Elizabeths Gaskell and Heron – 28/12/2024

I must have known when I packed eleven books and two editions of the Slightly Foxed quarterly for a couple of days at my parents’ house that I was unlikely to read them all. There should have been an inkling that I might get distracted by the books on their shelves. My idea that I would sit with various nieces and nephews and read their Christmas presents with them was never even verbalised.

In reality, I watched Wallace & Gromit, set a record in the great chestnut stuffing consumption challenge of 2024 (partakers: 1, because said partaker ate all of it…) and read some Elizabeth Gaskell, slowly.

I’m reading her extraordinary first novel, Mary Barton. I read Ruth a few months ago – there it had waited on the shelf for many years and suddenly the moment arrived when it had to be taken down and I could think of little else. (Sorry everyone for cancelling plans that week; I think you’ll understand that my love affair with Ruth and my crushes on Mr Benson and Mr Farquhar took precedence.)

Ever prepared, I’ve treated myself to this clothbound edition of Cranford. And, as I can recall almost nothing of North and South, that has moved to the more imminent of the bedside reading piles to see if beginning again will feel like a first reading.

My father showed me his 1936 Everyman’s Library hardback edition of Gaskell’s 1857 The Life of Charlotte Brontë, which I resisted stealing (for now, largely because he reads this newsletter – Father, I left it in the spare room, safely away from the soft cheeses) and I have returned to Nell Stevens’ gorgeous Mrs Gaskell and Me to enjoy two love stories and two writing stories intertwined in this creative biography/memoir/musing on longing for home and Rome.

January is in danger of arriving sooner than anyone expected. We’d love to welcome you to one or several of our five book groups. Do pop in to find out more and sign up.

Before then, I hope you have a peaceful few days, whether you are coming in with book tokens, sailing through a stack of novels you had in mind to read before the end of the year, taking your time with an old favourite or flicking through a mouthwatering cookery book despite the pains in your stomach and the now empty serving dish next to you.

May your weekend be stuffed with chestnuts and crushes on fictional characters,
Lizzie

Opening hours this week are unchanged from the usual except:
31 December: 10am-3pm
1 January: closed (to spend time with Mrs Gaskell)

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