tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post3647256203605269688..comments2024-03-29T00:37:50.677+00:00Comments on A Yorkshire Memoir: Review - Margaret Drabble: The MillstoneTasker Dunhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17634612033217902946noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-20304058461804600252020-04-30T16:13:29.772+01:002020-04-30T16:13:29.772+01:00Thanks. Another to go on my list. Thanks. Another to go on my list. Tasker Dunhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17634612033217902946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-50538284997372960252020-04-30T16:12:21.984+01:002020-04-30T16:12:21.984+01:00As commented above, it was common for everyone in ...As commented above, it was common for everyone in the community to be whispering this kind of thing to each other. Your mother must have had to be very thick-skinned. Tasker Dunhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17634612033217902946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-20559980987069429972020-04-30T16:09:47.170+01:002020-04-30T16:09:47.170+01:00Goodness, the responsibility! Hope you like it. I&...Goodness, the responsibility! Hope you like it. I'll also look out for the L Shaped Room novel on which was based the film you mention in your post. Tasker Dunhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17634612033217902946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-27777801752299234742020-04-30T15:41:31.141+01:002020-04-30T15:41:31.141+01:00Correction:
Robin Hyde's real name was Iris W...Correction:<br /><br />Robin Hyde's real name was Iris Wilkinson who gave birth to two children out of wedlock, the first stillborn, the second adopted<br /><br />J HaggertyHameldaemepal@gmailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08231016503726428849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-8035281634172618112020-04-30T15:38:15.221+01:002020-04-30T15:38:15.221+01:00The young woman's predicament in The Brimstone...The young woman's predicament in The Brimstone made me think of the New Zealand classic *The Godwits Fly By* (1938) written by Robin Hyde, now republished by Persephone.<br /><br />Robin Hyde's real name was Iris Wilkinson (1906-1939) who never gave birth to two children out of wedlock, the first stillborn, the second adopted.<br /><br />Her novel set in an isolated New Zealand is about thwarted desire, reflected in the migratory pattern of godwits, those long-legged waders which were variously called yarwhelps, shriekers, and snipes. <br /><br />The book, which is haunted by babies and giving birth, was never published in New Zealand in the author's lifetime, only in England. Iris Wilkinson, a woman of great beauty, committed suicide. <br /><br />Read online blogs about this exceptional novel by Kate Macdonald; Rachel Cooke in The Guardian; and in a blog, The Bookbinder's Daughter.<br /><br />J HaggertyHameldaemepal@gmailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08231016503726428849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-82753851687731585552020-04-30T12:54:17.028+01:002020-04-30T12:54:17.028+01:00I don't think I have read this but will look o...I don't think I have read this but will look out for it.<br /><br />I was born out of wedlock in 1952. I grew up carrying shame but it was only fairly recently that I realised what my mother must have faced by keeping me.Liz Hindshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04646532093872561703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-36430227100944566462020-04-30T11:13:27.842+01:002020-04-30T11:13:27.842+01:00I haven't read this book but shall now do so. ...I haven't read this book but shall now do so. It prompted memories of 1965 when I was an art student living in London. Your review has prompted me to write about the pregnancies of three young women that I was witness to during that year. It is on my Miss Cellany blog.<br />http://storiesinwood.blogspot.co.ukShare my Gardenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08817611851604816123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-16629511883175381352020-04-28T22:52:26.253+01:002020-04-28T22:52:26.253+01:00I'm sure you're right. And there would hav...I'm sure you're right. And there would have been many more who did manage to keep it secret. Yes, it's fun reading the 60s books looking back. Tasker Dunhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17634612033217902946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-35162442683689972902020-04-28T22:24:29.855+01:002020-04-28T22:24:29.855+01:00Thanks for the good review. The 1960s certainly we...Thanks for the good review. The 1960s certainly were a unique time. Lots of both good and bad in my opinion. I imagine most of us knew someone back then that had an unexpected pregnancy. It was a difficult situation for anyone still in school for sure. I remember a lot of very "60s" books back then. Bonniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17738727252267659979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-78687879173199235242020-04-28T15:27:20.722+01:002020-04-28T15:27:20.722+01:00Thanks, Rhymes. I can't think how I missed *Th...Thanks, Rhymes. I can't think how I missed *The Left Hand of Darkness* when it appeared. I have a good book of essays on writing by Ursula LeGuin.<br /><br />As for my list, I hadn't heard anything on it either; these titles seemed to stand out on the shelves of the independent bookshop I visit. I have now read the story on Swedenborg by Tatyana Tolstaya, and it has me reflecting on religious thinkers as diverse as John Calvin and William Blake. I have many Calvin Bible Commentaries and I revere Blake.<br /><br />Before lockdown I purchased a £3 sale from Waterstones, *A Shout in the Ruins* by Kevin Powers, a novel about slavery and slave-owners in Virginia, as good as anything I've read this year. The author was a professional soldier in Iraq. His understanding of slavery is profound, the way in which an intelligent black girl named Nurse could be deprived of her own speech as well as her right to exist in her own mind. <br /><br />Looking into my book-room I find titles I bought years back and haven't read like *My House of Sky - The Life and Work of J.A. Baker* by Hetty Saunders (2017) a biography of the man who wrote *The Peregrine*.<br /><br />Baker was an enigma, and I like reading about such people. Nurse, the black girl in the novel by Kevin Powers, is an enigma too, and she haunts me like any great fictional creation. <br /><br />John HaggertyHameldaemepal@gmailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08231016503726428849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-35911208140067317072020-04-28T14:10:26.866+01:002020-04-28T14:10:26.866+01:00Of all the books J. Haggerty mentioned I have read...Of all the books J. Haggerty mentioned I have read only one, and it is one of the ones he hasn't. Ursula LeGuin's <i>The Left Hand Of Darkness</i> which I loved, loved, loved about 40 years ago. I hadn't even heard of just about everything on his list. <br />rhymeswithplaguehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10870439618129001633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-9662805020262906032020-04-28T09:48:23.689+01:002020-04-28T09:48:23.689+01:00There was the further aspect that nothing was priv...There was the further aspect that nothing was private so (as I say about the girl at my school) everyone in the community knew and no one would allow it to be forgotten. My mum even told me of a case when she was young, where the father was the mother's father. What chance for that child? It's better now in that no one is really bothered. Tasker Dunhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17634612033217902946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-46959446940079359032020-04-28T09:25:32.043+01:002020-04-28T09:25:32.043+01:00It was a sad time for those who fell pregnant unex...It was a sad time for those who fell pregnant unexpectedly. The fact that females were seen as secondary citizens, and unmarried mothers could have their babies taken from them. I lived under the scourge of being born out of wedlock, though officially adopted into my family. But it would always 'out' at school from narrow-minded teachers or going for a job. Illegitimacy a nasty word.thelmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00934860502828923562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-38253310282695568772020-04-27T15:51:34.178+01:002020-04-27T15:51:34.178+01:00The illegitimate baby and the stigma attached was ...The illegitimate baby and the stigma attached was the scourge of those times and thank God those days are gone. Many people I know were affected one way or another either through forced adoptions, unwanted marriages, or abortions and back street abortions were still the norm when I moved to London in 1969. I went on to the pill as soon as I set foot away from home. Quite honestly I would not want to read this book again because although Drabble was a great writer and I have read all her books I could not return to the Millstone. Rachel Phillipshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16053924416805878169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-19403337554454823042020-04-27T15:50:13.896+01:002020-04-27T15:50:13.896+01:00There are two young American women whose YouTube v...There are two young American women whose YouTube vlogs I look in on with anticipation. They always make me laugh and they are very bright.<br /><br />K.M. Rice lives in northern California; she loves the outdoors, has visited England, Ireland, and Scotland. Kellie Rice is a big Tolkien fan and writes magical fiction - I don't like the term *fantasy*. I mean to order her novels.<br /><br />The other vlog is *Kalanadi*, whose real name is Rachel, a voracious reader of sci-fi. Two of her recent choices are on my order list - Ursula le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness and K.J. Parker's Prosper's Dream. I purchased Maureen McHugh's China Mountain Zhang on Rachel's review and it's on my book table.<br /><br />Visit a YouTube interview with Helen DeWitt who talks about her journey (to use the modish Blairite term) in writing The Last Samurai and the trouble she had with short-sided editors who wanted to remove all the layers of erudition that make the novel so strange.<br /><br />Just now I want to reread King Lear; Patrick White's The Aunt's Story; and then begin Andrew Miller's early 19th century novel, Now We Shall Be Entirely Free. <br /><br />I dipped into the latter and found a riveting scene set in the Broomielaw in Glasgow, a rundown area by the River Clyde which is being redeveloped. <br /><br />The Broomielaw in 1809 is quite a leap in time. The Customs House building in Clyde Street is in a state of ruin, a great Victorian building.<br /><br />J HaggertyHameldaemepal@gmailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08231016503726428849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-8511921426849761292020-04-27T15:03:34.649+01:002020-04-27T15:03:34.649+01:00Like I keep saying, you need your own blog. Book b...Like I keep saying, you need your own blog. Book blogs such as Doveygreyreader Scribbles (on typepad not blogger) have good followings. Tasker Dunhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17634612033217902946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-25438033659845275922020-04-27T14:16:04.551+01:002020-04-27T14:16:04.551+01:00I have just visited a blog *Woz Writes* which has ...I have just visited a blog *Woz Writes* which has a photo I had never seen before of The Observer reporter John Gale and poet Stevie Smith. The photo looks like the work of the inimitable Jane Bown, read her (online) Guardian obit.<br /><br />Stevie Smith wrote a merry autobiography, Me Again, and like John Gale was one of the great English eccentrics. I have a 1960s copy of Vogue with an essay by Stevie Smith on her love of London parks. She sees everything with fresh eyes.<br /><br />J HaggertyHameldaemepal@gmailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08231016503726428849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-18455798333196764062020-04-27T14:00:59.483+01:002020-04-27T14:00:59.483+01:00I should have included the essays of Alan Garner, ...I should have included the essays of Alan Garner, The Voice That Thunders; autobiography taken to another level. Wonderful!<br /><br />Novelists in their travel books give as much of themselves as they wish to reveal - Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia; William Golding's Egyptian Journal. I wish Richard Hughes, author of A High Wind in Jamaica, had left his journals for posterity.<br /><br />Paul Theroux's Dark Star Safari had me gasping with admiration. I am too afraid of being ill to visit those austere African landcapes he describes so dazzlingly.<br /><br />Try to get a copy of Jessica Lee's *Turning - Lessons from Swimming Berlin's Lakes* (Virago 2018). It is one of those unclassifiable works. It does for swimming and the German landscape what T.H. White's *The Godstone and the Blackymor* did for angling and Ireland.<br /><br />J HaggertyHameldaemepal@gmailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08231016503726428849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-9252102120085371552020-04-27T13:34:38.669+01:002020-04-27T13:34:38.669+01:00I learn as much from what readers don't like a...I learn as much from what readers don't like as from what they do. From your own writings I would have thought The Perfect Stranger would be your kind of book. I read the first paperback edition with the portrait of Sally on the cover and was captivated.<br /><br />Autobiographies I cherish would include John Gale's Clean Young Englishman; John Wain's Sprightly Running; Muriel Spark's Curriculum Vitae; John Buchan's Memory Hold-the-Door; Henry Green's Pack My Bag; Hemingway's A Movable Feast; Graham Greene's A Sort of Life and Ways of Escape; James Cameron's Point of Departure; Wilfrid Thesiger's The Life of My Choice; Daphne du Maurier's Myself When Young; Alan Sillitoe's Without Armour; David Malouf's 12 Edmondstone Street. I am always turning to Karen Blixen's Out of Africa which Truman Capote thought perfect.<br /><br />Janet Frame touched everything with magic, even her very hard life, though I have still to read the autobiography of her friend and fellow New Zealander, Maurice Gee.<br /><br />William Saroyan spread his memoirs over a number of books and Arnold Bennett's life is scattered in the three volumes of his Journals which Penguin condensed into one volume. <br /><br />Virginia Woolf's diaries tell us much about her reading and her mind. Chesterton's life is in his essays like his friend Hilaire Belloc. Maisie Ward and Meriol Trevor wrote their memoirs which I would like to read. Iris Murdoch's life is in her letters.<br /><br />Simenon admitted that his memoirs, When I Was Old, were less than frank because he knew his wife was reading over his shoulders. Andre Malraux's hypnotic Antimemoirs was written with an eye to his place in history; and I don't trust Sartre's short brilliant book, Words, since he lied so much about politics. I would be interested in reading the autobiography of Anatole France, a charming and forgotten writer. The journals of Camus have been published in a new edition.<br /><br />I too watched a lot of television. I remember an episode of The Fugitive when the one-armed man was last seen in Chicago Heights. I visited Chicago Heights on a YouTube video and was appalled at how dreadful it now looks! <br /><br />My DVD collection includes Steptoe and Son (genius), the entire Callan collection black and white and colour (Edward Woodward) including the movie and a one-off TV film. I also have The Brothers in its entirety (watched about half) and Man At The Top with Kenneth Haigh. <br /><br />A DVD box with ten episodes of Eric Sykes has me enthralled as does Ronnie Barker in his corner shop. I also have some Inspector Morse, Taggart, and Hinterland, a Welsh crime drama. Morden is fascinating; Denmark is a great location for any drama.<br /><br />Best of all, The Likely Lads, TV series and one movie, which remind me of my young brother who died in London a few years ago.<br /><br />I called him Doc Soccer because of his knowledge of football. A few years before he left us I gave him Arthur Hopcraft's The Football Man, both the original Penguin and a new edition with a foreword by I think Mike Parkinson.<br /><br />J HaggertyHameldaemepal@gmailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08231016503726428849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-64635555133402286232020-04-27T09:50:07.969+01:002020-04-27T09:50:07.969+01:00Thank you. I find that trying to write something s...Thank you. I find that trying to write something sensible helps makes sense of what I've read and also serves as a reminder, so I'm pleased you find them helpful. Tasker Dunhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17634612033217902946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-36974391483941985662020-04-27T09:46:28.111+01:002020-04-27T09:46:28.111+01:00What an awful thing to happen. You've left us ...What an awful thing to happen. You've left us all wondering what happened next. Tasker Dunhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17634612033217902946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-45381299554558311292020-04-27T09:44:40.389+01:002020-04-27T09:44:40.389+01:00It must have been so annoying and embarrassing for...It must have been so annoying and embarrassing for mothers to go on and on. I wonder how much of an element of "like mother like daughter" there was. Tasker Dunhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17634612033217902946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-60561708497069351792020-04-27T09:42:13.442+01:002020-04-27T09:42:13.442+01:00You credit me with too much erudition. I didn'...You credit me with too much erudition. I didn't read anything much between the ages of 14 when we got a television and about 21 when I realised I was in the wrong job and started looking for displacement activities. I tried to read Kavanagh's acclaimed Perfect Stranger autobiography about 5 years ago - not one I would recommend. Tasker Dunhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17634612033217902946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-2205978360065115702020-04-27T07:48:57.536+01:002020-04-27T07:48:57.536+01:00Thank you for another well-written review. At the ...Thank you for another well-written review. At the moment, this book does not appeal greatly to me, as there are still several others on my TBR pile (I don't think I'll run out of reading material anytime soon). In any case, it is good to go back to your reviews for inspiration.Librarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05704656564078750607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4023204082711630211.post-55044965893795413112020-04-27T00:58:06.364+01:002020-04-27T00:58:06.364+01:00My mother's warnings were made all the more re...My mother's warnings were made all the more real when a neighbour of ours gave birth during the night to an illegitimate baby and tried to flush it down the toilet. Margaret Butterworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01132595996801386452noreply@blogger.com