As last year here are a few last minute suggestions for those challenged on the pressie buying front.
First up is a double suggestion about the Victorian naturalist Margaret Fountaine. There are two wonderful books based on her diaries called Love Among the Butterflies: Travels and Adventures of a Victorian Lady
and Butterflies and Late Loves: The Further Travels and Adventures of a Victorian Lady
both edited superbly by W. F. Cater. Of the two I prefer the later and it is very readable on its own. Cater has done the kind of wonderful job of editing that Charlotte Mosley did on the Mitford letters. The material is presented so that brief editorial asides fill all the gaps. The second book even has a first chapter titled New Readers Start Here which means you do not need to have read the first book to enjoy the second. Both are highly readable as we follow Margaret's life as a young, passionate Victorian girl who thwarted in her first love leaves England for the most remarkable adventures, geographic, scientific and amorous. The are out of print but are available from the usual place secondhand as you can also try the indie used book sites ukbookworld, Biblio and Antiqbook.
In a similar vein to the Margaret Fountaine you can also try Spinsters Spinsters Abroad: Victorian Lady Explorers
by Dea Birkett and In Nature's Name: An Anthology of Women's Writing and Illustration, 1780-1930
by Barbara Gates are also good choices.
In fiction, apart from recommending my top ten books of the last ten years, may I suggest something from the small independent presses. I recommended The Blue Handbag
by Fiona Robyn last year and I have no hesitation in recommending it again with the proviso that you should ignore the cover as it bears no resemblance to the contents. You can read my review of The Blue Handbag here.
No press is smaller than the self-published writer and when you find a good self-published book you can probably be sure that your gift recipient has not got it. It will not have been heaped on any 3 for 2 table or the like. My self-published find of the year is The Yellow Room
by Christopher Bowden. A historical mystery centred on a country house in the 1950s and Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising it is a sort of cross between Josphephine Tey's The Franchise Affair
and White Mischief
by James Fox. You can read my review of The Yellow Room by Christopher Bowden here.
Highly recommended for the lover of historical fiction are two books discovered during this years Scandinavian lit fest at Juxtabook: The Tsar's Dwarf
by and Tales Of Protection
by Erik Fosnes Hansen. Both are top candidates for my read of the year. You can read my review of The Tsar's Dwarf (published by Hawthorne Books) here and Tales of Protection (published by Vintage) here.
And for children, look at this ...
Another Night Before Christmas
by Carol Ann Duffy as seen advertised in the windows of Foyles, above, recently - have a peak inside... It is a small thing of beauty and that's before we come to the fact that the words are written by the poet laureate. A lovely little poetry adventure after the Clement C. Moore original. If it is the original you're after ("Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house / Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. /") then the The Night Before Christmas
illustrated by Christian Birmingham is charming. With my English teacher's hat on too many children, even in bookish homes, have lots of fiction and little poetry and non-fiction. Good kids' poetry makes an excellent present.
On which note the poet laureate also has a New and Collected Poems for Children
.
I don't have shares in Carol Ann Duffy but a final recommendation from her prose works is The Lost Happy Endings
. This is a wonderful book but a little scary so it is not for teeny tinies but rather is better for older primary school children. You can probably chance it with a strong nerved 7 year old and there on up. It tells a tale of a witch who steals the ending from stories. Surprisingly inspiring.

Last up a few non fiction books for grown-ups. Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History
by Mark Girouard is readable, accessible and informative. It details the evolution of the country house and by extension all houses. The reasons behind the medieval hall layout related to how we arrange our homes today, though we no longer have the pantler and butler. Fascinating and certainly not light weight it is still a book you can pick up and dip into whilst you're having a coffee.
Edward Thomas is a poet you (and your recipient) might know from whatever ever standard poetry anthology is on your shelves as it almost certainly contains "Adlestrop", his best known work. Who, however, has a collected or even a selected Edward Thomas? Like small presses minor poets are a good vein to mine for presents-your-recipient-has-not-got but you do need to know what you are looking for. There are reasons why minor poets are minor and their extended verse often shows what these are! However, there is a truly excellent collection of Edward Thomas works The Annotated Collected Poems of Edward Thomas
edited by Edna Longley. Longley's introductory essay is the best of its kind and nearly worth the price of the book alone. A good companion purchase is Branch-lines: Edward Thomas and Contemporary Poetry
edited by Lucy Newlyn where contemporary poets respond to Thomas' work in poetry or prose contributing existing poems that show Edward Thomas' influence, writing new poems dedicated to Thomas, or writing prose appreciations. Both as wonderful books and together would make a cracking present.
I hope that helps any present buying conundrums you might have. The links above are largely to Amazon UK. Readers from abroad might like to use the Book Depository with its free world wide shipping.
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