Very Valentine

 

So the next post is dedicated to Valentines day.. I know the last post was for Welsh Valentine's day, but what can I say there are plenty of days to spread and share the love. So I brought 'Very Valentine' back in February 2009. This was at a time where I was coming to the final slog just before the final final slog of my A-levels. To get to Sixth Form I used to have to walk across an asda car park to cut through on to the main road of my Sixth Form (glamorous, I know). So anyway I decided to take a detour and went into the supermarket for a bit of retail therapy (this story is just oozing glamour) and the place was heaving with endless valentines displays, hearts and a massive haze of red hit me...as did the beautiful lady and the beautiful dress and the beautiful shoes on the cover of 'Very Valentine'... I picked it up and four years later I'm taking it off the bookshelf and I'm finally reading it! I have to say I also brought 'The Holiday' on this crazy shopping expedition and that has become one of my absolute favourite films, not only because I love Jack Black and Cameron Diaz, but the writer Nancy Meyers just epitomises what I love about this type of fiction/cinematic text - it doesn't matter how trivial people think it is, it resonates on some level - if a text is doing that, it's doing something right... Anyway I hope to have finished the novel by the weekend, it's pretty hilarious and the plot has got me hooked - I think I'm on to a winner xx

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

I first heard about TPoL when watching the ‘Romance’ episode ‘The Delicious Miss Dahl’, Sophie Dahl’s cookery programme back in 2010 – She read an extract from the book *(see below) and I knew I had to get my hand on a copy of the book and let’s just say I ended up buying all five of the re-published Mitford books (the power of persuasion of a cookery show on the desire for literary purchases..?)...

So the novel is narrated by a woman called Fanny, cousin of the Radlett family; the novel is essentially about Linda Radlett and the highs and lows of her (love) life.  We follow the girls from their younger years all the way to adulthood; we see marriages, births, deaths, lots of laughs, cries and lessons in life. On reflection I would call this novel a coming of age narrative, as we follow all of the characters on their journies through life.

I was rooting for Linda throughout the whole novel, the girl who had all the dreams and plans of how her life was going to pan out, but as she got older and made various decisions, she had to deal with her life choices, and the consequences – including motherhood which she struggled with terribly. Linda is an old romantic, she’s in love with the idea of love and her life pretty much revolves around her want for love in her life.  Funnily enough, Linda reminds me of Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, this whole ‘mission’ of finding the things in life which please oneself and that carefree attitude is what they both have in common... There are traces of Scarlett O’Hara present too, she too was a hopeless romantic... I have to say I really do admire the three women mentioned above and Linda’s younger sister Jassy because they really do follow through with what drives them in life (including travelling to America to marry an actor), going across the world find love may seem trivial and also maybe a privilege of the middles classes but all in all the bravery and the fearlessness shown are wonderful attributes to have in any character.

A female in the 1930’s and 1940’s was all about being ‘the angel in the house’, not to disgrace and to stick to the rules of the society you came from.  Linda, as well as the other Radletts (except Louisa – who did everything the ‘right way’), are all radical and creative with their lives in their own ways. 

So, Linda very willingly marries Tony (a Tory...urgh) against her parent’s wishes because she is so passionate about following her heart (and not so much her head). To show for this marriage, she has a little girl (who she abandons because she feels no connection) and the marriage ends in divorce.  A little while later she falls in love again, this time with Christian. He is completely selfish, but I think that is what the attraction is. He was so engrossed in his views on life and his writing and took every day at a time; he's the kind of distraction one wants from the reality of life. This is a short lived love and Linda soon realises she's made a mistake with Christian.  The man she realises she loves and who reciprocates her love and passion for love and life is Fabrice. She meets him in France and is torn from him on several occasions because of WW2. They end up having a child together, but Linda dies in childbirth and Fabrice doesn’t die too long after in the War... With each love she thought he was, what we would call, ‘the one’...

Mitford has created a gem here, beautifully written and she strikes so many chords – you can’t help but want Linda to triumph in love and when she finally does, it’s the end of the road for her. Fanny’s mother, who similarly to Linda wasn’t a great parent (she was only concerned with her own happiness prevailing in her life), makes a visit at the end of the novel and she sums up Linda’s (love) life perfectly...

‘But I think she would have been happy with Fabrice’, I said. ‘He was the great love of her life, you know.’

‘Oh dulling,’ said my mother, sadly. ‘One always thinks that. Every, every time.’

...Perfect...

* Sophie Dahl bringing Ms Mitford into my life -

‘She was filled with a strange, wild, unfamiliar happiness and knew that this was love. Twice in her life she had mistaken something else for it; it was like seeing somebody in the street you think is a friend, you whistle and wave and run after him, and it is not only not the friend, but not even very like him. A few minutes later the real friend appears in view, and then you can’t imagine how you ever mistook that other person for him.’ 

This quote speaks such a truth that can’t be worded any better in my opinion...

 

p.s Happy St Dwynwen's day for last Friday :)

Mitford.N ‘The Pursuit of Love’ (2010) [1945]. Penguin: London

 

A belated Happy New Year!!

Hello everyone...

So its been a while since I last posted anything - the life of a working and commuting lady has taken over (yes, I got a job - I'm working in publishing and loving it!)... although I never thought being a student was quite as relaxing until I started working, which clearly tells you what kind of a student I was!  So, due to my complete lack of stamina with life and old age creeping up on me - it saddens me to say I have neglected 'BookCoverBeauty'.. One of my New Years resolutions is to do more blogging and to dedicate each post (if I can) to someone or something in my life whom I am very glad to have met or experienced for whatever reason. 

Over New Year I went to Paris and fell in love with a bookshop called 'Shakespeare and Company', as much as I would have liked to have spent lots of money and time in Chanel and Dior and Jean-Paul Gaultier and the list goes on... I'm glad I spent my time in 'Shakespeare and Company'... this little visit reignited my verve for literature and being surrounded by new and old (slighly battered looking) books, and to get back on with blogging and getting myself lost in literature... Here's a little fact about Shakespeare and Company, they were responsible for publishing Joyces' 'Ulysses' when no-one else would take it on, knowing this I knew this was going to be the highlight of Paris for me..

 

Little old me getting stuck into books...(quite literally)

This quote is on one of the walls in the shop... it's perfect.

 

Back to BCB, the first six chapters of 'The Pursuit of Love' have been read and I will be posting my review this week.  To be more specific, the post will dedicated to Friday 25th January - Welsh Valentines day...St Dwynwen's Day...and a certain Ms Poole, a young woman from Wales who is just brilliant! (you can follw her at http://bookandbiscuit.com).

xxx

The Pursuit of Love

Sneaky look at 'The Pursuit of Love' and you guessed it - I love her!... (the hat, hair, gloves, the expression on her face)

Wigs on the Green by Nancy Mitford

I started Wigs on the Green (1935) at the end of September and have finally got round to finishing it – it was quite a pleasant read. One thing I have to say is this novel reminded me of Wilde’s ‘The Importance of being Earnest’ (which I love). I have to admit, reading the Introduction and the blurb I did feel a little twinge of ‘do I want to read this’, written before the outbreak of WW2, two of Nancy’s sisters, Diana and Unity were quite besotted with Hitler and his views. Mitford, quite obviously used this all as a backdrop to Wigs, and upon its publication it upset the two sisters. Nancy wanted Wigs to cease being published as the atrocities as the outbreak of war occurred and after 75 years, the novel was published again by Penguin as a part of a collection of five of Mitford’s novels.

 So as I have said the novel was incredibly reminiscent of Earnest, through its setting and the two characters I loved the most – charming Jasper although a womaniser and dear old poor Noel.

The novel commences with Noel inheriting a sum of money after his Aunts death – he doesn’t want to work anymore and wants to find himself a wife to settle down with and live a relatively easy life. The only glitch with the ‘wife figure’ is that she has to be rich or an heiress! Pretty shallow..you think that until Jasper comes along on the journey to find a lady to marry...

The only way to describe the characters are they are all hopeless romantics, either looking for love or falling ‘madly’ in love with people they’re not supposed to (because they are married – oh the sacrilege) or as in the case of Eugine Malmais passionate about political values and the future of your country! She really was the eccentric and deluded by the values of the Union Jackshirts, I didn’t like her for the extreme – but the passion doesn’t falter anywhere in the novel, I suppose that’s what can happen when a charismatic ‘leader’ has the chance to indoctrinate you.

On the whole it was a nice read, the village setting made me chuckle – and it’s funny to think that these small community antics are still thriving today, I think it’s quite possible to suggest that this the a version of ‘Made in Chelsea’ from the 1930’s..

I cannot wait for the next read ‘The Pursuit of Love’ I’m thinking it’s going to have pretty much the same themes running through... but I think I read the first chapter when I brought it and it was good.

Until next time – happy reading...

 

  

Nancy Mitford

So I have decided after a visit to Chatsworth (which was incredible) last week, that I will read the five Nancy Mitford (1904-1973) books I have. She was the eldest of six sisters who lived some very interesting and fruitful lives. Her books all have some sort of reference to these six sisters... The connection Nancy has with Chatsworth is through her youngest sister, Deborah, who is now the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire... I took this picture whilst there - I love it!! (Deborah is top left; Nancy is bottom right).

I will post the first Nancy Mitford review at the end of Septemeber. Happy reading :)

I heart New York by Lindsey Kelk

Ok, I’m a few days late with this post (apologies) but here we go...

The story behind the purchase of this book wasn’t an actual intentional purchase but believe me if I saw this book/cover online or in a bookshop, I absolutely would have bought it. I attended an event last year, ‘Marie Claire – How to get Published’ (take a look at http://shewhoscrivens.wordpress.com to read about the event) and we were given a goody bag with A LOT of goodies including ‘I heart New York’. Lindsey Kelk, the author, was there speaking about her journey to publication and then she signed everyone’s copy of the book. As I’ve already said I think she is a very lovely lady (she complimented my dress – so I can say this even though I don’t actually know her).  

Anyway, on with the review of the book. ‘I heart New York’ was published in 2009 and has several other titles that followed it including ‘I heart Hollywood’ (2010), ‘I heart Paris’ (2010) and ‘I heart London’ which was published this year.

So we follow the life of Angela Clark, and I have to say the start was completely unexpected. As I started reading, I thought ‘Great here we go again another wedding... the main character is getting married, where exactly is this going’. I was caught completely off guard, Angela’s narration is hilarious as she is walking up the aisle, you think Angela is getting married, she isn’t - her best friend is. This is the wedding where Angela’s life comes crashing down as she manages to completely trash the wedding, make a slight scene, alongside breaking the grooms hand and the event that caused all the mayhem was Angela catching her fiancée in a compromising situation with another woman. Angela ups and leaves to New York (after committing a very embarrassing and quite shocking act of revenge!), not knowing anyone there and having never been there before she jets off... A lot to take in the first chapter but I was hooked.

We follow Angela on her, completely out of character, adventure and how by taking this brave, courageous, plain stupid no no, impulsive action the world quite literally opens up with all of these opportunities and experiences she would never have had, if all that happened to her within those 24hours hadn’t happened.  So we share Angela’s three weeks in the Big Apple, we see everything through her eyes and it really is amazing. So to sum up, because I don’t want to ruin this for any potential readers, she stays in a hotel one of the concierge staff befriends her and basically takes her under her wing. Through this friend she manages to get a major makeover and be fed everything her heart could content, the most I’ve been offered from a hotel is sandwiches and a safe journey home. She buys a brand new designer laden wardrobe (thank goodness for credit cards and ‘multinational banks as she says) and bags herself two men!! I know it all happens very fast. Oh, and she starts to write a dating diary blog for a sister website of ‘The Look’ magazine. Angela has these amazing three weeks where her life is ‘perfect’. But, as always when you run away from your problems new ones pop up such as to be dating two men at once and be writing about them on a website? To my relief she gets rid of the ‘rich one’, I never really liked him as he quite clearly was a slime ball but he did buy her a necklace from Tiffany’s, but still...  She has the minor problem of needing to figure out if she will go back to Britain or if she will set up permanent camp in NYC after she’s offered a job back home by the London branch of the magazine? We find out in the epilogue that she does take the job... but the rest is left on a bit of a cliffhanger.

‘I heart New York’ was a great read, full of one-liners (shoe-icide pg113 – it killed me) and it was really funny and I think I will carry on with the series because Angela is a great character! Also, I need to see what happens with ‘the one’ she might start dating again.     

‘I heart’ the very last part of the book which is an actual guide to NCY!! When, if I ever get there (which I most definitely intend to do) I will absolutely be making use of ‘Angela’s Guide to NYC’... One dollar in my back pocket...NCY here I come!

 

References

Kelk.L. (2009) I heart New York. Harpercollins: London