Uncle Tom's Cabin By Harriet Beecher Stowe

Just been re reading this book about slavery in the USA, before the Civil War. Mrs Stowe was a member of a very religious family who were active in helping slaves. She was accused of getting things wrong about the South but she proved in the Key To Uncle Tom's Cabin that the brutalities of slavery depicted were absolutely true. Will write some more later....

The Kitten Lady

I like to mention Hannah Shaw, known on the Internet as The Kitten Lady. She rescues all sorts of animals and teaches people how to look after them. But her main focus is on kittens because they are so vulnerable. She teaches classes on kitten care, and writes children's books about animals. She runs a charity, the Orphan Kitten club, which helps to rescue kittens who are born outside or abandoned or ill treated. She can be found on social media, with videos about her various little cats. She sponsors Trap, Neuter Return, where people trap outdoor cats, have them spayed and then return them to their home areas. She also takes in kittens who have health problems and dedicates herself to trying to help them to get better or at least to improve. She has 2 adult cats who came in as fosters, one (Chou Chou) had a severe cleft palate and could not eat so she tube fed him till he was big enough to have surgery. The other, Ferguson, had a kidney disease but he has lived now for 5 years and is in reasonably good health.

Barbara Pym

Barbara Pym was a well known writer - she was born in 1913 and died in 1980. As she grew older her novels did not do so well. They were deemed old fashioned and she had difficulty getting published. She did not publish anything from the early 60s until 1977, but she continued to write. She got a degree at Oxford in English, in the 1930s. She visited Germany quite often, then and was intially attracted by the novelty of Nazism. She fell in love with a young Nazi, but she afterwards realised that fascism was evil and recanted her sympathy. She joined the Womens naval service during the war, and worked at censoring letters. After the war, she took a post in the International African Institution and became an editor of their scholarly magazine about Africa and anthropology. She worked there till her retirement. She never married or had children, but she had several affairs. Her relationships with men seemed to go wrong...and in her fiction, she tends to portray men as arrogant and selfish. Her lovers tended to be unkind to her after a while and the affairs fizzled out. She lived with her sister Hilary in Queen's Park, London. In 1977, she was mentioned by 2 writers, Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin as a very under rated writer. This sparked off new interest in her works and she published a new novel Quartet in Autumn. In the 1970's, she developed breast cancer and then stomach cancer. She died in 1980. Her works are now quite popular, and she was one of the first writers to create sympathetic gay characters.

Elizabeth Goudge 1900-84

Elizabeth Goudge was a prolific novelist, of the 20th century. She wrote children's books, romances, historical novels, and religious works. She was born in Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city where her father worked in the Theological college. Her mother was from Guernsey in the Channel Islands. One of her earlier books was set in Guernsey. She wrote several books set in Wells, using a fictional name for the city. She was an Anglican, and religion is shown in many of her stories. After her father's death she looked after her mother. She found it stressful, combining housekeeping with writing. She never married, and moved to Oxfordshire in later years, living with her sister. She died there in 1984. I hope to write more about her works in a later blog.

Scarlet Feather Part VI

Cathy feels very guilty that she allowed her being so busy to distract her from keeping an eye on the children. When she talks to them, she finds out that they innocently gave Walter the signing in codes for getting into their kitchen.. and when the police investigate they find that he was the one who burgled the place and stole her few valuable bits of silver. The insurance company now has no excuse for not paying out, as this was not an inside job. Muttie puts on an accumulator bet on the horses at a race meeting, which means that if the horses he picked all win, he will win a very substantial amount of money. The family watch the races and nearly have heart attacks, and in the end, Muttie's horses all come in first and he wins a handsome pay off. They will have a comfortable sum for their old age, and Simon and Maud will have an income from their parents' house. Tom has grown tired of his relationship with Marcella. She tells him she went to London to pursue her dream, of being a model, and ended up being expected to do glamour modelling. He realises that she and he are too different to work out and they split up. He can see how fed up Cathy is with the selfish Neil and she and her husband separate. Clearly, Tom and Cathy will end up together. Walter flees to England. His family are now disgusted with him. But Simon and Maud are happy to be living with Muttie and Lizzie. Tom and Cathy collect the insurance and start afresh with the business.

Scarlet Feather V

When the children disappear, there is a hue and cry. Then Muttie remembers how he had promised them to take them to the races and they find the 2 children and Hooves. It's very clear that their parents are simply not ever going to look after them properly. Walter has also disappeared and there is evidence that he has stolen some things. Cathy is getting fed up with Neil. He tells her he loves her but he doesn't want her to have the baby. She is very upset, and then, working very hard, she has a miscarriage. Neil veers back and forth, wanting her to get over the miscarriage but also not sure if perhaps he should agree to them having a baby. Cathy realises how selfish he is, and partly blames him also for pushing for Simon and Maud to go back to their parents, which has caused them to run away. It's decided that for the time being, Simon and Maud will live with Muttie and Lizzie, and they are delighted. But the family realise that the Mitchell parents are completely useless and it wasnt right to send the twins back to them. It's decided that the house should be sold, and the money used to provide a living for the children, firstly. Kay looks likely to be in hospital most of the time. Kenneth looks like he's going to flee to England...

Scarlet Feather IV

Cathy and Tom work very hard, to try and earn enough money to replace their kitchen. Cathy has discovered that she's pregnant but when she tells Neil, he says he doesn't think their lifestyle is suitable for children. They are both working so hard, he may decide to go and work abroad. He hints that she should have an abortion. Tom finds that his girlfriend, Marcella, is concentrating more and more on trying to start a modelling career. Some of his friends tell him that there is no way that Marcella can become a model. It is a career for the young and she's already 25. She goes to England to see if she can find work and Tom is miserable but he feels their relationship is over. The business' accountant, James, tries to get the insurance company to pay up. Muttie and Lizzie both miss the twins and Muttie goes to see them, but their parents are so snobbish and unpleasant he is hurt and feels it might be best not to try and go to their house. But Cathy is aware that they are not being looked after. Muttie sends a £5 note to the children, so that they can come and visit him, but Walter sees the letter first, and destroys it, taking the money for himself. Neil's father, who employs Walter in his legal firm, is fed up with his nephew's laziness and he suspects him of dishonesty. His brother is clearly not taking much care of Simon and Maud and Kay, his wife, is in and out of hospital again. Simon and Maud had hoped that Muttie would take them to a horse racing fixture, as he had promised to do. When they dont hear from him, they feel afraid that he doesn't like them any more. But they decide to take Hooves, the dog that Muttie bought for them, and go to the races on their own.