Larry Gatlin

Larry was born in Texas in 1948, and as his father was an oilfield worker, the family moved around a good deal. He heard gospel and country music, growing up, and he and his two brothers Steve and Rudy, performed in church. In 1966, he went to the University of Houston and played college football. After joining a gospel music group, he met the singer Dottie West. She liked singing and song writing skills and she found him work as a backing singer for Kris Kristofferson. In the 1970s, he released his own records and began to include his brothers in his act. His hits included “Houston Means I’m One day Closer to you”, and “All the Gold in California”. He and his brothers had a farewell tour in 1992, before retiring to their own theater in South Carolina. A year or 2 ago, I was at the Grand Old Opry, and Larry was one of the funniest most charming people on that stage. So much so, that I had to go to the next Opry performance, where he was playing, just to see him. He was funny, lively and utterly delightful, and was at his funniest, dancing with the Opry dancers…

Warning to Social climbers Benedict Brooke, short funny poem

As Jeremy reached the mountain top- He said “At last I can relax” "I must inform the office, By email, phone, and fax” “Must let them know that I’ve achieved My ultimate final goal” “No not slamming the markets Or selling my bloody soul Or being a bear, a slag or some such Or playing the Stock Exchange But I’ve given up my position And conquered a mountain range Reinstatement and promotion Senior manager, at least For I was conquering Everest, While they were on the piste Five hundred K, a company car A Merc or maybe a Jaguar Executive Box at sporting Events Henley, champagne, hospitality tents A flat down in Chelsea, a girlfriend called Shona Invited to Wembley, guest of the owner I’ll buy up Man U, run my own racehorse And hope for a gong from Elizabeth, of course Imagine their faces when I meet the queen I’ll stand there, polite, aloof and serene" And with that, the smug bastard fell down a ravine.

Song for Leonard Cohen’s Birthday Benedict Brooke

Yesterday was Leonard Cohen’s birthday

and I can hear the music as the hours go by

I sometimes ask myself for a reason

then I realise I need only the present hour

Don’t call me stupid but it’s hard to touch

that swollen inner place that asks for so much

and now I check the hour

late again, I’m awake

to the vapid sound of night

and pallid fingers of time, winding about my face

I wanted to ask you, Mr Cohen

what was it all about?

until I realised that the silence

fills the spaces that always frighten us…

Johnny and the Four (Short dark humour story) Benedict Brooke

Johnny Davies was only short when they told him the story. About the four men who had lived next door.  But then you’re not that tall at only two. Anyway, one day, Johnny was crossing the road and one of the men, the tall thin one, offered to help him to cross. How they got out of the way of that truck, I’ll never know. Funny guy. Funny peculiar- that is, dressed a bit like a monk. You know, long black habit, cowl, guess he was a gardener or some such with that scythe he carried. Do you remember the riot? Johnny does, when those five guys started up on the black family next door, (on the left hand side, not on the right hand side where the four guys were). Before you knew it, Combat 18, NF, the Anti-Nazi League and a representative of the Monster Raving Loony party, who had gotten lost while canvassing, all turned up with knives, skewers, corkscrews and whatever other implements they had managed to borrow from the other 4 guys next door. Do you remember how the police turned up? After the majority of the crowd had dispersed, and they arrested anyone remaining, bleeding or drunk (apart from the off duty officer of course.). Johnny meanwhile, looking aghast from the window, was moved to throw on his dressing gown and shove his feet into slippers and bugger off down the road, to a safe distance, to absorb events. The gentleman standing beside him in the gawking throng was smiling at this time, although Johnny, in his combination of shock, amazement and excitement, didn’t notice this. Anyway, Johnny grew older, as unfortunately and inevitably one does. He didn’t move. His parents were victims of a car crash when he was eighteen, when he was of an age, to take charge of the house. By this age, Johnny had a problem with his weight. Despite incipient anorexia and the earnest but terrible cooking of his mother, (in earlier years obviously... even I’m not stupid enough to confuse my continuity that much)… no matter how little he ate, he steadily piled on the pounds. So that at the age of 20, he realised that the only career he could embark on was that of professional wrestler. Fortunately, one of the gentlemen next door came to visit dear old Johnny. This neighbour was the pale rather slim one -with the ash blond hair and albino eyes. This gentleman suggested a high- quality though rather unnerving diet. Anyway, luckily for Johnny -he was never brought to book for his – ahem –cannibalistic crimes. Though he was rather foolish in that he used the same cab firm each time. But the desired effect was achieved. Johnny soon became a fine figure of a man (albeit rather short). So his thoughts began to run to courting. Joanna was tall, fair and graceful. Johnny met her at the Jim. He had intended to go and work-out, but was unfortunately dyslexic and had in fact walked into a bar. He managed somehow to work his way into her favour, and after the obligatory “coffee”, her knickers. Indeed, with the very marriage arranged and a stag night in view, Johnny was left, as one is, deciding whom to invite to the “almighty piss up”. But he had few friends, more like “acquaintances”, due to his earlier more unsociable activities. So Johnny thought it might be appropriate to invite the four men next door (Although he was very insecure concerning their ménage a quartre). Anyway, a jolly old evening was had by all, apart from the barman who experienced an attack of scrofula, and the knife fight about whose pint was whose? Johnny hadn’t realised that the Farmers Arms was a gay pub, and what with all the pub grub being out of date, and the old guy at the corner table being found dead, when everyone thought that he was just taking his time over his pint. Mind you, the tall skinny man was winning at pool. And when Johnny got home (he’d invited them all in for a drink) there was the message on his voicemail, from the hospital. Joanna was critically ill with pneumonia, pleurisy, and something that they’ve only just discovered and hadn’t given a name to, yet. (They were sure they’d be able to think of something in time for the TV news.) "Oh and she's dead,” they added. “Never mind, better luck next time?” However Johnny remained single, and heartbroken. Mourning his lost love, until, some 10 years later, all four chaps who lived next door, (who had been his emotional and physical crutch), popped up on the doorstep. “Hello Johnny” they said, in an affable manner. “We’ve come to cheer you up.” And give you a good haircut,” remarked the stocky one... although not in a way that anyone could hear clearly. “Anyway” the thin one said, affixing a tourniquet on his upper arm as they all sat at Johnny’s kitchen table, "Anyway,” he reiterated, “We think – that is we collectively –“ “Hold on -” the deep voice of the tall one said, “Who the fuck’s in charge here?” “Just get the fucking clippers” the stocky one replied. Johnny, proud of his lush and flowing locks (and the fact that he hadn’t had to pay for a haircut in 11 years), was taken aback at this. However, when held down by Mr Skinny, Mr Pale and with his head held firmly in place by the muscular forearms of Mr Stocky, he resigned himself to the robust attentions of Mr Grim (I think you’ve all guessed it by now!). Time passed – as it does – and here we find Johnny sitting bemused and shorn, upon his kitchen floor. Rubbing his shaven and rather itchy denuded head. He is heard to mutter to himself, “That fucking tattoo, what does it mean anyway? And what did he mean by that?” For as the tall one had left, tattooing equipment still in hand, he had said softly, smiling. “You’re ready now Johnny, you’re ready.” Mind you, with a face like that, there’s not much you can do but smile. And why, as the sign was engraved on his head, and he had yelled “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” had the pale one replied “How apt, how apt.” Three years later, at the age of 33, Johnny was elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The rest will be history, (Or Prophecy depending on how you look at it.).

the Games they play, Benedict Brooke

Larry O’Flynn drank a bottle of gin Each night after work when he got in Empties stacked in the yard while they marked his card At the one or two places where he wasn’t barred The photo of her still sits on the TV Though she ain’t been here since 1983 He used to take her dancing and a little romancing Down the Dewdrop Inn, Saturday night Now he sits in his shorts, tuned to TV sports Watching re runs of last weeks’ fight. Eileen O’Flynn don’t know where to begin Her only date looked like Ho Chi Min Asking him to leave, it seemed too much fuss It’s the choice between desperation - or a lonely lush Larry bumped into her at the Seven- Eleven Arranged to take her for a bite, Tuesday night at seven And a few days later, he cleans up the yard Sobered up cold turkey, though it was pretty hard Eileen looks through an old wedding catalog But we ain’t for turning; we’re going all the way Things’ll be different, starting today You’re thinking of me, when I’m thinking of you And you’re kissing me, and I’m kissing you too I guess it’s kind of strange today the games unmarried people play

California Mountain Range Benedict Brooke

< White edged against the blue encircling sky

Mrs Gaskell Novelist Part II

Mrs Gaskell had 4 daughters by her husband, and a son who died in infancy.  She began to write to distract herself from her grief, and she had several different kinds of writing that she enjoyed. She had a romantic streak which led her to write ghost stories, but from her work as a minister's wife in Manchester, she learned of the ill fed, ill-housed working classes and she wanted to use her writing to help them. She did not know the working class from “inside” but she was an intelligent imaginative woman who was able to understand them better than many middle class writers. Her portrayals of the factory workers were sympathetic and well observed. However she got a lot of criticism from the middle class manufacturers and business people, who thought that she was showing too much sympathy to the working classes and their trade unions, and demands for workers’ rights. The well to do classes felt that as a middle class lady and a Christian, she should be supporting the status quo and not encouraging radical ideas. She tried to write about the working class with feeling and charity, though she was, as a middle class woman, a little afraid of the dangerous ideas about unions, and “against property”, that some of them propounded.  She knew however that they were right in their belief that they were the ones who suffered and were harshly treated, and that they had a right to a better life than they were having. When she tried to “bring the classes together” and ask working men to understand the viewpoint of the middle class owners, she was shaken by a response from a working man “have you ever seen a child clemmed (starved) to death?” William “backed” his wife, when she was criticised by the owning class, even if it made his life as a minister difficult. Her earlier novels, such as Mary Barton, and North and South tend to veer between real sympathy and excellent observation of working class life, yet also an attempt to portray the mill owners fairly, or even, some felt, too generously. Her most controversial novel was “Ruth” which was the story of an unmarried mother. However, she didn’t want her young daughters to read it, and many people thought that it was scandalous to portray an unwed mother as a victim of male selfishness and an innocent girl... But Charlotte Bronte felt angry that Gaskell had to kill Ruth off... that she had to expiate her sin by death. Her Victorianism and her sense of Christian propriety warred with her generous nature and her instincts as a writer.

Elizabeth Gaskell Part I

Elizabeth Gaskell’s works have enjoyed a revival in recent years, with the TV version of her best work “Wives and Daughters” and also a TV version of “Cranford” has been very popular. She was born as Elizabeth Stevenson, in Chelsea, London in 1810; her father was a Unitarian minister. Unitarians were dissenters, outside the Church of England, and more liberal in their social, political and religious thinking. They were usually based in towns, and tended to attract either liberal thinkers or people of the lower middle or working class. In later life, Gaskell became friends with Charlotte Bronte, whose husband, Arthur Nicholls was very bigoted against people who disagreed with Anglicanism. She herself was tolerant of other beliefs, but she was still very much of a Victorian, religious and strict in her conduct. Her mother died when she was a baby, and her father sent her to Knutsford in Cheshire to be looked after by her aunt. This country town was a place she loved and which became the basis for Cranford, and also for the country town in Wives and Daughters. Her father had resigned his orders in the Unitarian church, on conscientious grounds... something that would happen with Mr Hale in North and South. He tried to find other work, and acquired a civil service post. He was far from well off, though his wife, Elizabeth’s mother had connections with well-known prominent Unitarian families such as the Martineaus, and Darwins. Later her father remarried and had another family and Elizabeth continued living with her aunt. It seems as if she did not get on too well with her stepmother, and this may have been the inspiration for Molly Gibson’s unhappy situation with her stepmother – the shallow silly Hyacinth. She has a good education in a small school near her country home and at another school in Stratford upon Avon. Her marital prospects weren’t good, due to her lack of fortune but she did have a social life, sponsored by her relatives. She was a pretty, charming girl, intelligent and compassionate, and in 1832, she married William Gaskell, a Unitarian Minister and moved to Manchester. Manchester was then a city which had grown up from the Industrial Revolution. It contained factories, and slums and the working and living conditions of the poor were terrible. As a minister’s wife, Gaskell was exposed to the terrible urban poverty, and learned about industrial issues. She began to write after the death of 2 of her children, a stillborn daughter and a baby son. Her marriage was a happy one. William, by the standards of the time, was a liberal tolerant husband who allowed her a good deal of freedom. He was dedicated to his work as a minster, which included a good deal of “social work." This took up a lot of his time and he expected his wife to support him in it... but he encouraged her to write and to get her work published.

Thank Heaven Fasting E M Delafield

I haven’t read all of Delafield’s novels, and I am not a fan of her most famous work “the Provincial Lady” which was so popular. I have read some of her novels about married ladies of the middle to upper class, such as “The Way Things Are”, and I haven’t greatly liked them. They seem to be about well-off women complaining about their servants, their husbands etc. and its hard to have any sympathy. In these books, she seems snobbish. But I loved “Thank Heaven Fasting". It is about a young woman -Monica, who is just about to make her come out in Society, in the Edwardian era. The year isn’t given, but it’s clearly in the time of Women’s Suffrage, and strict chaperonage of young girls. It is the world of Delafield’s girlhood, with all the rigid customs that ended with World War One. Monica is pretty, pleasant and conventional, and eager to please her parents by getting married soon. There are no money problems, she does not need to marry in order to live comfortably... but she knows that it is every woman’s duty to get married as soon as possible... It is important to marry someone of suitable birth and breeding who has the means to support a wife... but in the end, girls end up “just finding a husband of any kind”. At first, she has an admirer who seems suitable, Claud. He is well bred, has a career and is comfortably off... and she likes him. But before long, she knows that her parents will be glad of any man of the right class, even if he does not have much money… or is older...or in some other way not all that desirable. Monica has hopes of Claud -right from their first dance, but her friends Frederica and Cecily, the daughters of a hard selfish society have a much tougher time. They are shy and plain, and they cling to each other obsessively because they know that their chances of marriage are slim, and that their coarse-fibred mother despises them for being lacking in charm and sex appeal.< But Monica makes a disastrous mistake. In her first Season, she gets into a heavy flirtation with a soldier, Christopher, who is only interested in a bit of fun. Her parents discourage the relationship, because he has no money and is soon to be shipped off to India. But he arouses Monica’s desires and she is eager to marry him... even if her parents disapprove. He encourages her to disobey the rules, to sneak out and meet him... Finally, she allows him to take her off during a dance. They sit out kissing on the rooftop of the ballroom. Word gets out about the “disappearance” and although Monica has done nothing more than kissing, she finds that there is gossip about her. Christopher has treated her, a lady, like a shop girl... who is not good enough to marry. Monica realises that she has lost her “freshness” and gradually slides into a half world of “almost spinsterhood”. She has another Season and another, and her friends (apart from Frederica and Cecily) get married. She is left behind. She is less attractive to men. But she keeps on hoping. Some readers get annoyed with this book because Monica’s only goal is to marry; she has no interest in a career... or agitating for the Vote, or even charity work. She knows that to take up full time charity work is a confession of failure for a girl of her class. But I can understand.. Monica is not different to most other girls of her kind. Some readers want Monica to be ahead of her time, to give up "wasting her time looking for a man" and find a job, or for Delafield to rescue her by producing a husband that she can love. Delafield is just being realistic. Monica is who she is. She doesn’t want to be unconventional… she wants a suitable marriage and to be the same as other girls. And when a suitable man comes along, even though years ago, she would probably have rejected him as too old and not romantic, Monica is relieved and happy… Mr Pelham is dull, gossipy, plain and a lot older than her.. and most debutantes laugh at him for being old and dull. But Monica is very glad to take him and terrified that something will go wrong. It's real life, not "romantic novel life".

E M Delafield (1890-1943)

E M Delafield was the pen name of Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood. Her mother was Mrs De La Pasture, a well-known novelist of the 20s and 30s. She was from a middle class background. She was a debutante in 1909, but a few years later, went into a Roman Catholic order of nuns. Why she did this has never been explained. However, after a few years, she left…and when the War broke out, she worked as a VAD. This gave her a wider experience of life than was usual for an upper or middle class girl at the time. She began to write, first producing a novel about her time as a VAD. (Zella Sees Herself). After the war, she married into the lower ranks of the landed gentry. Paul Dashwood, her husband had been in the army and was an engineer, and his family had the title of Baronet. He and his wife went out to the Malay states on marriage, as did many British professionals with such practical skills. She wanted to come back to England, and within a few years, they moved back to Devon where her husband got a job as estate manager to the Bradfield estate. Delafield went on with her writing -but was very involved with the local society circle, the Women’s Institute etc. Like many of her heroines, she was something of a fish out of water, in the genteel upper middle or gentry circles of provincial England. She was more intellectual than the women she mixed with. They thought of her as odd because of her writing; her writing friends who came to stay didn’t usually win the admiration of her children. Her marriage seems to have been happy enough –but her view of marriage seems a little jaundiced. In many of her novels about marriage, the “husband” is a dull man who loves his wife but is irritated by her, has few interests in common with her, and retreats behind his newspaper. So it is possible that her marriage was not a close one, in that sense. She was also rumoured to have had affairs with women. In the next part of this blog, I hope to write about one of Delafield’s best novels, “Thank Heaven Fasting”.

Charlotte M Yonge

Charlotte Yonge is a forgotten author today but she was a very prolific writer in Victorian times. She was born in 1823, in Hampshire, and as a young woman became an ardent disciple of the High Church movement. This was a movement which sprang up in the Church of England in the early Victorian era, bent on restoring the Catholic side of the Anglican heritage. Many clergymen at the time went over to Rome, because of conservative policiatlal and religious views. They felt that the Church of England had lost its heritage, and that as a state church, it was bound to be affected by the politics of the time, which they saw as very radical. Others felt that it was possible to revitalise and re dignify the Church of England, remaining in it and reforming it. They attracted hostility form “Low church” people, because of their desire to bring in “Catholic” ritual, vestments and practices, such as the use of candles and incense... Many Anglicans and English people in general were very hostile, traditionally to Roman Catholicism and this extended to the increase in Catholic practices within the Anglican Church. But the movement grew and while it did tend to attract ultra-conservative people, it did have a positive side. The colour and beauty of the ritual was felt to attract people, especially working class people.Charlotte was the daughter of William Yonge, a country gentleman and was brought up and educated by him. He was an intelligent but strict man and while she learned a lot from him, she also was somewhat limited, by her close relationship with him. He was domineering and she looked up to him, and felt it was her duty to be an obedient daughter. She was an intelligent young woman but was afraid to think for herself. She felt that women might be clever – but the cleverest woman knew she should be modest about her intelligence and use it under male guidance. It has been said that she never married because she could never find a man who matched up to her father.Charlotte met with John Keble, one of the most famous of the Anglo Catholic clergymen. He became a “Pope” to her, an inspiration and guide.  She began to write novels and used them to promote the Anglo catholic movement. She was a novelist of family life, she wrote children’s books, histories and historical novels. Her strict religious views and her deep conservative rigidity prevented her from being a great novelist, but she was a very good one.In her time, very moralistic novels were popular, as people had high ideals. Her better ones, like Daisy Chain, Pillars of the House, Clever woman of the Family, etc., were all read by all sorts of people and loved. She did portray people who might seem improbably virtuous, and her views on women were old fashioned even in the later Victorian age. But she could write realistic and lovable children, growing up, like Ethel, in Daisy Chain… I haven’t read all her works but I do enjoy some of them. She’s not my usual type of writer because she is very moralistic, but she’s an interesting character. And at times it is nice to read about high ideals.

Rough Music a band story On Amazon.

Rough Music is set in the late 1970’s going on to 1980. It is about an American country rock band, who are just beginning after years of hard work, to have some success. They have TV appearances, talk of a movie, hits in the charts. They work hard and try to give their fans a show they will remember. They care about the fans, but life on the road has a lot of hardships. It has compensations, such as a generous supply of young women and easy access to soft drugs. But as the musicians grow older, they acquire wives and children and feel the pull of being away from them. They still sleep around, and don’t feel guilt about it. However by the late 1970s musicians’ wives were beginning to complain about being left behind while their husbands partied, or fooled around, and to talk about “having a life of their own”. Jeff Randles and Brandon Sherwood are the 2 lead singers in the band, and they are good friends. They understand each other. Jeff breaks up his first marriage because his wife Lacy is increasingly sick of his being away, and he finds her cold and uninteresting, but he makes a second marriage, to a girl he hardly knows, but has gotten pregnant. However, he does not know her well and has to adjust to marriage and being a father, while still trying to make a living doing what he loves. I liked writing it because I feel that in life, especially as we get middle aged, there aren’t any easy answers.

Charlotte Bronte , Mr Nicholls and her last years

Charlotte was dumbfounded when Mr Nicholls proposed. She didn’t love him, and felt that they had nothing in common. However, her father lost his temper when he heard of the proposal. His motives were mixed. He was afraid of losing his daughter; he was an old man and wanted her to be with him and look after him. He also believed that she was too delicate to endure childbirth and that marriage would be dangerous for her. He didn’t like Mr Nicholls much. He believed that as a well-known novelist, Charlotte could do better, in finding a husband and that probably Mr Nicholls was boasting about his own family background in Ireland. The man had nothing but a modest income as a curate…how could he keep a wife? He got into such a rage that Charlotte hastily denied all desire to marry Nicholls. The younger man left Haworth and his job. The local people by now knew of Charlotte’s being a novelist; they all liked her and thought that this man wasn’t nearly good enough. He was considered very presumptuous, to have addressed a marriage offer to their “Miss Bronte”. Charlotte felt that she should obey her father, even though she was now a mature woman. But she was having second thoughts. Mr Nicholls was not, in her opinion, very clever. He was dull, shy and awkward, and she didn’t find him attractive. But she was aware that she was getting older and did not have many chances of marriage. She realised that he genuinely loved her for herself, and if he wasn’t very interested in her writing, that was in its way a point in his favour. Mrs Gaskell was staying with her, when this row over Mr Nichols was going on, and being happily wed herself, she felt that Charlotte too should have a chance of marriage. She could see how lonely her friend was, and wanted to help. She encouraged Charlotte to engage in correspondence with her admirer and to seriously consider his offer. Charlotte had rarely disobeyed her father, but she was beginning to develop some interest in the curate. As a girl, she would have refused to marry without love, but now, she was glad that he cared deeply for her. Luckily for her, Mr Bronte disliked the new curate Tabby, the family servant, told him that he should let her get married. The locals began to miss Nicholls as well. Charlotte pleaded with her father, telling him that not many men would want to marry her... She insisted that if she was married to Nicholls, he was willing to live in their home and help to take care of his father in law and take the burden of church work off him. Grudgingly, Patrick gave in, but he refused to give his daughter away at the quiet wedding. Charlotte was very nervous of marriage, knowing that she and Arthur did not have much in common other than their church background. He wasn’t “intellectual”. But the marriage was quite a success. They went to Ireland for their honeymoon and she found that Mr Nicholls’ family were “well bred” and comfortably off. She grew into a gentle love for him, being very happy at last to have a companion who wanted to be with her…. When back in Haworth, she referred to him affectionately in her letters as “My dear Arthur” and “my dear boy.” She helped more with his parish work and her father was able to relax and to feel the benefits of having a son in law living in. The only fly in the ointment was Charlotte's writing. She told Nicholls that if she hadn’t been spending the evening with him, she would have been writing, and showed him a story she had begun, which was later published as “Emma”, - the few pages she had written. Marriage was taking up a lot of her time, and she had less to bestow on her work. It was set in a school and Arthur told her he feared the critics would think she was repeating her Jane Eyre and Villette themes. But she never completed the story. She was busy and happy with Arthur. She also became pregnant… Unluckily, she caught a bad cold, out walking with Arthur, and became very ill. It’s not clear what was wrong… The chill may have weakened her and she may have also fallen victim to the family curse of TB, but she was almost vomiting persistently, and it seems as if this was related to pregnancy. Her illness went on, exhausting her, and she died a mere 9 months after her marriage. She was clearly in love with her husband and happy in the marriage and he was devoted to her. After her death, he showed himself a decent and loyal man; he kept his promise to her, to look after her father. He remained with old Mr Bronte for several years, till he died. The 2 men weren’t that close. Patrick found some comfort after his last child’s death, in delighting in her literary fame. He wanted a biography written, whereas Mr Nicholls felt that it would be an intrusion on Charlotte’s privacy and his, and that he did not want such publicity for the woman he loved. He hated the “autograph-hunters” who were beginning to invade Haworth and even more, he hated journalists who wrote about his wife… He and Mr Bronte argued about the issue of having a biography written. Mr Bronte felt it would be good to have an authorised biography to counter the more wild and silly stories that had appeared. In the end it was written by Charlotte’s good friend Elizabeth Gaskell and Patrick was not best pleased with it. She portrayed him as extremely eccentric, and selfish. He noted several inaccuracies. There was controversy about what she wrote about the Bronte children and their school, where the 2 girls died. Lawsuits were threatened about her chapter on Branwell’s affair with Mrs Robinson. But it was a well written biography which was the foundation for other works on Charlotte’s and the Brontes’ lives. After Mr Bronte’s death, Nicholls went back to Ireland since he was not offered the clerical post in Haworth, and he gave up Orders and became a gentleman-farmer. He remarried, but seems to have always loved Charlotte. So in her way, she had her great romance.

Charlotte Bronte Part III, Emily and Anne

Charlotte’s triumph in getting her first novel published and its being such a success should have been a happy time for the family, but it didn’t last long. Emily didn’t seem to care about money. But she was depressed at the lack of understanding from the critics, although her book sold. Some critics did appreciate her talent, even if they deprecated the violence, the passionate emotions, and “impropriety” of the story of Wuthering Heights. They felt that given time, Ellis Bell might mature into a great writer. Newby began to cause problems. He hinted that ALL the Bell works were written by the same author, and Charlotte and Anne felt they had to go to London, break their anonymity, and explain to George Smith that there were 3 of them. Charlotte found London stressful but she got to know George. Soon, though Branwell's addictions caused more upsets. He was drinking and using opium, and getting into debt. Some biographers believe that Mrs Robinson remained in touch with him and sent him small sums of money but it’s not clear if this was the case. When her husband died, he believed that she would send for him and they would be married... But whether there had ever been an affair or not, Mrs Robinson didn’t send for him, and he was devastated... and his health began to decline through 1847 and 1848. His drinking exacerbated his weakness and a family proneness to TB. Charlotte is often criticised for being unkind to Branwell as he declined, but my sympathies are with her. She had worked hard, in jobs she didn’t like, to earn a living, while he had failed at every job he got. She had now struggled to her work published and to persuade her sisters to write for publication. Branwell had had a few poems published in newspapers but he was not willing to work hard at preparing a novel for publication. He dismissed novels as easy to write, but his own attempt at novel, is a feeble effort… Now, in 1847/8 he was a serious liability. They didn’t tell him about their success in getting the novels published, because it would upset him or he might give away their identities. His health got worse but the family seem to have been taken aback by the speed of his decline… He died aged 31 in September 1848. The Brontes were grieved and shocked, although he had been a trouble to them. His father felt the loss of his only son, very painfully. Emily went to his funeral; she caught a bad cold, and soon began to show symptoms of TB. Her decline was also very rapid. She refused to let her sisters help her and would not see a doctor. She insisted on doing her housework and normal tasks, although she was getting weaker. By December, she was desperately ill. Always slender, she became bone thin, and afflicted with a terrible tubercular cough. She still refused medical aid, and Charlotte particularly felt helpless. The two sisters had loved each other but had disagreed over things. Emily had insisted on their using pseudonyms. She feared the loss of her privacy and anonymity. When Charlotte and Anne went to London to see her publisher George Smith, Emily refused to go. She had been insistent on staying with her publisher Thomas Newby, who was a dubious character… when Charlotte wanted her to change to Smith's firm. She felt that George Smith had treated her very well with the publication of Jane Eyre, and been “a gentleman” – Emily preferred to stick with Newby, even if it was to her disadvantage. Now, in her final illness, it was very painful and hurtful to Charlotte that her sister still was at odds with her, refusing her sisterly love and offers of help. She told her sisters she would have no “poisoning doctor” near her. Charlotte wrote to a doctor, hoping for some advice, and the doctor replied and sent medicine but Emily would not take it. She was in what Victorians described as “Galloping consumption”, and it’s unlikely that anything would have cured her or even slowed down the progress of the disease. She soon reached a point where she could hardly speak, and finally said that she would see a doctor, if they brought one... but it was too late. She died lying on the sitting room sofa…painfully and traumatically. She was buried on 22 December, 1848 - 3 days after her death. Charlotte was very upset, but soon her last sister, Anne, became ill, displaying symptoms of TB, also. She had probably caught it from Emily. Victorians didn’t realise that the illness could be transferred from person to person, and didn’t take hygiene precautions. The Sisters shared a bedroom… Anne was more tractable than her stubborn sister. She knew that she would probably not recover but she was willing to see medical men and take their advice. Anne’s health got worse, and in the spring of 1849, she expressed a wish to go to Scarborough; she had visited there, with the Robinson family. She went with her sister and Ellen Nussey and died there at the end of May. Charlotte was now left alone with her elderly father, the last of his six children. She had lost 3 siblings in 10 months. Her success as a novelist had raised her hopes that she might write other works. She believed that she would be able to make a living as a writer, rather than have to be a governess again. And that her sisters could do the same. Now her sisters were gone, she was lonely and had no one to discuss her work with…

Beds and Blue Jeans taster, Sam's trying to flirt...

“Yeah but I don’t know.  Pattie’s not the career type.   Thing is Amber, we never –“

Sam broke off. He had been about to say that he and Pattie had never discussed anything much.  They had slipped into a live-in relationship, she had had the baby. He didn’t want to criticise his girlfriend, to another woman.

“My goodness,” Amber interjected suddenly, “I’ve got to go.  Sam, it sure was nice to chat and catch up on things.  But work calls. I’ve got to get back by 2 o’clock.”

She reached for her purse- but he put his hand out and forestalled her.
“No, sweetie, I invited you to lunch.  I’m gonna pay. “

She laughed and then gracefully gave way.

“You’re such a perfect gentleman.  OK.  But this was fun and next time I’ll invite you.”

The story is available on Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beds-Blue-Jeans-everyday-mayhem-ebook/dp/B01370SMFO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1472894698&sr=1-1&keywords=beds+and+blue

Charlotte Bronte II

On leaving the Heger School, Charlotte was painfully unhappy. It’s not clear what was said to her, but it seems as if Mme Heger pushed her into leaving Brussels. I believe that Heger realised it too, that his pupil, a plain yet intelligent young woman of whom he was fond, had developed an inappropriate love for him. He and Mme Heger felt that they had to tell her to leave, fearing embarrassment and scandal. Heger was at first sorry for her and believed that she would be better to go home and get over her feelings. Charlotte remained in love for some time. She begged permission of M Heger to write to him but he stipulated that these letters should be limited to "one every 6 months". Charlotte longed to write more often, and wrote some painfully loving but very proper letters. Heger didn’t respond. The story of her continuing love for him is sad to think about, she was so unhappy- desperately pleading for a little friendship and affection from him. Perhaps he got fed up with the letters because he threw some away. Mme Heger rescued them, perhaps because she was aware of the possibility of scandal and wanted to preserve evidence. Charlotte gradually recovered and was occupied with family problems, such as Branwell’s drinking, and her father’s blindness. The girls continued for a while to believe they might be able to set up a school and did some advertising, but no one was interested in sending their daughters to a remote place and the plan eventually languished. Charlotte began to think of other ideas for occupying herself and making some money. She persuaded her sisters to put their poetry together and try to get it published as a joint effort. When the book came out, in 1846, it only sold 2 copies. But Charlotte was a determined young woman and didn’t give up hope. She was always the leader of the 3 of them in trying new schemes, such as setting up their own school or going to Brussels to learn more... or starting to write for publication. They had all written since they could hold a pen, but apart from Branwell, none of them seems to have seriously considered trying to make money or get published. Charlotte had written to the Poet Southey as a girl, asking whether he thought that she had talent, but he responded that literature was not the business of a woman's life. Emily never asked for advice like this, but she positively hated the idea of submitting her work to the gaze of the public. Anne seems to have been quietly willing to agree, once the notion of publication was suggested. She was shy but not completely or aggressively retiring like her sister. Charlotte was the most normal of the girls. She was shy and also quite sharp tongued and critical of people. She disliked most of her employers, and was socially awkward but not to the extent that Emily was. She didn’t have many friends but did engage in social life, later, as a writer. She had two friends, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor, whom she had known from school. At this stage, Patrick was virtually blind and underwent an operation for cataract, which was very painful. It meant that he had to go to Manchester. Charlotte had to accompany him. While he was recovering, she started to write Jane Eyre, and then began to try and get it sold. Her sisters were engaged in writing and submitting their books - Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey. But their publisher, Newby, was a rogue, and didn’t treat them very fairly. Charlotte’s Jane Eyre was read by George Smith, a young man just starting out in publishing. His reader thought it was so wonderful he urged that it should be published. It was an overnight runaway success. Emily and Anne’s books which were published as a 3 volume, set, (the first 2 volumes was Wuthering Heights and the third one was the short work -Agnes Grey), didn’t do so well, although some discerning critics could see the talent, in Emily’s work. Finally, Charlotte’s pressuring of her sisters and her hard work was beginning to pay off.

Charlotte Bronte Part I

< Charlotte was the oldest surviving daughter of Patrick and Maria Bronte and in some ways the dominant figure in the family. She was, as a girl, closest to her brother Branwell; she and he created the world of "Angria" together and wrote their stories and poems. As the eldest of the girls, she helped to educate her 2 younger sisters, and was conscious that she had to try and earn a living, but she was very much unsuited to governess work which was the only role that a young woman like her could find. She was very shy, but also snobbish…. she hated being under an obligation to the families who employed her, and who treated her like a servant. Although her father had come from a farming background, she felt that she was a lady, since he had become a clergyman. She saw herself as higher in rank (and was better educated) than the mill owning or wealthy trade families who were now the "new rich" of Yorkshire and who hired governesses for their children. Opinions differ on how accurate are Charlotte’s portraits of the families she worked for. Some commentators feel that she was quite right in seeing them as snobbish, rude, and unpleasant and unfeeling.  Others feel that Charlotte was touchy and proud, and quick to see slights and insults where none were intended.   She was also not very fond of children, and not good with them.  She generally had little good to say of her employers or their children. The children were seen by her as badly behaved and stupid brats, but she was not allowed to discipline them. She wasn't a natural teacher, was not fond of children, and felt that it was very hard to din any knowledge into their heads. At the age of 26, she persuaded her aunt to help her and Emily to go to Brussels, so that they could improve their languages and learn more. The plan was to prepare to open their own school.  It would have given them more autonomy than working for other people, and she believed they could support themselves and not have to kow-tow to employers.
The Brontes were beginning to realise that Branwell who was meant to be the white hope of the family, wasn’t likely to make their fortune... Emily didn’t want to leave Yorkshire but she did want more education, so she was willing to go. Charlotte longed to travel. In Brussels, they were pupil teachers, working for Mme Heger and her husband, who ran a school. Heger was also a professor at a boy’s school, but he was impressed by the Bronte girls and eager to teach them. Charlotte liked him and worked hard to improve her French. Emily did not like him or Brussels, but worked hard, to educate herself (her spelling had been terrible as a girl) and she taught music.  Neither girl liked the Belgian people much. They were critical of the school’s “young lady” pupils… Both were fairly narrow minded, and they felt uncomfortable with the foreign and Catholic culture. Charlotte however took the opportunity to socialise with the local English community. After a year, the Brontes’ aunt, Miss Branwell died,and they had to return to England. Charlotte was still eager to go back to her job in Brussels. Emily, having inherited a little money from her aunt, decided that she had truly hated being away from home and now she was not going to leave.  The plan for the school was still in their minds but it was not ever a very practical one.

Brontes and Branwell

I’ve always been fascinated by the Bronte family who were born in Yorkshire, at the end of the Regency era. Their parents were a Cornish mother and an Irish father. Patrick, the father, was from a poor farming background in Northern Ireland. He was a clever young man and overcame his poverty to go to Cambridge, as a “sizar”, i.e. a student who is taught for free in return for undertaking some duties in the college…It was a hard life for him, to get from poverty and a peasant upbringing to being a curate of the Church of England. He became Curate of Haworth in 1819. By then he was married to Maria Branwell, a young woman from a middle class Cornish family and they had a growing family. Patrick was interested in literature –he wrote some poems and tried his hand at stories. would become. He was very busy with the work of a curate in a poor Parish. Haworth was full of poor families, and had very limited facilities. The infant mortality rate was high and hygiene conditions were appalling by modern standards. He tried hard to get conditions improved. He was a good hearted man, but was in many ways awkward in his social relations. As he grew older, he became reclusive and only did as much “mixing” as was necessary for a clergyman. This had an effect, a negative one, on his children. However he was an intelligent well-meaning man, and in spite of his stiffness, he was a kindly loving father. He and Maria had six children, 5 girls and one son. But when Anne, the youngest was a baby, Maria died of cancer. Her husband became more retiring, but he did make one attempt to marry again, to find a mother for his brood. Alas, he made a comical mess of it, writing to an old flame and reminding her that she was still single. This provoked the lady to write back angrily and with a tart refusal. He gave up then, and seems to have resigned himself to living alone. He brought in his sister in law, Elizabeth Branwell, to keep house and look after his children. The Bronte children were highly intelligent and had a strong creative impulse, which clearly came from their father. But his social isolation affected them. They were not used to mixing much outside their own circle and apart from Branwell, found it hard to make friends. Patrick’s income was moderate, as a perpetual curate and he didn’t have a lot of friends or influence in the church, to secure a better paid or more comfortable living. The money was adequate while he was alive, but when he knew that when he died, his family would have very little. He needed to ensure that they were equipped to earn their living. He taught Branwell himself, believing that his son was a very talented young man who would be able to help look after the girls financially. He sent the girls to a school for the Daughters of clergymen” which was supposed to provide a good education at low cost. However, like a lot of private schools at the time, it was badly run, and conditions were terrible. The food was bad, the discipline was harsh. The girls were poorly fed, the building was extremely cold. Patrick’s 2 eldest children, Maria and Elizabeth, were taken seriously ill during an epidemic. Patrick brought them home, together with Charlotte and Emily who had been sent there more recently. It was too late, the older girls both died. Charlotte never forgot the callousness with which she and her sisters had been treated and took her revenge by writing about the school in Jane Eyre. The girls were educated at home for a time... Later- he found a more pleasant school, Miss Woolers, in Yorkshire and sent Charlotte there, first. She was happy there, made a few friends and learned a lot. She even spent time there as a teacher. But Emily who came to the school a bit later, hated being away from home and soon departed. She was the most reclusive of the girls. All of them were shy, and disliked going among strangers or leaving home. They hated the thought of being governesses, having to put up with spoiled children. Anne and Charlotte did not like the work but forced themselves to do it. Emily again found it nearly impossible and only worked briefly as a teacher in a girls’ school, at a place called Law Hill. The family’s traumas certainly affected the children a lot, in different ways. Patrick’s preference for a quiet reclusive life added to their natural shyness and made it hard for them, to work away from home. Charlotte had a few outside friends, and Branwell had many because he was the only one who did enjoy social life. However their isolation helped them to create the fictional worlds that they wrote about – Angria and Gondal...which were the seed bed for their later writing. Their home education made them far better read than most children of their age. Emily particularly loved the outdoors around Haworth, which became an important part of her writing. I think that Emily was more affected by her mother’s death than the other children. They were very shy, but with Emily it was much worse. I believe that her mother’s death, when she was very young, followed by the experience at their awful school, made her deeply suspicious of people, and she trusted almost nobody. She preferred animals to people. Yet it is possible that her isolation and her deep and unusual nature fostered her genius, and helped her to develop as the most brilliant of them all in terms of being a writer. Branwell, the only boy, also wrote and was a painter, and he had some talent.  Yet he was unsuccessful and again, perhaps the family’s situation had something to do with it. He was more outgoing than his sisters or father, but he lacked their strength of character. He was spoiled by his family, because they believed that he would be the one who might make the family’s fortune. But his writing was heavy and turgid and he had no success as a poet or novelist. He tried painting for a living, for a time but wasn’t very successful.He started to drink and use opium, which was a popular drug at the time and was prescribed for all kinds of ills. But the drinking and drug abuse weakened his health and he found it hard to keep down a job... while his sisters worked and also wrote. He wasn’t used to social life in his home. Maria Bronte had been a lively lady who would have probably helped her husband and children to have a more normal outgoing life, meeting other people. But her death made them cling to each other all the more. Branwell went away from home to work as a portrait painter, he did get friendly with other painters and men he met in pubs etc., but he still was awkward and bumptious; foolishly he put off possible helpers and patrons by his seeming arrogance.

Welsh names for girls.

In the past 100 years there has been an increase in Welsh names becoming popular, and new Welsh names being coined… Names such as Sian have become more common in the UK. I got interested in Welsh names as a kid through reading the Arthurian legends. The names there are Celtic but have been adapted and changed -with a French influence or anglicised. So they are likely not the original names of the characters. Guinevere was in the earliest version of the tale -Guenhumara. Later it became more like “Gwynhwyfar”. The name is of uncertain meaning, but the Gwyn at the start means “fair “or “white”. Morgan, Arthur’s sister or his mistress, means “Sea born”. Elaine, usually Lancelot’s wife or love for a time, could derive from Elen, the Welsh for Helen or a word that means hind or fawn. Enid is another name which has been used a good deal and it means “soul”. Lynette, in the story of Gareth and Lynnette, in Tennyson, may derive from Eluned. I like Welsh names but I’m afraid that I’m mispronouncing them. Sian, the equivalent of Jane, is pronounced “Shan”…The Welsh F is pronounced as V,and a double Ff, such as in Ffion, is an “f” sound. Myfanwy, a name brought to public notice by John Betjeman in one of his light hearted love poems, is pronounced MuhVanWy… and mean “My woman”. Other names with the suffix “wen” have become popular, such as Ceinwen “lovely and fair”..The “wen” is a variant of “Gwen” or “Gwyn” signifying white or fair. Others are Ceridwen – fair poetry, the name of the goddess of poetry. There is Bronwen, “white breast” and Blodwen “white flowers”. Arianwen means “white and silvery”… Other “Gwyn” names are Gwyneth, Gwendolen (white circle), Gweneira (White snow) and Gwenllian(white Foam). In the 20th century, new names were coined, mostly “nature or flower names” from Welsh words. These include Eirlys (Snowdrop), Celyn (Holly), Heulwen (sunshine), Eira (snow) and Briallen (Primrose). Others are Aderyn (bird), Meinwen (slender and fair), Aeronwy (berry), and Dilys which means genuine or true. There is the story of Olwen -who had the faculty of making white flowers spring up behind her as she walked, the name means "white footprint". In the Mabinogion, Angharhad (intense love) falls in love with Peredur.. I hope to write something on Welsh male names, next week...

Barbara Castlemaine Royal mistress

I have been reading a novelised biography of Barbara Palmer, Duchess of Cleveland. She was the most famous mistress of Charles II. She was well born, and grew up in the years of Civil war and when the King was exiled. It was a time when the upper classes who were loyal to the King often impoverished themselves to try and restore him to the throne. Barbara was said to be free with her favours even prior to marriage and to have been the mistress of Philip, Lord Chesterfield. She was a member of the Villiers family and cousin to the Duke of Buckingham. She married an obscure Royalist gentleman Roger Palmer. He was a quiet dull man who was hardly a suitable husband for such a wild and passionate young woman. Barbara showed her loyalty to the King by bringing him money during his exile, just prior to his return to London as King. She probably became his mistress on her visit to the continent, and on his return she became known as his favourite. She was considered to be very beautiful and flamboyant. She was also extravagant,wild and selfish. In the early years of the Restoration she was constantly by Charles’ side, and produced several children by him. Charles was an affectionate father and a generous lover, but as time went on Barbara sought other lovers to amuse her when he was not around. She was considered to be promiscuous -and conservative royalists were horrified by the King’s selfish sexed up lifestyle. It was considered wrong that he allowed his mistresses to be too prominent in court life. When he married Catherine of Braganza, he found that while he and his mistresses were able to produce children easily, his wife was less fertile. After a few years, it was clear that he would not have a legitimate heir. Barbara did annoy her royal lover as time passed by being less than respectful to his wife. Barbara was the most hated of the royal mistresses and she was the subject of vulgar rhymes. She separated from her husband Roger, because he was angry at her promiscuity and her producing children who were not his. He went to live in France. Barbara and Charles’s love affair, passionate at first, began to cool down, and when her sixth baby was born, Charles refused to acknowledge the daughter as his. It was more likely that the child was conceived by Barbara’s lover, John Churchill. There was a story that Charles surprised Churchill in Barbara’s bedroom and when the younger man fled, Charles called after him “I forgive you, Mr Churchill because I know you do it for your bread.”

Jane Austen

Jane Austen is probably the world’s finest author... Certainly in my opinion, the greatest author in English literature. She was writing from her girlhood, and as she died quite young, only aged 42…she only produced six novels. She also wrote a lot of juvenilia, mostly comic short stories and 2 Epistolary Novels “Lady Susan” and “Love and Freindship”. (Lady Susan has recently been filmed with the title Love and Friendship – inexplicable but then the film was pretty poor). She grew up in rural England, in the late Georgian age, as the daughter of a Church of England clergyman, and one of a large family. Her mother, Cassandra Leigh, was connected to the aristocracy; her father was genteel but far from rich. Her family lived comfortably while he was working as a clergyman, but the 3 women of the family, Mrs Austen, Cassandra and Jane, were not well off when he had died. Her heroines were usually daughters of country gentry, whose fathers had moderate sized estates, but she herself found herself more similar to Miss Bates, living in rented rooms on a small income. However, she had a brother Edward, who had been adopted as a child by a cousin, Mr Knight, and he had become the man's heir. He was quite a rich man and in time, he was able to give his mother and sisters a cottage, Chawton, where Jane lived in the last years of her life and was able to settle down to steady writing. She wrote the 3 novels of her maturity in Chawton and then became seriously ill, probably with Addison’s disease, a form of Tuberculosis. She went to live in the city of Winchester, to have better medical attention and died there in 1817. She also worked on 2 partial novels -one known as “The Watsons” which she started in the last years of her father’s life but only wrote a few chapters...Another one was “Sanditon” which she started to write on her deathbed. It was clearly meant to be a satire on professional invalids who spend their time in watering places looking for health and trying new doctors and treatments. Even when she herself was very ill, she could laugh and joke about something that might have been a sensitive subject. Austen was a young girl when the English novel was developing. She read the earlier works of authors such as Henry Fielding, and Samuel Richardson... and enjoyed them but she had her own ideas on how to write and she did not produce lengthy epistolary works such as Clarissa or Pamela. She did produce epistolary novels at first, but turned 2 of them into narrated works, Sense and Sensibility (which began life as Elinor and Marianne) and Pride and Prejudice, originally called First Impressions. Her novels were short, compared with the older writers. She also read huge numbers of lighter works, mostly churned out by women authors trying to make a living... including Fanny Burney. These circulating library novels were generally rather foolish, but Jane enjoyed them, and learned from them what to do and what not to do as a writer.
Although she did not have a classical education, like the male authors, she instinctively understood that a novel was about people. She knew that in some ways women, who spent a lot of time looking after or socialising with people, could be better observers of human nature and foibles. So she didn’t pepper her works with long long chapters, or semi essays on this or that, or classics references. She wrote about people and their ordinary lives, at least the ordinary lives of upper class country gentry. She didn’t usually write about elopements or duels or melodrama. She had done this in her juvenilia, but usually in a jocose spirit. There was joking about duels, and “sensibility fits” and drunkenness and elopements. She referred to herself as an unlearned female - but in fact she had plenty of confidence in her own abilities, as a novelist and knew that she had gifts that were better for a writer than classical learning.
She was a very serious Christian and old fashioned in her beliefs. But she was a Georgian woman, and not a Victorian so she was a lot earthier, while remaining within the bounds of propriety, than many later writers. I hope to write some more blogs discussing her individual novels.

the trend for Flower and Jewel names

In the later Victorian era, in England, a vogue came in for flower and jewel names particularly among the upper classes. It spread downward till by the 20th century a lot of working class girls were called by flower names. I don’t think the jewel name trend went down the social scale so much. In mid-Victorian times, the fashion had been for “old English” names. There had been a great interest in Saxon and older English history so these. Names like Hilda, Edith, Emma, Ethel were common among the Saxon nobility. For men names like Hugo, Hildebrand, Edmund, Wilfred, and Alfred etc. became popular. The queen called her second son Alfred after the “great” Alfred… There was also an interest in medieval history and some Norman names were revived such as Guy, Roland and Oliver. The Idylls of the King brought in the names of the Arthurian saga, mostly for men.There was Arthur, Lancelot, Gareth, Tristram, Geraint, and Gawain (which became Gavin). There were a few women in the saga, but their names were rather exotic, like Guinevere, Nimue, Lionesse Lynnette and Iseult. But in the later part of the century, (I think because of increasing secularisation of society), the upper classes began to go in for more unusual names. Many of the “Souls” (an upper class “set” who enjoyed discussing intellectual matters) produced children in the later Victorian times, (1880s etc) who had romantic names such as Cynthia, Diana, and Venetia. Lady Cynthia Asquith, (well-known now as a diarist) and the daughter of a “Soul” (Mary, Lady Wemyss), had a sister in law, called Violet (known as Letty) Violet was also the name of H. Henry Asquith’s elder daughter. Violet (Letty) Charteris, Cynthia Asquith's brother's wife, was born Lady Violet Manners, daughter of another “Soul” -the Duchess of Rutland. Letty married Cynthia’s brother Hugo. Other flower names that became popular, were Daisy, which had started as a nickname for Margaret, Lily, Marigold, May, Myrtle, Pansy, Primrose, Poppy, Cherry, Heather, Hazel, Holly, and Flora. Less popular but used were names like Lavender, Hyacinth, Iris, Clematis, and Clover. In the 20th century, flower names went on being popular and there was a search for more unusual ones. Some of these have remained in use even today, such as Jasmine, Fern, Holly and even Honeysuckle. Bryony seems to have come into popularity much much later, when the vogue was over. I think that this trend came along because people wanted something “new” which hadn’t been used before.. rather than the old names that had been around for centuries, or a revival of names that had been around years ago. Working class people in Victorian times had often used bible names and virtue names such as Prudence, Faith, Hope, Charity etc. Others were Rebecca, Rachel, Ruth and the ever popular Sarah. Now they too went in for flower names, mostly I think Lily and Rose and Daisy.. (All names you can find in Upstairs Downstairs notably!). A few jewel names did become popular among working class girls, such as Beryl, Ruby, and Pearl. Diamond was used because of the Queen’s Diamond jubilee year. There were few upper class children who received the name. Emerald had already been used as “Esmeralda”, (a name used in Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame). Maud, Lady Cunard, a famous socialite, adopted it as her nickname… There are less jewel names than flower names, so perhaps the trend wore out, because it was a bit too exotic and there wasn’t much variety. But names that have been used are Amber (still popular), Coral, Beryl, Diamond, Emerald, Garnet, (used by both sexes in Victorian times) Jade, Jewel, Opal, Pearl, Ruby, Sapphire (also as Sapphira- a bible name) and Topaz. Silver and Goldie also could be counted as jewel names.

More names

Writers are always on the lookout for something new and interesting to call our characters. So, it is not surprising that many have invented new names or have found older and unusual ones which they have revitalised or modernised for use. Some of these names have just remained literary ones, and have rarely if ever been used in real life. Others have become very popular. Vanessa, Swift’s invention, is one that became quite common. Myra isn’t a popular name now; it was invented by the poet Fulke Greville in the 17th century. It may be an anagram of “Mary”. It was common for a time, but the story of the Moors Murders in the 1960s, by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, destroyed its popularity. Napoleon I was a fan of James McPherson’s Ossianic poetry. He suggested the name “Oscar” for the son of his former ladylove, Desiree Bernadotte. Desiree had been engaged to him, but later she married Jean Charles Bernadotte, who became King of Sweden. Because of this, some of the names invented by McPherson became popular among Scandinavian royalty…on such strange accidents as Napoleon’s liking this “fake poetry” does the popularity of some names depend! The name Jennifer has been very much used all through the 20th century. In the early part of the century, it was only used in Cornwall and was an adaptation of the Welsh Guenevere, the wife of King Arthur, in legend. This name was thought to mean “white” (Gwen and Wen/wyn are names that mean white or fair in Welsh) and “Hwyfar” which may mean smooth or soft. The name survived in Cornwall, which was one of the places closely connected with Arthurian legend. However Bernard Shaw used it for Jennifer Dubedat in his play “the Doctors Dilemma” (1905). This was a very successful play and the heroine’s name became well known and loved. It is spelled in different ways. In America, it can be spelled as Jenifer, or Gennifer… Other variants of the name are Ginevra or Genevra. Stella is a name given to his lady love by Philip Sidney, in his poem “Asphodel to Stella”. It means “star”. It has been very popular in the 20th century and so have variants like “Estelle” and “Estella”. Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind” had a great influence on naming for American children…She gave her characters some very unusual names, most notably Scarlett for her heroine. Scarlett (the name of Scarlett’s paternal grandmother was Katie Scarlett) is a surname. Other names in Gone with the Wind that became popular were the male names like Cade, Brent, and Rhett…. Ashley became increasingly known as a girl's name.

Julia, Theatre, a novel by Somerset Maugham

I picked this novel up a few years ago, and then saw a dreadful film adaptation of it, called “Being Julia”. I liked the novel as a short and an easy pleasant read. However, on the negative side, while I don’t expect all characters in a book to be lovable, a book with no likable characters can be a bit off putting. There's no-one in this book that I can like or approve of, and they are only mildly interesting to me. Julia is an actress who "acts all the time"... and Maugham seems to agree with her son that really Julia doesn't exist. She was wildly in love with her husband Michael, when they met, but then she fell out of love with him, and began to see his character as dull, complacent, cheap and pompous. Within a few years of marriage, she's bored with him and has gone off sex with him. She has a son, Roger, but he doesn't seem to mean much to her. He later tells her that she only ever saw him, (the son) as a pretty little boy she could be photographed with, who looked cute in pictures of the "actress as an adoring mother" and it is hard to disagree with him about this. She never seems like a mother at all. Julia's predicaments are amusing, but even when she is unhappy it is hard to feel sorry for her. She falls in love with a much younger man, and they have an affair, which gives her a lot of pleasure and thrills. Yet even with this man, it is hard to see real affection. She buys him things and gives him money, but when he begins to grow a bit tired of the affair, she very nastily makes him realise that he is her "kept boy" and that she has power over him. She then finds that he has been seeing other women, younger ones...and has been boasting of how she "eats out of his hand". He's not a very nice character, but Julia then takes a revenge on his new girlfriend, a young actress who is working with her. It is hard to like anyone in the book and while there is plenty to laugh at, there is a feeling that one's usually laughing at the characters rather than with them. Julia is devoted to her acting and we see her, having shrugged off her infatuation for Tom, her young lover, planning to play Hamlet...It’s nice to see a woman who isn't all the time depending on male admiration or affection but she is cold at heart and vulgar. Maugham claims to be fond of her, but the novel makes me feel a vulgar strain in his nature..I liked his play The Constant Wife, but this seems to show the other side of Maugham.. the catty side.. which seems to dislike women…

Constant Wife Somerset Maugham

I went to the Gate Theatre, Dublin, and enjoyed a performance of “The Constant Wife” by Somerset Maugham. It was an attractive “well-made play”, with an interesting theme, good acting, charming costumes and set design. Kudos to the cast and director, who managed to do accents, and who managed to make the characters sound a little affected, but not to the point where they become overdone and irritating. I find the older I get, the more I prefer a “middle range” play – something that is not full of intellectual discussion or “deep and meaningful themes” but a play that covers a subject, has some witty and clever lines but does not pretend to be more than it is. “Constant Wife” is quite a daring play for its time. Constance, the wife of a successful Harley Street doctor, has time on her hands. She has no real work, with her servants running the house. Her husband is often unfaithful and his latest affair is with one of her friends. Well-meaning friends and relatives nag at her, advising her to confront her husband - but she doesn’t wish to do this. An old boyfriend of hers has just returned to England, after living abroad for some time. Constance has a platonic friendship with him, which her husband does not mind about. She does not feel able to confront her husband because she does not feel she is on an equal footing with him. She is depending on him financially. While in theory, as a wife, most people would say that her work of running his home and rearing children gives her the right to consider herself his equal, and to speak up to him, but, she does not feel that it does. Constance is willing to admit that for a modern middle class wife, there isn’t much to do. Servants run the house, labour saving devices make this much easier than it used to be. Nurses and schools take care of the children and helping to run her husband’s social life is not that demanding. Maugham had a rather ambiguous attitude to women and sometimes was hostile to daring and sexually free ones, but in Constant Wife, he has Constance bravely acknowledge her lack of “equality” within the marriage. When her girlfriend’s husband finally gets suspicious that his wife is having an affair with Constance’s husband, the resourceful “constant wife” cleverly covers up, explaining away the suspicious circumstances and allaying his fears. She suggests that the couple go away for a while to mend their marriage. While they are away, Constance makes a decision, and having refused a friend’s offer to give her a job in interior decorating, she now decides to take up the work. Over a year or so, she earns money at the job, and begins to feel that now she is on an equal footing with her husband. She tells him that she has put money in his bank account, from what she has earned and that that is paying for her keep for the past year. So now, she gives him a polite hint that she’s going away with her old admirer. They will be discreet about it, but she means to engage in an affair. And he can’t really say anything. She has supported herself for the past year, with the money she made on her job... (Syrie Maugham, Maugham's wife was a very successful interior designer). Constance tells her husband that she is not surprised that he has grown bored with her sexually. Just because he wanted to sleep with her years ago, that does not mean that he is going to feel the same sexual passion for the rest of his life. The final scene where Constance tells her husband that she will be a “constant wife” if not a faithful one, where he is rather annoyed but in fairness, can’t say very much, is funny and very sharp. Maugham is insistent that if women want independence, they have to work for it... Then they can have the sexual freedom and general independence that men have usually had….a refreshingly sensible moderate point of view which does not lean towards feminism or “male chauvinism”! I enjoyed the play very much and would love to see more Maugham plays being done.

Georgette Heyer's novels Part II

Heyer’s earlier works were more adventure stories, later she turned more to comedies of manners. The first books written in her 20s were set in Georgian England. This time had something of a “Wild West” feel about it - there were highwaymen, lawlessness and it wasn’t unknown for noblemen to kidnap heiresses and force them into marriage or to take young working class girls forcibly as mistresses. Heyer used these facts in order to put together good rollickingadventure stories, such as Black Moth, where the lovely Diana is kidnapped by a wealthy nobleman who wants to marry her, but does not care if he has to force her into the marriage. She is rescued by John Carstares, another nobleman who has had to leave England for some years due to taking the blame for cheating at cards. He has lived abroad, and then come back to England, and lived as a highwayman…Eventually he saves Diana’s virtue, and his brother, who had been the one who cheated, takes the blame.Jack is restored to his earldom and family estate with his new wife.
These Old Shades” has a plot where Justin Alistair, a selfish and rakish man of 40, meets a young street urchin who turns out to be the daughter of his enemy, the Comte De St Vire. He takes Leonie into his household, as his page since she has been dressing as a boy, to avoid molestation.  Justin hopes to use her to shame St Vire, but he falls in love with her and marries her.