Beatrice Goes To Brighton by M.C. Beaton

27 January 2012 13:36

I had no idea that M.C. Beaton was a Scot, never mind a fellow Glaswegian until very recently, about five minutes ago actually. I haven’t even seen Hamish McBeth on TV, she wrote those books too. I’ve been meaning to start reading her Agatha Raisin/crime series but I want to start it from the beginning and I haven’t got a hold of the first one yet. So when I saw Beatrice Goes To Brighton in the library I thought I might as well give it a go, even although romance is not my favourite thing.

If you’re looking for holiday/bedtime reading or just something which you don’t have to concentrate on too much then this is the perfect choice. Good light reading and a bit of a laugh now and again. The funniest bits for me were when the characters get all romantic – a la Mills and Boon, it reminded me of when I used to work in a library and to cheer ourselves up in the morning, just before we unlocked the door to let in the public, we used to take turns at opening a Mills and Boon and reading the very last page out loud – in a very plummy voice. Such fun!

In this one Miss Pym, who has had some success as a romantic matchmaker in the past is travelling to Brighton by stage-coach and comes into contact with the 28 year old Lady Beatrice who has recently become a widow, much to her relief. Beatrice had been married off to an older man who was a gambler and boozer, unfortunately it took him 10 years to slowly drink himself to death, by which time he had gone through most of his money.

It wasn’t long before Beatrice’s parents were trying to marry her off again to the ghastly Sir Geoffrey. Can Miss Pym help Beatrice?

Thanks again to Jo at The Book Jotter for pointing me in M.C. Beaton’s direction.

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Burns Supper

25 January 2012 23:20

Did you go out to a Burns Supper or did you have a quiet one at home? It’s absolutely donkey’s years since we went to a real Burns Supper but I always have haggis, neeps and tatties on January the 25th. So feast your eyes. If you can see it through the steam!

Haggis for Burns Night

Well, maybe not. Haggis is not the most appetising of foods and it doesn’t do to dwell too much on the ingredients, but this haggis is a vegetarian one, much more pleasant all round and it tastes much the same as the real thing.

So we had a quiet night in. What about you, were you addressing the haggis – or just eating it?

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Categories: Personal

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Kodak no more?!

24 January 2012 23:25

Like a lot of people my age I’ve had the sad task of clearing out elderly relatives’ homes and in each of them there have been boxes of old photos and albums to look through. Hearing about the demise of Kodak on the news the other day got me thinking about my inadvertent collection of unknown folks from the past. Annoyingly very few of the photos have any information on the back but they’re still fascinating glimpses into history. I even like the Kodak wallets they came in.

I do know the story of the people in the photos below – meet Jack and his wife Weeanna. Jack was my husband’s great uncle and he was a Clydeside engineer, working in one of the many shipyards on the Clyde in the early 1900s. Unfortunately he had a bit of a fiery temper which led to him punching another chap who just happened to be the shipyard owner’s son. This led to Jack being dismissed but worse than that he was blacklisted which meant that none of the other yards would give him work. So, reluctantly he left home for America and ended up working in Ford’s Motor Company, in Detroit I suppose as he lived in Michigan. Presumably he helped build cars, a bit of a come-down from building beautiful ships.


He made the best of it though and met his wife in the US, for years the family thought her name was (wee) Anna but it was Weeanna and I have no idea where she came from. I love these photos they sent home. Jack is obviously saying – Look Mum and Dad, I’m a success now. I have my wife and children.

Here we are again with our car this time with Weeanna, our daughter and the newest addition to the family in the back of it.

This is our house with Weeanna in the doorway, haven’t I done well! It has all worked out for the best.

And we still have these images, thanks to Kodak. It’s all we do have now as Jack and his wife are long dead and even the children are probably gone too, they didn’t keep in contact after their parents’ death.

Now it looks like the end of Kodak, for photos anyway. I’m glad that I have loads of albums of my own boys when they were wee, but photos seem to be a thing of the past. It’s a bit of a shame really.

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Categories: Nostalgia, Personal

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More William by Richmal Crompton

23 January 2012 00:48

I was having a bit of a difficult time deciding which book to read a couple of weeks ago, nothing seemed to fit my mood. Then it dawned on me that I hadn’t read a ‘Just William’ book for ages. I galumph past my boxed set umpteen times every day as it’s in a bookcase half-way up the stairs – or on the mezzanine level if you’re an estate agent.

Anyway, it turned out that William was just what I needed to give me a guaranteed good laugh. Richmal Crompton (a woman) was born in Lancashire in 1890. The first story about William Brown appeared in 1919 in the Home magazine, 38 William books were written with the last one being published in 1970, after Richmal Crompton’s death. The Sunday Times said that the Just William series was “probably the funniest, toughest children’s books ever written.”

I don’t know what they meant by toughest but the books are a hoot and in this one William is 11 years old but he’s as anarchic as ever and gets up to all sorts of crazy high jinks much to the horror of his poor parents.

I think even modern day kids would love these stories although I’m quite glad that I didn’t give them to my own boys to read when they were wee. Life was chaotic enough without giving them more ideas!

It all reminds me so much of my own childhood with my older brother William who wasn’t much better than William Brown when it came to pea shooters, practical jokes and general mayhem. He always got off with it too! I’m not bitter, honestly!

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Thomas Carlyle Lived Here

22 January 2012 00:36

It’s amazing what you see when you’re walking to the supermarket, if you happen to be in the Stockbridge area of Edinburgh (again). I was admiring the gardens, there were quite a few viburnums blossoming, when I noticed that one of the terraced houses had a sign above the fanlight. Thomas Carlyle lived here – or words to that effect. It’s a very nice terrace but being Edinburgh the houses will cost an arm and a leg, even without a famous author as a past inhabitant. I love the fanlights above the doors, there are so many different designs. I just wish the present inhabitants would cut their climbing rose back a wee bit.

Thomas Carlyle lived here

It’s great that the window shutters are still in working order too, most of the houses seem to have internal shutters. It must make it nice and cosy, especially when there’s a howling gale. They would also be handy for keeping the early sunlight out in the summer, it’s no fun trying to get to sleep when there’s bright daylight outside at about 3 or 4 in the morning.

Thomas Carlyle's house

The house next door to Carlyle’s has quite an unusual fanlight (the window above the door). It would make a good pattern for a patchwork quilt, if you’re of that band of crafters.

Georgian House in Edinburgh

Carlyle lived in Kirkcaldy for a couple of years when he was teaching here but the powers that be pulled the place down years ago. You can see the street that it was in in a previous post here.

So what were we doing in Stockbridge? It wasn’t my fault (it wisnae me). Jack wanted to go to buy a book he had seen there a few weeks ago and hadn’t bought because he thought he already had it, he was wrong, luckily it was still there. He bought Space Chantey by R.A. Lafferty and The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke.

I ended up buying Mary Stewart’s The Ivy Tree and a 1934 copy of Priorsford by O. Douglas. Neither of them had been there a couple of weeks ago. That particular shop must have some turnover of books because they all seemed to be different this time.

Why was I at Waitrose? Buying more scone ingredients of course. Fingers crossed and ever hopeful that I can produce something good enough to photograph next time!

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Categories: Books, Scottish literature, Towns

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Scottish words: poor wee scone

21 January 2012 00:05

My recent scone failure reminded me of this one. Okay so it’s a Scottish phrase rather than a word and I hadn’t heard it before moving to the east of Scotland so I associate it with the Edinburgh area, but I love it.

In the west of Scotland we normally just say ‘poor wee soul’ – which is universal really so nothing very interesting about that and ‘poor wee scone’ is just a more striking way of expressing the same sentiment. Sometimes scone is used as a term of endearment in the way that ‘hen’ is used. I quite like being called hen but I have a horrible feeling that the usage is dying out.

In France they use the word cabbage as a sort of term of endearment really. Who said the French were romantic?!

In Germany I think it’s usually just babies which are described as little snails. Well I’ve seen some scary looking babies in my day but that’s taking it a wee bit too far.

I think I’d rather be described as a scone than either of those words, even if I’m a poor wee scone!

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Library Haul and Scones

19 January 2012 23:44

I had another bash at baking scones today. They’re something that I just can’t get right, usually they could be used as ice hockey pucks. This afternoon’s date scones are edible but they aren’t the lovely light consistency that I’m looking for and they didn’t rise much as usual, I think Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood would say that they’ve been ‘overworked’ – don’t know what else it can be.

Anyway to cheer myself up I went to the library. The main library is going to be closed for a year I think, whilst it’s refurbished so I haven’t been to a library for about six weeks. One of the many empty shops in the high street has been turned into a small library for the duration, it’s better than nothing! Actually I think it’s a good idea as the original library building isn’t exactly central and there are loads of people in the town who have never darkened its door. They just may get some new readers in Kirkcaldy!

I came out with:

The Odd Women by George Gissing. I think it was Anbolyn of gudrun’s tights who read this one recently and it was recommended in the introduction to Patrick Hamilton’s Slaves of Solitude. By the way, in case you don’t know yet, Anbolyn has done another ‘flit’ actually and virtually and her new place is looking spiffing!

Star Gazing by Linda Gillard - I’ve enjoyed her previous books.

Beatrice Goes to Brighton by M.C. Beaton – which I hope is going to be a hoot. I think this is one which Jo at The Book Jotter enjoyed.

Midsummer Night in the Workhouse by Diana Athill. I know nothing about this book and I chose it simply because it’s a Persephone, so it’ll be interesting to see what it’s like.

Now why did I borrow four books when I have loads of books of my own which I should be reading?! Oh yes, it was to cheer myself up after yet another scone failure. Does anybody have a foolproof scone recipe?

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Hannie Richards by Hilary Bailey

18 January 2012 23:32

Hannie Richards, subtitled The Intrepid Adventures of a Restless Wife, was published by Virago in 1985. I read this one just before Christmas but didn’t get around to blogging about it then.

Hannie Richards is a middle-class housewife and mother, married to a farmer and living in Devon but to earn extra money she leads a double life as an international smuggler. I think this book is very much a product of the 1980s and as such has really dated badly. It was a time of radical feminism as I recall, when some women took things just a wee bit too far and we got into all that female = good and male = bad nonsense. If you’re old enough you might remember those women who went around claiming that all men were rapists.

Basically this is a book which is supposedly set in a London club which only has women members, there’s nothing radical in that. Hannie tells stories of her derring-do to a group of other women so it’s like a book of short stories which return to the setting of the club at the end of each one.

For me it really didn’t work as it was just so daft but not in a good way. The blurb on the back compares the adventures to things written by John Buchan and Rider Haggard. Well I just wonder if the blurb writer had actually read anything by those two authors. I particularly disliked the brutal rape scene and couldn’t see any reason for including it in the book.

I usually really enjoy books which have been published by Virago but not this one.

Going off at a bit of a tangent: how do you feel about women losing their feminine designations? It seems to be politically incorrect to call a woman an actress or conductress or any other sort of ‘ess’ nowadays. I find that very strange, it’s as if to be called an ‘ess’ and therefore be female is derogatory.

I can’t see anything wrong with being described as female, but then I wouldn’t ever accept that it meant anything less or more than being masculine. The word that I always liked, and you never see it now is proprietrix, you used to see it painted above pub doors years ago if it was owned by a woman. Then of course there’s directress/directrice. Ah, for the good old days when women weren’t trying to be the same as men.

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Edinburgh with Evee

18 January 2012 00:51

As Evee said, the first thing we did when we got to Edinburgh was to pay a visit to the old cemetery across from Calton Hill in Waterloo Place. I wanted to take a photo of the names on the Martyrs’ Monument as I only took a photo of William Skirving’s name the last time I was there. You can see my previous post here.

Martyrs' Monument, Edinburgh

We huffed and puffed up to Calton Hill which isn’t far and is well worth doing because on a clear day the views across to Fife and of the city of Edinburgh are great. In this one you can see one of the islands in the Firth of Forth. I can’t remember what it’s called but it’s the one which is shaped like a battleship and the Germans apparently tried to sink it on numerous bombing raids during World War II

Edinburgh skyline

This is the unfinished monument nicknamed Edinburgh’s Disgrace, there was actually a lot going on behind this edifice, you can just see a white van on the right hand side peeking out but there was also a digger and several men hacking away at the ground behind the base of the pillars – who knows what was going on?!

Edinburgh's Disgrace

There are a lot of buildings scattered around Calton Hill and the right hand one is obviously the observatory but I can’t remember what the wee sort of mausoleum type building is commemorating.

The Observatory on Calton Hill

This one is the Nelson Monument which was built to commemorate Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. You get a lovely view from the top of it and it’s worth trudging up the 100 and odd steps to get there. John, the custodian goes up them every day about 12.50 so that he has time to wind the huge copper ball up in time for it to be dropped at 1 o’clock. In the days when very few people had a watch it was useful for the folks on ships out in the Forth, not that there are many ships today, just a few oil/gas tankers usually.

THe monument used to be inhabited by its custodian but isn’t nowadays, shame because it would make a lovely wee home, I quite fancied the idea of living there but I’m keen on lighthouses too, don’t ask me why because I’m not crazy about the sea, unless there is plenty of greenery in the view too.

Nelson's Monument

So that’s a wee bit more of our trip round Edinburgh. Evee did a much more in depth one which you can see here if you’re interested. Her photos are much artier than my snaps!

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Categories: Architecture, Coast, Museums, Towns

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Scottish words: corporation

17 January 2012 00:12

A very good and old friend of mine now sadly no longer with us once said to me that she liked a man with a corporation, because they always look so well set up and wealthy. I had never heard the word used in that way before but I knew exactly what it meant.

It isn’t the same as the English usage of the word corporation although I think it might originate from the borough or town council meaning, as those types tend to get a corporation from being on the council and having lots of beanfeasts at the expense of the rest of us.

A corporation in Scotland is a man’s large stomach. It was seeing our First Minister Alex Salmond’s large corporation looming around a door, stately as a galleon, as he entered a room for an interview on TV the other day which brought to my mind that I hadn’t posted about that Scottish use of the word yet.

Strangely I’ve known a few women who have confided to me that they like their men to have a good corporation. It’s just as well really as so many men have them!

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Categories: Scottish words

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