RANDOM JOTTINGS


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Well what can I say to you all save a huge THANK YOU for all the lovely messages left on Random and also many offblog which have been received.  I am totally overwhelmed by such kindness and thoughtfulness and it has certainly helped me get through the last week.   In the throes of organising everything at the moment and there is just so much to do and it is all totally exhausting. My sister has been here a week and has just gone home today, totally shattered,  so I am now going to be quiet this evening and then tomorrow I am going to London to see my darling Florence and give her a cuddle. This visit had already been arranged and I was going to take my mother up to see her great granddaughter again but it was not to be.  I am just so grateful that we had that lovely day together and have the pictures of the four generations which will be cherished forever.

Have been totally unable to concentrate on any reading as I am sure you can imagine and this has coincided with a burst of deliveries with parcels being delivered daily.  If any publishers who have sent me books drop by and see Random then I hope you will understand and forgive me for a while.  But, I need to read and have turned to old and familiar books to find something to make me forget all the upset and what have I alighted on?  I pulled down the first Penguin omnibus of Mapp and Lucia by EF Benson and have just finished Queen Lucia, the first in the series, set in Riseholme before Lucia moves to Tilling and comes up against Mapp.  Oh they are such gorgeous books and giggling at Georgino and his bibelots, Lucia and her husband, her Caro Sposo, her sighs as she finishes playing the Moonlight Sonata, the gossip, the backbiting etc etc.  It is all quite wonderful and is just what I need at the moment.

Does anybody else have any favourite books they turn to in times of stress or sorrow?  I would love to know.

Once again…….THANK YOU

Posted in

25 responses to “Dropping in”

  1. sparkly jules Avatar

    C.S. Lewis. Or a really good mystery. Or magazines with lots of shiny pictures.
    Hugs!

  2. Susan A Avatar

    Oh yes, Tabitha, The ShellSeekers and its sequel September was marvellous too. Besides, the engaging plot, lovely descriptions of an autumn in the Highlands.

  3. Diney Costeloe Avatar

    The Robe by Lloyd C Douglas is a book I go back to often, and love it every time. I remember when my grandmother died reading RF Delderfield God is an Englishman and having several hours when I was able to escape into another world. Reading is always my escape!

  4. Tabitha Avatar
    Tabitha

    The Shellseekers by Rosamunde Pilcher, or if the stress is extreme, the Dimsie books by Dorita Fairlie Bruce. And a lot of re-reads, because I don’t need to concentrate too much to figure out what’s happening.

  5. Liz F Avatar
    Liz F

    Jane Eyre and Susan Hill’s The Magic Apple Tree do it for me – under real stress I regress to The Children of Green Knowe and The Little White Horse as escapism is a blessed relief.
    Thinking of you.

  6. Elaine Simpson-Long Avatar

    Many thanks once again to you all for calling by and for all the suggestions. Delighted to see Elizabeth Goudge, Lucy M Montgomery, Mrs Gaskell, Georgette Heyer and so many others on my favourites list turning up. I am now on the second Mapp and Lucia book, the one in which Lucia arrives in Tilling, meets Mapp and War is Declared. It is all delightful and wonderful and as I rather raced through my first read of these wondrous book, totally delighted that I had at last discovered them, I am now taking my time and loving them.
    Still feel somewhat stunned and disbelieving and having a book to read and forget for a while is such a blessing.

  7. Kate Avatar
    Kate

    My condolences on your loss. Agree with many of the recommended authors I would add the wonder and beauty of poetry to the list. Wordsworth, Keats. Eliot all wonderful small bites of beauty and hope that in difficult times is all I can find time for but may make me pause take breath and care on

  8. Susan Abraham. Avatar

    Elaine, I would turn to stories by Mrs Gaskell or Dickens and some favourite works by Iris Murdoch. I read them at a very good time in my life and can still taste the joy from the memory of a tale or two.

  9. Virginia Avatar
    Virginia

    Just saw your news – I’m so sorry. In adition ot the other mentions of: LM Alcott, Angela Thirkell, and the ineffable E.F. Benson, I go to Manning Coles, and their Tommy Hambledon ‘spy’ stories. Light-hearted nonsense, but engaging.

  10. bruessel Avatar
    bruessel

    Sherlock Holmes, the short stories and The Hound of the Baskervilles. Also, continuing the nautical theme mentioned by other posters, the adventures of Horatio Hornblower by C S Forester. Finally, Stefan Zweig`s Beware of Pity – maybe not so much a comfort read as a book that takes you far away from the here and now.

  11. sherry Avatar
    sherry

    Angela Thirkell!

  12. Cath Avatar

    Georgette Heyer, Anne McCaffrey, Terry Pratchett, Alexander McCall Smith are my comfort reads. But really… I don’t think you can do much better than to give your little grandaughter a nice long cuddle. It’s exactly what I did when I lost my mum in 2002.

  13. Mrs.B. Avatar

    I’m so sorry to hear about your loss. May you find strength in this difficult time.
    Wodehouse is what I read in times of stress.

  14. Claire (The Captive Reader) Avatar

    Georgette Heyer, Louisa May Alcott, Austen’s Emma, P.G. Wodhouse and Elizabeth Peter’s Amelia Peabody series are all go-to comfort reads for me.
    A trip to London to see your granddaughter sounds like the best possible comfort though, far better than any book!

  15. Gill Avatar
    Gill

    I turn to Elizabeth Goudge too – also The Diary of a Provincial Lady & Susan Hill’s The Magic Apple Tree.

  16. Susan Avatar
    Susan

    I echo Angela Thirkell and also Laurie Colwin.

  17. anne Avatar
    anne

    Ellis Peters, Brother Cadfael series. Tamora Pierce, Alanna books, etc.
    My deepest condolences on your loss! The photo of your mum is lovely — you resemble her.

  18. Thomas at My Porch Avatar

    Oddly enough, EF Bensen is an author I have relied on a lot in the past during times of stress. His books are very comforting.

  19. Joolsfw Avatar

    Emma and Right Ho Jeeves are my stress busters. Im nearly word perfect on them both, but there is something about their worlds that just lifts my spirits.
    Look after yourself, Elaine. ((hugs to you))

  20. Jan Jones Avatar

    Georgette Heyer, Jane Austin, Mary Stewart, Ngaio Marsh always work for me.
    (((((lots more hugs)))))

  21. Claire (Paperback Reader) Avatar

    I haven’t read the Mapp & Lucia series yet but have been meaning to. I think it sounds like the best of comfort reads and I hope that you also console yourself with some L.M. Montgomery. I tend to console myself with Jane Austen or Terry Pratchett.
    Be good to yourself, Elaine, and take great joy and comfort in those baby hugs.

  22. Jenny Avatar

    Elizabeth Goudge, Gene Stratton Porter, and childhood favorites like L.M. Montgomery and Frances Hodgson Burnett and E. Nesbit. Oh, and like Fredegonde there I love Patrick O’Brian.
    Glad to see you back. Please be gentle with yourself.

  23. Fredegonde Avatar

    Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series does it for me every time. I’m so sorry for your loss. I just discovered your blog, btw, and am enjoying it very much.

  24. John Zinn Avatar

    Angela Thirkell’s Barsetshire novels plus Trollope’s novels that take place in the country.

  25. Jenny Avatar

    James Herriot is a good, reliable comfort read for me. Whenever I wake up with dreadful nightmares I read Herriot. Sweet, reliable, easy to pick up and put down.

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