Willa Cather

Willa was born in 1873 in Virginia, but her parents moved out west when she was a child. She grew up in the West, in the Great Plains.. Nebraska. Her family tried farming but her fahter gave up after a while and moved to a nearby town, and opened an insurance business. Willa was boyish and for a time called herself William. She was keen to go to University... but originally she wanted to become a surgeon. She began to write and when she graduated she spent some time teaching. She was a successful teacher, but she eventually moved to New York to pursue her writing career. She wrote about the life on the Frontier, where many Swedish and German immigrants moved out to start farming on free land. She lived with a woman friend, Edith Lewis. One of her early novels was O Pioneers, about a girl called Alexandra, who takes over her father's land when he dies, and buys up more land.. Times are hard and most of the immigrants know little about farming. So they leave and sell their land, and Alexandra shrewdly buys it up. More Will Follow.

U names

U is also a letter which isn't very popular for names. One female name that was fairly popular in bygone days, beginning with U, was Ursula. It means "she bear" and was the name of a medieval saint. Una is an Irish name, meaning lamb... and was also quite popular in the past. Another rarely used name is Unity. It means oneness, but it is not popular, especially as it was the name of the fascist supporter and society girl, Unity Mitford.

The Kitten lady

I like to mention Hannah Shaw, the Kitten Lady, now and then to let people know of the wonderful work she does. She rescues all sorts of animals, but kittens are her special focus. You can find her on social media.

Dolly Parton

Dolly died the other day, of cancer at the age of 80. She lost her husband Carl, a year or so ago. Her health has been declining but she still had projects she wanted to pursue. She was a wonderful person and a loss to country music.

Patricia Avis, 1928-77

I've just come across a novel by a former mistress of the poet Philip Larkin. Her name was Patricia Avis. She was born in South Africa, in 1928 to a Dutch father and an Irish mother. She grew up in London and her father who was very well off, sent her to college. She studied medicine but when she qualified she never worked as a doctor. She married a lecturer, Colin Strang, and moved to Belfast where he had a job. She met Philip Larkin, who was a librarian at the University there, and they had an affair. They were in love for a time and she became pregnant but miscarried. Her marriage to Colin Strang did not last long.. she had other lovers, and left Strang. She wanted to be a writer and she wrote poems and edited magazines. But her novel writing was not all that successful. She married an Anglo Irish poet Richard Murphy in the 1950's, and they lived in Ireland. She did a lot of reading, especially of French literature, and tried to form a social circle of writers and intellectuals in Ireland. She and Murphy had a daughter and she then got a divorce, leaving her child with her father. She settled in Dublin and wrote a novel Playing the Harlot about her university days and friends... but her publisher felt it was too critical of the writers that they both knew. She became addicted to alcohol and went on trying to write. But her one novel is rather rambling and does not seem to have a point. She committed suicide in 1977.

Q Names

Q is one of the rarest letters for starting a name. There are almost none! One relatively well known name is Quentin which means fifth. In Roman naming practice, children were often named by their birth order, Primo or Prima for a first son or daughter, Secundo or Secunda for a second.. etc. These names are still occasionally used in Italy. Quintana is very rarely used but it is a rough female equivalent for Quintus or Quentin. Queenie is another name, a bit more commonly used. It was a nickname for girls named Victoria, during her long reign... and it can also be a nickname for Regina, which means queen. It has now gone out of fashion. In America, the name Quinn has become more popular for boys. It is not a Latinate name, but Irish. It comes from the surname O'Cuan, which means descendant of Conn. Quincy is another American name for boys. One of the early presidents was John Quincy Adams, named after a town from which his ancestors came.

W Names

W is not the most popular letter for a name, but there are some. William is a very well known name.. The name is a combination of the German words for Will and Helmet. Walter is old fashioned but used to be well used. There are not that many women's names beginning with W. The female forms of William are the Germanic Wilhelmina, and Williamina. But they are not all that popular. They sound rather masculine. The name can be abbreviated to Willa, or Billie.. or Mina. The American author Willa Cather's real name was Willella. Wallis is an unusual name, a feminine version of Wallace. It is of course the name of Wallis Simpson who married the Duke of Windsor. Wendy is a name invented by JM Barrie the playwright, due to a little girl he knew calling him her "Frendy Wendy"... It's old fashioned now but used to be very popular. Wanda means wand... again, its old fashioned nowadays. Winifred was a very popular name in the 20th century but has gone out of favour now. It is the name of a Welsh saint. Willow is a "nature" name, the name of a tree and is mostly a girl's name. Willoughby, a related name, is more of a boys name, and it is the surname of the charming rake Mr Willoughby in Austen's novel. Winona is an American Indian name, and fairly popular in America.