February: Reading Winifred Holtby

I know it's not quite February yet, but I wanted Winifred to have a "named" thread all her own.

Also, 24-30 January is Virago Reading Week! LT's Virago Modern Classics Group has started a Virago Reading Week thread -- all are welcome.

So because of Virago Reading Week, I've already started my Holtby book, Anderby Wold.

I finished Anderby Wold this afternoon and liked it very well. It is very much a first novel of a wonderful writer. I won't say more in case Laura and Christina may want to discuss it!

>2 LizzieD:: soon, soon. Finished it tonight and will compose thoughts into a review tomorrow.

I don't have much time to post at the moment but wanted to report that I have started Anderby Wold and am enjoying it so far.

A note to say that I just finished and completely enjoyed Uncommon Arrangements, a book about literary British marriages in the early 20th century. I was eager to read the chapter about Holtby and Vera Brittain and her husband, and it was really good. In fact, the whole book was fascinating. She quotes Winifred as saying, "I never feel I've really had a life of my own. My existence seems to me like a clear stream that has simply reflected other people's stories and problems." How poignant! (And The Clear Stream is the title of Marion Shaw's biography which I hope to read one day.)

I spent years rounding up all of Holtby's novels. Then, once I had them, they sat on the shelf for close to a decade. I finally read Anderby Wold and wondered why I'd waited so long. Good story, well written, convincing characters, an all-round satisfying reading experience.

>6 Leseratte2:: and that's her debut novel! I've read her final work, South Riding, which was truly outstanding. So clearly she just got better and better. What a shame she died young.

I'm really enjoying reading South Riding and now wish I hadn't listened to the radio dramatisation first...