The rest is silence...how could I forget that was Hamlet?
For Whom the Bell Tolls...Spanish Civil War / World War II / Spanish Civil War / World War II?
The name of Clarissa Dickson Wright's autobiography?...um...er...eegghhh...
How did the granny die in Memoirs of a Geisha?
In desperation we put 'swallowed her chopsticks'...wrong.
But at least victory at the library World Book Day quiz last evening stayed 'in the family' as the other half of the Goldfish- Endsleigh collaboration (several people belong to two book groups so we draw lots for our two teams) now hold the crown with 82 /100 to our second place 78.
Hats off to the library it was one of the most enjoyable and challenging literary quizes I have been to, a good time was had by all and there were prizes for everyone, news of mine soon. I didn't really need another book, except for reasons that will become obvious next week I absolutely did need this one and I was more than delighted with it.
But now it's time to find my Inner Child and goodness, the year is going to fly by at this rate, a quarter of the year done already and I have to confess I'm going to lend two of my four library tickets to someone else this weekend and just pick two books this time round.
Perhaps my reading stamina's not what it was but from last month's selection, The Silver Sword by Ian Serrallier didn't hit the mark and I couldn't cope with The Family From One End Street by Eve Garnett at all.
Was it Erika who said as much in comments? You were right.
It wasn't so much the social aspects, in fact I don't think I got far enough for that to bite, it was Mrs Ruggles, and all because I'd read Magnolia Buildings by Elizabeth Stucley first and loved the warm 'we can do this' mothering style of Mrs Berners.
Magnolia Buildings, according to Marcus Crouch writing in The Nesbit Tradition, apparently seen as
'an updated One-End Street, sincere, humorous, lively, but essentially a peep into the working class world from the outside.'
By comparison Mrs Ruggles would not have looked out of place in Cell Block H, harsh and unsympathetic, and though I'm sure her redeeming qualities would have emerged eventually and of course it was all about poverty and scraping a living out of nothing, but I was just too upset about poor Lily Rose and the Green Silk Petticoat episode to carry on.
Only doing her best, trying to help and ironed the thing to a frazzle,
'Good deed indeed! Well it don't look like it to me...tomorrow you'll come with me to Mrs Beaseley's and explain as it was you and not your mother, who's a careful hard-working, reliable laundress, as spoilt her nice petticoat, and she'll have something to say to you, I shouldn't wonder, and you'll get no jam for tea today, and no cake on Sunday neither. Now then, stop that sniffing, put the kettle on and get the tea.'
For social research purposes two books that would make the most fascinating comparitive study, but that's not my remit. Perhaps this was working class parenting 1930s style and that's fine
but I could only read this as a grown-up and weep, and then want to attempt that thesis but who needs to be weeping for that reason over a book on a cold grey February afternoon and do I really fancy a thesis when I've just bought some more wool and have knitting to do.
No matter onwards and upwards and this weekend two books chosen shamelessly for their covers and I have both in the editions I remember reading as a child.
Fell Farm Holiday by Marjorie Lloyd and The Wool Pack by Cynthia Harnett.
Fell Farm Holiday cited as 'a jolly holiday story' set in the Lake District and the parents are ditched which always helps, while The Wool Pack is described as a book for 'middle-aged children'. I quite like the sound of being one of those and possibly this 1953 edition is pre the invention of the teenager, but also the fact that it's about the Cotswold wool trade in and around Burford in the 1490s will ease me nicely into my wool confession ...tomorrow.
Anyone else Inner Child reading with me?
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