Phineas Finn Part II

Phineas is a Roman Catholic which makes him unusual in Victorian upper class England. He is hard working and intelligent - but his lack of money means he has to rely on influential friends to give him a start in politics. Because he has no money behind him, he has to try and get into a paying office when his party is in power. He is upset when Laura turns him down and tells him she's going to marry Robert Kennedy. However, soon after she marries she knows she has made a mistake. Kennedy is very puritanical and a Presbyterian, and he is a strict husband. He is suspicious of Phineas and does not like his wife being friendly with him. He also grows resentful of Laura's wanting a role as a political hostess. He tries to curb her, and she becomes angrier with him. Phineas is not quite forbidden the house but he has a stroke of luck when Kennedy is attacked by garotters in the street one night. Phineas happens to be nearby, and is able to rescue the older man. Kennedy feels he owes Phineas some gratitude so he allows the friendship with Laura to continue. Phineas then meets Violet Effingham, a cousin of Laura's, who is very pretty and charming and he begins to pay court to her. Violet has always been in love with Lord Chiltern, but has not pursued the relationship, because she is afraid of him. He is wild and selfish and she is quiet and shy. She likes Phineas and is a little tempted by him. Chiltern does not take this well and he challenges his friend to a duel. After the duel, they get over their differences and remain friends. Phineas still has problems since he is an MP, but he needs a government job to support him, as MPs were not paid then. He also has become friendly with Marie Goesler, a wealthy Viennese widow who has become part of the upper crust circle in recent months. She has attracted the attention of the old Duke of Omnium, who wants to marry her. However she ends by promising Glencora Palliser that she will not marry him, as Glencora's son is his heir. But she has been attracted to Phineas, and offers him herself and her fortune in order to help him with his political career. He likes her, but is still involved with Mary Jones, and he decides to go back to Ireland and marry her. He turns down Mme Goesler. Through his connextions in England, he gets a job in Ireland which will provide him with a thousand a year and that's enough for him to marry on. He returns to Ireland and marries Mary.

Phineas Finn and Phineas Redux

Its many years since I read the Palliser series, but I still remember the books. The second book is about Phineas Finn, an Irishman who decides to try his fortune in England and becomes an MP. However, he is not from a rich family. His father is a country doctor and Phineas has trained as a lawyer but has not much prospect of inheriting any money. He has good looks and charm and is a nice natured young man.. and he soon attracts ladies in his new circle in London. Laura Standish is the daughter of an earl, and her brother, Lord Chiltern is a wild young man who has a bad reputation. Phineas gets to know the brother and sister, and is good friends with Chiltern. Phineas falls in love with Laura, and manages to forget that there was a pretty girl in Ireland that he had been flirting with, Mary Flood Jones. Laura decides that she cannot get involved with Phineas, because he has no money, and she has given up her dowry to pay off her brother's debts. So she accepts a proposal from Robert Kennedy, a Scottish MP, who is very wealthy, but puritanical and gloomy.

2 novellas

There are 2 novellas available on Amazon... Rough Music, a story about a band and Beds and Blue Jeans, a story about a Nashville Bar singer.

Jilly Cooper

Jilly was born Jilly Sallitt, in Yorkshire in 1937. Her parents were middle class, and gave her a good education. After school, she got a job as a junior reporter and also worked at other writing type jobs like publishing. She loved puns and humour and soon got a column in a paper where she wrote about sex, marriage, class and housework. She married in 1962 to a Yorkshire man, Leo Cooper who was a publisher of military history. He was divorced. They lived in Putney and Wimbledon, and after some years they moved out to the country. She and Leo adopted a son and a daughter. She had begun to write short romantic novels, which were sexier than had been common, at that stage. In the early 80s, she began to write longer books, which she called bonk busters. They were set in glamorous worlds like show jumping, opera and the like, and were about the messy personal lives of the characters. She also compiled books about poetry and literature about love and marriage. She and Leo lived in Gloucestershire, and became friends with the horsey set there, including Camilla Parker Bowles. Jilly was a supporter of the Conservative Party in the 80s. Her marriage had its ups and downs. Leo was revealed as having had a long affair with another publisher and Jilly split up with him, but after a time they reconciled. Her books sold well and some were made into TV serials. She was warm hearted and kindly, and well liked. She loved animals and country life and some of her books were about her dogs and living near Wimbledon common where she walked them. Her husband died in 2013 and Jilly herself died a few weeks ago, after a fall, at the age of 88

Rough Music by Nadine Sutton

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=rough+music+nadine+sutton&qid=1627468036&sr=8-1 This is a story about a country rock band in the USA set in the 1970s. It is not a love story, but a story about music, and compromise and real life. The band has 2 lead singers, who are good friends. Both of them want to do good music as well as make money, and they are in constant dispute with their manager. They are just getting away from their start as a bar band, beginning to do well, appearing on the Grand Old Opry and on TV, and touring a lot. The touring cements their friendship, but it doesn't do much good for their marriages, as they party a lot and are frequently unfaithful. Then Jeff, the leader, finds out that one of his affairs has had consequences.

Gay Byrne

Gay and his wife adopted 2 daughters, Crona and Suzy. Then a few years after the Late Late started, he started to present a radio programme, called the Gay Byrne Hour, which broadcast in the middle of the morning, Monday to Friday. Again, it was light entertainment, music, jokes, lively news stories.. but it became more serious and became a focus for Irish people to write in and discuss issues. Gay got a letter from a woman listener (most of the audience were then stay at home wives) describing her silent marriage, where she and her husband did not speak to each other and communicated via their children. He said how sad it was, and then was inundated with letters describing the same problem, a silent marriage where 2 people had grown to dislike or hate each other but had no prospect of divorce. Another issue, even more tragic, came along in the early 80s. A young girl, Ann Lovett, who lived in a country village, gave birth to her baby alone, and unaided, in a field, and both of them died. She was only 14. Gay then found, to his horrified amazement, that he got hundreds of letters about this, about the shame that an illegitimate birth still caused in rural Ireland. There were stories of young girls some under age, who had been pregnant and attempted to abort themselves. Some even killed their babies, or their family had killed off the child. Mostly, at best, they were forced to give the child up or to bear the child in secret. People who had had nowhere to turn, in the secretive society of Ireland, were able to write in and pour out their woes to Gay.. and it sparked off discussion. The Late Late Show, while still being a fun chat show, discussed issues like homosexuality, contraception, AIDS, sexual molestation and rape, women's issues and the like. There were also unusual shows, like the one where all the audience were priests. There was another one where the audience and guests were all members of the travelling community. Gay was not really a card carrying liberal.. he tended towards middle class conservatism in many ways but he had an instinct for what people wanted to see and how Ireland was changing... He was also willing to be critical of the Catholic church when it still held a lot of sway over the people. In the 1980s, Gay had a major disaster when he found that his accountant, Russell Murphy, had been stealing from him. He had left his money affairs in this man's hands, as he was a freelancer and then when the man died, the truth came out. He found that Murphy had stolen his money, raised loans on his property, and not paid any taxes for him. Gay considered leaving Ireland, when he was offered a talk show job in the US, which would pay much better. Yet he felt he was happiest in Dublin where he was well known and had a close circle of friends who were loyal to him.. and he did not go to America. He retired from the Late Late show, after more than 30 years, and it was taken over by other presenters. He continued to work in broadcasting, doing a music programme. He had also hosted a tv show where people talked about their religious beliefs... which was considered to be a very good programme. He gave up the radio show as well, but he continued to work. In 2019, he died of cancer, much admired and loved...

Gay Byrne and Irish history

I hope to write a blog about the late broadcaster, Gay Byrne, who was one of the best known hosts of a talk show. He was a very important figure in Irish life for decades. Gay was from a modest background; his father worked in Guinness's brewery, and he was one of 6 children. He was bright but not academic, and there were no opportunities for him to go to University at the time. He was born in 1934 and was educated at the Christian brothers' school, in Synge St. He was turned down for a job in Guinness, perhaps as so many of his family were already working there. So he went into insurance to earn a living. However he was friendly with another broadcaster, Eamon Andrews, and he got a job with Granada TV in England. He then spent some time in the BBC and was offered a position as host of a chat show at RTE the new Irish TV station. It was meant to be a summer filler programme. He still had a contract with British TV and spent some time commuting between the 2 countries on a weekly basis. The Late Late Show was meant to be light entertainment, with music, chat, and light hearted debates. However it did not stay that way and began to cover more serious issues. Gay married Kathleen Watkins, a continuity announcer and after a time he settled in Dublin, and his show became increasingly popular. M/F