Non VMCs of interest

I wanted to post something about books I don't own yet but want to. I've known they were going to for a while but Vintage are finally publishing a first batch of reprints of Stella Gibbons' work next month, in a style which sounds as though it's definitely designed to appeal to VMC readers. I read Conference at Cold Comfort Farm and it was a disappointment, but others include Starlight and Westwood. Nightingale Wood was chosen as a VMC and it's great.

I recommend Dawn Powell. Only her last novel, The Golden Spur, is a VMC, but her earlier work is wonderful, too. Steerforth Press reprinted almost everything, and Library of America put out two lovely omnibi of her best work. Of her Ohio novels (which tend to be more serious), I'd recommend Dance Night or My Home Is Far Away. Of her New York Novels (more satiric), Turn, Magic Wheel or A Time to Be Born. I've read seven of her 15 novels and was only - mildly - disappointed once. And even that one (The Happy Island) had some pretty funny moments.

>1 elkiedee: - One of the best of the Vintage list of Gibbons' books for republication is Bassett. I can also recommend The Bachelor, White Sand and Grey Sand and Enbury Heath, (1935). You might also enjoy The Snow Woman, which is a later work. It is not on the list for reprints but is one of her best.

2 and 3: thanks both for your recommendations.

There was a book that I wanted to shout about last year, but I didn't because it was out of print and copies were scarce and horribly expensive.

It's being reissued at the end of the month, so now the shouting can begin:

LOVE IN THE SUN BY LEO WALMSLEY !

And now, though I tempted to ramble. I will quote instead the lovely introduction written by a friend and sometime neighbour of the author - Daphne Du Maurier. She says what I would like to so much better.

”Love In The Sun” will make other writers feel ashamed. And, curiously enough, old-fashioned too. It is a revelation in the art of writing, and may be one of the pioneers of the new renaissance in the world of novels, a renaissance which shall and must take place in our time if the novel is to survive at all. While we struggle to produce our complicated plots, all sex and psychology, fondly imagining we are drawing modern life while really we are as demode as jazz and mah-jong. Leo Walmsley gives the weary reader a true story, classic in its simplicity of a man and a girl who possessed nothing in life but love for each other and faith in the future, and because of these things, were courageous and happy.

They converted an old army hut for their home, they made a garden, they grew vegetables, they used driftwood for their fire in winter, they caught mackerel for their food in summer, the sea and the soil sustained them during the long months so that the man could write his book and the girl could have her baby; and when both were accomplished life continued as before, the garden was trenched, the fishing lines were baited, fame and fortune had passed them by, but hope, and courage, and love were with them still. When we come to the end of the story, we know that the man will write other books, the girl will have other babies, flowers will continue to grow in their garden, they will go on living and loving, and creating thins because, like the plants in the soil they are the very stuff of life itself.

Yes, Leo Walmsley has filled me with shame. Our cheap artificial plots, distorting human nature to make it suit the jaded palate, must go on the scrap-heap. We are not worthy to be called writers if we cannot do what he has done in “Love In The Sun”, and show the novel-reading public that the simple thins of life are the only things that matter, and that a man’s work, and his wife, and his baby, and his plot of earth, are more important than the drama and passion of the whole world, and that the world itself is not, and never has been the merciless vortex that so many of us make it out to be, but is and always will be a place of supreme adventure.

I'm so pleased it's being re-issued! I've been wanting to read it ever since you blogged about it, Jane.

Sounds wonderful.

I will love to read that! Who is the publisher?

The Walmsley Society is doing the publishing and I am sure will be selling it via their own website, and I've seen it on Waterstone, The Book Depository and Amazon UK.

Both Jane and I have read and reviewed The Somnambulist by Essie Fox, a debut historical novel set in Victorian London, recently. There's a competition open to anyone with a UK postal address (sorry to the rest of you!) at Curious Book Fans to win a signed copy.

http://www.curiousbookfans.co.uk/forum/freebies-and-competitions/the-somnambulis...

Virago and Persephone fans should check out the Faber Finds series. They're reprinting a number of books by Margaret Kennedy, A. L. Barker, Elizabeth Berridge, Christina Stead, etc.

Thank you, Jane. This goes on the must-have list.

Just pre-ordered at The BookDepository: Love in the Sun!

10> Luci,

Thank you so much for posting the link to the Somnambulist competition on the Curious Book Fans website. I've just been told I've won a copy and am most excited! I didn't even know about Curious Book Fans before, so very many thanks!

Cool, I'm really pleased for you. The CBF competitions are really worth entering - I've won two books myself - one before I was invited to review by Vladimir who owns the site, and the other more recently (the books were Sebastian Faulks, Faulks on Fiction which I was glad to win, I probably wouldn't buy but can't resist books about opinions on books) and an Adele Parks which I think is stranded at the Post Office just now, as we got a card before we went away last week.

Still pushing Boston Adventure by Jean Stafford.

Have just picked up Nicole Krauss' Great House which I'm enjoying - an intriguing and easy read if you know what I mean....she's just revealed a locked drawer in a desk....oh goody - a secret. Do you have a favourite desk? I have my mother's desk...it is lovely and big...she found it in an antique shop somewhere in the Blue Mountains and made it all beautiful again. It has 8 drawers - 2 enormous ones and 6 reasonable sized ones. It also has an extendable pull out little wing (I think there were meant to be two but one has gone missing) - I never use it but it's a nice kind of trick to play with. The desk in the Great House has 19 drawers...hard to imagine really. Three of the drawers have key holes for locks but no locks - well one has the lock still but no key. Hmmm....best get going door knocking. I am a Census Collector this year and just started last night - 58 households - 268 to go. I'm meeting such lovely puppy dogs (and people too).

I absolutely loved Great House when I read it earlier this month for Orange July. I thought it was a good solid 5 star read. I read a library but will have to get my own copy as I know I will want to read it again one day.
I hope you enjoy it alex

Someone sent me a great review by Lynne Truss of Stella Gibbons' recently reissued Westwood - http://tinyurl.com/3sbcgvw

>16 alexdaw: and >17 rainpebble: I am convinced I just downloaded The Great House to my Kindle.

Thanks for drawing my attention, I think this might be Lynne Truss' introduction to Westwood, which I want to buy.

The race is on!! I have to return my copy of Great House in 3 days....will I be able to finish it in time????

Yes, yes, yes you will alexdaw!~! I have complete and udder faith. (oh, sorry bout that.....have been 'listening' to urania1's goat talk too much I guess) hee hee

Yes ales, read and then rumenate on it for a while.

LOL!~!~!

I don't wish to appear ungulateful but this nonsense is distracting me from the task at hand!

Well, we'll go chew on our cud while you get back to the task at hand.

P.S. As for me, I am enjoying another moment of post-goatal bliss

STOP! You are cracking me up and I've spit my water all over my keyboard. Good one Mother!~!

>27 urania1:: "post-goatal bliss" *snort*

A lot of Monica Dickens' work is being made available again - One Pair of Hands is a memoir, and someone apparently bought it from Tesco (a supermarket) the other day so that must mean it's rather mass market - women's memoirs from the 50s or round about then are very popular here at the moment, particularly those of health workers or servants (and I say this as someone who's bought more than a couple).

Bloomsbury is releasing a lot of her work in Kindle format for £5 to £6, available now, with paperbacks coming soon but for about £13.

This doesn't include Mariana or The Winds of Heaven as Persephone has published those and has presumably paid the copyright holders to do so - she only died in 1992 so her work will be copyright for just over 50 years.

Thanks elkiedee! Click on Bloomsbury Reader for more info on their reissues.

They are also bringing out books by Rose Macaulay (Told by an Idiot is a VMC, others aren't), E M Delafield, Storm Jameson and Ann Bridge.

How exciting about the Monica Dickens. I nearly fell out of my chair when one of my best friends produced a modern edition of One pair of hands at lunch the other day

I read One Pair of Hands serialised in (I think) the Australian Women's Weekly when I was a teen.

I recently found old hardback copies of My turn to make the tea, the one about her life as a junior newspaper reporter, and The winds of heaven, so I'm feeling well provided with Monica Dickens at the moment.

I am seriously considering heading out to the library in a few minutes and getting a copy of Madame de Stael's Corinne to read. Time is running out for anyone who wants to stop me.

Rob,

No one is bitter about your running to the library to get Corinne. We may shun you for a while because you beat us to the library, but we will never, oh on never, feel bitter.

Rob, I hope it is not as boring as it sounds on the book page. lol!~! Enjoy!

Apologies to anyone outside the UK or who doesn't have a Kindle, but a number of the Bloomsbury Reader books I mentioned before are in the Kindle Rainy Day Reads sale at amazon uk for £1 to £2, including a couple of Monica Dickens, Rose Macaulay's Told by an Idiot (which is a VMC) and books by Bernice Rubens, Angela Huth, Edith Sitwell and Ivy Compton-Burnett. There are lots more at £4 to £5, and some are quite hard/expensive to find.

Now I AM chuffed!

Harrumph! Amazon should have a "Snow in October" sale over here.

#39 I got the Rose Macauley and Madame Sousatzka by Bernice Rubens and A Long Walk to Wimbledon by H. R. F Keating :-)

I've not read Madame Sousatzka but I saw the movie years ago and had to view it several times. It is a wonderful story. I always wondered if it was based on truth. I hope you enjoy it soul.

#43 Thanks Belva. I haven't seen the film but someone in the 75 group has been reading lots of Bernice Rubens this year and as this one was their favourite so far I put it on my list. Good to hear from someone else who enjoyed the story :-)

My favourite Bernice Rubens is I sent a letter to my love apparently there's a movie staring Simone Signoret but I haven't seen it.

Barbara Comyns ' The Juniper Tree has been rereleased by Capuchin in paperback and Kindle.

Thank you!

>46 elkiedee:: They've also reissued Peking Picnic for those who haven't found a VMC of it, and some of the rarer Nancy Mitford novels. The books are on good quality paper with heavy card covers, so feel nice in the hand and look good on the shelf :-)

UK limited I fear, sorry.

I thought I'd mentioned Dodie Smith offers here but apparently not - 3 of her novels have been reprinted by Corsair recently - they are available this month on Kindle for £1.19 each or as a set from the Book People for £5 if you don't do Kindle.

Most of Bloomsbury Reader's reprints are available on Kindle for £2.99 (most usually between £5 and £6) until 14 October, including several E M Delafields and Storm Jamesons and Rose Macaulays, some have been VMCs in the past and some not.

Off to see if Dodie and Bloomsbury Readers for Kindle are available in the US.