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 :)

Finished The Spring of Joy by Mary Webb a few days ago. It’s a series of short “essays” about the countryside and the joy that spending time in nature can bring. It’s very different to the novels; but still obviously Mary’s style, full of natural imagery. But also quite magical realist. Not sure I’d read it again lol. I suppose you could consider this loosely something of a precursor to people like Robert McFarlane.

For some reason picture didn’t post…

Novel #7 done! The Rich House

I have struggled with this a little more than any others so far. I'm not entirely sure why: it's another perfect little world, that draws you in and is so believable. There is no humour to speak of though; pubished in 1941 (and set just before the war) perhaps that's not surprising. Mostly I think it's because almost everyone in the book has an unpleasant characteristic. That may be accurate. But it does feel a bit unremitting.

The story concerns a small coastal village in Essex and what goes on their, with the expected intrigues amongst the people who live and especially love there. Stella is great at tiny observations that just feel very direct.

A couple of notes that I made on the way:

"'What I like about the wireless is that you needn't listen to it,'" said Mr. Somers as his son came into the room, quoting an observation by their charwoman that was a family classic - if only this were true of social media and the internet in general!

Just's Library and Brown's The Household word were pleasant places to work in because they were controlled by good men. Beard's was an unpleasant place to work in because it was controlled by bad men. These disappointingly simple facts will irritate those who think in terms of economics and politics. They would prefer to think of the Mr. Beards, old Mr. Just, and all the Mr. Browns as cogs, symbols, social units, and symptoms. Nevertheless, the sun rise every morning and will continue to do so; human beings have souls; and it is better to be good than to be bad.

The dreamlike, wretched days and nights went on, and became all alike, as they do to people who are very unhappy.

Food can work miracles. If everyone in the world had a little more than enough to eat we should perhaps see loving-kindness ruling the entire globe, and great new works of art created.

Next up is Ticky - which hasn't arrived yet.

In between Stella, I'm slowly acquiring and reading Mary Webb's books. The fourth one has just arrived: The House in Dormer Forest, a lovely copy printed in 1946. Looking forward to it! Oh, and a previous owner had left what they were using as a bookmark inside, always a nice surprise to find little things like that. Imagine Swiss Cottage having four digit phone numbers lol!

Finished the House in Dormer Forest, and so tomorrow, Stella #8: Ticky!

Which co-incidentally, arrived on Wednesday. Basically it's the same cover as The Rich House, i.e. the title in white on a red ground. That's especially annoying as the seller had used the other cover in their ad, humph. That's buying remotely I suppose, and the dreaded "stock image" problem. Having said that, it cost £3 against £15 for the new book, and is in unread condition, having barely been opened if the spine is anything to go by. Considering there are still another 19 books to go, every little helps!

Novel #8 done! Ticky

Got to say, this one is so different from the first seven novels, but brilliant in so many ways. I can't believe it's not more well known. Considering it was written in the 1940s, it has a vibe that today could almost be called steampunk. And the familiar but slightly strange, almost dream like atmosphere of this London, makes me think most of Murakami, but written before he was born.

The 'almost steampunk' I mean literally by the way: the tech is all mixed up, this isn't a different time, this is a London on a different branch of time. In this London, there are skyscrapers made of glass; but instead of using lifts, people ascend to the top on exterior roadways that corkscrew around the tower, in strange tramlike vehicles with stone hot water bottles and built in blankets, that are pulled by horses.

In one great scene, someone sits at the dining table in the top floor of one of these towers and summons lightning using a pile of all the cutlery in the building. Just because he can.

From the blurb, I wasn't looking forward to this at all. The premise is so male, set in the HQ and club of a regiment in the army with an all male “headline” cast, but of course there’s still room for two brilliant Stella-esque women to steal the show. There’s a lovely moment towards the end when a certain “Starkadder, from somewhere in Sussex apparently” makes a brief appearance. Stella, always so good with her made up titles, prefigures “reaction to reaction” videos with one of her character’s papers entitled “Commentary Upon the Text of Molassus the Younger’s Notes upon Molassus the Elder”. And at the end, the novel looks back to Austen AND forward to Richard Curtis, with a triple wedding no less, in a London glistening white after an unexpected frost.

I can't wait to read this one again! :)

Next up is An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge (for Slightly Dated); next Stella is The Bachelor, and then Westwood (another Slightly Dated).

Ah I really enjoyed The Bachelor!

Looking forward to it, I have the book here ready, will probably start tomorrow 😀

Just finished my third Barbara Pym of the year, Jane and Prudence. It’s perhaps not as laugh out loud funny as the first two - at least I didn’t - but is infinitely sadder. And Fabian! What a rotter, but also how pathetic he is, in his pseudo tragic states lol. Hope you’re still enjoying Barbara @MyyearwithBarbara 😀

Now, back to Stella and The Bachelor…