Supsliskans in lockdown. Week 46, 18-24 January 2021

 Angela, 21 January 2021

 Dear All

A very Happy New Year to everyone too from soggy Norfolk. It is good to hear news from other Supsliskans. I sympathise with Sylvia over visitors to Hereford. We had a similar problems here, but lock-down has mostly sorted it out.

As for most of us, we just saw the family virtually on Zoom over Christmas. Freya in Ealing and her cousin Lily in Nottingham were definitely not ' on mute' for present opening! it was good to be able to see them though.

I wonder how the jab situation is with everyone? We were quite excited to have our first one last Tuesday in Sheringham. It was very well organised and easy with no nasty effects so far. We did have a funny incident on the way in though. A nice elderly gentleman volunteer took great trouble to help us find parking and then gently asked Leo 'are you dropping your mother off'!! We burst out laughing and I told him I didn't think lock-down had had such an ageing effect on me! The poor chap then tried to redeem the situation by saying he meant to say 'daughter' and that he wasn't wearing his glasses, but it was too late. Leo is of course feeling very smug!! it did make our day though.

I very much like the word 'Quiddling' Sylvia and think I could qualify for a Ph.D. in it. Strangely, we are finding time passing too quickly during this lock-down, or is it just us slowing down? We have lots to do, but seem to take ages actually getting things completed! The weather doesn't help in stimulating activity, but doing some gardening just now, it is really cheering to see the first snowdrops and lots of bulbs starting to come up. I am finding the daily online fitness classes and weekly ballet are a real help as they do create some structure to the day. Our book group finally had its first Zoom meeting yesterday, so we now have some new titles to get into. My pebble art painting is quite absorbing, though messy! and finding the right shaped stones is a good incentive for a walk to the beach. Leo is creating a photobook of our trip to the Galapagos which was 20 years ago. It is taking a while as it was pre our having digital cameras so he is having to convert slides and prints. I am doing one on the development of the garden here but have a huge number of photos to sift through. Our house was only built in 1956, which compared to lots of houses around us is relatively recent, but we did get to meet the grandson of the second owner who let us copy photos of the original house and garden with pictures of the pebble walls, which we thought were ancient, being built! We also have photos from 1985 when we rented the house for a couple of half term holidays.It is fascinating to see how dramatically the vegetation has changed over the years.

I did think that the US inauguration was a huge milestone and a really positive and joyous event. It was a great achievement to be able to stage the event such a short time after all the rioting, chaos and damage. Poor Biden has a massive number of problems on his plate, but it is a relief not to have to hear any more from Trump ... we hope!

Hoping you all get the jabs you want. Keep safe and well. Love, Angela

Jane 21 January 2021

Dear Angela - and all,

You have beaten Grumpy Jane to it! She was about to enquire how Supsliskans were doing as we had not had any news for a while.

The report from St Andrews is that she is grumpier than ever. 70+ year-olds in England are receiving the vaccination and a friend In Durham the same age as David has had both. David at 82 has not even had an appointment, and we have stopped going out for walks together so that someone is always in the house in case there is a phone call from the GP practice. Our Nicola has promised that everyone over 70 will be vaccinated by mid February so I have kept the headline in the newspaper reporting this to send to her when she does not keep her promise.

Otherwise we plod on as we have for the last 10 months, but have seen no-one since before Christmas. David potters on with his research and my latest task is transcribing a long Indenture from 1674 which was given to the Preservation Trust but has no St Andrews connections so will not be kept. Two of those mentioned are in ODNB and I suspect others may be but I cannot discover how to search in 'Full Text'. Anyone have any hints?

Hope everyone feels more positive than me.

Love, Jane

Anne, 21 January 2021

Hello everyone,

I am VERY grumpy! So much for "Why the Germans do it better"!! I heard that my sister in Cumbria, 18 months younger than me, had had her jab over 2 weeks ago. It would appear that Brits are at least good organizers. Here in Bavaria they are still trying to vaccinate the 85 +, I say "trying" because actually they can't vaccinate ANYONE at the moment as they have no more doses! Maybe next week they might get some more and then they can start on the 85+ who should have had their appointments this week. I have registered at the local centre but that doesn't really mean anything. Meanwhile I stay at home except for shopping ca 1x a week and daily walks. It is all getting very boring.

Has anyone got any suggestions for a good read, suitable for our Reading Group (all English native speakers)? We just discussed, via Zoom, Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer, but most of us weren't too impressed. Maybe if I'd read it 20 years ago when it was first published I'd have enjoyed it more.

The snow which fell at the beginning of the week has just about gone and now more is forecast!

Like I said, I'm grumpy! But keep the emails coming in, I love to hear from you all, Anne

Val, 21 January 2021

Happy New Year…….sort of! Very Grumpy here too!

The North East & Yorkshire ( which includes your sister, I think, Anne?) are way top of the regions for vaccinating.. Barnard Castle GPs & 3 other local practices have been giving them since mid December & the second jabs have also been given in many cases. We have ours on Saturday at the very precise times of 1024 & 1027!! So well into the 70s age groups

London languishes at the bottom of the table.. So the answer today is to HALVE the North East’s allocation of vaccine from next Monday meaning many many cancellations of appointments & re-jigging of timetables with the accompanying admin, phone calls etc up here in order to send doses elsewhere to allow other regions to catch up!!

Why not help the bottom regions organise themselves better?, get quicker etc?? Had the tables been the other way round with London at the top, I doubt it would have happened .

Sorry, rant over, but someone who had an appointment cancelled may now get the virus & die because of the delay.

In general, though, we do seem to be doing well.

Otherwise, we plod on.. disturbing report today that lockdown might continue till May!!! It can’t, there will be a revolt!

We’ve had snow too this week & more forecast, but we’ve escaped the rain that others are experiencing.

Missing everyone of course. Look after yourselves all of you. Love, Grumpy Val

Pat, 21 January 2021

Happy new year everyone and I wish everyone good health and an end to this ghastliness.

This is going to be a very short message as we have had a horrid 2 weeks as my son Howard who lives with me has been very unwell with breathlessness and fatigue for all that time without getting better. He was anxious about not being able to go back to work and his sickness note running out.

So I contacted the surgery and luckily the receptionist heard him wretching in the background and asked him to come straight down. Anyway, he’s been diagnosed at last with a partial collapsed lung and he’s been prescribed antibiotics after a week of being told it was a virus and therefore not treatable with antibiotics.

I am crossing everything that he will get better as it’s been a tense time, exacerbated by the isolation. He was tested negative for Covid but still wonders if he’s got it or maybe long Covid .

Our only good news is that I get the vaccine tomorrow. Fed up of wearing the mask indoors, avoiding my son and having to do all the cooking and cleaning.

I’ll just say to Anne that my favourite book read last year has a strange title: Where the crawdads sing by Delia Owens. It’s a murder mystery and a coming of age first novel set in the marshlands of North Carolina. There - I’ve not sold it to you, have I? But trust me, it’s a brilliant read.

Keep safe everyone. Love to all, Trish

Val,  21 January 2021

So sorry to hear that, Pat,  fingers crossed the antibiotics knock it on the head & he will be on the road to recovery quickly.  Very worrying indeed for you.

Love Val

Anne, 21 January 2021

Dear Trish

So sorry to hear about your son and I do hope he will make a speedy recovery.

Thanks for the tip about Where the crawdads sing. We actually read this book early last year. I enjoyed it very much, a really good thrilling read.

Fingers crossed for both you and Howard,

Love, Anne

Sylvia, 21 January 2021

Really sorry to hear about your son’s illness, Pat. Let’s hope the antibiotics kick in soon and that he then starts to pick up.

Here in sleepy Herefordshire, with one of the highest rates of over 65s in the country, they are still struggling to vaccinate all the over 80s. I have heard of a handful of under 80s being vaccinated, but it tends to be where there has been vaccine left over at the end of the day. Needless to say, I’m not holding my breath to get my first vaccine dose before the end of the month. My daughter, as a key worker, much to my relief, was vaccinated on Tuesday, but that’s Shropshire.

On top of all that, there are still 14 flood warnings in the county and the Wye burst its banks in Hereford last night.

At least the US have got rid of the madman at last and Joe Biden can get on with trying to restore the country to some form of normality.

My daughter gave me Where the crawdads sing for Christmas, but I haven’t had time to read it yet. I’m struggling with Tinker, Tailor ... for our book club, and am finding it far too convoluted.

Normally, I would just sign off with “stay well “ which I’m still saying, but I would add, stay cheerful and optimistic. It helps!

Love to all, Sylvia

Jane, 22 January 2021

Dear Pat,

So sorry to hear about your difficult time, and apologies for my grumpiness. I hope all goes well for your 'jag' (as the Scots are calling it presumably to be different from England!).

I heard this morning that an 80+ year-old neighbour had hers last Saturday so they are perhaps creeping nearer here.

Best wishes, Jane

Angela, 22 January 2021

Dear All

Good to hear from people, I think we are all feeling somewhat grumpy and anxious at present, especially with the latest briefing, but hopefully today's sunshine has helped cheer us up a little.

I was so sorry to hear about your son Trish. I really do hope that the antibiotics will do their stuff and that he will start to feel much better soon. It must be a worrying time though. I was relieved to hear that you were safe from the floods Sylvia and good news that Margaret is now fully vaccinated.

Anne, your request for potential book titles has certainly hit the jackpot! I found it quite timely as we had our first Book Group zoom meeting last Wednesday and discussed a number of potential reads. We have just finished The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. A couple who having lost everything embark on a 600+ mile walk along the Cornish Coastal Path (as you would!!??). It made for a good discussion

Our next read is Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud. About Charles Rennie Mackintosh's time in Suffolk during WW1. I have also got the Crawdads book but haven't tackled it yet.

Other titles we have already read:

The Dig by John Preston - fiction but based around the Sutton Hoo excavation. Not too long either!

Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier (not now fashionable but still a good read)

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. About a group of women in 1930's Kentucky starting up a mobile library on horseback. (or is this too near home?!!)

Fludd by Hilary Mantel. The appearance of a mysterious visitor in a 1950's northern mill village and the repercussions on the religious life and people there. (a short book - unlike other Mantel ones!)

I am sure you will find some good reads from everyone's suggestions.

Keep well. Love to everyone, Angela

Jane, 22 January 2021

Dear Anne,

Have you tried novels by Elly Griffiths, particularly the detective ones set in Norfolk, 12 titles so far starting with The Crossing Places.  I have not read anything serious for over a year, but have enjoyed McCall Smith's Scotland Street series and various novels by Kate Atkinson.

Less grumpy here today as the sun is shining! Love, Jane

Pat, 22 January 2021

Coincidentally I have signed up for a talk by Elly Griffiths arranged by Bristol Libraries on Feb 10th when she will be discussing her new book The night hawks. Can’t say anything about her as I’ve not read any of her books! Trish

Janet, 22 January 2021

One book that has kept me glued recently is probably old hat to the rest of you but is unnervingly relevant to the pandemic situation yet gripping at the same time. It is Inferno by Dan Brown. It has been on my "grown-up books that need to be read" shelf for ages (as distinct from text books, dictionaries and story books for children) but I have only now been finding time to sit and read properly - usually there are jobs to be done or people to be visited or prepared for. I've not actually been to some of the places referenced but my daughter and grand children quite often take their main holiday in Italy so I feel quite well acquainted all the same and have enjoyed finding out more.

Let me know if you have already read it, or if you like it when you do. I haven't read his other books yet but I think I will look out for some second hand on the internet - one can sometimes find things quite cheaply that have been remaindered.

Best wishes, Janet.

Val, 22 January 2021

Apropos of books, Chris was given one at Christmas which he says I’ll love.  It’s called A Place for Everything  The Curious History of Alphabetical Order by Judith Flanders. It features Archives, indexing, manuscripts, catalogues, reference works etc etc  I shall look forward to it.

Another suggestion is Robert Galbraith aka J K Rowling & her Cormoran Strike series.  Real page turners.

Love, Val

Margaret, 22 January 2021

Dear Everyone,

Just when I had become aware that correspondence between us Supsliskans had dried up, there was a sudden surge of emails. The common topic seems to be the vaccine and if and when we have had a jab. I think I am one of the lucky ones because I had my first on January 9th followed 3 weeks later by the second one. So I am feeling pretty safe.

Actually, I felt a bit embarrassed because my Wolvercote friends only got their first about the same time as I got my second. They all go to a GP in Summertown and mine is in the city centre. The latter joined up with other city GPS and quickly got their act together, one of them providing a suitable venue in a purpose-built surgery.

My goddaughter succumbed to COVID and at first thought it was like a mild attack of flue. Several weeks later she realises she was quite ill and still suffers from fatigue. Pat, I was sorry to hear about your son and do hope he is improving.

Life continues to feel a bit unreal because we have never experienced anything like this before so we have nothing to compare it with and cannot say “well, last time …”.

I was glad to hear, Janet, that you are safe up the hill! In today’s Times there is a photo of Hereford showing the flooded river - I trust you are alright, Sylvia. Port Meadow is flooded but we are OK. I know Wolvercote used to flood because we are on a flood plane but they sorted that out.

My Cameroon carer has left me to have a much- needed break as she works a 7 day week. In her place I have Spanish Veronica, very nice but not such a good cook.

I can’t think of any news to pass on as nothing very interesting happens these days in lockdown. I am accessing some very good online concerts which does help as does the time to read much more than I do normally.

So here’s wishing you a happy, hopeful New Year. Love from Margaret

Sylvia, 23  January 2021

Hi Anne and everyone,

I have another book suggestion.  We read it for Book Club and I really loved it.  I was confident that everyone else would feel the same as I did, but it turned out to be somewhat "Marmite", so it might not suit.  It's Golden Hill by Francis Spufford and has been described as a picaresque novel which can be compared with those of Henry Fielding or Tobias Smollett.  However, it was published in 2016.  It's funny and shocking in equal measure and is set in 18th century New York.  As far as I can ascertain, it's historically accurate.  If your group does read it, I recommend that you tell them to persevere beyond the first chapter as everyone found it a bit of a challenge to start with.  I'll be very interested to hear if anyone else has read it and if so, what they think.

Regarding the floods, given the problems further north, I'm surprised that our situation made national headlines, although there are numerous closed roads in the county and the usual poor people had to be evacuated from their homes yesterday.  However, it isn't as bad as last February, when the flood waters were much closer to where I live.  There's never any danger of me being flooded, though.

Very pleased to hear you had your vaccine, Margaret.

Love to all, Sylvia

Howard,  23 January 2021

Well into Jan. 2021 now and who would have thought the virus situation was so  bad.

Here in Sark we still have no virus and still only very few in Guernsey - all people coming into the Bailiwick and self isolating. However, we are more or less in prison as we have to get permission to leave the Bailiwick. Only exceptional cases are allowed. If you  leave without permission and come back it is a £10,000 fine.

We are hoping to get vaccinated in the next few weeks. They have done the over 80s, the care workers and emergency staff. It is good that some of us Supsliskans have had it. The UK seems to be organising that well.

Thanks for the various book recommendations. I enjoy the Donna Leon books about an Italian detective. They are set in Venice. They are a light read but enjoyable to me particularly as there is a lot about the Italian way of life.

We have not left our small Island, apart from odd trips to Guernsey, for a year. Fortunately life on the Island itself here is not limited by lockdowns. The highlights of our existence are going out for a meal occasionally and a weekly visit to the pub.

What a relief that Trump has gone.

Good to get all your emails and your news. I look forward to meeting up when we are through this. Best wishes, Howard

Jane, 23 January 2021

Dear  all

Again from Grumpy Jane. England may be organising jabs well but I cannot say that about Scotland. A friend the same age as David who goes to the same GP practice as us got his this week. Apparently they are using alphabetical order for appointments. The friend's name begins A. Of course supply is the problem and there is a call here to cut out the middle men. Fife Health Board made a mess of the flu jab roll out so we should have expected trouble with this one.

On a different note - if you enjoy Donna Leon may I recommend Philip Gwynne Jones who lives in Venice and all his crime novels have Venice as the first word of the title.

Time for a glass of sherry since the pubs are closed! Jane

Howard, 23 January 2021

Dear All

Don't speak too soon! Guernsey has just announced a total lockdown in the Bailiwick with immediate effect after four new cases were detected the origins of which are unexplained.

Thanks for the tip, Jane. Will be interesting to contrast their approaches  to Venice.

Hope you enjoyed your glass of sherry. Howard

Sylvia, 23 January 2021

I didn't realise that Sark was lumped in with Guernsey when it came to lockdown.  I assumed that you had put up the barriers in order to protect yourselves, even from Guernsey, so that you could carry on life as normal.  Will it affect what you do on Sark?

Love, Sylvia

Ian, 24 January 2021 

I have finally got round to catching up with the emails and editing them into order for Peter Miles. He will have a lot of reading to do, and I had a lot of disentangling to do. Messages that I thought had gone missing, strands that overlapped, problems when I tried to invert the chronological order, so I hope I haven't got too much wrong. 

We got our jabs yesterday at a local surgery, booked in for 4.36 and 4.37. We decided to combine it with our constitutional but grossly mistimed it and arrived at the surgery half an hour early. As there was no queue, we confessed our poor timing and were let in immediately. There were many more staff than patients. Today though we are warned that we remain unclean, so we will still have to ring a bell as we advance hooded along the street, carry a sprig of rosemary and keep drinking the disinfectant. 

Otherwise not much to report. Son Neil sent us a 1,000-piece jigsaw of an aerial view of Exeter (one of the excellent Cityscape maps) which occupied us many frustrating hours. When we finally put the last piece in, it fitted but was clearly wrong. It took us a surprising amount of time to swap it over with the other errant piece. I have contacted the museum to see whether they would like the completed puzzle as an exhibit, a record of what Exonians were getting up to during lockdown and an unusual view of the city from almost the same angle as one in 1587. Haven't heard back yet, they must be pondering how to let this old bibliofool down gently. 

The attached photograph is of a dog that a delivery man found cowering in a neighbour's front garden. It was very nervous but succumbed to our offer of frankfurters, the only vaguely suitable food for dogs we could find. It was clearly very hungry, but we were afraid of it bonding too closely as we are not doggy people. Our neighbour did some phoning around and a local vet agreed to take it and check its microchip and it jumped obediently into the back of her car and was seen no more. Such excitement in the middle of lockdown. 

Recently it was exactly a century since the act of sawing a woman in half was first performed. We had to go out to celebrate, and coincidentally it was also Jill's birthday, so our constitutional for that day took us along by the river to the canal basin where a mean cup of coffee is served. We sat outside, watching a canoeist take his socially distanced paddle, otherwise completely on our own. Very tranquil. 

Not much reading by me, though Jill gets through a large number of books including, recently, Trollope's (the original one's) He knew he was right. It is partly set in Exeter, so I suppose I ought to tackle it although it is dauntingly long. I have just started a much shorter work, Flaubert's parrot by Julian Barnes, but too early to say much about it. I tend to do meta-reading, reading about reading and books, and have put up Powerpoints with recorded narration onto Slideshare. They are massive files and people have had difficulty in downloading them but not Crediton Library for whom I am giving a talk in March on the 100 illuminated manuscripts that the Exonian Thomas Bodley nicked from Exeter Cathedral Library in 1602 to create a new library somewhere over to the east. I wonder whatever became of that venture. 

We hope that the year continues better for us all than it started, that Howard recovers from his illness, that the rest of us get their vaccines (both lots with a short space of time between them), that Biden is not derailed by God's Annointed and that Brexit is not as dire as it seems to be turning out. We learn that the new wine allowance is:

42 litres of beer

18 litres (24 standard bottles) of still wine 

4 litres of spirits OR 9 litres (12 bottles) of sparkling wine, fortified wine or any alcoholic beverage less than 22% ABV 

My understanding is that the boolean operator between the bullet points is AND, so if there are two of us, that makes 48 bottles of wine per visit. So the fishermen may be upset but we can live with those changes as we sail across the proudly British part of the high seas  - once we are able to travel, that is. At the moment Modestine stands on the driveway with a flat battery and we are wondering how to get her to her MOT test next month. 

So, stay safe everyone, Ian and Jill 

 

 

Supsliskans in lockdown. Weeks 37-45, 16 November 2020 - 17 January 2021

Ian, 17 November 2020

Hello everyone

Not a lot to add since my last message, but Jill and I have been following the exchanges with great interest, especially the reminiscences over children's books. I have pulled the spasmodic exchanges of the last two months together into two blogs and have even added images of some of the books discussed to pile on the nostalgia. Alarming to think that we are in the 37th week since lockdown began. 

The exchanges reminded us of a visit to the public library at Ventspils in Latvia in 2008, where "We were particularly amused and surprised to discover that foreign writers have the spelling of their names changed, so Enid Blyton's Famous Five becomes Enide Blaitone, Noslepums and J.K.Rowlings' Harry Potter becomes Dz. K. Roulinga, Harijs Poters in Latvian. They are different again in Russian but our computer hasn't got Cyrillic script. "

Enid Blyton's Five go off to Latvia

J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter and Curse of the Cyrillic Script

Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories

As you have said, some children's writers are popular everywhere. Jill was a fan of Gwynned Rae's stories of Mary Plain and the owl man, about the bear who lived in the bear pit in Bern and read the stories to Neil and Kate. In 2010 we got this picture of one of her descendants.

In Bern they have bears decorating their manhole covers.

I will pull the blogs together and print them out for Peter Miles, who phoned me the other day. He is keeping well but Maggie seems to be suffering badly from sciatica. I wished them both well on behalf of you all. 

Stay safe all of you, Ian and Jill

Anne, 27 November 2020

Hi everyone,

This may give you something to think about and/or read during your lockdowns.

There is a German English-language magazine which I subscribe to called Spotlight. It has developed into quite a glossy life-style mag over the years and in fact it doesn't now have as many Easy/Intermediate level articles as I would wish for my students. However, in the latest issue, Spotlight 14/20, on pages 24 - 28 , there is an interesting article on books in English about Germany.

Here are the titles mentioned, you may find them of interest:

Neil McGregor  Germany: Memories of a Nation (2014)

John Kampfner  Why the Germans do it better (2020)

James Hawes  The Shortest History of Germany  (2017)

David Stubbs  Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany  (2014)

Giles MacDonogh  On Germany  (2018)

Another title I'd like to mention is in German: Annette Dittert London Calling: als Deutsche auf der Brexit-Insel. Hoffmann und Campe, 2017. I have read this and she writes very entertainingly about her travels in various parts of the UK and the people she met. Dittert is the ARD correspondent in London, lives on a houseboat on the Thames and is an ardent Anglophile.

Otherwise I hope you are all fit and healthy. Our lockdown has been extended and I just heard today that all our VHS courses have now been cancelled until the end of the year.

Take care everyone, Anne

Sylvia, 29 November 2020

Hi Everyone,

I hope no one is feeling too much in the dumps.  Coming out of lockdown, other than Jane, Howard and Anne, who have other rules to comply with, will feel little different except that we can now go and pick up Covid in our local shops.  I don't think SUPSLISKAN is lucky enough to be in a Tier 1 area.  

I thought you might enjoy the picture below.

Keep smiling and stay well everyone! Love to all, Sylvia

Ian 5 December 2020

Hello Everyone

As we are now out of lockdown #2,  but into something that seems worse for most of us, despite there being at least three vaccines on the horizon, We are sending out our print-it-out-and-fold-it-yourself card and our dreaded annual round robin. [Neither attached]

We find the streets in town much more crowded this week and are relieved that we will not have to frequent them too much this year as the only person with us over Christmas will be Jill's sister Julie. Stand by for the third spike, due in early January. 

 Any way we wish you all the best for Christmas, however you spend it and, much more importantly, for our Brexit into 2021 and a brave new sustainable world. 

Above all, stay safe everyone and love to you all, Ian and Jill

Sue, 23 December 2020

Hi

Just a quick note to say Happy Christmas and to thank you all for your
company during the year.

Let's hope that with Biden and Harris at the helm, Brexit sorted one way
or the other AND more than one vaccine actually being administered, the
world will be a better and safer place in 2021.

Take care and stay safe and well. Love, Sue

Lesley, 23 December 2020

Share your 2021 wishes, Sue. Warm greetings to everyone, Lesley

Howard, 23 December 2020

Best wishes from Sark to everyone for  a happy Christmas. Let us hope we can all get together sometime in the not too distant future.

 

Howard

 

Pat, 23 December 2020

Warmest wishes to everyone on this bleakest of days. I hope that we all escape from this dreaded virus and that we get protected soon. I think we in the UK should be third in the pecking order going by our great age.  

Have a good Christmas, Trish

Janet, 24 December 2020

Dear All

A Merry Christmas by Zoom and a Healthy & Happy New Year to everyone from John and me. And thank you for the cheery anecdotes, Janet.

Angela, 24 December 2020

Dear All

Just adding my Very Best wishes for as good a Christmas as is possible and a Happy and Healthy New Year from North Norfolk.

It has been a real bonus hearing news from SUPSLISKANS far and wide. Hopefully this rainbow over Cley is  a sign of better things to come in 2021! 

Keep safe and well, Angela xx

Margaret, 24 December 2020

Dear All,

Just sending my very best wishes for a happy, if rather different, Christmas and peace and good health in the New Year. Keep up the messages in 2021! 

My news is that I had the vaccine last Saturday morning and return on 9th January for a second jab. Thankfully, no aftereffects - just a bit tender. Rather embarrassed that none of my Wolvercote friends has been offered it yet. I go to a GP in town and they all go to one in Summertown; I gather that mine has linked up with a few in town to be first in the queue.

Love from Margaret

Tony, 24 December 2020

Hello Supliskans

A Happy Christmas from Sussex, where the water table is forever rising, but thankfully not yet as high as our cellar floor. Nevertheless, a lovely morning for a sunny, albeit squelchy walk.

And of course best wishes and high hopes for 2021. If the news is to be believed Brexit has been sorted (fingers crossed), and most of the over 80s we know have received their first jabs. I'm guessing we're all in the next tier.......

All best wishes, Tony

Sylvia,  24 December 2020

Dear Everyone,

I too send my best wishes for an enjoyable Christmas, whatever you do (or don't!).  I hope I'm not tempting fate by saying that 2021 can only be better than 2020.

Love to you all and stay well, Sylvia

Val, 26 December 2020

Merry Christmas everyone! Hopefully some of you will have been able to see family yesterday.

 

Over 1000 in Barnard Castle have been vaccinated this week & Brexit sorted, so fingers crossed it’s the start of the climb out of all this.

 

Love to all & all the best for 2021, Val

Ian 26 December 2020

Welcome to the New Year 2021

... and to the new decade with a little New Year's Gift.  

Since then twelve score years have passed by

And 2021 is nigh.

No wars in Europe, only Brexit,

Our feeling of great gloom reflects it,

But as for plaques and sickness, Covid

Deserves the pen of poet Ovid

Who sings its metamorphoses

And then a better world foresees.

So, this Exonian newsboy cheers:

Good riddance 2020's tiers! 

Sylvia, 6 January 2021

I'm assuming that most of us are spending at least some of our time quiddling.  My son gave me a wonderful book for Christmas called Word Perfect: etymological entertainment for every day of the year by Susie Dent.  There are several words each day and one of the ones for yesterday was quiddling, described as "prone to attending to the trivial tasks in life as a way of avoiding the important ones", although I'm not sure what could be classed as important at the moment, other than keeping body and mind active.

Here in Herefordshire, we're really struggling to keep Covid numbers in check, in part because we, as the only county north of Cornwall, were put into Tier 1 shortly before Christmas.  This was without any consultation with our council and with the predictable results.  Everyone saw it coming, but nobody could do anything about it.  People from E. Wales and the surrounding English counties streamed into our pubs and restaurants with the result that whereas until then we were managing to keep things on an even keel, our numbers now are higher than the areas around us.  Within a period of 10 days we've gone from Tier 1 to 2 to 3 and now, along with everyone else, to lockdown.  Hey ho!

Keep smiling (and quiddling) everyone, even if it is through gritted teeth! Sylvia

Jane, 6 January 2021

Happy New Year from Grumpy Jane. If you can call it a new year … Still a competition between Your Boris and Our Nicola as to who can manage the crisis better and the trouble is that far too many Scots believe that because ON is apparently organising Covid restrictions well, she will be as effective in an independent Scotland. Now we hear that over a million people have received the vaccine in England, and that the first over-80-year-old in Dundee got his yesterday. David daily awaits his appointment letter which is due this month "once the supply of vaccine has been received". But the SNP is in trouble over its spat with Salmond and one of its MPs (now suspended from the Party and serving as an Independent) who travelled by train back from Westminster after she had received a positive Covid test result, has been arrested by Police Scotland. So there is some interesting news to keep us entertained.

But we have not changed our routine much since March last year. The only difference is that it is too cold or wet to sit or work in the garden with the ground sodden or frozen hard, and we are less keen to go for walks lest we slip and take up hospital space with broken limbs. I bought myself a jigsaw which is proving difficult so will keep me busy for days and David always has some research to do. And having said I would never book another holiday (still waiting for the refund of the deposit from the September 2021 Canada trip I booked in March) I have booked a Northern Belle rail trip to Dumfries in September, in the hope that the country has not reached Tier 50 by then. Workmen are busy all round about with the conversion of two houses across the road into 14 flats still not complete although two are already occupied, and a complete refurbishment of the cottage next door including double glazing without planning permission which is mandatory in this conservation area. We hope that we will get our sitting room painted soon after the new double glazed windows were installed several weeks ago, then new curtains, and carpet throughout the flat. Moving all the books in advance will provide us with much needed exercise.

Best to take each day as it comes, I think, keep away from other people, and not expect to be let out to play in the near future.

Love, Jane

Janet, 6 January 2021

Dear Jane

And a Happy New year to you too. Also Happy New Year to everybody else. At least we all have the prospect of vaccinations happening so that, although we will be sticking with the face masks, the social distancing and the hand washing, there will hopefully be some prospect of getting out and about, whether to parks or countryside, and some chance of visiting or being visited, if only for cups of tea in one another's gardens.

We had no visitors over Christmas/ New Year in the end but did manage board games or home-made quizzes with the family over Zoom almost every day. Our son managed to rig up some sort of contraption to give a view of the board at their end to help keep track of where we were all moving everyone's pieces on our own boards and it worked surprisingly well. There was a slight hiccup when we found that one family's version of Buccaneer was an Australian one, where the orange ship was grey and the purple one was a wishy washy crimson but we soon got that noted and play was able to continue unhindered.

Very best wishes to all, from Janet & John.

Supsliskans in lockdown. Weeks 34-36 26 October - 15 November 2020+

Janet 1 November 2020

Dear All

Thanks to everyone for their updates and congratulations to Jane and David on their Golden Wedding Anniversary. Always good to have things to celebrate. Sadly, three of our long-standing but slightly older friends have died during these past two months. None directly from Covid-19 but the lock-down restrictions certainly contributed to their deaths in that they were just not able to be visited as often as they were before. It did seem a shame that the only time we could all get together was at their funerals. So it is my sincere hope that the government can find some way of keeping older folk Covid-safe without depriving them of contact with friends and family. With all three of these friends family had been allowed some visiting once it was clear they were not going to survive but, although that did help it certainly would have been better all round if there could have been better contact all along.

On a more cheery note, I can report that our grandchildren in Switzerland are all going to school pretty much as normal, though our daughter is still working from home, as are all her work colleagues. They were still celebrating Hallowe'en at home but not expecting any trick-or treaters. The one restriction in school matters is that the usual ski trip scheduled for February half-term - where they normally sleep several to a room in sleeping bags in a youth hostel - has been cancelled. But they are not really able to travel other than within Switzerland, so we will not be receiving any visits from them till Easter at the earliest and perhaps not till next July. We do have a weekly Zoom or Skype session though, which keeps our spirits up. Our youngest grandson, David, is at last reading aloud really well in German. He is reading to us from Seekers - die letzte Grosse Wildnis (which is actually a translation of a book in English) - and we are all enjoying it. He has been happily reading aloud in English for the past year but had been stumbling over the German, presumably because the books were just not that interesting, so it is a great relief all round that "the penny has now dropped" and he can do it.

Another cheering thing, for us at least, is that not all universities here are incubators of Corona Virus. Our son (Peter) and daughter-in-law (Alison) both work in admin at Royal Holloway in Surrey and they have currently only 13 cases of Covid-19 amongst their 11,500 students - ie only the same incidence as in their local community. They have been working hard to ensure social distancing an keeping everyone safe and they have a rapid-testing system on site, so that cases can be swiftly identified and isolated. They achieve social distancing by only having half a cohort in a lecture theatre whilst the other half watch on-line, then they swap for the next lecture of that module. All the admin staff are working from home where possible and that both helps keep them safe and frees up their office space for use by students as study areas, to save them going off campus during the day if they are among those not resident on campus. Fingers crossed it continues to go well. The staff were originally expecting to return to their desks after Christmas but it now looks as if they will be working from home for the rest of this academic year. They can access their desktop computers remotely and hold most of their meetings on-line so the work still gets done.

For ourselves, we have been enjoying on-line lectures, singalongs and quizzes with the local U3A and on-line lectures, with live Q&A via email, with the Manchester Lit & Phil. We haven't done our planned trips in our camper van though and now it seems we have left it too late, with lock-down back before we managed to go anywhere.

Attached is a link to an on-line lecture about Joyce Grenfell's life and work which some of you may find interesting.

All the best and keep safe. Janet.

PS Obviously, it's too late now for the live Q&A but the talk is still available.

Jane 1 November 2020

Dear All, 

Good to hear from you, Janet. I have been meaning to email and apologise for putting you off emailing previously for fear of my reaction to tales of meeting family. Certainly the short visit from Douglas and Co helped us, but a picture of a build-your-own gingerbread house in the Lakeland catalogue which fell out of one of our newspapers yesterday made me feel sad. For the last 12 years we have given one from the posh bakery here to the grandchildren when we have visited before Christmas, but that's not going to be possible this year. We thought last year that Tom at 16 would have grown out of such things, but he was as keen as Alice to begin the construction. When Alice first helped at the age of 2, Tom was able to read the instructions, the first of which after the unpacking said to eat one of the packets of sweets. I got him to promise not to tell Alice!

We are still pottering on. David has written an article on a Provost of the town for the Preservation Trust newsletter to be published next month, and I have catalogued some Valuation Rolls from the Research Room, with the promise of more work when the Curator has sorted out what needs to be done. As the Museum is just round the corner, it is easy for us to bring the items home and do the work here. And it gives David a chance to use the material in his research. But I worry about security. We have all the necessary alarms in the ground floor because it was rented to students before we bought it. But apparently we need to fit similar in our 1st floor. The first we knew of this was when a leaflet from a commercial firm dropped through the letter box offering to install smoke and heat alarms, and like many others we thought this was official notification as the Scottish government logo was on the leaflet. It turns out that was a mistake on the part of someone in the administration. As a result of the furore we have an extra year for the installation.

But after the chaos of the flu jab booking system (75,000 letters sent out by Fife NHS all on the one day and 12 people appointed to answer the telephones) I had mine 10 days ago in the Scout Hall just 2 minutes' walk away. David has now emailed his request but we wonder where he will have to go as the Scout Hall has been closed when we have walked past more recently. Initially I went on the website and had a reply telling me what information was required. I do feel a lot of time would have been saved if there had been a booking form on the website.

We were amused when Our Nicola waited to hear about Boris' 3 tiers before announcing her version - 5. Not 1-5 but 0-4. Weird! Fife goes into Tier 2 tomorrow, but we are so confused that we are ignoring Tiers and carrying on as before - assessing our own risk, keeping out of the way of others, avoiding public transport, and shopping early. Cases within the University are now up to 72, but there is no detail as to whether they are all in halls of residence or how ill those infected are. I do feel that blanket numbers of cases, hospitalisation and of deaths are not very helpful without some indication of age and initial state of health. Now we await ON's reaction to Boris' lockdown. At least the local Council backed down and restored most of the parking in the centre of town after an outcry from shops, businesses and the elderly. But we still have ugly white water-filled barriers coning off one side of two one-way streets, supposedly for pedestrians, which means that there is no longer room to step off the pavement on the other side (the main shop side) to get past others on foot as we have always done.

Unable to work on the Civil War with me as I have not been able to visit him near Nottingham, my co-author has been making things for his neighbours - and posted a magnificent bird table to me. David says it looks like a Swiss chalet. With Peter's printed instructions to hand I was able to fix the two sections of the pole together and set it in concrete which was an achievement I felt - and amused the girl in the DIY next door where I bought the bag of sand and cement. The table has pegs round the sides to stop the pigeons stealing all the food. The blackbird was confused at first but now flies in and out several times a day for a meal of porridge oats, and even a woodpecker has investigated. Pigeons now have to rely on the tits flicking seed on to the ground from the feeder hooked on the side.

I am composing this on Hotmail accessed from Microsoft Edge as I am told that Outlook is out of date and not being supported after August next year. If only computers could stay the same instead of adding bits I am never likely to use. Having said that I have managed two Archaeology Society meetings on Zoom and listened to a University lecture on Teams. There may be hope yet . . . But I could do without the pink and blue bits when I type the wrong word and don't use the punctuation which the gnomes inside the computer think I should. 

I was going out into the garden to sweep up leaves but it is raining again, so a good excuse for a cup of tea and to return to the fiendish jigsaw which a Welsh friend sent me. It only has 250 pieces but every one is different, and the picture is of a library seven shelves high with every book bound in shades of green, dark red and brown. Just right for the dark days of winter!

Hope you are all keeping well, and not as grumpy as me. David had an aunt who complained all the time and we always said that was what kept her going. She lived to be 99.

Love to all, Jane

Ian 8 November 2020

Hello everyone

Yes, back into lockdown #2 and a tentative foray into the centre of Exeter on Friday to look for some glue (hardly essential but required to fix some guttering) revealed a deserted place with very few shops open. 

Like Jane and David we still potter with things historical as and when we can. Like Jane we curse the changes in our computers and are alarmed that Outlook is being phased out. I have so far managed to avoid Windows 10 and, like Jane, curse the hidden coding that the nerds insist on inserting behind the scenes so that we cannot do what we want - the trouble it took me to get the images below lined up ...  Still Zoom is remarkable and we have had some interesting meetings, both with family and other local bibliofools. The Devon and Exeter Institution have started an interesting lecture series, beginning with a talk by one of the only knowledgeable librarians in Devon, recently grabbed from the V&A - have a look at the talk on Beatrix Potter and the Westcountry.

  

We had our last get-together with the grandchildren on the 4th November, an early bonfire with sparklers and hot dogs in our garden. Dry weather and a respite in the wind meant that it went up vertically with no smoke and was quite impressive with lots of thick branches consumed. The grandchildren were most impressed. We decided that if they cuddled our knees and we looked the other way, we could avoid close contact. 

That morning we had returned from several days away, the first stay away from home since a brief trip to Land's End in August. I hope you will forgive the following account, which I am preparing for the Westcountry Studies bibliographical newsletter. 

Halloween saw us in a thatched cottage deep in the west Devon countryside on the fringes of Dartmoor. Knowing that the author of A book of werewolves was buried just yards away, and that Lewtrenchard Manor was haunted by the White Lady, we made sure that our doors and windows were bolted and barred and listened to the wind howling through the trees and the rain beating on the windows with just a hint of trepidation. We had been welcomed with a massive cream tea which was to last us for several days, and very welcome it was after the first of five days of intensive work on the Sabine Baring-Gould library. The American descendants of SBG, who own the estate, were due to visit – partly to avoid the US election and the prospect of a victory of "the Orange One" as they call him – but Covid had put paid to that, so we had the use of their vacant cottage.

The whole library operation is a complex and never-ending one and the following is based on something I put together for a local newsletter. More than 2,000 books built up by six generations of the Baring-Gould family between the late 18^th century and 1931, when they left for America, are housed there, just part of a collection that is split haphazardly between Lewtrenchard, the University of Exeter and the Devon Record Office. A recent development was the donation from an SBG fanatic, David Shacklock, in 2018 of more than 1,000 books and bound volumes of periodicals by or relating to SBG. 

To assist in locating and reshelving the books we had decided to place spine labels on most items and sort them into categories subdivided alphabetically by author or title. The categories in the Shacklock collection reflect the divisions allocated by David Shacklock and, with an eye to eventual rationalisation of the three present locations of the Baring-Gould family library at Lew, the University and the Devon Heritage Centre, the categories in that collection are based on the ownership and authorship of the books. However the location of the books on the shelves is complicated by the fixed heights of the shelves, many of which are too small to take any but the smallest formats – books today are larger than in SBG's time and the Shacklock collection contained many recent items. This means that there are two or even three parallel sequences for most categories. Work is still in progress labelling and relocating the books but we haven't quite reached our aim of having the Shacklock collection on the open shelves in the library, the books owned by SBG's children and grandchildren in the gallery and the remainder of the Baring-Gould family library behind glass in the library.

The fact that the weather was poor meant that we were not enticed into the beautiful grounds and there was much of interest in the collections. Baring-Gould was a man with a magpie mind. Apart from the folk songs, which he considered his most important achievement, he collected works on archaeology, history, the topography of the Westcountry, France, Germany, Iceland and other parts of the world, folklore, superstitions, country life and customs, as well as church history, many of them in German or French. He was also a prolific writer, with more than 1,000 books and articles to his credit on all the subjects mentioned above, mostly written standing at his writing desk which can be seen at Lewtrenchard. He was the author of a large number of novels but he wrote them with great reluctance. In his diary he writes on 24 August 1886 "I write novels with anger and heat because they take me off my proper course of study, history, especially ecclesiastical, and mythology, which is my favourite study. I write only because I cannot build and restore this house. I can not live on the estate, without supplementing my income from my pen."  He might have added that his family of fifteen children cannot have made his financial situation any easier.

Good or bad, his novels provide an interesting record of the development of the design of publishers' casings. Here an example of Grettir the outlaw, a story of Iceland, a novel that had its genesis before his visit to Iceland in 1862. Passages from the sagas appear in Iceland: its scenes and sagas, published in 1863. It was not until 1890 that the novel finally appeared, in order to fill a hole in SBG's finances.

But perhaps the most unusual item is one collected by an ancestor of SBG. It is an ambitious serial publication for women, published in Paris. The Bibliothèque universelle des dames appeared in 156 volumes between 1785 and 1797. The privilege for this mammoth undertaking was granted 6 July 1784 to Jacques Perrin. The frequency announced was fortnightly on the 1st and 15th of each month but, while this was maintained from 1786 to 1790, it became very irregular after the Revolution. The length of each volume varies from about 120 pages to more than 400, in a tiny octodecimo format, only 13 x 8 cm in size. Volumes could be delivered in wrappers or bound in a variety of ways. The annual subscription for 24 volumes bound was 72 livres, or 54 livres in wrappers, plus postage. 

The series of volumes was in eleven classes, ranging from  novels to  mathematics and home medicine, and was conceived as a collection of works to provide a general education, easily accessible, for women of "a certain class". From 1787 interest seems to have been focussed on the practical, technical and scientific aspects of the collection. Few complete collections are known, only the British Library seems to have a full set in Britain, so it is good to have discovered an almost complete set in original bindings in the Baring-Gould family library in Devon. A full list of the titles of the 143 volumes they hold can be found in the catalogue of the collection. The subscription to this set seems to have ceased early in 1793, which accounts for most of the gaps.

So, we were able to spend a few days in agreeable bibliographical surroundings, just before Lewtrenchard Manor Hotel and the cottage were due to close once more for Lockdown #2, but at least the worst fears of the owners about the "Orange One" were not realised.   

Thanks for reading to the end of this little bit of self-indulgence and stay safe over the coming weeks. The continuing restrictions are becoming rather tedious. 

Ian (and Jill)

Anne 9 November 2020

Hello everyone and hope you are all managing to cope with this 2nd lockdown. We have been through it all before but this is different, here anyway, as not being quite so extreme but also being somehow more difficult because of the reaction of certain groups who don't want to cooperate.

However I won't go into any further details. This is just to thank Ian for the link to the talk about Beatrix Potter. I was brought up on Beatrix Potter's books, have visited her farm at Sawrey and knew about her connections with the rural community in Westmorland (as it was then)  and the National Trust. I didn't know about her links with the West Country - very interesting and a fascinating talk.

Set in Stymouth (Sidmouth). Piggery Porcombe echoes Budleigh Salterton

I can imagine Val was also interested. I remember how she acquired for each of her children a complete set of the Beatrix Potter books, and no doubt her grandchildren are now being reared on them!

So, take care everyone and let's hope the number of cases begins to go down soon.I have my doubts about Christmas and New Year when people want to celebrate and get together but we can only hope for the best.

Love, Anne

Sylvia 9 November 2020

Hi Everyone,

Ian's email and Anne's reply have made me feel nostalgic, not only for the Beatrix Potter stories, of which I have 5 from my own childhood, but also for the Alison Uttley stories.  Does anyone remember Little Grey Rabbit?  There are many other characters, including Fuzzypeg the Hedgehog and Sam Pig.  I've  just looked Alison Uttley up and have discovered that she was born and grew up in Cromford, Derbyshire, so maybe I was more aware of her than I might have been if she hadn't been a Derbyshire lass. She was writing from the late 1920s until her death in 1976.  Although the 5 Beatrix Potter and 5 Alison Uttley books I own all date from my childhood, unfortunately I don't possess a first edition of any of them, although there are no publishing dates for the Beatrix Potter ones - just the copyright date.  I'm not sure how a first edition would be identified.

Lockdown#2 is rumbling on.  I did manage to squeeze in a visit to Helen and family a week ago, but it means a friend and I can't have our regular get-together on a Friday evening and I might spend my birthday this month at home, although Helen is suggesting we form a temporary support bubble for November, which, if you don't tell anyone, could transfer to Chris and family for Christmas, when they've invited me to Hitchin.  I suppose there's just a chance that Boris will allow us out to play then anyway. 

One light at the end of this very long tunnel is that Donald is on his way out.  Only less than 2 months to go.  I heard a reporter on Radio 4 last week comment that "Unfortunately Trump doesn't have an adult relationship with the truth.", which I thought was a lovely way of not saying that he's a psychopath.

Stay well, everyone and keep emailing. Love, Sylvia

Janet 9 November 2020

Dear All

I, too, was a devotee of Beatrix Potter and Alison Uttley stories as a child, so thank you, Ian, Anne and Sylvia for your memories of them. As it happens, Alison Uttley (nee Taylor) was a physics graduate of Manchester University, where I read Chemistry (though obviously much later), and was a resident of Ashburne House, later called Ashburne Hall, where I too spent my Manchester years. Here is a link showing Ashburne's blue plaque in her memory. https://openplaques.org/plaques/8675

Ashburne has benefited from a bequest by her of half the royalties from the sale of her books, so a revival of interest in her work over the past few years has been welcomed by the Ashburne Association, of which I am still a member. I attended an Alison Uttley centenary at the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester (on Deansgate in Manchester city centre) where Denis Judd, her biographer, showed a film giving interesting details of her life. He is the president of the Alison Uttley Society: https://alisonuttley.co.uk/ where you might be able to find out more re publishing dates, first editions and so on.

Alison also wrote a few novels which some may find interesting and there is a range of cookery books giving some useful country recipes - all of which I have ended up buying, of course, as one does at such events.

Best wishes, Janet.

Lesley 9 November 2020

Certainly, NZ sounds to have been well led through Covid so far.  'Our Nicola' has placed the Highlands in Zone 1 (next to the bottom) so local businesses have a degree of freedom that those in higher zones can only envy.

We were able to go to Islay for 8 days last week (caught the fury of Storm Aiden which even islanders of decades considered "nothing previously this bad") and our 7-year-old grand-daughter came for a sleepover on our second night home, so life has no complaints of substance.  Our daughter feels Raigmore is well prepared for the next peak of patients and their 'Battle preparations' for phase 1 worked smoothly for a moderate caseload.  She is so relieved they all moved from London over 2 years ago....as are we.  So, we are good, thank you.  Everyone seems to be staying safe, keeping well and enjoying sharing our moments of frustration and 'insanity'!!

Best wishes,

Lesley

Margaret 9  November 2020

I have really enjoyed this conversation about Beatrix Potter and Alison Uttley, as both bring back memories for me.

As a child I loved the Beatrix books and have retained an interest in her. There is (or was) a lovely shop in Gloucester near the cathedral selling her books and exhibiting lovely displays about her. I think that once featured her connection with the West Country.

A few .years ago I was chatting to a librarian friend and told her that I thought I might have a first edition Beatrix Potter. She and her husband have an online second hand book business and I thought she might be able to assist me. Next day she appeared on the doorstep with two specialist books on identifying first editions. One of them revealed that my copy of Peter Rabbit was indeed a first edition and Lorna told me to take it to a chap in Blackwell’s Rare Books Department but ring him first. This I duly did and a few days later walked into Blackwell’s clutching my little Peter Rabbit. I was interested to see the Rare Books department with its sofa and book cases and old-fashioned atmosphere. The expert disappeared with my book reappearing few minutes later to inform me that it was indeed a first edition and worth  £500. Incidentally, the price on the book was 1 shilling!

As I was helping to raise funds for a project at our church I accepted and walked out of the shop with a cheque to that value! I have to admit that there are times when I wish I still had the book.

As for Alison Uttley I think I have one of her books but it was in one of the book  cases in the garden room where I am now living. Before I came home last June I got a friend to empty the case and put all the books in boxes ready for clearing this room to make room for the bed which does take up a large space. When we lived near Matlock in Derbyshire I was very familiar with her house on the hill above Cromford - you could see it from the A6.

She was quite a revered local character.

Coming back to the present, I can report progress with mobility. I now go upstairs for lunch and supper so I can sit at the table rather than eat with a tray on my knee. Also it’s an opportunity to find things I need for myself rather than trying to explain to my carer where they are.

Well, I wonder what the next happening will be that triggers off another Supsliskan correspondence.

So, here’ s to the next time.

Love to all,

Margaret 

Janet 9 November 2020

Dear Margaret

That is marvellous news - that you are back on your feet and are able to go upstairs again. What a wonderful feeling of renewed independence that must give you. And not a moment too soon, I'm sure. Now you will be able to sort out your affairs in time for Christmas and the hoped-for end of some of the current restrictions.

Love, Janet.

Sue 10 November 2020

Hi All

Many thanks for sharing your news, and very best wishes with the latest restrictions.   Yes, indeed, well done Margaret!   I guess the restrictions will be easier to deal with in that all the click and collect etc services will all be there already.

I don't think my mother (a teacher) can have all together approved of Beatrix Potter - no idea why - as I don't recall Peter Rabbit from my childhood, though I can recall Little Grey Rabbit.    I don't think many books for children were published during WW 2 (I was born in '42) and oddly I wasn't taken to the Stockton-on-Tees library, which presumably had a children's section by then.   Though I did get comics which were delivered with the Sunday papers, so that there would be peace and quiet for my parents to read the papers.   And I remember Rupert Bear from - was it - Shock! Horror! - the Daily Express?  My books as a very small child were limited and hand-me-downs.   I often wonder if it was easier to learn to read with the repetition that was inevitable from this small collection, compared with the current generation of nippers with their vast collections of really interesting stories.   Attached is a not very good shot of the Gloucester Beatrix Potter shop taken in Sept 2009 - closed, as it was a Sunday - I hope it is still around.

What a relief to have the US Election over... er, nearly over. Interesting, Sylvia,  the way commentators avoid saying Trump tells lies; I liked this comment on the BBC website "German politicians and voters have been shocked by his abrasive style, his unconventional approach to facts...." Thank heavens our recent General Election in NZ will have zero effect on the rest of the world!   But I'm glad we have the same team in charge for a bit longer.

And there sounds to be optimism over the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine - let's hope that proves well founded.

Please continue to take good care of yourselves - Love, Sue

Angela 11 November 2020

Hello Everyone

It is very good to hear from people again. Thank you Ian for getting the ball rolling and for introducing the Beatrix Potter theme. The lecture was very interesting. What a fascinating series of Potter recollections it stimulated which then led on to Alison Uttley. I loved their books and still have copies we got for Heather which Freya is now reading. My Beatrix Potter memories are of being lent the entire collection of her books by an elderly neighbour when I was recovering from measles followed by flu . The books were wonderful, but even better was the large, handmade bookcase they arrived in, complete with doors, which had all the characters beautifully painted all over it. I am sure Sue's observation about the effect of WWII on children's books is right. I still have one of my old books which I see was printed in France in 1948 called 'Gaston and Josephine'. It is about the adventures of two little French piglets going to visit family in America! The pictures show them as very 'piglet-like' - apart from their clothes! but pigs obviously still have appeal now as proved by 'Peppa pig'! I also really loved Rupert Bear, especially the 'Annuals'!

I spoke to Margaret recently and it is great news to hear that she is making such excellent progress. Getting to see family is obviously generally problematic for a lot of people. We last saw ours in September on our last trip to Hertfordshire. We missed seeing them later in the month as Leo had a 'Covid scare' which very fortunately turned out to be just a chest infection which was sorted out with antibiotics! We were quite anxious at the time, but we now know how to do a home test which in itself was quite challenging - but perhaps that was just because we were a bit panicky at the time!. One big tip is to remember to remove the air from the final bag to make sure it fits inside the self construct box! An outside meeting with family at half term was planned, as they were in Tier 2, and Herts was Tier 1, but the weather washed that out, then came lockdown 2. Still. as Janet is finding, Zoom and FaceTime are great for keeping in touch until times get better.

Although we did so much extra work in the garden during Lockdown 1, it doesn't seem to show now that autumn is here. I am now doing lots of pruning of shrubs which is probably some sort of 'coping' behaviour but is still very satisfying! We are lucky to have Cley beach so near for walks and I am now attempting to paint mandalas on some of the flat beach stones I have picked up using acrylics. It is not as easy as it looks but interesting to experiment. I am being careful to collect in a 'sustainable' way, recycling stones I had already collected. I remember the huge fuss caused when Ian McEwan 'borrowed' a few pebbles from Chesil Beach as a memento of his book. He was threatened with a large fine and eventually returned them all to the beach! Online 'gentle' fitness and Zoom ballet keep the joints moving after all the gardening with various family history projects and photo sorting on the go.

The reluctance of the 'Orange One' to admit defeat and show any co-operation in the transition period is horribly fascinating. The good news about a vaccine though is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it may take some time to organise.

Keep safe and well. Love, Angela

Jane 13 November 2020

Dear All,

I have much enjoyed the reminiscences of childhood reading - and well done, Margaret, discovering the Beatrix Potter 1st edition, selling it for a good price and donating the money to charity. I still have a collection of Potter books, my first being Jemima Puddleduck which is now very battered. I was tempted at a Book Fair some years ago by The Fairy Caravan until I saw the price, £100, because it was supposedly a 1st edition. But it was first published in America and this was the UK edition. At the moment the price of the complete Flower Fairies in Bouquiniste, our local 2nd hand bookshop, is fortunately enabling me to resist buying it. The owner of the shop has been persuaded by his wife to sort out his huge pamphlet collection and we have relieved him of well over 100 local, including several rare, ones, so have contributed to his lockdown finances quite well.

I also remember Alison Uttley. But did none of you read Winnie the Pooh? We could hardly believe a colleague in Durham UL when he said he had never read it and presumably neither had his daughters. My other favourites were the Animal Shelf books by Ivy L. Wallace who also wrote about Pookie the Rabbit with Wings. (I had to resist the temptation to buy one of those from Bouquiniste!) One of the animals was a monkey called Woeful who had an adventure involving 'waspberries'. We still refer to raspberries by that name, and when being bossy I am often called Gumpa after the bear who organised the other animals. 

Do you remember the discussion about Enid Blyton with staff when we visited Wakefield County Library. Her books were not stocked in the libraries and I think most of us disagreed with the decision, saying that the books got children reading, much as J.K. Rowling does now. And what was wrong reading about adventures which you knew could never happen to you? I am a great believer in escapist literature!

First edition!

And escape is what we did for a night this week - to the ground floor flat while new windows were installed at the front of the 1st floor. They are double glazed and have certainly cut out much of the traffic noise so a good investment. We now need the whole room painted, new carpet and new curtains, quite a thought to choose and arrange without transport (and Fife is now in Tier 3 so public transport is to be avoided) so we have the local Interior Designer coming on Tuesday to give us a quote. We hope she is not horrified by all the books or suggest we arrange them by colour. The joiner is coming back sometime to remove half a door from the meter cupboard in 'the study' downstairs so that I can have three more shelves fitted above. All in all we are pleased that our French river cruise was cancelled and the refund can be spent on more permanent items! And we are 'buying local' as much as we can.

Time to cook another meal! Love, Jane

Sylvia 14 November 2020

Oh yes, Winnie The Pooh was a favourite with me and also with Chris, my son, who can quote huge tracts from the books.  He's now introduced them to his two older boys and Theo, who is 9, loves them too.  I'm trying to think of works contemporary to my childhood, as everything I remember seems to have been a classic from an earlier time.  I read Black Beauty, Bambi, Little Women, What Katy Did, Alice in Wonderland, plus their sequels, and when I visited my godmother, Baba the Elephant.  Any suggestions, folks, for children's books published in the 40s and 50s?  I know there will be some, and when I see the titles I will realise I did know them, but I can't see any on my bookshelves here.

First edition

Margaret, I'm delighted to hear of your progress, which must be a joy to you.

Keep the thoughts coming. Love, Sylvia

Margaret 14 November 2020

This has developed into an interesting trip down memory lane! Yes, Sylvia, Winnie the Pooh was a firm favourite with me, too. Also, the Arthur Ransome books. My mother showed a keen interest in my reading habits and took to reading the latter herself. I read a lot of Enid Blyton and have never quite understood the current opposition to them. I loved Bambi. In my early teens I got hooked on the Chalet School girls books. Oh and Little Women.

Keep this going! Love from Margaret 

Sylvia 14 November 2020

I’d forgotten about the Arthur Ransome series (Swallows and Amazons, etc.), which I loved - much better than the similar Enid Blyton adventure books in my opinion, but my kids considered them too old fashioned, despite them having been written not so much earlier.  I think the objection to Enid Blyton was to do with the Noddy books because of the name Golliwog and who were portrayed as the baddies.

Still no other suggestions for books written in the late 40s and 50s, although to my amazement, I've just discovered that Charlotte's Web was published in 1952.  I never read it as a child, but my two loved it.  Tom's Midnight Garden was also published in the late 50s and again, I only came across it through my children.  I know that by the mid-50s I was using the adult library, e.g. Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie, so maybe that's why they passed me by.

Sylvia

Angela 14 November 2020

Hello Everyone

What fun trying to remember our favourite books from childhood! I do have happy memories of all the books you listed Sylvia and had forgotten Pooki! Pooh Bear was a real favourite as well as the poems by A.A. Milne published in 'Now we are Six' and other collections.

Margaret reminded me of the 'Chalet Girls' which I remember discovering in the Junior Library in Llandudno and really loving. I was introduced to Arthur Ransome by my godmother who sent the whole series all the way from Ireland, along with lots of Irish Folk Tales too!. Enid Blyton's ' Castle of Adventure', 'River of Adventure' etc were all very gripping as well as the Famous Five and Secret Seven series.

Other books which are beginning to surface in my memory , after all this time are 'Ballet Shoes' (Noel Streatfield), 'Milly Molly Mandy' (Joyce Lankester Brisley), 'Just William Books' (Richmal Crompton), which Heather also enjoyed, 'Green Sailors' series (Gilbert Hackforth-Jones) and the 'Lone Pine' series by Malcolm Saville. Just as Sylvia did, I also eventually left the Junior Library and moved on to Agatha Christie!

As Sylvia and Margaret recollected, we also read classics like 'Black Beauty', 'Tom and the Water Babies' and 'Treasure Island' (Parts of which I found quite scary then!) and 'Dr Doolittle' (Hugh Lofting) with the wonderful 'Push-me-pull-you' animal. I have just discovered I still have a copy of Heidi which I see from the inscription was given to me in 1954 by my ballet teacher!

It is interesting to see that some of these books e.g. Milly Molly Mandy were published from the 1920's up to the 60's and of course the William books are still popular and have had TV series. Pooh Bear lives on still with translations into so many languages and cartoon versions.  Others, as Sylvia mentioned, have now become somewhat politically incorrect. I remember when I started working in School Libraries, two reviews of the development of children's books had just come out, highlighting this. One was called ' Make the Cocoa Janet' and the other 'You are a Brick Angela'! I also remember doing a survey of fiction front covers with the Sociology teacher and finding very few with girls or any sort of cultural diversity. Things have thankfully changed a lot now!

Looking forward to seeing more 'book memories'! Keep well, Angela

Anne 14 November 2020

Hello to all,

Yes, Ange, I agree with all you wrote, I read exactly the same books, there probably wasn't all that much choice in those days. Jane, I loved the Shelf Animals; my oldest and best-loved teddy bear is named after one of them - Little Mut - because he looks very like the one in the book though brown and not white!

I would spend every Saturday morning in the Halifax Children's Library until we left there in summer 1955. We were allowed to borrow 3 books at a time and I remember once returning on the Saturday afternoon as I had read 1 or 2 of the 3 books I had borrowed in the morning. The librarian hadn't got round to filing the cards and I was told off for reading too quickly!

Tales of boarding schools fascinated me -midnight feasts and French Mamselles - and of course pony books - there were 2 sisters, Pullein-Thompson - who wrote some of those. Then there was a whole series of career books for girls. These would surely now be frowned upon by today's feminists. They did present various careers, including librarianship,  but somehow there was always a "happy ending", i.e. the girl - nurse, teacher, vet, librarian - would end up finding a suitable husband!

We always listened to Children's Hour on the radio at 5 pm whilst eating tea and they serialised a lot of books - I remember the Jennings books, a boy also at boarding school.

The first adult books I read were by Nevil Shute and a series about a family in Canada, the Jarlna (???) books and Hugh Walpole's Herries Chronicles (the Lake District connection).

I must stop as I see I'm getting carried away, but so interesting to see we all read the same books. I recently joined our village library for some light reading during lockdown. Lots of children's books and otherwise Thrillers and Krimis and one section labelled Women's Literature! (Haven't investigated that yet)

Keep reading,

Anne

Val 15 November 2020

Hello everyone!

 

Fascinating glimpses into our childhood reading habits!!  Generally remarkably similar! Yes, Anne, I did love Beatrix Potter, but also Little Grey Rabbit, Rupert Bear & the Flower Fairies. I didn’t like Winnie the Pooh, but loved “When we were very young” & “Now we are six”!! Did anyone else have Toby Twirl books?  And my favourite, Fudge the Elf annuals?   I have 5 Fudge annuals & read them to death. Disney annuals too.

 

What Katy Did & the rest of that series, William, Bunter & Biggles.  I still have all of them! I still have loads of Enid Blyton & used to save up to buy them.  The Adventure series (the best in my opinion!) were 8/6d.  Famous Five 7/6d. All the other series eg Five Find Outers & Dog were brilliant too. The only problem when reading the odd chapter at bedtime is coming across an utterly inappropriate, never used today word!! Does one just read it & move swiftly on or leave it out which only risks granddaughter drawing attention to the fact I’ve left it out which in turn draws more attention!!   It’s lovely to be able to read one’s own copies, but ... !!

 

I also remember the Wakefield trip & our bewilderment that children should only be expected to read about what was within their own, possibly traumatic,  experience, not flights of fancy of adventure which would fire their imagination.  No one ever actually believed  we’d have our own Kirrin Island, but we could dream!!

 

I loved The Chalet School & The Abbey School (Elsie J Oxenham). I read The Scarlet Pimpernel series quite early too & reread a few during lockdown. Still a good read.  Little Women, Heidi etc.  I too enjoyed the career series & the library had them all.

 

The big frustration with Manchester Public Libraries was that you weren’t allowed to return & exchange books the same day!!

 

It’s been interesting over the years to see which books fired my three’s imagination & which left them cold.  One hated Rupert, one loved The Chalet School.  All loved Enid Blyton! Same is happening with granddaughters, but there are so many brilliant new children’s books out there jostling for time!  Julia Donaldson in particular, but I’m not a fan of David Walliams’s books! Harry Potter is brilliant at any age.

 

Anyway, enough of my childhood reading habits.  I think the main point to emerge is that we are all readers & book collectors! It’s good you are all keeping well & navigating all this weirdness with humour. I’m doing all the Christmas preparations as normal with fingers & toes crossed!!

 

Look forward to the next burst of messages! Love, Vally