Last Friday's Speaker, Sarah Moss

Sarah Moss, who spoke to us on Friday 18 September about "What is the Historical Novel for?" has, I have discovered, a wonderful website. It includes an outline of her career, details of her published works and an entertaining blog, with amusing posts on such subjects as acquiring a cat and coping with the January sales. You can access the website by clicking HERE. (See also Richard Thomas's post about our speaker immediately below.)

Sarah Moss talk to Literary Society on "What is the Historical Novel for?"

Richard Thomas kindly provided this introduction to our first meeting of the 2015-6 season.:

"Sarah Moss, who will be speaking to the Literary Society on Friday 18 September, is both an author and an academic.  She has published six books: a history of chocolate, a memoir, and four novels, two of which are unalloyed historical novels, and one partially so.  These latter three together form a trilogy, but are all "stand-alone", with enough cross-referencing to enable one to read them in the wrong order.  They are "Night Waking", which is set in the present day on a deserted Hebridean island but contains evidence of past events that form the substance of the the other two, "Bodies of Light" and "Signs for Lost Children", which are set in the nineteenth century and focus on, among other issues, the uphill struggles faced by women then who wished to become, and later became, doctors.  "Bodies of Light" was shortlisted for the Wellcome Prize (for fiction with a medical slant).  I was gripped by all three.

The other novel, "Cold Earth", is a spine-chilling account of an archaeological dig in Greenland that goes very wrong, set against a world-wide pandemic about which the archaeologists are insufficiently informed, frighteningly so.  It is a psychological thriller and a page-turner.
The memoir, "Names for the Sea", is a compelling and amusing account of a year spent as a visiting lecturer at the University of Iceland, which by chance landed Sarah and her family (husband and two young children) right bang in the middle of the "kreppa", the Icelandic financial and economic meltdown.  It was shortlisted for the RSL Ondatje Prize (for travel writing).  Both Adam Nicolson and Margaret Drabble have told me that they were greatly impressed, and amused, by it - as indeed I was.  

I have not read the history of chocolate, which was co-written with another author, and was Sarah's first book.
Sarah's academic career has centred on nineteenth century English literature and creative writing.  She is a BA, MSt and DPhil of Oxford University, and has held academic appointments at the Universities of Kent, Iceland, Exeter and Warwick, where she is at present the Associate Professor of Creative Writing.  She will be asking us "What is the Point of the Historical Novel?"  She tells me that she will be freewheeling between thinking about history and fiction, historical fiction and fictional history, and talking in some detail about her "own stuff".  After Winchelsea she is going on to give a rather more formal talk at Glasgow University, for which she may be trying out some ideas on us, and she hopes that the session will develop into a genuine conversation.

It sounds as though we are in for a stimulating evening.  The Rye Bookshop have told us that they will have some of Sarah's books in stock."

If you click on the July archive of the blog (on the right), you will find a short item on Sarah Moss which contains a link through which you can hear a BBC Radio interview with our speaker. 

Book group discussion of Thomas Hardy Poems, 15 July 2015

On 15 July, Gillian Southgate and the book group looked at the poetry of Thomas 

Hardy.  Tracing his life and poetry chronologically, Gill showed how Hardy's 

descriptions of, and concerns for, the natural world, coloured much of his poetry 

up to 1912, when his first wife, Emma Gifford, died.  The love poetry that followed

consolidated Hardy's reputation as a poet, as well as a novelist. The tenderness, 

regret and pent-up grief informing the 1912 poems brought critical acclaim. 

Already famous as the writer of 'Far from the Madding Crowd', 'The Mayor of 

Casterbridge', 'Jude the Obscure' and others, Hardy on his death in 1928 had become

the Grand Old Man of English letters. His coffin was carried into Westminster Abbey 

by fellow poets Housman and Kipling, the playwrights Shaw and J.M. Barrie, the 

novelists Conrad and Galsworthy, the writer Edmund Gosse, and the Prime Minister 

and the Leader of the Opposition. No anthology since has been complete without the 

inclusion of his best poetry -'The Darkling Thrush', 'The Convergence of the Twain',

'Channel Firing', 'After a Journey', 'At Castle Botterel' and the poignant 'During Wind 

and Rain'.  Hardy wrote in excess of nine hundred poems in his lifetime, and learned 

his craft in the writing of them. Technically, they are superb, and the emotional charge 

so many carry has a lasting effect on most of his readers. His influence on that most 

reticent of poets, Philip Larkin, has been well-documented.

Sarah Moss interview on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Tuesday 21 July.

Thanks to Richard Thomas for drawing my attention to an interview with our September speaker, discussing her latest book. To listen to this, click HERE This takes you to the Woman's Hour webpage, and you should scroll down till you see the chapter headings, and click on the Sarah Moss "Play" button. Make sure your computer's loudspeaker isn't turned off.

Poems by Thomas Hardy for discussion at Book Group, Wednesday 15 July

Gillian Southgate has sent us copies of the poems for discussion at our next meeting. these are:

1) Neutral Tones
1A) An August Midnight
2)The Year's Awakening
3) The Blinded Bird
4) The Caged Goldfinch
5) Chorus of the Years (from The Road to Waterloo)
6) Channel Firing
7) After a Journey
8) Beeny Cliff
9) At Castle Boterel
10) During Wind and Rain 

If you haven't received them, and would like a opy of these poems, please contact me or Gillian.

Book Club: Monday 22 June. The First Man by Albert Camus.

This work was chosen by Theresa McMullin. Published posthumously, the unfinished manuscript was found in the car in which Camus had died in an accident. The story draws on the author's experience of growing up in an impoverished French family in Algiers. The political, philosophical and historical context of this tale were discussed by members It was thought that the manuscript was the first section of what was intended to be a much longer work. All agreed that the book painted a vivid picture of the area and the family life portrayed. In some ways it was frustrating not to know what outcome of the narrative component of the book was intended. The earlier chapters showed signs of having been more thoroughly edited than the final ones, which contained some sentences nearly three pages long, requiring more concentration than some of us could muster. Less well-known than his earlier works "The Plague" and "The Outsider", this book was an interesting discovery for all of us.

(The next meeting on 15 July will be on selected poems by Thomas Hardy, introduced by Gillian Southgate, who is going to circulate her choice by e-mail, and I will also try to post them on the blog. LY)

Meeting of Friday 19 June: Humorous readings by members

A quite well attended meeting was entertained by items of humorous prose or verse chosen and read by members. Nearly all those attending had a five minute contribution to share, and judging by the amount of laughter, the excerpts were well chosen. Among the prose authors featuring were P G Wodehouse, in an excerpt from an Ukridge book. P G Wodehouse also appeared later in a pastiche of a "Jeeves" story by Sebastian Faulks in the style of Raymond Chandler, first broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 "Write Stuff" literary quiz. Daisy Ashford's "The Young Visiters" featured, as did work in verse by Joyce Grenfell, Dylan Thomas, Edward Lear and Hilaire Belloc. About sixteen members contributed, with some providing two short contributions rather than a single longer one. Particularly memorable was the Chairman's contribution, an extract from Frank McCourt's autobiographical account of his introduction to teaching in a tough New York school, from his book "Teacher Man"