Betty MacDonald - radio documentary

[choosyfloosy]

Anyone else who knows the name has probably already listened to the documentary on Radio 4 today, but if you know the name and missed it, it's on Listen Again under 'The Egg and I'.

What happier times than having my feet up with a coffee, ds asleep, Betty MacD on the radio.

I was trying to listen to it but distracted by a sick DS. Will be listening again at a quiet time.

Did hear snatch of a daughter-in-law of Ma & Pa Kettle, dying to hear the rest.

Ooh, I will definitely "listen again" as I loved The Egg and I and, very excitingly, I found the sequel to it in a charity shop last week.

Egg & I is great, though I prefer The Plague & I by the same author. However, what is this doing on an Adult Fiction thread? It's not fiction.

oo I love these 2 books. Still use the word "toecover" to describe a small and useless bit of craft work.

Chuckle, remembering toecover, Nighbynight.

She had a few other books as well, I have Onions in the Stew (much later, after divorced from the chicken chap) and one called Anybody Can do Anything.

There are a few dodgy bits esp in the Egg and I (re. dirty Indians, etc) but she is a wonderful comic writer with a great eye for detail. Very fond of her I am.

I think my favourite is Onions in the Stew - we drove past a girls catholic boarding school in Bristol the other day and I was thinking of them looking through school prospectus' and commenting on the height of the wall.

Nighbynight - toecover is a frequently used word by my mother and me when walking through craft fairs

lol at toecovers, us too.

yes sorry about the adult fiction bit, it was the nearest topic I found at the time, didn't think anyone would mind!

i think my favourite is The Plague and I - I love the sense of true courage in adversity, but dealt with the way real people deal with it, not some abstract heroine.

My mum, aunt and I quote bits of BMcD back and forwards to each other but it's nice to know there are other fans out there because usually I am met with total blank faces!

I felt so sorry for her being cold in bed, in The Plague and I. Spending a long time in bed would seem quite a treat otherwise.

yes. when my mother or I are enjoying sunshine or a fire we say to each other 'you're sitting in the SUN Mrs Bard'

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Pruners! I'll send you The Egg and I - no I can't, this is the problem with effectively having a joint book collection with my mum, she has it. I do recommend them, I think they might fit your mood atm... particularly The Plague and I actually, given the soothing description of her upbringing in the early chapters....

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I read her first around the first time I read the early Monica Dickens books, and the both have that soothing, read-when-ill-or-in-the-bath quality.

We were all brought up on those books! I lost The Plague and I for years, and then found a new reprint fairly recently. I think I once saw a children's book by her too, hundreds of years ago.

Mrs Piggle Wiggle - something?

She wrote several books about Mrs Piggle Wiggle & one called Nancy & Plum, which I think was based on the stories she made up as a child.

I think my favourite was Onions in the Stew - it has some good bits about living with teenagers - 1940's teenagers seem similar in many ways to those of today....

Yes, that was it, Nancy and Plum.

Yes, it seems teenagers haven't changed a lot, although the expectations certainly have. She was shocked when the boys didn't stand up when she came into a room. I visited the San Juans once, and thought of her a lot. The little islands are exactly as she described them, and the empty beaches and the enormous silver driftwood trees come down from the Olympic mountains.

I've got Nancy & Plum but not the Mrs Piggle Wiggle ones.

If anyone is interested, I found a second copy of 'Anybody can do Anything' that needs a new loving home - free to anyone who'd like it.