Bags I Read that After You!

[englishangel]

Amazing.

Fossicking amongst the paperbacks to find "Jalna" for Frances, I came across a large hardback book of old pictures and photographs entitled "The Victorian Scene: 1837 - 1901". It fell open to...

"The dormitory of Christ's Hospital, the Blue Coat School.... it's austerity in marked contrast with the well-appointed kitchens of Charterhouse (LEFT)...

I'm showing my artistic ignorance here in which I suppose the illustration is an undated Victorian woodcut. ??? The dormitory is truly enormous - about the size of our School Hall? And there, at the foot of each bed, are those big storage box things the boys talk about. The beds are separated by tall coffin-like storage unit things, and at the end nearest to the artist are work tables and benches with ink and quill pens.

(At the bottom of the page is an artist's impression of the kitchens at Charterhouse; groaning with huge joints of meat and delicious dishes!)

The picture of the CH dormitory is wonderful, and I'll see if I can reproduce it. It looks as if the dormitory was also a study area! I've never seen this picture before.

Munch sent it to me and it is reproduced here viewtopic.php?f=20&t=367

.....and Catherine /Catherine and Arnaud, <<<sigh>>> I did a bit of Googling, you can still buy them on Amazon, and I also came across this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_(1986_TV_series)

[Angela Woodford]

Frances, have the Jalnas arrived yet? Hope so -

[Fjgrogan]

Angela - huge apologies for not letting you know! Yes, I discovered the package on the doorstep very late on Thursday night when I went to put out the recycling - after I had shut down the computer, and meant to e-mail you next day. The packaging had got a bit damp, but the contents were in good condition; I have no idea how long it had been there because I had not been out for a few days and my husband is currently recovering from a hernia operation and hadn't been out either. I also have no idea why the postman had not bothered to ring the doorbell. Anyway, many, many thanks to you and your godmother, also for the paper cutting. I shall now consign my hardbacks to the charity shop, and put some cash in the post to cover the cost of postage - it has to be cash because I seem to have run out of cheques! Please PM me your postal address - or is is still as on the envelope which you recycled? (Why do I have a feeling that you moved house recently?)

[Angela Woodford]

Hooray! The Jalnas have arrived! My godmother would be delighted to think that the books have gone to an enthusiast!

If the address is a Devon one, that's it! I still think we've only been here a few months, myself...

I did adore the romantic cover illustrations! Sigh!

[dotsrebel]

Seizing the end of this thread.... it suddenly comes back to me. Jalna was very popular, but not so much in 2's. But do you remember the 'Angelique' series? Rather more saucy - a bit like a bosomy blonde Flashman I suppose. Again a nice series of books to plough through. The 2's library (yes, I'm a 2's girl) was full of Barbara Cartland and Georgette Heyer (the latter extraordinarily well researched and written... perhaps not the former). And alongside all the above we in 2's discovered and devoured all of any author. I remember in particular D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy (we called it Jude the Lewd), Nevil Shute, Hammond Innes, Alastair Maclean (the Wreck of the Mary Deare??? one of those two), a lot of GRaham Greene, Anya Seton, of course, Forsyte Saga ( 26? episodes, black and white, WE WERE ALLOWED TO WATCH IT ON THE T E L E V I S I O N.....OH, the rape of Irene......) Catherine GAskin, Jean Plaidy (already mentioned), Kafka, Jean Paul Sartre, Margaret Irwin (sublime to....) Mary Stewart, John Wyndham, Scott Fitzgerald,... Solzhenitsyn, oh, and a series of cutesy little books illustrated with wide-eyed pre cartoon Japanese children by Joan Walsh Anglund 'Love is....' etc.

How do I know all this...because I have just gone to check them on my bookshelves and seen my 40 year old (gulp!!) paperbacks...

And I remember Miss Richards (needlework, terrifying) reading the latest Georgett Heyer to us as we sewed away....it was the 'Nonesuch' I think we were quite old by then...

How did we do any work?

[MaryB]

Hello Amanda. Kafka....? Really...? I'm sure we didn't have anything like that in 3s, although Eileen Downing was very much into Mervyn Peake
Miss R (aka SWSNBN - see separate thread) read The Nonesuch to us too. I'm sorry to say that it left me completely cold - little did I know that it would become essential comfort reading in later years.

[Angela Woodford]

Did SWSNBN read us Georgette Heyer?

Really?

I remember her reading Jane Eyre to us.... very vaguely. I know that when she got to the point when Jane was locked into the Red Room, I'd dropped my needle into a Needlework Room parquet-floor crevice. Oh,that I had had the spirit to answer SWSNBN as that with which Jane defied the terrible Mrs Reed!

But - Georgette Heyer! Perhaps the awful SWSNBN had a few suppressed romantic longings quiescent below that grim exterior? Late in life, I feel sorry for her. I do!

I know she was vile to us. But remember; she was going bald on top! How awful for her! The hideousness of an incipient bald patch! Maybe she felt some compensatory wistful emotions in reading of the glossy ringlets of a Heyer heroine?

[Kim2s70-77]

Seizing the end of this thread.... it suddenly comes back to me. Jalna was very popular, but not so much in 2's. But do you remember the 'Angelique' series? Rather more saucy - a bit like a bosomy blonde Flashman I suppose. Again a nice series of books to plough through. The 2's library (yes, I'm a 2's girl) was full of Barbara Cartland and Georgette Heyer (the latter extraordinarily well researched and written... perhaps not the former). And alongside all the above we in 2's discovered and devoured all of any author. I remember in particular D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy (we called it Jude the Lewd), Nevil Shute, Hammond Innes, Alastair Maclean (the Wreck of the Mary Deare??? one of those two), a lot of GRaham Greene, Anya Seton, of course, Forsyte Saga ( 26? episodes, black and white, WE WERE ALLOWED TO WATCH IT ON THE T E L E V I S I O N.....OH, the rape of Irene......) Catherine GAskin, Jean Plaidy (already mentioned), Kafka, Jean Paul Sartre, Margaret Irwin (sublime to....) Mary Stewart, John Wyndham, Scott Fitzgerald,... Solzhenitsyn, oh, and a series of cutesy little books illustrated with wide-eyed pre cartoon Japanese children by Joan Walsh Anglund 'Love is....' etc.

How do I know all this...because I have just gone to check them on my bookshelves and seen my 40 year old (gulp!!) paperbacks...

And I remember Miss Richards (needlework, terrifying) reading the latest Georgett Heyer to us as we sewed away....it was the 'Nonesuch' I think we were quite old by then...

How did we do any work?

Hey Amanda!! What have you been up to over the last 30+ years??? How are your sisters??

[gma]

Brilliant to 'see' you here Amanda Mc!! I always wondered where the knowledge of Alastair Maclean came from; most of my reading from that time were my brother's books but they had no Maclean and Innes, I'd forgotten.

Jean Plaidy yes, but was more palatable as Phillipa Carr and I have never forgotten Dragonwyck by Anya Seton but no idea what is was about....unlike the tales of the luscious Angelique! Who didn't want to be her!!

[Kim2s70-77]

Definitely remember Nevil Shute in 2's - "A Town Like Alice" was there, I think. I remember that because my brother was living in Alice Springs around that time.

[Angela Woodford]

Forsyte Saga ( 26? episodes, black and white, WE WERE ALLOWED TO WATCH IT ON THE T E L E V I S I O N.....OH, the rape of Irene......)

Amongst my huge stash of inherited books, a splendid large copy of The Forsyte Saga has risen to the top.

A 6's benefactor (wonder who it was?) enhanced 6's House bookshelves in 1968 with a selection of new paperbacks; including The Forsyte Saga. Many of us had got to watch some of the 1967 television series. My father, as hooked as anybody else, deplored, yet understood the massive drop in church attendance on a Sunday night.

I agonised over Irene's dilemma! The terrible Soames! For one thing, the actress, Nyree Dawn Porter, who played Irene onscreen was so incredibly beautiful! "The Gods had given Irene dark brown eyes and golden hair, that strange combination, provocative of men's glances... the full soft pallor of her neck and shoulders above a gold coloured frock, gave to her personality an alluring strangeness." How.... fabulous! In the mirror, I agonised over my own ordinary dark fat-girl looks. To be a wondrous beguiling goddess femme fatale! How incredible it would be.

The very name - Irene! There had been quite a few "Auntie I-reens" in my young life - not to mention "Reenees". It suddenly struck me that, properly pronounced, "Irene" was a beautiful name.

I've read the Saga again, and felt thoroughly irritated by Irene's manipulative ways!

[Kim2s70-77]

I no longer have a TV (haven't for many years) - but have wonderfully vivid memories of being squeezed into the Housemistress's study on Thursday evenings to watch whatever drama was current. The curtains were drawn and LOADS of girls in assorted crumpled poses were staring at a tiny TV glowing in the corner - watching their latest heartthrob with bated breath!! I remember reruns of 'The Forsyte Saga' - but adored Anthony Hopkins (Andre??) in 'War and Peace'. (Everyone else wanted Nicolai - but I liked Anthony Hopkins!) Oh, how passionately we followed every detail! I believe we also watched 'I,Claudius' this way. Was there also a series about Edward VII?? I seem to remember we also watched "Upstairs, Downstairs" every Sunday too.

[gma]

but have wonderfully vivid memories of being squeezed into the Housemistress's study on Thursday evenings to watch whatever drama was current.

But do you have wonderful memories of creeping up to the TV room in.under/by the school hall and watching M*A*S*H with IVth & Vth formers who couldn't throw you out as they shouldn't have been there either!

[threesrebel]

Sorry I failed to get you "The Cruel Sea", Midget; I'm pretty sure Nobs passed it for me because my old and battered copy has A N in pencil on the inside cover. Imagine the young of today putting up with having their reading censored. I too went through a Whiteoaks period but a distressing amount of my reading appears to have been pony books - lets hope that was from my Third Form days.

[midget]

Welcome to the forum Pat. Good to have someone of my own vintage here.