Apologies, I've been remiss in posting the summaries of the latest radio shows. I'm also working on getting a few more podcasts up as well so sorry about their tardiness too.
Library staff members Lesley Conway and Pia Butcher run a radio show each Wednesday 12:05pm-12:45pm on Eastern FM 98.1 called The Eastern Regional Library Show. Tune in next Wednesday for a great show.
On 1st April show
Sometimes the best next book to read is an old favourite. Today Lyn brought in some reprints of books which she first read many years ago. From the wonderfully named Felony & Mayhem Press comes Sheila Radley's Death in the morning, The Chief Inspector's daughter and A talent for destruction. This publisher has brought to light some classic British and American detective fiction, in two very nicely produced series. Radley's central detective is Inspector Quantrill, an old school policeman in an English market town who is sent a new sergeant, one of the new breed Oxford graduates, a bright young man. Much of Death in the morning is about the steep learning curve for the new sergeant, who discovers that entering pig pens without wearing wellintons is not wise, but does provide the locals with much amusement. You can find out more about this publisher at http://www.felonyandmayhem.com/
Another favourite author is Barbara Pym, who has a wry sense of humour and ability to bring the lives of 'ordinary' people into sharp focus with affection and insight. In Excellent women she introduces Mildred who is on the brink of spinsterhood, a capable woman who can cope with anything from birth and death to jumble sales and fetes threatened by bad weather. Is she vulnerable to the dashing new neighbour Rockingham Napier? Pym has several other equally enjoyable reads, Jane & Prudence, No fond return of love and An academic question.
The third author mentioned today was E.M.Delafield and her title The diary of a provincial lady was followed by The provincial lady in London and The provincial lady in America. Lyn feels that the first story was the best, and as an evocation of a time long gone, when 'everyone' had servants, and the battles with the cook and the kitchen range were more important than international events. It is a picture of a life between the wars which was never to return, and is portrayed with much humour. Next week I will be talking about some other authors of this period who wrote some delightful fiction and autobiography.
Music today was from Classic marches from the Royal Australian Navy Band.
On 8th April show
Charles Dickens and the Bronte sisters have never been out of print, but many good writers of the past have fallen from fashion, and from view. It is possible to find old editions in many libraries, and quite a few authors who have not been on book store shelves for many decades, have been reprinted in Large Print issues and in audio recordings.
One of my favourites is E.F.Benson (1866-1941) who published from 1893 to 1940, and whose two best known characters are Miss Mapp and Lucia. Benson wrote sharp and funny satire about the social hierarchy of an English village between the two world wars, in which autocratic spinster Miss Mapp and 'artistic' social climber Lucia via for supremacy. Queen Lucia was the first of the series, and my introduction to the characters was through Miss Mapp. There are several more, including Mapp and Lucia, which is available on audio CD read wonderfully by Prunella Scales. Benson was also an excellent writer of ghost stories, which appear in collections such as The restless ghost and other encounters and Classic ghost stories.
Another excellent writer of the same period is Elizabeth Von Arnim (1867-1940), who had a success with her first book Elizabeth and her German garden, published in 1898. The book is about the first year she spent on the isolated estate of her German husband, in Pomerania, very close to the Baltic sea. She writes with gentle whimsy and humour about her adaptation to her new culture and her growing love for her garden and the countryside beyond the estate. As a widow in 1910 she went to live in England, and perhaps it is her memories of a very wet Devon which suggested the story of one of her best known novels, The enchanted April. The story is about two women who meet at their club in London on a wet English spring day and dream of escaping to Italy. They follow their dream and rent a house which they share with two other woman, and revitalise their lives. It was made into a successful film, Enchanted April, with Natasha Richardson and Joan Plowright. Von Arnim wrote many more novels which often had an autobiographical starting point, and one of her most charming is All the dogs of my life. She insists that she is not writing her biography, but only about her beloved pets, yet details and reminiscences slip through in the most disarming way.
Music today was from the very mellow Ella Fitzgerald's double CD Ella Fitzgerald sings the Cole Porter songbook, the equally mellow Queen Latifah from Trav'lin light, and from the soundtrack of the movie Sex in the city.
---- Lesley
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