishmonger, who cares - as all the arrows point that way) and then turning round and asking, 'oh, but who was she?' is amazing. It escapes me, though, why anyone would trudge all the way up there just to visit the decaying grave of someone they don't know anything about.