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, who admired his singng 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 mobile 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 Her Majesty, 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 part, who had gotten lost while canvassing, all turned up with knives, skewers, corkscrews and whatever other implements they had managed tom 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.).  And Johnny meanwhile, looking aghast from the window, was moved, pyjamas and all,  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.

But 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 and 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 as well.  Indeed, with the very marriage arranged and a stag night in view, Johnny was left, as one is, deciding to 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 quarter).

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 was 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 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 somewhat 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 (first sign of lunacy –or maybe it is the first sign of sanity)...

“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 the characteristic “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

Every 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 his wife still sits on the TV

Though she ain’t passed this way 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 cable TV sports

Watching re runs of last weeks’ fight.

Chorus

Was it worth the leaving, was it easier to stay

Things’ll be different, starting today

Are you thinking of me, when I’m thinking of you

Are you missing me, am I missing you too?

Who can say?

I guess it’s strange, the games unmarried people play

Eileen O’Flynn don’t know where to begin

Her only recent date looked like Ho Chi Min

Talked about nothing but his Eivlis collection…

Didn’t have a jump suit, but he had an erection

Asking him to leave, well it seemed just too much fuss

It’s the choice between desperation - or a lonely lush

Now she’s tired in the morning and she’s got the coital blues

Waiting on tables and shuffling those soft shoes.

Chorus

Larry bumped into Eileen at the Seven- Eleven

Arranged to take her for a bite, Tuesday night at 7

And a few days later, Larry’s cleaning up the yard

Sobered up cold turkey, though it was pretty hard

And Eileen’s leafing through an old wedding catalog

Talking about kids, or maybe they’ll get a dog

And helpful friends are saying things like “You must be insane”

“She’s cheap” – “He’s a creep” – “Don’t go through that again”

Chorus

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

What can you say?

I guess it’s kind of strange, the games unmarried people play

California Mountain Range Benedict Brooke

California Mountain Range

White edged against the blue encircling sky

Ain’t no river blue enough, nor no mountain high

California mountain range

The shifting sands can’t change

Your place in time

Or halt my endless wanderings

Only touch the clouds one time

And feel the echoes of her mind

The Broken plains, the frozen waste

Alaska or some long lost place

Or the Boot Hills of some Texas of some long lost song

Some such place I stole from time

Now long lost within my mind

Where only memory knows, that someone did somebody wrong

California Mountain range

The seasons pass and never change

The soft calls of your canyons and your ridge back highs

Only touching your stony ground

Your head in clouds wreathed all around

And speaking quietly of softer times

And gently falls the wind swept snow

And passing winds that cannot show

Those secrets that are lost, e’en in the finding

California Mountain Sky

The traveller with his head held high

Up on the ridge backed pass and winding

Past the skyline, past the trees

California morning Breeze

Strays through my hair and ties me to her wand’ring..

‘cross the leaves to firmer ground

Your silence echoing around

Then final world of half a lifetime’s wondering

Now high above the rising pass

She lays and names her home at last

Now California mountain range

Take me in your arms of stone

And make of me a place called home

And lay to rest my empty dreams of passing time

Let my feet move to the dance

Of knowing luck and certain chance

Where no one hears the evening fall, and blue stars shine

Take my hand and lead me high

Where the passing trail can’t wind

Beyond the snowline, where the sun is falling

Place my hand upon the clouds

And ease my body to the ground

Let me rise to greet the early morning

Where rock is smooth as polished glass

Swallowed In memories of her past

Where still your silent watchfulness is standing

And somewhere there - I’ll raise my head

When sky turns rust and rivers red

And ask a little understanding

California mountain range

White edged against the blue encircling sky

Ain’t no river blue enough, nor no mountain high

I’ll weep not nor ask you why

Say only that I’ll rest here while I’m waiting

And then upon your silent sky

We’ll walk to clouds and there goodbye

Will change into a new dawn’s making…

T Shirt (2015) by Benedict Brooke

To wed and to bed, and to turn off the lights

To bed and to dead - that most silent of nights

Once born, is that it?  All that lies ahead

After break of dawn and breaking of bread?

Not journeymanship when all is done and said, but merely a holiday trip instead.

Each visit, but brief.  A whistle-stop tour – that is it, relief, the travel shop pall.

Now bears a trinket, to link it, to whatchemacall…

A souvenir of a year dead, to add to the haul.

Somewhere out there, if you scurry and run

Career at a hurry, scramble on up and on

New destination, new location, new experience, old frustration

The waste that haste loses, in translation.

Each moment which left to ferment might bear relation.

This fleeting vacation, with each truculent view

Unenduring, time spent touring

Unmemorable places, vestigial sights

Ephemeral traces of trivial nights

And when all’s said – to bed, and turn off the lights

 THE END

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 something of 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 in many ways 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. I can’t warm to her heroines. But I loved “Thank Heaven Fasting". It is about a young woman -Monica, who is just about to make her coming 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, getting a well-off husband matters less than “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. Not long into 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 however is 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 of her books about married life, 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

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.  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 then.  They still sleep around, and don’t feel too much guilt about it.  Having women is one of the perks of being in a musical lifestyle.  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”.  And to complain that the husbands were never there when needed.  Jeff Randles and Brandon Sherwood are the 2 lead singers in the band, and they are good friends.   They understand each other and in some ways feel closer to each other than they do to their wives.  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.

This is not really a romance albeit it is about love relationships and marriage.  It is more about life in general, about how far we can compromise in terms of work we do, and how to make a marriage last when a lot of things are against it.  I liked writing it because I feel that in life, especially as we get middle aged, there aren’t any easy answers…. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452977780&sr=8-1&keywords=nadine+sutton

Charlotte Bronte , Mr Nicholls and her last years

>Charlotte was dumbfounded when she was proposed to by Mr Nicholls.  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 either. 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?

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. But tragic days were in the offing for the Bronte family. Branwell had become a serious problem for them, since his dismissal form this job at the Robinsons. 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 such 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, to let him know that she was a woman, (due to rumours about the real identity of “the Bells”,) 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, with whom she had been very close. She knew that she would probably not recover but she was willing to see medical men and take their advice. Charlotte hoped that her sister might survive, and did her best to look after her. 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 when she had been their governess. She went there 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, but he was also sorry for her and believed that she would be better to go home and get over her feelings. Charlotte however 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. He threw away some of her letters but Mme Heger rescued them, perhaps because she was aware of the possibility of scandal and wanted to preserve evidence. She gradually recovered and was occupied with family problems, such as Branwell’s drinking and bad behaviour, 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 like Haworth… 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 would not have been put off by such negativity from an outsider, 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. t;">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 and who remained close to her all their lives. 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. However their publisher Newby was a decidedly “dodgy” character 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 or so, 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 had to function as a sort of social worker and activist, trying to get conditions improved. He was a good hearted man, but was in many ways awkward in his social relations. Possibly it was difficult for him to mingle in society, when he had come from such a modest background.  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… provoking 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, hat 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 nothing.  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. However 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 furthered her education.  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.

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 as a whole. 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, the 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 and sexed up lifestyle.  It was considered wrong that he allowed his mistresses to be 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 and 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 married well and had inherited his cousin’s estate. 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, who was killed in World War I. 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, Opal, Pearl, Ruby, Sapphire (also as Sapphira- a bible name) and Topaz.