Bookshelf Travelling in Insane Times was originally hosted by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness, then I took over for a while, but this will be my last such post as I’ve just about run out of bookshelves that I think people might be interested in seeing. This has been an enjoyable meme though and I’ve loved seeing books from other people’s collections.
On the left hand side there are a couple of books by the World War 1 VAD nurse Vera Brittain – Account Rendered and Testament of Experience, I gave Testament of Youth to my history teacher daughter-in-law. They’re interesting books, but Vera Brittain was a bit of a dichotomy as she was all for women’s rights, as long as the women weren’t her own servants – according to her daughter Shirley Williams.
I love Patrick Leigh Fermor’s travel writing, he began his adventures as an 18 year old, I believe after he was expelled from school. Those adventures and his knowledge of Greek were of great help during World War 2 when he joined the army and went undercover to what was then German occupied Greece. Not that he was very low profile as he ended up taking a German general prisoner!
The Little Prince by Antoine Saint Exupery is a lovely wee book. It’s beautifully illustrated by the author too.
The French dictionary is from my school days but it still comes in handy sometimes. At school I ‘did’ French, German and Latin and much more recently I’ve been trying to learn Dutch, but I don’t think I could ever get to grips well with any language unless I lived in the country for a while, well that’s my excuse anyway! Are you bookshelf travelling this week?
That is funny about Vera! I don’t think I had heard of her when the Testament of Youth miniseries was on TV but I watched it with my mother and we loved it. I remember there was an interview with Shirley Williams and, unless I have the timeframe wrong, there was a possibility at that time she would become the next Prime Minister. We were super disappointed that it was Margaret Thatcher instead!
Several people have recommended Patrick Leigh Fermor to me. I will have to try one at some point. Happy New Year to you and Jack!
Constance,
There was never any possibility of Shirley Williams being PM. She was in the Labour party but was never the leader. She did help to set up a new political party called the SDP (Social Demmocratic Party) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Social-Democratic-Party but it didn’t last all that long. I liked her but I don’t think she was leader material, she was too decent probably! Happy New Year to you and yours, when it comes.
I still haven’t read Vera Brittain, though Testament of Youth has been on my shelf for at least 4 years. And I’m really disappointed that despite my many years of French in school, that no class had me read Le Petit Prince. MUST DO! Thanks.
Judith,
You may have been put off by the small print and thickness of Testament of Youth, I know that I was. I especially hate thick paperbacks as they’re so difficult to hold and I always try to avoid cracking a book’s spine which can be very difficult with chunksters.