Right, I’m up to date with British Library titles now! This is the one I’m most excited to have brought back into print – I only read it for the first time last year, but O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith is a novel I know I’ll cherish forever. And the interesting thing is, looking at reviews elsewhere online and in the comments and emails I’ve had about it – a lot of people love this book for their whole lives. I’ve seen so many people say they read it many decades ago, and have come back to it time and again.
It’s a coming of age story for a young girl called Ruan, whose love of the moors is what sustains her through pain and grief and uncertainty. I’ve compared it to I Capture the Castle and Guard Your Daughters, but quite a few people have compared it to Jane Eyre more recently. It is certainly quite sombre and poignant, though there are comic moments, and it’s one of the most enveloping novels I’ve ever read. I shan’t repeat my whole review, since I wrote it less than a year ago – head over here to read the whole thing about why I love it so much.
Oh, and I got to talk to two of Smith’s grandsons while putting together the author bio and afterword. That was such a privilege. It was quite hard to find something to say in the afterword except that I loved it, but in the end I wrote about clothing. But mostly about how much I love it.
I end up buying and enjoying most of the books you recommend. I think we are related somehow!
I loved O, The Brave Music! Even the ending was like a slow light diminishment at the end of a lovely piece of music.
Thank you!
Looking forward to reading this one a lot! And – well done! :D
Can’t wait to hear what you think!
I think I have my review of this scheduled for January. It was lovely.
Hurrah!
I have this tbr and I am looking forward to it enormously. Whether I get to it this month or save it for the New year remains to be seen. Your enthusiasm for it is infectious though.
I feel very confident that you will love it. I hope!!
I will be reading this soon, Simon! It’s on my classics club list. Thank you for bringing it back into print! :)
Hurrah! Looking forward to your thoughts!
I’m so longing to read this book. The first copy the BL kindly sent me never arrived, so they ordered another copy. marked Express Delivery. I then got a call from Marston Book Services saying the courier couldn’t find my house and would I give them my landline number, which I did. This was on 2 December! Np sign of the book, no phone call. I feel as if I’m destined not to read it, but maybe one day it will arrive!
Oh gosh, it feels cursed! Hopefully you love it when it arrives!
Woefully behind STILL but looking forward to reading this very much and will save this for then.
Looking forward to your thoughts!
And I absolutely loved it – it would have been a book I’d have read through my whole life if I’d found it sooner, and as it is, it will be re-read. I loved your Afterword, too, although I couldn’t work out if it was about clothes or how much you loved the book!!
Aw lovely! And yes, I found it hard to find anything particularly relevant to 1940s to write about (since it’s set in 1910s) so just went for saying how much I love it :D