Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy

I just came across a copy of Maeve Binchy's last full scale novel, the other day. The title refers to the surnames of the lead characters, Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather. They are both chefs and have just started to run a catering business in Dublin. Cathy's family are not well off. Her father is a bit of a lazy chap who has rarely worked, due to a "bad back". He likes to gamble. Her mother is a shy woman who has worked as a cleaner all her life, to bring in an income. She feels inferior to the families she works for. Lizzie, the mother, has worked for many years for the parents of Neil, and Hannah, Neil's mother is a bully and a snob and treats her badly. To make matters worse, Neil, who is a young barrister, falls in love with Cathy and they plan to marry. He is passionate about helping the underdog and fighting for human rights. Cathy wants to run her own business. They get married and Hannah is absolutely furious at her son marrying her maid's daughter. She thinks that Cathy is marrying him for his money and puts her down all the time. Cathy pairs up with Tom, another catering student, who is in love with Marcella, a beauty therapist who wants to be a model. They start the business, doing a party for Hannah and Neil's father Jock. Walter, Neil's brother occasionally works for them as a waiter but he is lazy and dubiously honest and Cathy wishes she could get rid of him. End Part I.

Shel Silverstein

Having learned of the death of Dennis Locorriere, a few months ago, I find myself remembering the songs of Shel Silverstein. He was a comedy genius, who wrote sentimental stories for children... and also wrote racy and suggestive lyrics for songs and was a friend of Hugh Hefner. Dr Hook started off by performing a lot of his songs and it was only later that they began to do love ballads which were more commercially successful. Shel did an album of his own comedy songs, with Dr Hook backing him. One of my favourites is "Polly in a Porny", about a man who takes out a girl who is very prim and proper. Then he goes to a porn cinema to watch a movie.. and he sees Polly, taking part in the film with a pony. Another is called "Stacy Brown got two".. about a man with 2 penises. Another is titled, "Ever since my Masochistic baby went and left me, I got nothing to hit but the wall". Shel's most famous comic song is probably the Johnny Cash hit, A Boy named Sue. Shel wrote it as a poem and Johnny liked it, so he told his band, at a concert that he was going to sing it and they should follow his tune. He didnd't even know the words, but he had a great hit with it. Its about a young man whose father "went and named me Sue" so he was teased all through his childhood. He goes in search of him, and finds him at a bar dealing stud, and challenges him. They have a fight, but his father tells him that he only named him Sue because he wanted to make him tough... and all ends happily. Another very popular song was Freaking at the Freakers Ball", which is about a dance for sexually weird people. The FBI attend and are dancing with the junkies, gay men and lesbians boogie together, sadists and masochists do the same...singing "Please hit me, and I'll hit you."

Henry James

Im hoping to read some more American classic novels, some of which I have not looked at for years. One of the best known American authors is Henry James who was born in New York in 1843. His family were very rich on both sides, and his father was a gentleman of leisure. They were of Scottish and Irish descent. The family travelled to Europe when Henry was a child and he was educated by a tutor. They returned to America, but Henry had a bad back which meant he was unfit for service in the American Civil war. He studied law for a time but his chief interest was in literature and he mixed with writers and artists. His brother William studied medicine and became a psychologist. Henry went to Paris in the 1870s and stayed in Europe for most of the next 30 years. He spent time in England where he made friends and wrote his first novels. Now settled in Europe he was influenced by French writers such as Zola. His books tended to be about the conflict between the naive and innocent Americans, and the more subtle and often decadent Europeans. The Portrait of a Lady is about a naive American girl Isabel, who marries a European nobleman and finds that he does not love her. More Will Follow.

K names

K is not the most popular letter for names, though there are many names that are spelled with a C or a K. Katherine is one of them. Another is Kara/Cara. There are a few Bible names, such as Keziah. It means Cassia, the name of a tree and was the name of a daughter of Job. It was popiular in the Puritan era as it was a bible name. Two names have become very popular in the later 20th century, Kelly and Kerry. Both can be used for boys or girls but are more popular now as girls names. Kerry is a place name in Ireland. Kevin is a very popular name not just in Ireland. It means handsome or fair. Kelvin is the name of a Scottish river. It was taken as a title by a 19th century scientist and became quite popular as a given name. Kimberley is also a title in the British nobility and has been very popular as a name for girls. It has also been used for boys. Karen is also a very popular name, it is a Danish version of Katherine, and became well liked in the USA from the 1940's. It is also popular in England.

V names

V is a slightly more popular letter for starting a name.. than the ones like X Y and Z. Vera used to be quite well liked, and it means truth. Verity also means truth, and was quite popular among the Puritans, who liked to give "virtue names" personifying the Christian virtues. Vanessa was a name invented by the writer Jonathan Swift, who used it for his woman friend Esther Vanhomrigh. He took the Van from her surname and Essa from Esther. It is still quite well used. Valeria is a Latinate name which means healthy and nowadays it is usually given as Valerie. It can be shortened to Val. Valentine can be used for men or women, it also means strong and healthy. It is the name of a saint. It was the name taken by the life partner of the novelist, Sylvia Townsend Warner, who wrote Lolly Willows. Her companion was born Mary Mcrory but took the name Valentine Ackland. Veronica means True Image, and is traditionally said to be the name of the woman who wiped Christ's face on his way to Calvary. Verena is a Swiss name of unclear meaning. It was used by Henry James in his novel The Bostonians. Vivian is a name which can be used for boys or girls. It means alive. It is mostly known as a girl's name nowadays. Variations are Vivien or Vivienne. Viola means violet and has been well liked since it appeared as the heroine of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Vincent means Conquering and is quite popular for boys, especially in Catholic cultures.

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 father 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 study science, and become a surgeon. She began to write and when she graduated (after taking an Arts degree), 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. Another Irish name is Ulick, which is a variant of Uilliam, the Irish form of William. A name very rarely used is Ulric, which means Wolf rule. There is a feminine version, Ulrica.