Cynthia Sally Haggard's Blog: Cynthia Sally's Blog, page 54

Reading Sundays: THE MARRIED MAN (Part 4) a short story by Cynthia Sally Haggard

Emmy was then about twenty, and was good-looking in a gentle, guileless way. Somehow, I found myself sitting beside her, pouring out all my troubles. Well, not quite everything. A bloke has to have some secrets, doesn’t he?”

“When I think back to the days when my parents were alive, everything seems bathed in a golden glow. I don’t know why that should be because we were very poor, just a notch away from downright poverty. Sidney and I were the two youngest, with me being older by about fifteen months. Growing up, we were tight, sharing the inevitable brotherly spats, but being loyal against outsiders.”

She flicks a photo [image error]towards her that shows two boys standing in front of a painted backdrop. The taller one stares straight ahead, unblinking. The smaller one, her grandfather, lifts his chin and smiles.  In the corner, capital letters inform her that the photographer had a studio near Tower Bridge. Grandpa Sidney spent the last thirty years of his life looking for his older brother.

“Father was a tanner, and his money didn’t go far. But I suppose the world looks better when you’re young. Father taught himself to read and write when he was an adult, so naturally, he had high hopes for his eldest boy. He made sure I was taught reading early on, how to write an elegant copperplate, how to sign my name with a flourish. Many praised me for my beautiful handwriting, and being bright, I soon won a scholarship to the local Grammar School.

“Dreams and aspirations are all very well, but our family was poor, so when I turned fourteen in 1903, I had to leave school to find a job. My parents hid their disappointment well. Perhaps they were hoping I would be so brilliant that the schoolmasters would be begging to let me stay. However, when I came home from school the day I turned fourteen, with a letter of reference from the headmaster, they didn’t protest. I soon found myself employed in the City as a clerk in a dry goods store. [To be continued.]

The post Reading Sundays: THE MARRIED MAN (Part 4) a short story by Cynthia Sally Haggard appeared first on Spun Stories.

A LONDON CHILD OF THE 1870s by Molly Hughes

Molly Hughes’ memoirs, about her childhood in London in the 1870s give a vivid account of what it was like to be a child at that time. The youngest of five children, Molly had four older brothers to contend with. While they grew up and went off to study at various prep schools up and down the country, Molly was obliged to [image error]sit at home with her mother, and glean her education from the books which her mother leant her. Thus she had a lot of time to drink in the experience of living in London, and put all of that knowledge into the wonderful descriptions that populate this volume. Here is an example:

As I lay awake in the morning, I could see the houses opposite and a good bit of the street.[image error] I liked to hear the ‘milk’ cry of the women who carried the pails on yokes, and the cherry rat-tat of the postman, but the sweep’s long-drawn wail[image error] used to fill me with misery when he made his rare rounds. One morning as I lay idly watching the house opposite I had one of the surprises of my life. A broom suddenly shot out of a chimney. I never thought of connecting this fairy-tale event with the sweep, and thought mother’s explanation very dull. I ought to have asked my father.

Born in 1866, Molly lived with her family in Canonbury Park North, which is in Islington, North London. Her memoirs start in around 1870, when she was four years old, and continue until November 1879, when she was about thirteen. At that point, the memoirs end, because what happened then ended her childhood.

At this point, I ought to give you a word of caution. The death of Molly’s adored father was so painful (he committed suicide due to money troubles) that she was not able to write about it truthfully. What she tells us is a fabrication, based partly on what happened to her husband later in life. However, I think we can allow Molly her bit of embroidery. Losing a loved one suddenly is a devastating event. Especially when the person is your father, and you are a thirteen-year-old girl. Five stars.

The post A LONDON CHILD OF THE 1870s by Molly Hughes appeared first on Spun Stories.

Author’s Show Interview, in which I talk about FAREWELL MY LIFE, drops today!

[image error]

Learn more about our dreamy violinist Grace, her sharp-tongued sister Violet, her vivid mother Angelina, and her sinister suitor Mr. Russell…

The post Author’s Show Interview, in which I talk about FAREWELL MY LIFE, drops today! appeared first on Spun Stories.

Being kind makes anyone a princess (A LITTLE PRINCESS)

I loved this novel as a child, so it was a pleasure to read a re-issue of it which contains some material that had previously been cut out.

[image error]A LITTLE PRINCESS is the story of a rich young lady, sent from India at the age of seven to be educated at a Young Ladies Seminary. Treated as a princess by the mistress of this establishment, Miss Minchin, Sara is regarded with jealousy by some and with awe by others. But when she suddenly becomes impoverished, Miss Minchin banishes her to the attic, and proceeds to treat her as a maid-of-all-work.

I read this book after another of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s books for children, the more famous LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY. I had never read FAUNTLEROY before, and so it was interesting to compare a book I didn’t know, with a well-loved one from my childhood. There were several similarities. Like Fauntleroy, Sara is a natural aristocrat. She is kind-hearted. She acts on her kindness to help others. And she is old before her time. But A LITTLE PRINCESS is much darker than LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY. It is true that Fauntleroy’s path to his Grandfather’s heart (and his magnificent inheritance) is not an easy ride. On the other hand, I don’t believe anyone doubts that things will work out in the end. A LITTLE PRINCESS, by contrast, contains details of real deprivation, suffering, exhaustion, abuse, all suffered by children. Although things do work out in the end, the reader is left with a much darker picture of 19th-century London. Five stars.

The post Being kind makes anyone a princess (A LITTLE PRINCESS) appeared first on Spun Stories.

Sentimental, yes, but still charming…(LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY)

[image error]LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY has been a byword in my family for a spoiled, too-perfect little horror dressed in black velvet suits with lacey collars.

Having nothing better to do, I sat down recently to actually read the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924). I was extremely surprised by what I found. Far from being spoilt, Fauntleroy is a sweet little boy, seven years old, who has been plucked from his humble abode in New York City to become the heir to the Earl of Derincourt, who happens to be his grandfather.

Fauntleroy is not only a sweetie-pie, but he’s kind-hearted too, using the largesse bestowed on him by his grand-papa for the betterment of the needy people around him. He has large brown eyes. He nestles close to people. And he is so earnest, the kind of child whose preternatural wisdom makes him amusing to the grownups around him.

Nowadays, we find this kind of portrait of the perfect little boy to be unreal. Some might even find the portrait cloying, and the insistence on calling his mother “dearest” a little disturbing. But if you can put all of this aside, you are in for a treat. For despite all this, Fauntleroy manages to be real. Four stars.

The post Sentimental, yes, but still charming…(LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY) appeared first on Spun Stories.

Reading Sundays: THE MARRIED MAN (Part 3) a short story by Cynthia Sally Haggard

“It would be an intrusion,” I countered. “It would be more money than we can afford. You know that.”

Emmy, like the good girl she is, dropped the matter, and that was that.

***

She picks up a curled yellowed clipping, a listing for Probate. Running her finger down the crinkling page, she sees:

CAVELEY, Robert Prisley of 38 Derby Road Grays Essex died 17 January 1962. Administration London 6 March to Florence Emily Caveley widow.

Effects ￡1443 19s. 11d.

“I should give an account of how I met my girl. During the war, I was assigned to the Labour Corps. Most men I worked with did hard labour, building roads, and bridges. Several of them were POWs. But my handwriting got me a job as a clerk managing the general stores, taking me everywhere, even near the battlefields in France, to check up on provisions for the war effort. And that is how I met Emmy.

“I was on my way to check out the cement works in Thurrock, when I stopped by a canteen[image error] for a cup of tea, and a sandwich. With my home life non-existent I’d thrown myself into my work, and become good at it, good enough to get promotions, and pay rises. I scarcely saw Beat, as I’d started sleeping downstairs in front of the fire, so as not to disturb her when I rose at dawn, or came in at midnight. Of course, I was hungering for female company, so when the young woman who brought me my tea raised her soft brown eyes to my face, I was hooked. Emmy was then about twenty, and was good-looking in a gentle, guileless way. Somehow, I found myself sitting beside her, pouring out all my troubles. Well, not quite everything. A bloke has to have some secrets, doesn’t he?”

“When I think back to the days when my parents were alive, everything seems bathed in a golden glow. I don’t know why that should be because we were very poor, just a notch away from downright poverty. [To be continued.]

The post Reading Sundays: THE MARRIED MAN (Part 3) a short story by Cynthia Sally Haggard appeared first on Spun Stories.

THAT SUMMER IN SICILY by Marlena de Blasi

[image error]When Marlena de Blasi was given the assignment of writing about the interior regions of Sicily, she suspected that she got the job because others had turned it down. For “the center of the island is an aloof and pathless place, and the colossal silence of it all is reflected in its people,” a friend warned. But de Blasi was intrigued. She made plans. She traveled to Sicily. She made phone calls. Her phone calls were not answered. Her meetings didn’t happen. And when she tried to befriend people in the tourist industry, her elegant business cards elicited nothing more than grunts.

De Blasi calls her editor to tell him this, and then turns to her husband to ask him what he’d like to do with the unexpected free time.

They go to a bar, and see some policeman who frequent the place. Di Blasi approaches them. Could they tell her of some place to stay in the countryside, perhaps a small hotel or pensione? Unexpectedly, they tell her. The woman’s name is Tosca. The place is Villa Donnafugata.

De Blasi and her husband thank them, and leave.

What happens next is…so Sicilian.

How would you feel if you think you’re going to a hotel, only to arrive somewhere that could better be described as a nunnery? There are bells. There is a community of women, cooking, sewing, and digging. There is bustle and laughter. There is tragedy and death. Marlena de Blasi can only gape.

But the biggest surprise comes from Tosca herself, who talks. And she is not talking about the weather, but spilling a tale of love, rivalry, jealousy and the mafia.

All those things it is better to be silent about.

Hence THAT SUMMER IN SICILY. Five stars.

The post THAT SUMMER IN SICILY by Marlena de Blasi appeared first on Spun Stories.

Charles Stein’s PERSEPHONE UNVEILED: Seeing the Goddess and Freeing your Soul

[image error]This is a magical book. Author Charles Stein takes us on a journey into the heart of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a spiritually transformative process that culminated in a rite at temple in Eleusis, a village near Athens after a week-long festival dedicated to Persephone and her mother Demeter.

The Mysteries were famous in the ancient world and mentioned by many people. However, the initiates who went through this process were sworn to secrecy as to the exact nature of the experience, so it has been hard to reconstruct what may have happened. Using ancient sources and modern scholarship, Stein has attempted to penetrate the veil of secrecy.

The mysteries were popular because they promised relief from the terrors of the afterlife, pictured in the ancient Greek mind as the terrors of Hades. Each initiate had to undergo an eighteen-month process of preparation, which culminated at the festival dedicated to Persephone and Demeter, which was held every year for thousands of years. In this festival, the initiates participated in dietary restrictions. On the last day of the week-long festival they marched the 14 miles from Athens to Eleusis. Along the way, they were each given a potion to drink which may have contained chemicals similar to LSD. On arriving at the temple there, they engaged in sacred dancing and were then ushered into the temple to witness the rite, which took place at night by the light of torches. It is not know exactly what happened then, but the whole experience ended with the “appearance” of Persephone.

To those of you who view the world primarily in scientific and rationalistic terms, this book may make your eyes roll. But if you are looking for something else, such as an evocation of what it may actually have been like to be there, then this book contains some wonderful descriptions to help you picture it in your mind’s eye. Five stars.

The post Charles Stein’s PERSEPHONE UNVEILED: Seeing the Goddess and Freeing your Soul appeared first on Spun Stories.

THE STONE BOUDOIR by Theresa Maggio

[image error]THE STONE BOUDOIR is a wonderful title for a book about Sicily, because Sicily is mountainous, and stony. And the people not only live in stone buildings redolent of history, or even caves, they have a quality of stony silence about matters which it is best to be silent.

In this book, Theresa Maggio, who is of Sicilian descent, takes us to her favorite hill towns. They have names such as Polizzi Generosa, Borgo Catena, Geraci Siculo. The highlight of the book is her description of the Feast of Sant’Agata in Catania. Every year on February 4 and 5, in honor of her martyrdom, the men of Catania pull her relics through the streets, which includes a jewel-encrusted crown given to her by Richard the Lionheart, an enormous effigy, and several 15-foot towers to light the way.

I read this book because I wanted to try and understand Sicily. And I was not disappointed. Maggio has a sharp eye for the telling detail, and a lyric prose style that immerses you in the fabric of life there. The only reason I didn’t give this book five stars is because I objected to some personal complaints that found their way into this book. Which was a pity.

The post THE STONE BOUDOIR by Theresa Maggio appeared first on Spun Stories.

Reading Sundays: THE MARRIED MAN (Part 2) a short story by Cynthia Sally Haggard

“I work as a clerk in the local bank, and make a decent income, enough to keep a wife and family. At least, I’m a cut above the laborers, carpenters, butchers, longshoremen, and chalk-diggers that are typically available to a girl like Emmy, in a place like Thurrock, Essex, where the Thames widens its mouth before drifting towards the sea.

I’m going into this marriage with my eyes open, and I’ve insisted on a couple of things. For example, I told Emmy not to go around giving out our address to people she doesn’t know, especially anyone trying to register voters, and the like. Then I had to put my foot down about having a phone.[image error]

“What do you need a phone for, Emmy, dear?” I said one day, in response to her tentative request. “You’ve got your mother and father not a stone’s throw away, not to mention all your brothers and sisters.”

Her large brown eyes looked up into mine. “I thought it would be a convenience.”

Usually those eyes would have the effect of making me give in, but not today.

“It would be an intrusion,” I countered. “It would be more money than we can afford. You know that.”

Emmy, like the good girl she is, dropped the matter, and that was that.

[To be continued.]

The post Reading Sundays: THE MARRIED MAN (Part 2) a short story by Cynthia Sally Haggard appeared first on Spun Stories.