Narnia

More Folio Society treasures. A little bit of Daphne du Maurier and a touch of Poe (never more), but mainly the mighty Chronicles of Narnia. Starting at the beginning with The Magician's Nephew and ending with The Last Battle. This series is (very) loosely based on the Bible. It starts with the creation, including the temptation of the tree hanging with forbidden fruit. Aslan is sacrificed and then resurrected. It ends with the final judgement where people go to heaven or hell.

If you look past all that symbolism, it is still a marvellous story. The original magician’s nephew turns into the professor in the second book. He brought his sick mother home an apple from Narnia which healed her. The pips from that apple produced a tree from which the wood came to build the famous wardrobe. I never understood why the film version completely ignored the start and jumped straight in with the second book.

Bronte

Here is my lovely Folio Society boxed set of books by the Bronte sisters, bound in green silk.   Whenever I read Wuthering Heights I am always transported back to a tent in wales.  I read it the first time on a wet family camping holiday and still enjoyed it even though I was sitting in a dripping tent.  The Bronte books are satisfying because you can imagine alternative story lines.  What would have happened it Cathy had married Heathcliff or if Jane and eloped with Mr Rochester?

Needlework

A selection of needlework and craft books.  There is quite a bit of cross stitch as that is the easiest - like painting by numbers!  The Jane Iles books are very good with a nice selection of patterns.  I particularly like "Wild flowers in cross stitch" and used patterns from there to stitch my sister a table cloth with primroses and forget me nots.

Herbs and house plants

The three books by C Stapley cover a lot of medicinal and decorative uses for herbs.  She runs courses at the Weald & Downland Museum.  I bought these ones after being to her "Herbs for Health" day.  It's sad to think how much knowledge about the uses of herbs have been lost over time. 

Jekka's Herb Cookbook is a really useful book.  I bought it at the Hampton Court flower show and she signed it for me.  There is a chapter about each herb with a painting of the herb, how to grow it, how to cook wih it and what to do if you have a glut.

Agatha Christie

Lots of Agatha Christie today.  I am a real fan and have read them all, although I don't own every single one.  As well as the tatty paperbacks (which live in the conservatory) I also have nine hardbacks with three books in each.  They look very decorative in black, red and silver so make an attractive addition to the bookshelf.  I got these in a second hand shop a number of years ago.  I bought all they had, but it isn't a complete set.  People tend to only think of Poirot or Miss Marple, but she also wrote several "Tommy and Tuppence" books as well as Mr Quin.  I must admit that I am not quite to keen on him.

Dorothy Sayers

Now it's back to the fiction and we are back with period crime.  There is quite a lot of that on my bookshelves.  This is a lovely Folio Society boxed set of Lord Peter Whimsey mysteries written by Dorothy Sayers.  Sadly it isn't a complete set of all the books.  I can't understand why the Folio Society didn't include all of the titles in this set. 

I can read these again and again.  Lord Peter is brilliant, cultured, polite and vulnerable - the perfect hero.  He is taken care of by the faithfull Bunter (his bat man in the trenches) and spends a long time wooing the crime writer Harriet Vane.  Did Dorothy think of herself as Harriet?  Did she secretly wish that she had her very own Lord Peter?  Who knows.

Cooking

I thought I would get all of the cookery books out of the way next.  The "WI Bread" book by Liz Herbert is the only bread cookery book that you will ever need.  It is absolutely brilliant and I use it every week.  "The Humming Bird Bakery Cookbook" is also full of great recipes which always end up looking like the photo's - always very satisfying.

The book "Neither Flesh for Fowl" looks as if it should be good but I have never liked anything I've cooked from it.  I keep wondering about giving it to a charity shop but then I decide to give it another chance.

"The Vegetarian Epicure" is a book I bought in the early 1980's when I was in my dinner party phase.  I wanted to show everyone how great vegie cooking was and made lots of recipes from that book.

The Nigel Slater vegetable cook book is lovely but weighs a ton.  This was an important point as I was given it as a present when on holiday in Australia and then had to put it in my hand luggage coming home as it made my suitcase over the limit.

"The Dairy Book of Family Cookery" came from the milkman, also in the early 1980's.  I use it regularly and it is really useful.

Rose Elliot

 
















Here are a few books by my favourite cookery writer - Rose Elliot. Rose Elliot’s recipes are straight forward family recipes which produce consistent results and are even appreciated by non vegetarians. One is called Thrifty Fifty and is full of recipes which cost 50p when the book first came out. My mother bought it in 1977 and it is the source of her famous nut roast recipe. As you can see from the page, it has been used a lot!

Ripping Yarns

Just a few books today.  Three Rider Haggard to start with. Ripping yarns which, yet again, have been made into films (although far inferior to the books). Then three collections of short stories from The Strand magazine.  Next is Under Milk Wood, a play for voices.  I've also got a taped version perfectly read by Richard Burton.  "It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black".  Finally in this list of books is Larkrise to Candleford.  A lovely little book with watercolour illustrations.

Classic crime and a history of Worthing!

These are a bit of a mixture.  At one end is that lovely romance "The Prisoner of Zenda", which is probably more famous as the 1952 film starring Stewart Granger.  Then there are a few more classic crime about "The Saint", again probably more familiar from the TV.  Not quite sure how the biography of Jane Austin got in on this shelf (written by her great nephew).  At the other end is a book which my mother found for me at a jumble sale when she was on holiday at the other end of the country.  It was printed in 1938 and is a survey of my home town.  It is a fascinating description of the history, botany, landscape, agrictulture, town planning, religion, transport, recreation and local services.  All in all a treasure trove of local history.

Dornford Yates

Nobody talks about Dornford Yates any more and you have to scour second hand bookstores to find him.  His books were very much of his age, the golden age.  The men were square jawed heros and the women were mainly there to offer moral support or to be damsels in distress.  There are car chases and evil gangs to defeat but you can always be assured that the good will end happily and the bad unhappily.