The Eastern Regional Library Show - 1st April 2009 and 8th April 2009

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

The Eastern Regional Library Show 4th February 2009

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 Wednesday's show

It doesn't take a lot of energy to turn the pages of a book, and even less to press the DVD play button. If you're tired of the tennis, worn out by world affairs, visit the library and pick up something fresh to watch or read or listen to. You can even save time and energy by placing holds on items via the website and just ducking into the library to collect your treasures when they turn up. Mind you, quite a few people have discovered that our cool libraries with their comfortable armchairs are very pleasant places to while away a few hours on the hottest day.

If you have been a keen reader of Marcia Muller's detective series featuring PI Sharon McCone, then you probably have already placed a hold for her latest, Burn Out. Lyn has been reading about McCone since the series began, set in San Francisco of the 'flower power' era, and says it has been consistently engrossing. The heroine has aged with the series and the stories are now dealing with the modern world of constantly changing technology and Internet crime. In the latest, Sharon is literally 'burnt out' and retreats to her husbands ranch to recuperate. Mystery and death however seem to follow her, and before long she is involved in investigating the disappearance of the overseer's niece.

Now if a novel can't hold your attention, a good short story will, and Lyn is recommending a collection of Peter Lovesey's crime short stories, Murder on the short list. Lovesey has also been writing crime for many years, and has several central characters who feature in these short stories. If you have been a fan of his characters Peter Diamond, Cribb and Thackerey of Scotland Yard, Edward Prince of Wales (the wayward son of Queen Victoria) or the latest heroine, Hen Mallin, then these stories are for you.

Alternatively, if you became fascinated by the story of Georgianna, Duchess of Devonshire in the late 1700's, and the colourful, complex and restrictive world of the English aristocracy as shown in the recent film Duchess, then you will enjoy Lady Worsley's Whim by Hallie Rubenhold. In a life with many parallels to Georgianna's, Dorothy Seymour married Sir Richard Worsley at the age of seventeen, and found that once she had produced the necessary heir, was of little interest to her husband. After a series of affairs to which her husband turned a blind eye to, she fell in love with George Bisset and eloped with him. Sir Richard proceeded to take his wife and her lover to court for having a 'criminal conversation' which would have ended in a legal separation, but was defended by George and Dorothy. It is a fascinating insight into a major scandal of the time, and also to the constraints on women which meant that they were either the property of their parents, or their husbands.

Music today was from Classic Marches performed by the Royal Australian Navy Band, which will be added to our collection in the coming weeks, along with A Flagship Recital Mark II.

---- Lesley