A Pin to See the Peepshow

Jesse's novel is closely based on the story of Edith Thompson. Her chief character, Julia Almond, is a pretty girl who lives in East London. She has ambitions, but her parents are not very successful in making a living. She get a job in a ladies' clothes shop run by a couple of aristocratic women who for various reasons need to earn money. Julia is bright and good at selling and starts off doing errands and helping out. She has potential and her employers think of promoting her to be a buyer in due course. It is just before World War One, and Julia starts dating a young man who is killed in the early stages. Then her father dies and her mother has no money, so she ends up letting some relatives move into their house to share expenses. Julia does not make enough money to keep herself and her mother. She has to share a room with her cousin Elsa, whom she dislikes. She is increasingly unhappy, then Herbert Starling, a neighbour, begins to take an interest in her. He is a widower, and older than she is. He works in a gents' outfitters in the West End. He asks Julia to marry him. She is tempted because she hates living with her uncle and aunt and cousin, and would be glad to have a home of her own.

F Tennyson Jesse

Jesse was born in 1888, to a clergyman and his wife. She was related to the poet Tennyson. Her family moved around a lot, abroad, and she was educated in different places. She went to a school of art in Cornwall, when she was 18 and she did some painting. She then became a journalist and had a special interest in criminology. She wrote several books about murder trials and she also wrote novels. One of her novels is A Pin to See the Peepshow. It was based on the Edith Thompson case in the 1920s. Edith Thompson was a young woman who was in a dull marriage. She fell in love with a younger man, and they had an affair. He was a sailor, and they wrote letters to each other. Bywaters, her lover, then killed Edith's husband. She was accused of inciting him to murder her husband and was tried and executed, though she was not the one who committed the murder. M/F

That Lady

This is a Kate O'Brien novel that I haven't read for years. It is a historical novel set in the times of Philip II, about Ana De Mendoza, a noblewoman who opposed him. Philip kept her in confinement for many years. It is basically an anti Fascist novel, about fighting tyranny. O'Brien spent time in Spain as a governess in her young days, and she loved Spain, but was anti Franco. She visited the country, but was unhappy at the Falangist government, just as she disliked De Valera's narrow puritanical Ireland.

Emily - A Story of the Brontes Part II

Emily hated the streets of Brussels. Walking on hard pavements, rather than the grass of the moors. More and more, she wanted to go home. She did not care for the elaborate Catholic churches, nor the narrow society of the English community in the city. But she knew she had to go back to the Pennsionnat. She could only escape for short times. So she retraced her steps. "There is a letter from Anne, dear," Charlotte said as she came into the dormitory. "I've saved it so we could both read it." Emily smiled and took off her cloak and bonnet. "That's good news. Let me sit down and we can be comfortable." Charlotte slit open the letter and with Emily leaning over her shoulder, they started to read. The letter was short, and shocking. Aunt Branwell was seriously ill. They should come home at once if they wanted to see her. "I'll go and see Madame. We will have to pack at once, Emmy." Emily sat on the bed. She was shaken but the truth was that she had never been close to her aunt. It seem as if she was not likely to recover. She sat there til Charlotte returned. Her sister was flurried and told Emily to start packing. "Madame says we must go at once. I am afraid we will not be away for long". "I will", Emily retorted. "If I go, I won't be back." "But we must come back. Come along, let's get our valises." Emily pulled out her valise from under the bed. She flung things in untidily, not folding her dresses or packing her boots nicely. The following morning, they left to drive to get the boat to England. Emily, Charlotte realised, had packed all her clothes and possessions. It was clear she wasn't coming back. Knowing how stubborn she was, she decided not to argue about it until they got home.

Peter Gilmore

Peter Gilmore is one of my favourite actors, and I was saddened some years ago when he died. While watching an old episode of the Bill, recently, I saw him again. And was as usual surprised by how good an actor he was. He was playing a man who had had a head injury which caused a personality change, and he was excellent. Gilmore was born in Germany, in 1931, but was brought up in Yorkshire. He wanted to be an actor and attended stage school for a time, but was expelled. He could sing as well as act and appeared in several stage musicals in the 50s and 60s. He also appeared in small roles in many of the Carry On films. He achieved TV stardom in the 1970's when he was cast as James Onedin in the Onedin Line. He was tall and handsome and rugged looking and he carried the series for many years, appearing in all 91 episodes. However, he did prefer stage work to film, and TV, and liked a live audience. He was very popular as James Onedin, a hard selfish man who founded his own shipping line. He was married twice, to Una Stubbs with whom he adopted a son, and then to Jan Waters. During the Onedin Line, he became involved with Anne Stallybrass who was playing his wife. They fell in love and lived together for some time, then in the 1980s they got married and lived in Devon. He felt that playing James had typecast him, and taken over his life.. so he finished with the show in 1980 and took on other roles. He was in an episode of Heartbeat with his wife. He also had a character role in a series about a Zoo vet, (One by One) and in a drama called The Manions of America. He died aged 81, in 2013.

Sara Paretsky (1947- )

Sara Paretsky is an American detective novelist. She was born in Iowa, and her father was a microbiologist. She attended University and studied political science and did an MBA. Her family life was not very happy. She lived in Chicago and married a professor of physics at the university there. She was involved in social work, and then began to write detective fiction. She created a character Victoria (Vic) Warshawski. Like Paretsky, Vic lives in Chicago. She studied law but then became a private detective. She married a lawyer but she and he began to diverge on political matters and they divorced. Vic is steadily left wing and her ex husband was much more conservative. She is partly Jewish and she was involved in many liberal causes in her youth, such as demonstrating against the Vietnam war, and running an underground abortion network. She is independent and has no interest in being married again or having children. She is very physically active and takes a lot of risks, in pursuing her cases. Paretsky was one of the first to create a woman detective who is tough and able to fight and look after herself. She is a bit too much of a card carrying left winger for my tastes but the stories are entertaining and a good read.

Emily story.

I've not been writing ficion for a long time, due to illness. But I hope to complete this story on Emily Bronte soon. I'll post in instalments.