My year with Stella...

[Waawo]

...has begun!

I plan to spend my fifty somethingth year - and that surely is some kind of mistake - reading all of Stella Gibbons' novels. There are 26, of which I've previously read less than half, and own less than a quarter.

Since I want to read other things too, I'll try to squeeze each novel into a week, leaving a week in between for some variety. Some are not quite novels that can be read "while you eat an apple" though, so this may not work out.

Yesterday I wandered down to Waterstones to treat myself to a nice new reading copy of Cold Comfort Farm - the first novel, published in 1932. I've read this before, a few times in fact. It's a tale of our heroine Flora's attempts to tame her somewhat wild Sussex-based distant relations, as an alternative course to just getting a job.

I'm a few chapters in now, and the familiarity makes it a bit like slipping on comfortable pyjamas or slippers. I'm amazed how amongst the, honestly, slightly obvious seeming rural parody, Stella shows herself as sharp as a tack. For instance, she clearly knew what more recently we might call a 'crazymaker', since this is one the best descriptions of such a person I have read, by any author:

"If she intended to tidy up life at Cold Comfort, she would find herself opposed at every turn by the influence of Aunt Ada. Flora was sure that this would be so. Persons of Aunt Ada's temperament were not fond of a tidy life. Storms were what they liked; plenty of rows, and doors being slammed, and jaws sticking out, and faces white with fury, and faces brooding in corners, and faces making unnecessary fuss at breakfast, and plenty of opportunities for gorgeous emotional wallowings, and partings for ever, and misunderstandings, and interferings, and spyings, and, above all, managing and intriguing. Oh, they did enjoy themselves! They were the sort that went trampling all over your pet stamp collection, or whatever it was, and then spent the rest of their lives atoning for it. But you would rather have had your stamp collection."

Really looking forward to discovering the rest of her oeuvre. Enbury Heath is one of my favourite books ever - if there's anything else as good as that, this will have been time well spent!

I know there are a few here who like to see covers, so I've added a picture :)

I found the title of your thread so charming, OP, that you've inspired me to spend a year with Barbara Pym!

I've been trying to get back into reading books for ages . I mainly listen to audiobooks but I need something to help me switch off at night. I'm going to buy some second hand Barbaras as the kindle feels a bit too much like a phone which I spend too much time scrolling on.

Thanks, OP!

Oh, fantastic! There is a link of course: Stella and Barbara have both been described as "the 20th Century Jane Austen" - Stella by Lynne Truss amongst others, and Barbara by Alexander McCall Smith.

Enjoy!

[Edited to add: are you going to make a thread? 😀]

are you going to make a thread? 😀

Probably not as I'm hoping Barbara will wean me off MN 😂

#3 ready to go, probably start this tomorrow :)

Three down, 23 to go (of the novels at least)!

Enbury Heath. One of my favourite books, despite the sad themes.

On the surface, it's about three adult and almost adult siblings who lose their mother and father in six months, and end up living together in a cottage in North London, with all the trials that go with that. The characters - especially Sophia - are so beautifully drawn, it's one of those books where I'd love to peek back into their lives later on and see how they are getting on.

(Many people, including autobiographer and relative Reggie Oliver, believe this novel to be essentially autobiographical, which makes Sophia actually Stella of course.)

Even in the midst of such everyday sadnesses as coming to terms with what effects your childhood may have had on you and how you can never really escape them, and more prosaically, being the only girl child, realising that your place somehow is to keep the cottage clean and tidy and cook all the food and sort out everyone's mess, there are some marvellously funny vignettes, like the coal merchant refusing to believe that nobody is at home on any weekday at 11am and attempting to deliver coal every day at that time. Written down like that it doesn't sound so funny, but every time I read that scene it makes me laugh so much.

Ultimately though, this book is a kind of long love letter to London. A London that doesn't exist now, and probably never did. So it's in good company, along with the likes of Johnson, Dickens, Aaronovitch, Hornby, Richard Curtis? Like those other authors, Stella's London is a backdrop but also a character.

And it's nice to read sections that that take place where I live, in Docklands, and where two of the siblings work, in the City proper at Fleet Street and Embankment, both of which are now unrecognisable but which, like ghosts, you still now see occasional glimpses of as they peep through cracks and around odd corners.

From the very last page:

In the pause she heard a very different sound from the one she expected. It came from outside her own front door.
It was the thrilling and mysterious sound of the first flight of autumn leaves, driven by the rising wind over the pavements. Adventure, lonely places, love, all the power and promise of the huge earth seemed to open in front of her as she listened, and realized that she had perhaps fifty years in which to follow the promise of that sound.

Next up: Miss Linsey and Pa.

I have read in order the Irish RM series by Somerville and Ross. There were pauses because of availability in library. Recently I tried again but gave up because I could remember so much detail I couldn't fool my brain into accepting it as new.
IMO It is so easy to suspend disbelief, each book is totally superb read. Wonderful characters in a mythical place.

Oh that's a new one on me, just had to google! Sounds interesting though!

Good luck with them @Waawo they are written with chapters like episodes or short stories.
The TV series softened the characters. The Authors gave them an edge. One is described as having the stern face reminding one of a brick wall topped with broken glass. In the TV he becomes a loveable 'oirish' rogue.

Popped in to Hatchard’s on Piccadilly earlier - was passing after a work thing. Nice to see a good selection of Stella’s books there! Also two editions of CCF on the shelf above which I didn’t include in the pic, so twelve titles altogether - not bad for an author who is not really ‘mainstream’.

Lucky you! Stella Gibbons is completely brilliant. She's always interesting and catches you by surprise and there are telling details of character or plot which suddenly make things really odd. I really like her descriptions of youthful/bohemian squalor and her young female characters are always trying so hard to make their way in the world. Here Be Dragons, Enbury Heath and The Swiss Summer are particularly enjoyilable.

Thanks, yeah, I can't wait for all the ones I haven't so far read even once :)

Edited to add: YY to odd little details. Like in CCF, the videophone. Even in the 1920s it wasn't that outrageous to predict video phones will exist; what blows me away is that Stella predicted the exact setup with varying levels of access to tech that we have right now. So the public call box Flora uses has a tiny camera, but no screen; whereas the rich friend she's calling, at his home, has a camera and a screen. The person using the expensive private setup can be seen and see; whereas the person using the public equipment can be seen, but cannot see the person they are talking to. Very prescient, given how the internet with its tiers of access and artificially degraded service for lower layers actually works now.

Also edited to add: YYY to Enbury Heath, it's just wonderful!

Place marking! With the Divine Comedy, something for the weekend

https://share.google/kgCfHfT8m2EeiTq0E

Glad you've got the Folio CCF. I loved the BBC adaption with Karen Beckinsale and Rufus Sewell as a teenager. It didn't embarrass me when seen recently with my teens.

I passed on my original hardback of The Matchmaker years ago. Isn't the internet amazing allowing us to track down stuff without just getting lucky in bookshops.

Oh yeah love Divine Comedy, haven't heard that one for years mind, it doesn't crop up as often as National Express lol

YY to internet book buying. Not as nice a tactile experience as wandering for hours in second hand bookshops, but likely to be more efficient. No haggling on the likes of Abebooks and Biblio though :/ Ebay approaches the thrill a little more, when something unexpected pops up "buy it now" at a reasonable price :)

Have never seen any adaptation of CCF, will have to put that right this year!

Speaking of eBay, Four French Holidays by Anne Hall arrived today. An interesting looking book about novels from a similar period inspired by French holidays.

The novels are The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden; The Nutmeg Tree by Marjorie Sharp; The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier; and The Snow Woman by Stella (which is why the book appeared on my radar). I haven't read any of them, so I'm not going to read the book until I've read the novels - The Snow Woman is a late Gibbons, so there is plenty of time, with about 20 volumes to go until I get there!

I have had a quick flick through the book though, and there is an extremely rare photograph of Stella (at the house she visited on her last French holiday). The other people in the picture are Elizabeth Coxhead and Reneé Oliver. Stella is on the right.

Appreciate there's been a little flurry of posting by me! Have just finished - as one of my "in between" books, and inspired by @MyyearwithBarbara upthread - Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym. It's really quite marvellous 😀

The comparisons with Jane Austen seem entirely appropriate. There's just a similar vibe throughout, the things the protaganists do and say and care about. In one sense, not much happens; but in another sense, so much happens over a short period of time. And of course, no spoilers, but there are some marriage proposals...

This bit made me laugh out loud. Harriet, one of our heroes, has just mentioned to the new young curate that she might knit a pair of socks for him:

"That's very kind of you," he said, "I wear them out terribly quickly and can never have enough. I've just had two pairs sent me today, so I shall be quite well off."
Harriet bristled with indignation. "Oh? Who made those for you? Your mother or an aunt perhaps?" These occurred to her as the only people who could legitimately be allowed to knit socks for a curate whom she regarded as her property.
"No, as a matter of fact, it was a relation of Mrs Hoccleve's, she was up at the University when I was, at least she was doing research. She's a kind of female Don."
"Oh, I see." Harriet was a little pacified, but the whole thing was unsatisfactory and needed to be looked into.

And is there a faint echo of Cold Comfort Farm when our other hero Belinda, hiding from visitors in the garden, takes refuge "on an upturned box in the toolshed"?

The comparisons started early by the way: in its review on publication, Church Times said "We needn't bring Jane Austen into it, but Miss Pym is writing in a great tradition and she knows it."

Will definitely be reading more Pym!

Oh, and the cover of the Virago edition I got from the library is lovely too!

That's the Barbara I started with, OP - isn't it charming?

I've skipped Excellent Women for now as I listened to it recently on audiobook so am onto Jane and Prudence.

Love the images you keep posting ♡

Btw do you know what curate's combinations are (first page of Some Tame Gazelle)?

It's so good, I'm so glad I read it, so thanks for that! Will try to fit some others in as in-between books as well 😀

It's underwear, like long-johns and undershirt combined in one garment. Presumably it was a faux pas for anyone else, especially a lady, to see one's combinations!

"I hope you saw her petticoat, six inches deep in mud, I am absolutely certain" 😉

Finally can get on with novel no.4, Miss Linsey and Pa. This 1946 copy arrived this morning, from an Amazon seller.

This was quite hard to find. Not only was it never issued as a paperback, it's also been out of print for many years. The book isn't in the greatest condition: the blue colour is the original, the spine has faded to that beige colour so I assume this sat in a bookshelf in a sunny room with only the spine showing for many years.

And this was the only copy I could find with a price that wasn't in three (or four!) figures :/

Four down, 22 to go (novels that is)! Finished Miss Linsey and Pa a few days ago.

I liked this, but not as much as any of the first three novels. It's very sad, with very few humorous interludes apart from the passages which quite brutally lampoon the "Bloomsbury Set." I've read that Stella often basically wrote about people she knew, thinly disguised, and I'm sure at time of publication there must have been all kinds of chatter about the identities of the two ladies that our hero, the titular Miss Linsey, spends some time working for.

If the book has a theme, it's about place and home I suppose, and what those things mean, and what can happen when you are dislocated from those things, even by a short distance.

Have to add that the ending feels a little rushed as well: a truly shocking event, followed by a fairly blatant deus ex machina that allows the story to be resolved.

There is also the matter of the offensively racist attitudes held by some of the characters, and the unacceptable words used. I'm sure this is part of the reason why this book has never been re-issued. Of course it was written in the 1930s, things were different then, morals and mores evolve. But also, I think it is a little more subtle than some people writing from the viewpoint of today have made out. Miss Linsey, forced to relocate and living in a shared house alongside a black occupant, definitely has something of a journey in terms of how she sees him, especially when events mean Mr Robinson turns out to be entirely not what she had assumed. Helpfully, a family member who has been for years in South Africa (and we assume is completely unchanged in their views) returns to London, to provide a contrast, allowing us to see how Miss Linsey has changed. Yes, it seems very obvious and unnecessary, almost 100 years later, that we are shown literally how a character with prejudice was altered by merely getting to know a black person, possibly for the first time. As I said, different times.

Next up: Nightingale Wood.

Interesting read @Waawo I actually really value settling into a good book written in a different time. - likeable characters, rich universe and then coming across a shocking bit of casual racism. It jolts me into how tough the world has been and still is in places.
I don't know if my daughters, 18 & 20, who read but not as much as I did before the internet will ever grasp how judgemental society could be about unchangeable characteristics.

Yes I’m the same, I like settling in to books set in the 30s 40s 50s - not through any sense of nostalgia, just because of the “past is a different country” kind of thing. Also because there’s a thread - now broken - running from those decades through to the pre-internet days I grew up in. So much changed, yet so much of genteel English society is entirely recognisable too.

An alternative, contemporary view on Miss Linsey and Pa, published August 30, 1936, and now available on the New York Times' archive page:

https://www.nytimes.com/1936/08/30/archives/a-shower-of-satire-over-bloomsbury-miss-linsey-and-pa-by-stella.html

I'm a bit surprised about how much of the story is given away - not at all like modern reviews. Also, although complimentary about Stella, it's also quite stern: 'pull yourself together!' lol

I like settling in to books set in the 30s 40s 50s - not through any sense of nostalgia, just because of the “past is a different country” kind of thing

I can’t remember whether you’re in our Rather Dated Book Club, @Waawo ? That's our whole reason for existence!