I think a lot of us have been casting our minds back recently, trying to remember authors whom we’ve enjoyed in the past, I know I have been anyway and other bloggers and commentators have weighed in with their suggestions too. So my author list is ever lengthening in fact it’s just growing and growing like Topsy!
I’m hoping to read more Mary Stewarts soon, in fact I bought a hardback copy of The Wicked Day for pennies from Amazon so I’m looking forward to reading that. And I’m looking for more by Angela Thirkell and D.E. Stevenson. Niranjana (Brown Paper) has just reminded me of Elizabeth Jane Howard.
But what I really want to know is: Has anybody read anything by Mazo de la Roche? She wrote a lot of books and in the first library that I worked in there was a shelf full of them, but that was in the 1970s and they were regarded as being old-fashioned then. As I recall the shelf was just one big mass of pink covers which never moved. I have an urge to try them out now, the Jalna series anyway but I’m wondering if they are worth reading. Her name sounds very exotic but she seems to have been a Canadian writer.
I have a vague feeling that I have read at least one book by Audrey Erskine Lindop but so long ago that I can’t remember for sure. Has anyone read anything by her? If so, would you recommend giving her a go?
It would seem that a lot of readers have been quietly ‘doing their bit’ to save neglected books. If you haven’t already read her post have a look at what Danielle at A Work in Progress has written about it.
I know that libraries have to make space for new books but it means that books are sold off or they languish in the Reserve Stock where ordinary readers can’t browse. I love the idea of readers going around borrowing books in the hope of saving them for another generation of readers.
If we were doing it for anything else other than books we would be a pressure group and have a proper name. I’ve been amusing myself thinking of what we could be called. From an Edinburgh point of view we would have to be The Book Resurrectionists. Or is it more akin to defibrillating – Book Paramedics or The CPR Book Group.
Anyway if you pick up a book in your library and it’s a good long while since it has been borrowed, make it happy and give it a go. After all it was once somebody’s ‘baby’!!
I haven’t heard of either, but my library has several books by de la Roche–they seem to have been reissued recently by a small Toronto press. I’ll check them out after the Thirkell if you like!
I depend on library sales to collect out-of-print books–I’ve bought Mary de Morgan, Georgette Heyer’s non-romances, lots of Stewarts, and much more. Btw, I wrote two loooong posts on Stewart on my blog, and I’m currently discussing Edith Nesbit (another out-of-fashion writer) on a list serve I belong to. So I’d definitely join the CPR Book Group!
Niranjana,
Thanks for the info on your Stewart posts, I hadn’t seen them, very interesting. I’m going to request a Mazo today. they don’t have many and they are in Reserve Stock. I don’t know Mary de Morgan at all, I have all but 2 of Heyer’s crime books but haven’t read them all yet, really enjoy their wit. I went through an E Nesbit phase a while ago, pre- blogging, I know it’s ancient but I really enjoy her, however I don’t even know what a list serve is! Maybe I could put a CPR Book Group bit on my sidebar and people could nominate their favourite neglected authors for it!
Yes, please do the CPR Book Group thingy–I’ll be happy to spread the word.
You’ve perhaps read de Morgan without realizing it was her–she wrote classic fairy tales including the Toy Princess and The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde.
And OMG, I just looked her up on Wikipedia, and apparently she used to tell her stories to the children of family and friends. One of those children was…Angela Thirkell.
I think the universe is trying to tell us something!
Niranjana,
As you think it’s a good idea I will start up a CPR Book Group, probably not until the weekend or next week though. I was thinking that people could nominate the authors that they think should be more widely read and then if they have a blog and have written a post/review about them, I could link to their post.
That’s amazing about de Morgan and Thirkell. I think I read that Thirkell was J.M. Barrie’s god-daughter and Denis Mackail’s sister too. It must have been brilliant having the writer of Peter Pan as a god-father, what an advantage!
Audrey Erskine Lindop was a splendid writer. I particularly enjoy her The Way to the Lantern, about the French Revolution. I’m re-eading it after some years and have promised myself to read more of her work such as The singer Not the Song which was made into a film as was I Start Counting. Cannot find, though, a biography. Would love to know more about her. Think the French Revolution book would be good for our Bookworms reading group.
Anne,
Thanks for the interesting comment. Strangely I just bought The Singer Not the Song in Edinburgh last Saturday, so I plan to read that one soon. I had no idea that it had been made into a film and can’t find any info on her at all. She seems to be a bit of a mystery. Is the Bookworms reading group on-line or not?
Regards,
Katrina
I am very late coming to this discussion, which I found while searching for information on Audrey Erskine Lindop, an author I enjoyed as a child. However, I am more interested in whether you enjoyed Mazo de la Roche as I have all the Jalna series on my bookshelf and reread them from time to time. They have a certain charm for me, set in Canada which is somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit. A family saga full of different personalities.
Karen White,
I did enjoy Jalna and intended reading the rest of the series but I haven’t got around to buying the rest of the books. I love mooching around second hand bookshops and have picked up a few that way but I want to read them in order. I think that it must be difficult to start writing a series like that and so the first book is always going to be scene setting, I suppose it takes a while for a writer to settle into it so I anticipate enjoying the rest of them even more. Canada is the only country which I would have contemplated moving to, but it wasn’t to be.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.