I had a very enjoyable conversation with a young cousin this morning – he rang me asking me for recommendations of interesting books (I’m glad to say he’s a very keen reader!) We had talked before and I’d suggested Rosemary Sutcliff. I’d loved her books when I was his age and was fortunate to have an excellent library nearby and also Children’s Hour on the radio serialised some of the stories, some were read, some were dramatised. I’m sure my love of story-telling is all thanks to Children’s Hour – and any gift I have for it is an even greater gift from that programme.
Today he was reporting back on the Rosemary Sutcliff books he had read, and discussing different aspects of them – of course, it was a very long time since I had read them, but as he enthusiastically explained his thoughts on the stories, it all came flooding back. He then deviated to talk about the War of the Roses – and I must admit I’m even more rusty on the little I knew of it apart from the headlines. For some reason, even though I had history lessons from junior school onwards, did a history A-level and a degree in English and history, for some reason, none of the syllabuses (or is it syllabi?) covered that period in history. Most of my info comes from Richard III which I have never studied but I have read it, and of course seen Sir Laurence Olivier doing his stuff.
One story I do know which happened to a friend of mine – she was in York and bought a poster and a book about the King and when she took it to the counter to pay, the lady was very pleased and said “Well, he was very good to us here, Richard” as if she’d personally known him even though he’d died in 1485. As we were talking about Richard, I mentioned the excellent book by Josephine Tey, “The Daughter of Time” – which although written for adults would be easily accessed by my young cousin.
We discussed the Lord of the Rings books, we talked about family history, we talked about where we each lived – him by a German mountain and me by the sea,, and I mentioned the Great Flood of 1607, where the coastline all along here was inundated and devastated – Weston itself wasn’t then more than a few fishermen’s cottages, but our neighbouring settlements along the coast and inland were badly flooded. It was great to have such an interesting and wide-reaching conversation – I wonder what we’ll discuss next time?
Lois Elsden 