Roman Bride

My story Roman Bride is available on Amazon. It is a romance of a British soldier, who follows the Emperor Arthur, and a Roman-British lady, who is given to him in marriage. Hope it will please some of my readers. https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=roman+bride+sutton&crid=2QXTW9CUTIRD9&sprefix=roman+bride+sutton%2Caps%2C205&ref=nb_sb_noss

Kitten Lady

Its kitten season and Hannah is looking after very tiny kittens, some of whom are premature. You can follow her on social media. Hannah's work involves fostering kittens, and encouraging people to take in kittens and to trap wild cats and have them spayed or neutered.. so that the population of feral kittens will go down. she also teaches classes in kitten care and looks after other animals - goats, pigs, dogs etc - that she has rescued. Her videos include information on kitten and pet care and the little animals are very cute and lovable... She has cats of her own, who live with her permanently, including Ferguson an orange cat, and Chouchou who is a Persian who had a very severe cleft palate....

Dorothy Canfield Fisher Novelist and Educator.

Im hoping to write a blog on Fisher's writing soon. She is an American author, born in 1879, in Lawrence, Kansas. Her father was a history professor and her mother was an artist. She was a prolific writer who also was involved in educational reform and in war relief work in Europe. She studied at the University of Kansas. She also studied languages in Paris. In 1907 she married John Redwood Fisher. During the War, she went with him to France and became involved in war work. After the war, she went on writing and also got involved in promoting the Montessori Method of education for young children. She was greatly admired in America, as an educational reformer and writer. Some time ago, I read one of her best known novels, The Home Maker. It is set in America, about a husband and wife, who swap roles. The husband is injured in an accident and confined to bed. His wife, who has never enjoyed housework and is impatient with her children, takes on a sales job, and finds she is very good at it. At home, her husband starts to manage the house and take care of the children and he enjoys it a lot, and the children are happier. But as he recovers, he realises that he would prefer to stay home and let his wife earn a living which she likes doing. But he knows that society would not accept this division of labour, of him being the housekeeper and child carer and his wife earning their money. He consults his doctor. The doctor agrees with him, and makes out that the husband is still injured and will never be much better, so he has an excuse for staying home and being a house husband.. and his wife does well at her job. I hope to blog some more about her later. I'm just starting to read one of her novels, based on her own life. It's called The Deepening Stream. Fisher had written a children's book (Understood Betsy) which was about the Montessori system of teaching. Her later novel also gives some information on Montessori, and is partly about her own war work in France.

warning to social Climbers by Benedict Brooke

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.

Consequences Part VI

Alex goes to town to meet her brother and he questions her about what has happened. She feels she can't explain why she left the house to find lodgings... and can't explain that her lodgings are shabby and in a very poor area. He asks why the servants weren't paid, and she finally manage to tell him it's because she had used up the money. She says that she thought he could just write another cheque and he is appalled and accuses her of embezzling the money. She really can't understand why it is a problem. She has not handled money in years. She dimly realises that it was wrong to take the money Cedric gave her for the servants' pay, and to use it herself, but she does not see why. Cedric is torn between serious disapproval and feeling sorry for her, when she is so helpless and unaware. Alex feels that it's another indication that she is a bad person and deserves punishment and hellfire. He tells her that they will forget about it, and when Pamela gets married, she will make over her money to Alex. She goes back to her lodgings and broods, and comes to the conclusion that if she's so bad, she is destined for hell anyway.. if there is a hell. So she decides to commit suicide. She goes to the Ponds on Hampstead Heath and nerves herself to end it all. She works herself up to find enough courage to finish her life.. and steps into the pond, having put stones in her pockets. She drowns. Her family are sad but not desperately upset. They don't understand the problems that she has carried all her life or what drove her to this final event. Her younger sister feels that she had nothing to live for. Barbara remembers how pretty the young Alex was.

Consequences Part V

Cedric tells Alex that because she was settled in the convent, their father did not leave her anything much in his Will. He left most of his money to his sons. For his daughters, he left a portion of money to be divided between Pamela and Barbara, but to Alex, he only left a small annuity of £50 a year. That was paid directly to the convent. He believed - not unnaturally - that the convent would keep Alex for life.. and she did not need any capital. However Alex has no real idea of money - in the convent, the basics were provided for her... so she does not realise how precarious things are now. Barbara needs the money she got from her father, as she was left so badly off. Pamela is young and will probably marry well, but Cedric feels he can't advise his sister to give up her money unless she has a rich husband, and she has not got one, as yet. Alex is very upset that her family seem to be making such an issue about her income, because it means very little to her. Cedric tells her he will help her out, a bit, but she will have to wait till Pamela gets engaged, and can give up some of her portion, to have a settled income, however small. He feels he's not being unreasonable to tell Alex that Pamela MAY be provided for by a rich husband but for the present, she needs the money that her father has left her. Alex gets even more upset when she overhears Violet who has been very kind to her, say things that insinuate that she is only being nice for Cedric's sake. She has been staying with Violet and now, she feels uneasy doing this. When Violet and Cedric plan to go away to the country for August, Alex asks if she could stay at their house while she tries to make plans. Violet agrees as there will be a couple of servants still keeping an eye on the house... Cedric tells her that he will give her some money for herself, which she'll need -and also a cheque to pay the board wages to the servants at the end of the month. He and Violet go away and Alex stays, but she then finds that the convent want repayment for the money they spent on sending her back to London. Worried and not sure what to do, she decides that she has to pay them.. so she uses her little bit of money from Cedric. But that still leaves her short. Foolishly, she thinks it would be all right to use the money for the servants' wages for herself. She has decided to stop living in the family's homes and find some cheap lodgings. She finds a room in a lodging house, and dips into the servants' wages to pay for it. She thinks it's no harm as Cedric can just write another cheque for them. She is hurt at having overheard Violet and now believes that Violet was not really kind because she liked her... She was just showing kindliness for her husband's sake. She moves into the lodging house near Hampstead. It is shabby but the landlady is nice to her. Then Cedric learns from his servants that they haven't been paid. He hurries back to London to see what has happened.

Consequences Part IV

Alex finds that her hysterical fits and her insistence that she wants to leave religous life does not go down well. The nuns are shocked. She is sent to consult a priest and he is very unsympathetic, telling her that she is very wrong to want to leave her convent. Delafield gives a harsh portrait of the religious in general, and particularly of the Irish priest who advises Alex. He is very rough with her, saying that her family won't want her. Her siblings are married or leading their own lives. They will not be willing to take her back. Alex is hurt by all this and it reinforces her conviction that she is a bad person whom nobody could love or respect. But the nuns and priests can't believe that anyone could want to leave, once they have become professed religious. The priest, as a concession, suggests that she could transfer to another convent or another order, but she says she does not want that. She cannot live in the way religious are supposed to live, not having any special people or any personal love in her life. He says that even if she does go ahead and apply to be released from her vows, it will take a long time and may not even happen. She says that she can't go on. If they won't let her go willingly, she will just leave. He reminds her that she won't be wanted by her own family. She continues to insist and in the end, she is sent to the order's convent in Rome, to be near the Vatican while her case is being processed. It becomes clear that in spite of the priest's negativity, she is going to get her release, though it may take time. She finds that the Roman nuns are cold to her as well, as it is the ultimate sin to want to be released from your vows. She is hurt and even more lonely, and she becomes ill, with throat abscesses, which weaken her. She writes to her family, who are amazed that she now wants to give up the life of a nun. They say that she will always be welcome at home, but it's clear they have no real understanding of what she has gone through during her time as a nun and now, while she is looking for laicisation. After several months she is allowed to leave. The order pays for her to go back to England, but makes it clear she will have to pay the money back. She is also told that the church will not sanction her getting married. She feels this does not hurt her, as she has no interest in marriage. Her family do not refuse to take her in, so she decides to go to Barbara - who now lives in a small house in Hampstead... Her brother Cedric has married a well to do young woman, Violet, and they have one child. He is comfortably off now and happy in his marriage. Alex, having lived in a limited enclosed life for 10 years, is shattered by the journey back to London. She knows nothing of money, or how London has changed. When she get to the city, she decides to get a cab to Hampstead, to Barbara's house, but she does not have enough money for the fare. Barbara is not unwelcoming but she's a little annoyed that she has to pay some of Alex's cab fare and that her sister did not think of getting a bus or underground. In a day or so, she suggests that they go to town to see Cedric and his wife, and have a talk about her finances. Her youngest sister, Pamela, is "out" and lives with Cedric. Barbara lends Alex a little money to pay for some new clothes, but Alex has no idea how she is going to repay her.

Diana III

Diana and Jan get married and she decides that she wants to use her money to set up a home for children whose lives have been destroyed by war. Jan feels that her good side is now coming out more. He is fed up with the war and wishes it were over. Diana is eager to have a baby. She wants a son by Jan, but in the end she has to tell him that it seems unlikely that she will manage it. She tells him that when she asked him to come to France with her on the mission to get Yves' papers, she was pregnant by one of her lovers. She felt that she could not go on with dangerous war work, in such a condition so she hastily arranged an abortion. It didn't go well and her womb was damaged. Jan knows little of female reproduction and is shocked. He had guessed at the time he met her that Diana was pregnant, and then on a second meeting, she did not seem to be pregnant. Diana tells him she could try to have an operation to fix her womb, but she also has a bad heart. She has had heart trouble before and the adventures in France have added to the strain on her heart. So having a gynaecological operation might kill her.

Consequences III

Ten years pass, and we learn that Alex is now a nun (Sister Alexandra) in the convent in Belgium. But she is still not very happy. She had found a refuge in the London convent, and was accepted as a postulant. She hasn't got any real skills to use in her work. She does a bit of teaching but one of her little pupils gets a crush on her and the nuns are nervous about this sort of thing. Alex still loves Mother Gertrude, who is now a senior nun in the Liege convent, but she is getting worn out. She has been struggling for years to persuade herself that she has a vocation and that she is in the right place, but she is running out of energy. She is often ill. But she felt when she came to stay at the convent that she had no real option but to go into the order. Her family didn't want her, and the upper class world didn't want her. Mother Gertrude and the convent seemed to be the only people who cared for her or wanted to give her a place in life. In the past years, things have changed a lot in England. Her parents are both dead. Her brother Cedric has married and so has Barbara. She married a young artist who went to South Africa during the Boer war and became ill and died. He left her very badly off. Alex feels lost. Her family keep in touch but she has no real connexion with them. Her youngest sister, Pamela, is now growing up and ready to take her place in society. She then learns that Mother Gertrude has been transferred to a convent in South America and will be leaving soon. Mother Gertrude believes she did the right thing in encouraging Alex to become a nun, but now she finds out her mistake. When she hears that her idol is going to be sent far away, probably for life, Sister Alexandra becomes hysterical. Gertrude is severe with her and tells her that she is very wrong to think like this.. She has a vocation and she must obey her religious superiors. She cannot attach herself to an individual or love someone more than God. Alex has always thought of herself as "bad" so these unkind words from Gertrude drive her to despair. It seems to confirm that she is really a bad person and that Mother Gertrude never cared for her. She breaks down completely. Mother Gertrude leaves and Alex, after some more hysterical fits, tells the senior nuns that she has decided she can't stay in the convent.

Consequences II

Noel Cardew is a little like Monica's admirer in Thank Heaven Fasting.. The young man in Thank Heaven, called Carol, was very vain and tiresome. Monica put up with him because she had no other prospects of a husband. However, Alex begins to find Noel increasingly annoying. Her parents let them get engaged, privately but do not announce it. Within a few weeks, Alex feels she can't live with Noel's lack of any real affection for her any longer or his ceaseless boasting. She bravely breaks off the engagement. Her parents are horrified. They suspect that she will not have many more chances of getting married and that if news gets out that she jilted Noel, she will ruin her chances altogether. Alex is very upset but feels she had no option. Her parents continue to take her into society but she dislikes it more and more and she does not have any suitors. Barbara, the next girl, is now over her accident, when she fell off the "tightrope". The Clare parents had decided to send her to a friend in France to learn about society. Barbara took to life in France very well and soon became very sophisticated and fashionable. After a year or so, she returns. She is only 17, but she seems very well able to come out in Society and tells Alex that she has had an admirer in France who writes her love letters. Alex is getting furiously jealous of her younger sister. Barbara decides to make her come out early at just 17. It is the Diamond Jubilee year, and the family go to various events. Alex is coming home from one such event, with only her maid as chaperone. She is tired and hot, and the maid, who is a Catholic, suggests that they go to a nearby church to rest for a little. It appears that the order where Alex went to school now has a house and church in London. It is a Belgian order and Alex has had nothing to do with them since she left school. She agrees to walk to the church and rest up.. and when she gets there, she does feel a little happier. She wonders if perhaps she can pray for something good, and her prayer will be answered. In the church, she is waiting for her maid to find a cab, and she finds to her shock that there is a nun in the chapel. It is Mother Gertrude, one of the senior nuns. Gertrude sees how unhappy Alex is, as they talk, and she begins to persuade her to turn to religious life. Over the next months, she visits the church often and develops a crush on Mother Gertrude. Gertrude believes that Alex has a vocation and encourages her to think so too. The Clares are not happy with her for becoming so religious and "Slumming"... and arguments break out in the house. Barbara's French beau lets her down. She had thought he was going to propose and he marries his cousin in France. She is in a bad mood. Alex withdraws more from society and her parents get more annoyed with her. Another row escalates. Her father tells her that if she can't be happy with her own family and the upper class way of life, she can leave. Her mother reminds her that the family are not very rich, and that the house and most of their money is left to their 2 sons, so she and her sisters won't be very well off, if they do not marry. Feeling pressurised and unwanted, Alex decides to leave. She contacts Mother Gertrude, who invites her to come and stay at the convent and she goes.

Consequences by EM Delafield

This is one of Delafield's best known works. It is set in the late Victorian era - at the time when she herself was growing up. The work has been described by critic Nicola Beauman as a very angry book. It seems as if Delafield was rebelling about the way she and other Victorian girls were brought up. She also felt anger at the way she had been treated when she went into a convent as a young girl. She put up with harshness as a young nun, but when her younger sister Yoe began to think of going into a convent too, she felt she could not bear for her beloved sister to be as harshly treated. She finally left the convent. Her heroine is a girl called Alexandra Clare. She is a neurotic and unhappy girl, whose father is a well to do gentleman, Sir Francis Clare. He is a Roman Catholic, but her mother Isabel is not much interested in religion. Their children are brought up strictly, however and Alex is not very happy all through her childhood. Her parents criticise her all the time. She does not get on well with her siblings, and she is not liked by her hyper critical Nanny. She believes that when she is grown up, she will be a success "like people in books". But for the present, she indulges in passions for friends, whom she admires extravagantly. Her parents don't like her emotional nature or the people she chooses to adore. As a young girl, she tries to dominate her younger siblings, but tends to end up in scrapes. The most serious is when she bullies her younger sister Barbara into playing "tightropes" with her. Barbara does not want to play, but Alex gets her to stand on a makeshift tightrope, and she falls, hurting her back. Her parents are angry at her "nearly killing Barbara" and send her away to a convent school as a punishment. She is not religious then, and does not like the school in Belgium. She spends a few years there, and during her time, she "falls" for an older girl, Queenie, whom she adores. Queenie is not interested in Alex. She is preoccupied with coming out in society. She is friendly to Alex but it's clear that she does not want to be friends with the girl - she is just cultivating her because Alex is from a better class family than hers. When she goes back home, she asks her mother if she can ask Queenie to stay but her mother is horrified at the idea of her befriending a girl who is not their social equal. Alex comes out and finds that she is not a success. She is too anxious to please and she does not make any real friends. She does have one suitor, Noel Cardew, who is a vain "full of himself" young man who simply wants her to listen to him while he talks about how clever he is.

Diana Part II

When his wife is killed, John joins SOE. He speaks good French and learns how to kill and how to survive undercover in France. Then to his amazement, Diana turns up again. She is still living in France. She tells him that she is being asked to persuade him to take part in a Resistance attack. She is married to a wealthy industrialist, who has been collaborating in France for years. He believes in fascism, as it means that he can make more money under a fascist government. SOE wants to get into his factory to get hold of some documents. Diana works for them, but she would need help with this difficult task. Jan does not want to undertake it. He does not know whether he loves or hates Diana. When she comes to see him, he can see that she is in a highly nervous state and he's not sure she is up to undercover work. He agrees in the end to do the job with her and is flown into France. Diana's husband is Yves De Royden. He has a cousin, Raoul, who is disgusted at Yves' fascist beliefs and who is in the Resistance. With Raoul's help, Jan and Diana embark on kidnapping Yves to force him to hand over some papers which will be valuable to the SOE. Things go wrong and while they get away and get the papers, Yves is killed and this raises a hue and cry. Jan is injured. Back in the UK, Diana realises that she is now a widow, and free to marry again. She tells Jan that Yvonne, her daughter is his child. She became pregnant by him just before her father killed himself - and that was why she panicked and married Yves. They plan to get married. Diana is reconciled with her mother.

Johnny and the Four - short dark humour Story by 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.).

Blondes by Benedict Brooke

Blondes have more fun Brunettes have the brains At least that’s what they say In fact, that ain’t true Blondes just think that they do! And what do they know, anyway?

Diana by RF Delderfield

This is not one of Delderfield's better works but I've enjoyed reading it some time ago. There were originally 2 novels which were combined into the one work "Diana". The hero of the book is John (Jan) Leigh, who lives in a small seaside town in Devon in the 1920s and 30s. He lived in London as a small child but his mother died and he was taken into the care of his maternal uncles, Reuben, Mark and Luke. They are all simple west country people who lead a quiet life and work hard. Luke has a small shop, Reuben is a bit of a left wing activist and Mark has a small farm and riding school. John's father was a drunk and left his family badly off. The uncles take John in when his mother has died, and offer him chances to take over their businesses when he's grown up. He loves Devon.. He meets Diana Gaylorde Sutton in his early teens. She is the daughter of a wealthy businessman who has an estate down there, and her mother spends most of her time in London, engaging in social activities. She is a hard selfish woman, and Diana continually plays truant. She is educated by a governess. When she meets Jan, they become friends and playmates.. enjoying the countryside and having fun. As he grows older, Jan begins to fall in love with her. But he's aware that he is a poor boy without many prospects and she is a very rich heiress. Mrs Sutton gets angry at the way her daughter is behaving and begins to worry that Diana may end up losing her virginity to this country boy. Jan goes to school and has some talent for writing. He then manages to get a job on a small newspaper. Diana comes out and is a very popular deb. She smuggles Jan up to her bedroom on the night of her coming out dance, and they make love. But Jan comes to realise that although Diana claims to be in love with him, she is totally selfish and really she is just using him to rebel against her mother. She admits that she does not think she could in real life marry someone who was not rich. She goes back to London and to her society life, but after a while, she gets into trouble and John has to help her out. She was driving drunk and crashed a car and someone died, and she feels guilty. John still cares for her, but they can't agree about whether they can find a way of living that suits both of them. He wants to be independent, perhaps run a farm or riding school. Diana can't see herself married to a working man. Then, her father loses a lot of his money and commits suicide. Diana vanishes, and when Jan goes looking for her, her mother tells him that her daughter could not face being poor. She has married a French upper class man, whom she has known for some time, and gone away with him. War breaks out and Jan joins up. He marries a girl called Alison, out of loneliness. But she is killed in an air raid. Then at Dunkirk, when Jan is trying to get back to England, he meets Diana in the crowd of French refugees. She has some children that she wants to send to the UK, and once she sees him, she relies on him to help.

Cynthia Asquith and the Spring House

Lady Cynthia Asquith (born Cynthia Mary Evelyn Charteris) was the daughter of the Earl of Wemyss, a Tory peer. Her mother was also an upper class lady belonging to a society set, called the "Souls" who were interested in intellectual and aristic matters. She married Herbert Asquith, son of the Liberal Prime Minister, a few years before World War One. He was a barrister, but he wanted to be a poet, and the young couple did not have much money. Cynthia was interested in literature and the arts, though she also enjoyed a typical upper class social life. When she realised that she and Herbert (Beb) were going to be short of money, she decided that she had to be the bread winner, although she was not brought up to work. So she took to writing and also got a job as a part time secretary to JM Barrie. She wrote biographies of the Royal Family, memoirs about the upper class life before the War, a biography of Sonia Tolstoy, and some fiction. She also wrote ghost stories. However, now she is most famous for her Diaries of life in England during World War One, from 1915 to 1918, which were published in the 1960s. I've read the Diaries many times, and loved them. They give a picture of political and upper class London. Cynthia was friends with many writers and arists and she also knew famous soldiers and politicians. Many years later, in the 1930's, she wrote a novel, "The Spring House". I hope to blog about it soon. Her heroine is called Miranda, and the novel is based loosely on her own life during the War. During that time, Cynthia was living what she called a "cuckoo" life, renting out her house and living with relatives and friends. Her husband was away at War, and she by then had 2 small children. The book starts with Miranda staying with her mother, together with her small son Patrick. Her husband is abroad and advises her to stay in England because of fears of submarine attacks. Miranda feels a bit useless and wants to do some war work but she is not sure what she can do. She is accustomed to a leisurely social type of life... Her 2 brothers have joined up and she misses them. Miranda starts to work as a nurse and enjoys it. She gets on well with the soldiers, and enjoys the feeling that she is doing something useful. She does however miss her husband yet she finds some consolation in flirtations with some of her male friends. One of them is a pacifist writer, (based on DH Lawrence). More will follow!

House of Mirth I

Wharton wrote a lot as a girl but she did not publish a novel until she was around 40. Her marriage ended and she spent most of her time in France, rather than the USA. She involved herself in war work during her life in France, and wrote about it. One of her best known novels is "House of Mirth". Like most of her work, it is set in the US, in "Old New York".. ie among the moneyed well bred aristocracy of the East Coast. Her heroine, Lily Bart is from a well born family but her father comes home one day and tells his wife and daughter that they are ruined. He has lost all his money. He fades away and dies, ashamed. Mrs Bart is angry and upset that her husband has let her down, and left her poor. She dies, leaving Lily to the care of relatives who are not really pleased to have a young woman foisted on them. The girl moves from staying with one relative or friend and another, and feels that she has to play along with these people to have a home of sorts. She gambles a lot and sometimes wins but it's not a steady income. She tries to find a husband but never seems to find the right man, who would be agreeable to her and rich enough to keep her. At the beginning of the book, she is 29 and getting dangerously close to spinsterhood.

Edith Wharton

I am hoping to write a blog on Edith Wharton soon and cover one or 2 of her novels. She was born as Edith Jones, in New York, in 1862. Her family were rich and members of the American aristocracy. She was related to upper class people of English and Dutch descent. She was educated by governesses and wrote poems and novellas, but did not have any of them published at first. She was expected to join in the social round and find a husband. She was ambivalent about "Society" and having to put aside her writing to attend parties and travel around searching for a suitable marriage. Her family spent time in Europe and she liked it better there. Her father died, and she found a husband, Edward Wharton. She and her husband travelled to Europe a good deal and shared an interest in the arts. But he suffered from depression and their marriage began to collapse. Edith started an affair with a journalist, Morton Fullerton. M/F

The Mitford Girls

I'm reading a biography of the Mitford family, by Mary S Lovell. I find myself unable to like it very much. It is well written but I find that there is a little too much sympathy for the fascist members of the family, particularly Diana Mosley. (unfortunately, there were quite a few of them.) David Freeman-Mitford, Lord Redesdale, the father of the family, was eccentric and right wing. He had a hot temper and was difficult to live with. However in later years, he regretted letting himself be involved with his daughters' right wing fascist views. As a young man, David married Sydney Bowles. His wife was a cool but gentle woman, who seems to have married for security but they were relatively poor by aristocratic standards. He was a younger son, and his father in law got him a job as editor to a magazine when he got married, so as to provide a bigger income. David was not much of a reader, so it was an odd choice of career. David's older brother was killed in World War One, and left only 2 daughters, so David then became the heir to the title and estates. With 7 children, money was tight by upper class standards. They had more than one estate but none of them were prosperous. Nancy was the eldest of the family which consisted of 6 daughters and 1 son, Tom. In the 1920s and 30s, as the children grew up, quite a few of them seemed to veer toward the right, in politics. While I like Nancy, who was a mild liberal who became rather more conservative, as she grew older, I find the family's political leanings unnerving. Even Nancy, though she was anti Fascist, was inclined to tolerate her siblings' right wing views, perhaps to avoid family rows. But she did speak to the British authorities when World War Two broke out, and advised them that Diana was overly sympathetic to the Nazis. As a result, Diana, who had just had a baby, was imprisoned with her husband under wartime laws for her alleged Nazi leanings, even though Mosley had told his followers to fight for Britain once they were at war. Some people thought it was unfair or unsisterly of her to do this to her sister, but honestly I am relieved that she felt strongly enough to stand on the right side. Unity, the second youngest girl, was not just right wing but unstable. She went to Germany to study. She became obsessed with Hitler and supported his anti Semitic policies. When war broke out, she shot herself because she was so upset that her country, and Germany which she loved, were fighting. Tom, the only boy, also "liked Germans" and was right wing. He did not want to fight the Germans. He joined up but managed to get posted to fight against Japan. He was killed in the later stages of the war. Jessica (called Decca) was a non fascist; she was sympathetic to the Communist party. She ran away and married a nephew of Churchill's wife, Esmond Romilly... who was an upper class Communist. Nancy disliked him, as she felt he was nasty and unpleasant, and that he had led Jessica into rebellion against her family and a difficult life. Jessica and Esmond were very poor after their marriage and lived in Rotherhithe, a working class district, near the docks. They had a daughter, Julia, who caught measles, when only a few months old. The child died, and the couple were devastated. However, their very loud pro Communist activities provoked their upper class relatives and friends. In the beginning of their marriage, if they visited relatives, they regularly stole small items from their houses, on the grounds that the upper class did not need the things and that they deserved some punishment for being rich. So after this childish behaviour, it was hardly surprising that their friends and relations were not all that fond of them. Jessica did repent to some extent of her Communist views in later life, whereas Diana was ambivalent about her pro Fascist viewpoint. Jessica and Esmond went to the US and when War broke out, he joined up. They had another daughter, Constantia, but Esmond was killed. Jessica remained in the US, and married a Jewish left wing lawyer, Bob Truehaft. She and he had 2 more children and pursued left wing causes, as journalists and activists. But Jessica never made up with her sister Diana. I hope to write a bit more later.

Yeats and Marriage

In 1913, Yeats was feeling hostile to the Irish middle classes partly due to their lack of sympathy for the poor, in the Dublin Strike. But a few years later, he was shocked by the Easter Rising, which was led by Irish middle class nationalists who rose up and tried to fight against the British, while they were engaged in World War I with Germany. The British savagely repressed the Rising and swiftly executed most of the leaders. Even Irish people who had not supported the Rebellion were shaken by the brutal response of the Government. They began to sympathise with the men who had gone out to die. Yeats wrote poems where he admitted that he had not realised how passionate the Irish were about their freedom. He felt that the dull, bourgeois city of Dublin had been transformed and that a "Terrible Beauty" had been born. Maud Gonne had married an Irishman, John MacBride, and the marriage had failed within a couple of years. But now, her husband had gone out to rebel, and had been shot. He had proved himself as a patriot. Yeats began to consider getting married, as he was getting older and had no children. He fell in love with Georgina Hyde Lees, a much younger Englishwoman. He had met Georgie, as she was called, in 1910, through his mistress and friend, Olivia Shakespear. Several years later, in 1917, he asked her to marry him. She agreed. Their marriage had its difficulties at times. Yeats had not started his sex life early... he had been a shy romantic minded young man who did not lose his virginity until he was older, because he was not confident with women. But over the years, he had had romances and affairs. When they married, things were awkward between them. Georgie felt unhappy about the women in his life. She feared that he still loved some of them, particularly Maud Gonne. Georgie and Yeats had a son, Michael and a daughter Anne. Yeats became a Senator in the Irish Free State and continued to write. His poetry was harsher and grittier than his early works. He continued to take an interest in politics and dabbled in the Blueshirt movement. He sympathised a little with fascism but he was more interested in his poetry. Georgie grew to tolerate his mistresses. She had to look after Yeats, an older man, in poor health who was demanding, and it began to wear her out. She was rather glad to let other women share in the task of looking after the great poet.

David Allan Coe

Coe died a month ago, at the age of 86. He was born in Ohio in 1939. He was a member of the Outlaw country movement and a talented song writer. He was in and out of trouble as a young man, in correctional institutions and prison. But he sometimes exaggerated the crimes he had committed. He claimed that he had been in prison for murder, but this was untrue. He had several problems with the IRS, but he had a successful career. Some of his big hits were Long Haired Redneck, which is about balancing between being a country singer and a rebel. Another is The Ride, about the Ghost of Hank WIlliams.