Hope you all had a really lovely Christmas! It was a new and different Christmas for the Thomas family, as it’s the first one since my dad retired as a vicar – Our Vicar and Our Vicar’s Wife will have to change their nicknames! I’ve been in a vicarage for every Christmas of my life until now, and it’s very odd to have it as a quiet time when we can all stay in the house together, rather than madly going to a dozen carol services and never having all four of us in a room for many hours at a time. I missed some things, but it was lovely – Colin hosted, and we had a Christmas BBQ. I made roast potatoes in the kitchen, because even a BBQ needs added roast potatoes at Christmas.
I thought I’d share the pile of books I got among my presents. A few aren’t shown in the photo, because a couple were Secret Santa presents opened earlier, and one was packed somewhere else, but I’ve listed them all.
Told in Winter by Jon Godden
Also published as Winter’s Tale, this is by Rumer Godden’s sister – real name Winsome!! The top four books in the pile were all from a Secret Santa in the Virago Modern Classics group on LibraryThing. This Secret Santa always ends up bringing me such interesting things.
The Possessed by Elif Batuman
This one was on my wishlist – the subtitle is ‘adventures with Russian books and the people who read them’, and doesn’t that sound amazing?
The House in Norham Gardens by Penelope Lively
I love a bit of Lively – and, fun fact, Norham Gardens is where I started my driving lessons. The widest roads in Oxford, so it’s where you’re taken to learn a turn in the road!
Twelve Poems by Sylvia Townsend Warner
I love Warner and thought I had more or less everything she’d written, but somehow hadn’t heard of this one. Fab!
A Little Original Sin by Millicent Dillon
This is a biography of Jane Bowles, who wrote the brilliant novel Two Serious Ladies – it’ll be fun to find out more about her. [Or potentially not fun… I have a vague memory that her life wasn’t great… but interesting!]
Grandmothers by Salley Vickers
My friend Lorna got this for me – you might have heard her on the latest episode of Tea or Books? – and it’s not only a very pretty book but signed too!
The House Party by Adrian Tinniswood
Another one where the subtitle tells you how perfect this is for me – ‘A short history of leisure, pleasure and the country house weekend’.
Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham
This and the book above were from my friends Paul and Kirsty, and they’ve been keen for me to read this – not least so I can talk about sci-fi more authoritatively on the podcast in future!
Albert the Dragon and the Centaur by Rosemary Weir
I loved Albert the Dragon as a child and I haven’t read all of them – this was among the presents Colin got me, which is lovely.
Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading by Maureen Corrigan
I mean, the title says it all, doesn’t it? Thanks Mum and Dad for recognising the limits of my sociability!
The Bride of Northanger by Diana Birchall
A sequel to Northanger Abbey by my friend Diana – who wrote a brilliant sequel to Pride and Prejudice called Mrs Darcy’s Dilemma – and another great choice by Colin.
Stanley Spencer by Kenneth Pople
Mum and Dad got me a biography of my favourite painter – not pictured is a lovely book that functions as a catalogue of an exhibition from the 80s.
And, not pictured, a couple of books I got at book group Secret Santas – Inventing Love by Jose Ovejero and Lanterns Across the Snow by Susan Hill.
What a great bunch of books! Hope you also got lots under the tree, and have some nice time off to read.
Our experience was what you must have had last year: this was our last year visiting my husband’s parents at the rectory for Christmas, as his mum is retiring from the priesthood in January and they are moving soon afterwards. We don’t know where Christmas will be held in two years’ time (after an America trip in between) as none of our houses are large enough to host everyone!
From your book haul, I’ve read the Batuman and Corrigan, which were both good fun. Re: Stanley Spencer, have you heard about Stanley and Elsie by Nicola Upson? I read it this year and it inspired me to visit Sandham Memorial Chapel, which is only 5 miles away from where I live.
The final Christmas was certainly very odd – and they were moving in January too, so it involved a lot of packing etc. New traditions are fun too, of course.
I don’t think I do know Stanley and Elsie – thanks for the mention; I’ll explore.
The Batuman is on my wish list too because I loved her novel The Idiot so much.
Excellent :D Hope you had a fab Christmas!
What a lovely pile of books, so different from the usual suspects doing the rounds at this time of year. Your friends and family clearly know you very well!
They’ve done very well!
Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Collected Poems were published by Carcanet a few years ago.
I knew she had a collected poems, but didn’t know about this lovely volume.
That’s a great pile, Simon! I adored Batumen’s book – just fab! And the Penelope Lively brings back memories – I read all her children’s books back in the day and loved them! :D
Aw lovely. I think the Batuman perfectly matches your interests, so I’m hoping my ignorance is not a barrier to enjoying it too! I’m sure it won’t be.
What a fascinating stack of books here. I can hardly wait to read your reviews!
I’m very lucky!
What a lovely pile! I had a great load of brilliant books and will be posting about them soon, and I’ve been reading a book every 1.5 days since the start of last week – hooray! Happy 2020 of reading!
Oh, merry Christmas to you indeed! The Possessed sounds amazing indeed, and I’ll have to keep an eye out for The Bride Of Northanger – I’m hoping to get to more Austen adaptations and re-tellings this year. Enjoy! ❤️