Bags I Read that After You!

[Angela Woodford]

After some HOGOF revelations that 2's Girls had various Georgette Heyer novels circulating, it reminded me that there were always books going round that weren't necessarily House Library, or the three booksfrom home "approved" by the Housemistress. (I've still got somewhere a Forsyte Saga paperback with tiny Jackdaw initials on the front page. But honestly - three books! How long would that last an avid Girl Reader?)

I recently inherited my late godmother's book collection, and was delighted to find Elizabeth Goudge's "Green Dolphin Country". Having seen this protruding from somebody's schoolbag on our way into prep, I was desparate to get my mitts on it. The front cover showed an impossibly slender dark-haired heroine with ringlets being swept into a passionate embrace by a young naval ensign. Instant appeal! The novel on re-reading was just as I remembered it. "A magnificent epic of love, courage and devotion...nineteenth century... inimitable feeling for the intricacies of human eeemotions... blah blah blah". Well, that was the sort of thing to take into prep. There were other Elizabeth Goudges as well, but none seemed as appealing as Green Dolphin Country.

The historical novel that was even approved by Merce herself was Anya Seton's "Katherine". I adored it! I've read a very scholarly biography of Katherine Swynford in which the fabulously academic biographer admits, along with all her school friends, to adoring it too. I can still quote it! Anyone looking especially good? "Sheen as a fairy woman, I trow!" There were other Anya Setons too... Dragonwyck? Not as memorable though.

It's not surprising that we, living a life proscribed by a strict routine, clad in an awful uniform and totally lacking any sort of male company (unless you count Mr Mulholland, and the Rev Walker on a Sunday) should have loved a romantic novel.

There's a selection of Mazo de la Roche "Jalna" novels in my godmotherly inheritance too. I think I saw somebody with one of these paperbacks. Somebody in 3's.

The book I longed for above all others, however was "The Passion Flower Hotel" which, I understood was not just romantic, but explicit. Was it Denise Brownlow and Maureen Flynn who had a copy? The most explicit thing I'd ever read was the Tampax leaflet which circulated during prep one evening in the L1V. I knew, from overhearing a whispered review, that it took place actually in a strict Girls' School! I wish I had managed to borrow it. It would have explained a lot to me!

"Forever Amber"! Whoever agreed to let me read it after them - you didn't! Passed on to somebody else!

Has anybody else any memories of books definitely off curriculum?

[Fjgrogan]

Oooo, Angela. I have an almost complete set of Mazo de la Roche's Jalna series, which were favourites of my mother. I am missing just three. If I check out which which three they are, I wonder if you could see whether they are in your collection; if so, perhaps you would be kind enough to lend them to me? Small snag - I suspect they are in the loft and my husband is currently recovering from a hernia op so I shall need to haul the ladder up onto the landing myself; that will require some pre-psyching! Meanwhile please do not throw any Mazo de la Roche books away - are they in that salmon pink cover with a picture of the house on it? In fact I enjoy any of those saga-type books (although oddly I have never read Forsyte - or even seen it on TV). Almonds and Raisins was another series I enjoyed; even Anne of Green Gables, Katy books, and Heidi from my childhood. My 85 year old father still has on his shelves books of my mother's including Dimsie books and Eleanor Brent Dyer's Chalet School stories, which are still in print - my mother apparently had them as school prizes!! I think I have just mapped out my reading for the winter!!

[sejintenej]

Angela - and I thought you were a well brought-up lady

The book I longed for above all others, however was "The Passion Flower Hotel" which, I understood was not just romantic, but explicit. Was it Denise Brownlow and Maureen Flynn who had a copy? The most explicit thing I'd ever read was the Tampax leaflet which circulated during prep one evening in the L1V. I knew, from overhearing a whispered review, that it took place actually in a strict Girls' School! I wish I had managed to borrow it. It would have explained a lot to me!

The plot:

It would have been shocking anywhere, but at an exclusive girl's boarding school in England it was incredible.. a strip club cum bordello organised for the benefit of the love-starved boys of a similar upper-crust academy nearby! The result was The Passion-Flower Hotel - the strangest, craziest House of Ill Fame ever. Here, 'Gaby de la Gallantine' gave her amazing strip-dance. Here Cordelia the hockey captain was awakened to Romance...

Neill - go and take the pills

[Angela Woodford]

Frances! This is splendid! I'd be so thrilled if I could fill in any gaps in your collection!

Now - just tottered downstairs with armful of Mazo de la Roche - we have here:

Renny's Daughter
The Whiteoak Brothers
Whiteoaks
Wakefield's Course
Whiteoak Harvest
Variable Winds at Jalna
Whiteoak Heritage
Young Renny
Mary Wakefield
The Building of Jalna
The Master of Jalna
Centenary at Jalna
and
Return to Jalna. "One by one they came back and Jalna began to live again - "

They are slightly battered Pan paperbacks, and the front cover illustrations are really heavenly. Hey, look at the blurb on the back of "Whiteoaks". "Chance brings back to Jalna the girl who Renny had once posessed and remembered always - with a passion, forbidden yet smouldering, he knew he could never conquer". When was this written? Hmm... 1929! Bliss.

I do hope the three you are lacking are here!

[Angela Woodford]

Angela - and I thought you were a well brought-up lady

Alas, yes! Scripture Union notes by the bedside, portait photograph of Billy Graham on the piano, a warning copy of "Thirty Years A Watchtower Slave" on the hall table (in case of Jehovah's Witnesses on the doorstep ), The Christian Herald delivered regularly... you bet I longed to read The Passion Flower Hotel! But anyway, little did my mother know that CH was a veritable Fiery Pit of the Devil's Works....

I'd still love to read TPFH, although it might be a bit late in the day to emulate Cordelia the hockey captain awakened to Romance. What a heroine! Did anyone manage to borrow the copy of this smouldering novel?

[Angela Woodford]

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.

[englishangel]

To my eternal shame (not) I spent the month between finishing A Levels and being released reading Barbara Cartland novels, I must have read about 100, courtesy of Amanda McIlwain.

I remember Gill Barrett smuggled in a copy of "Here We go Round the Mulberry Bush" in 1967. Definitely NOT on the approved reading list.

If I wanted a book about s*x though I went to the library for Greek Myths and Legends (Robert Graves?). They were always at it the ancient Greeks.

[Fjgrogan]

Angela, you have shamed me into getting the ladder out and climbing into the loft! There are 16 Whiteoaks books in all, of which I am missing only two -'Wakefield's Course' and 'Centenary at Jalna'. Anyway I have hauled them all down and intend to re-read them. Also in the box (as well as Anne and Heidi) were most of the Ellis Peters 'Cadfael' books - although they would hardly be of interest to you, given your expressed preference!!! Another childhood favourite was 'A Little Princess'. For some strange reason I have also hung onto 'The Nun's Story' and Steven Lawhead's 'Patrick'. Mostly these days my fiction reading is crime thrillers, often from the library; even when I own them there is little point in keeping them once I know whodunnit. I do however also have whole sets of Heron Books editions of the works of Agatha Christie and Dennis Wheatley - an odd juxtaposition? I used to have all the Alastair MacLeans but passed them on to my son-in-law, who said that his father had them all in Finnish - they are probably all in a box in his loft!! I have left the ladder up and will have another rummage later, but meanwhile I have managed to find an extra windmill for grand-daughter Millie's newly turfed garden, and all but one of the missing pieces needed to assemble the Baby Annabel doll's travel cot, which is also destined for Millie. So thank you for shaming me into the loft. There is still a pile of stuff on the landing that needs to go up there, but it is not easy doing it single-handed, while husband stands by making discouraging comments - for once he actually has a valid reason for not helping! Now that we are closer to next Christmas than last perhaps I shall not bother putting the Christmas decorations away!!

[J.R.]

After some HOGOF revelations that 2's Girls had various Georgette Heyer novels circulating, it reminded me that there were always books going round that weren't necessarily House Library, or the three booksfrom home "approved" by the Housemistress. (I've still got somewhere a Forsyte Saga paperback with tiny Jackdaw initials on the front page. But honestly - three books! How long would that last an avid Girl Reader?)

I recently inherited my late godmother's book collection, and was delighted to find Elizabeth Goudge's "Green Dolphin Country". Having seen this protruding from somebody's schoolbag on our way into prep, I was desparate to get my mitts on it. The front cover showed an impossibly slender dark-haired heroine with ringlets being swept into a passionate embrace by a young naval ensign. Instant appeal! The novel on re-reading was just as I remembered it. "A magnificent epic of love, courage and devotion...nineteenth century... inimitable feeling for the intricacies of human eeemotions... blah blah blah". Well, that was the sort of thing to take into prep. There were other Elizabeth Goudges as well, but none seemed as appealing as Green Dolphin Country.

The historical novel that was even approved by Merce herself was Anya Seton's "Katherine". I adored it! I've read a very scholarly biography of Katherine Swynford in which the fabulously academic biographer admits, along with all her school friends, to adoring it too. I can still quote it! Anyone looking especially good? "Sheen as a fairy woman, I trow!" There were other Anya Setons too... Dragonwyck? Not as memorable though.

It's not surprising that we, living a life proscribed by a strict routine, clad in an awful uniform and totally lacking any sort of male company (unless you count Mr Mulholland, and the Rev Walker on a Sunday) should have loved a romantic novel.

There's a selection of Mazo de la Roche "Jalna" novels in my godmotherly inheritance too. I think I saw somebody with one of these paperbacks. Somebody in 3's.

The book I longed for above all others, however was "The Passion Flower Hotel" which, I understood was not just romantic, but explicit. Was it Denise Brownlow and Maureen Flynn who had a copy? The most explicit thing I'd ever read was the Tampax leaflet which circulated during prep one evening in the L1V. I knew, from overhearing a whispered review, that it took place actually in a strict Girls' School! I wish I had managed to borrow it. It would have explained a lot to me!

"Forever Amber"! Whoever agreed to let me read it after them - you didn't! Passed on to somebody else!

Has anybody else any memories of books definitely off curriculum?

I must have had a 'Hertford' moment when younger, Angela.

I read a lot of those books as a teenager.

[Katharine]

I think some of the Jalna books were on the 6s bookshelves above where my locker was, (between the hall door and the cloakroom door to the dayroom) I also remember reading and loving "Katherine".

I'm currently reading some of the Needlecraft Mysteries - based on a needlecraft shop in Minnesota, great fun!

[midget]

The book I longed to read was "The Cruel Sea" (and i can, but won't, quote from it). Elizabth L S was librarian, and on the last full day of term brought into the study the new books for the library. We were all wanting to read it so arranged that Pat, who always arrived back before the rest of us, would immediately get the book, and we could all read it. The next term arrived, but no Cruel Sea. We eventually discovered that one of the staff (we never found out who it was) had thought it quite unsuitable for the girls to read. You may imagine how I spent my leaving book token.

[englishangel]

My childhood favourite was The Secret Garden, I just loved Dickon's accent (so married a Yorkshireman)and the that line*, my sister's fave was A Little Princess.

Her name funnily enough is Sarah.

* "and there... walking as tall and straight as any lad in Yorkshire, Master Colin."

[MaryB]

We ad Georgette Heyer in 3s too (house library was 3 shelves of battered paperbacks on the lockers between the dayroom doorand the hatch to Lil's sitting room) but I was such a snob I wouldn't read them... I've made up for it since though. We had some Jalna too - I remember Rosemary Morgan reading them all. I did love Katherine - I read all the other Anya Seton's but they were never as good. I was always hampered with my three books because in those days there was only a 3 vol Lord of the Rings - sometimes I could convince Lil it was one book, but sometimes I couldn't and then I was stuffed.
Did anyone else read the Ian Hay in the fiction library.....?

[sejintenej]

We ad Georgette Heyer in 3s too

That woman has a lot to answer for. Thanks to "Desiree" my wife has spend masses of time and travel researching the real Bernadotte (Swedish Royal) family. Amazingly, for someone who went on to become Empress, Marseilles (where we came from) Information office had virtually no information on Desiree Clery or her sister. Thay knew a square is named after her and that was about it.

[Jo]

Oh Angela, you have a real talent for posting evocative memories! I have (I think) all the Jalna series, if you want to borrow any. We had one or two of them in 5s and that's what started me off. I think my mother read them all too.

I didn't read any Georgette Heyer, strangely enough. Jean Plaidy was the historical novelist du jour in 5s and Lindsay Morton got me reading them. I also read pretty well all the Chalet School books, though I must have got rid of those as there are none still in my possession. I can't remember whether I read those before or after starting at CH.

Anya Seton - oh yes! I found her books very exotic - they weren't as easy to read as some of the others but really felt like grown-up reading! A couple not already mentioned were Firefox and My Theodosia. If I wasn't so comfortably established in the armchair with the netbook on my lap, I'd go and check in the back bedroom, where all my old books are. As it is, I'm just too lazy right now - will check later and report back