North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell on DVD

I totally loved this BBC series back in 2004 when it was first aired on TV. I remember being entranced by it for lots of reasons right from the first episode. I love a good costume drama, good Sunday evening fare before work on the monday, and Mrs Gaskell has provided us with lots of excellent material which have successfully translated to TV. In the last few weeks I have watched and enjoyed it all again.

This 4 part drama was on some time before Cranford hit our screens, a love story between Margaret Hale, the daughter of a clergyman from the south of England and John Thornton, a mill owner from the northern town where Margaret moves to after her father gives up the cloth.

At first Margaret struggles to adapt to the dirty industrial town, finding it course and savage, and judges its inhabitants hastily, especially Mr Thornton whose rough justice at the mill offends her. When a strike is looming across the town, all of them are involved with many lessons heeded on all sides.

I found myself rooting for both of these characters who misunderstand each other greatly at first. This adaptation is filmed with beautiful shots and costumes. It was the scenes inside the cotton mill that stayed with me the most, and all of the parts are cast brilliantly. The two main characters, played by Daniela Denby-Ashe and Richard Armitage are compelling as are all the supporting characters played by Brendan Coyle (now in Downton Abbey), Sinead Cusack, Tim Pigott Smith and Pauline Quirke. After watching this series 8 years ago I went and bought the book and enjoyed the story all over again.

I have another reason to remember this series with such love...it was largely responsible for me researching my family tree. I was so entranced with the mill workers and industry in the series I had a voracious need to find out what my own ancestors did. No mill workers, but being from Liverpool there were lots of Dock workers, several generations of cork cutters, quite a few farmers who moved to the city in the early 19th century, a gun smith, some railway workers, merchant sailors and an Ostrich Feather Dyer. The more exotic jobs are fascinating, but it was the ordinary industrial workers that I related to most, especially as many of the buildings and landmarks can still be seen around Liverpool from way back, linking us to them. I have learnt such a lot, about the history and social history that my ancestors were involved with, and how I fit in with it all. On watching the series recently I could feel my need to take up my research again. I have continued my family tree since I originally saw this series back in 2004 with huge rewards.

This is a lovely story, emotionally involving and memorable. The music of the series also deserves a mention, adding a lot to the period and the feel of the drama. The novel and the TV series (now on DVD) are highly recommended, and the TV adaptation is particularly special to me.

You can read more about North and South on the BBC by using the link.

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

I got this one from a box of old books that a friend gave me some time ago. After seeing the brilliant series by the BBC a couple of years ago, starring Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, Philip Glenister and so many other famous names (for full BBC Cranford Cast click here), I wanted to read the novel and see how closely it had been adapted. I also set it as one of my directional reading challenges in January, to read another novel by this author. This is my 3rd Gaskell novel having read Cousin Phyllis and North and South previously.

Written and set during the 19th century this story is essentially a character study of the genteel ladies who inhabit the small Cheshire town of Cranford throughout a series of happenings and local events. Narrated by a young lady called Mary Smith on her many visits to Cranford, she is privy to all the gossip while she stays at Miss Matty's, an old friend of the family as well as a respected and loved member of the community. A paucity of males in the town due to war, illness or old age means that the Cranford ladies have free run to visit, gossip and also to support each other. There are some men, but this story is about early-Victorian middle aged women of certain social standing.

The tone of the book is one of subtle and gentle humour that never fails to hit its mark. After a briefing on town etiquette as regards visiting others and acceptable topics of conversation, we are introduced to the ladies who form the bulk of Cranford society as they prepare for such things as a visiting magician, the protocol regarding a certain Lady Glenmire as a guest, contact from a former suitor of Miss Matty's and the threat of robberies in the local area.

Those who like a substantial meaty plot which progresses at a fast pace will be disappointed with this book. It is gently paced, about small happenings and the interest lies in getting to know the characters who are portrayed with warmth and more than a little satire in a small setting. It is all in the detail.

I really liked it. It is clever, witty and acutely observational. The time period is palpable and a delight. I grew very fond of the ladies, particularly Miss Matty, who lives in her older sisters formidable shadow even after her death. I also liked Miss Pole with her concrete belief in her own exaggerations. It is the kind of period setting that becomes very comfortable very quickly. I felt as if I was there with them, through the various interiors, taking part in town life.

An English classic which would be great for those who love the study of 19th century manners and lots to talk about for reading groups.

There is a free online version of Cranford if you click the link.

The Gaskell Society website can be visited by clicking the link.

There is even a Cranford walk around Knutsford in Cheshire.

Emma by Jane Austen

The edition that I read of this classic was a lovely Hamish Hamilton Novel Library edition that was published in 1952. It was in a box of second hand books that a friend gave to me some time ago, and has a fresh green cover not unlike the one to your left.

As I have mentioned previously about my Jane Austen holiday coming up in August, this is one of the books set for the trip. It is my fourth Jane Austen (I have previously read Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey), and also completes my personal directional reading challenge for this year to 'read another Jane Austen'.

For those of you who are not familiar with the novel and have not seen any of the film or TV adaptations, this tells the story of the well-to-do families residing in the fictional town of Highbury in Surrey in the earlier part of the 19th century during the period of one year. The main character of the title, Emma Woodhouse, is 'handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition...and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.' So says the first sentence in the whole book. The trouble is, Emma has a high opinion of herself and fancies herself as a bit of a matchmaker for those around her.

For herself she claims she will never marry, but as we are introduced to the other members of this genteel society, Emma, with kindness in her heart, tries to predict matches and cajole them into reality. In doing so, she gets herself and others into pickle of dashed hopes and unpredictable preferences.

We accompany Emma on her journey from bright and intelligent young girl, oblivious to her own vanities, to a more mature and balanced young woman who retains all of her warmth and generocity but in a much more balanced and attractive way.

We are also introduced in detail to the other friends and residents of Highbury, not only by character, but their all important social standing within this close knit society. The many characters and their interactions are the bulk of this story. We rarely step outside the comforts of this. It is their subtleties of manner and interaction that drive this novel, centering around Emma.

Austen's style is known well enough for her books to be a surprise these days. Many love her enclosed worlds of the higher classes of early 19th century England, the measured behaviour, the concentration upon marrying the right man and bettering your position. You can read between the lines about gender roles and the essentials of health and securing your future, but rarely does anything more topical or gritty infiltrate her stories, and this is her strength for some, and her weakness for others.

Personally I welcome the little holiday from the harsh realities of life that her stories provide. I know that there are wars, poverty, prostitution and child cruelties all just beyond the covers of the novel, and widely covered by other great novelists, many of whom I also love reading. But sometimes Jane Austen provides an enjoyable alternative. Her books are not without talent or importance, and the concerns of her characters are very real.

I really enjoyed reading Emma. I found her suitably naive and slightly annoying at first and therefore enjoyed her development. I grew fond of many of the other characters too, the dependable Mr Knightley, the warmth of the Westons, the intrigue of Jane Fairfax, the ridiculous Eltons, the comedy and sadness of Miss Bates. As the preface of my edition says, 'Jane Austen's laughter is of the quiet and private kind, mocking but sympathetic, sometimes genteel, often sly, seldom unkind and never cruel. And of all her books Emma has the most of this gentle gaiety'.

I have certainly found it the lightest of Austen's novels that I have read.

Jane Austen herself said, 'I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.' I think many, including myself, have and will enjoy reading about her, as well as indulging their need to enter Emma's world for a while. I am looking forward to discussing this book with my friends on holiday to Hampshire in August.

A reading group guide to Emma can be found by clicking the link.

To read an essay written by the Australian Jane Austen society entitled Emma -Understanding Jane Austen's World click the link.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale

This book was bought for me by a friend as a present, and then recommended by another friend who had read it for her book group. I thought it was a novel until I started to read it and realised it was a work of non-fiction.

The book tells the story of a widely publicized murder in 1860, that had the whole country talking and went on to influence some of our most well known Victorian novellists.

A 3 year old boy is found with his throat cut and stuffed down the outside privy of a well to do country house. The boy is Saville Kent, son of the owner Samuel Kent, and the police are baffled. Did someone break in, snatch the boy from his bed and murder him? What kind of a grudge would cause such an action? Or were there secrets behind the mansions closed doors? Could it possibly be a member of the family? With the Constabulary in its infancy and only a handful of detectives in the country, the local magistrates call for one of Londons finest, Mr Whicher, to solve the case. It is this character, the all seeing detective, and the circumstances of the case, that influenced some of the later works of Charles Dickens (who knew Whicher), Wilkie Collins and Henry James.

Kate Summerscale has written a very thorough account of the crime, with the benefits of hindsight and with the advances in technology and knowledge, we are provided with a well rounded story that had the Victorians stumped. The author uses the official documents of the day alongside private memoirs and newspaper articles from the 1860's, and well into the 1940's. The mystery continues over decades.

I found this a fascinating read from the start, and for such an influential event, I wondered why I had never heard about it. Although the pace flagged a little in the middle, the book kept me interested as each intricate chapter of this complicated case was played out. I particularly enjoyed the history of the police and the descriptions of early techniques of detection. This includes the origins of terminology we use today, like 'clue' and 'denoument'. Also the reactions of the public, to the crime itself and the class arguments it brought to the surface, and the dislike of detectives, spying on people and their private lives. It is surprising how rudimentary their resources were when investigating. After watching the likes of CSI and Silent Witness on TV, I found myself really surprised at how little they had to go on besides gut instinct and one or two pieces of evidence.

I really enjoyed this book and recommend it for anyone with an interest in Victorian England, true life crimes or early crime novels of the 19th century. It would also be a good choice for book groups and some discussion questions about The Suspicions of Mr Whicher can be found by clicking the link.