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do and in return he becomes the sort of grandson she would like to have sadly of course the absence of any genuine family ties between them delays his ability to rush to see her when events take an unfortunate turn towards the end of the book perhaps the message here is that rather than struggling to keep up appearances we should be honest about our lives admitting the truth about our economic circumstances and more importantly about our families then as now people would probably have been suspicious about a cross generational friendship of the kind between mrs palfey and ludo and as a result they would probably have needed to invent some kind of familial link but not making out he was desmond would at least have avoided some of the difficulties this causes not that i am saying taylor should not have written it as it is after all as i said earlier it is this deception which makes possible some of the novel s more comic situations jo i felt mrs palfrey was very fragile character and her friendship with ludo gave her strength she was an outsider to the hotel and it was obviously going to take time to settle in to the hotel at that point i was unaware that these residents were here before they went to either hospital nursing homes or sadly heaven it made me think very much about the lovely home my nan was in for the last ten weeks of her life and how all the residents used to love the young children coming into visit them it brought them much happiness coming back to the book i felt that ludo provided that happiness all of a sudden mrs palfrey had a purpose something to do and someone to look out for it was clear her daughter was not particularly caring otherwise why had she let her mother move all the way to london her grandson when he did appear was out of duty not love ludo also had a purpose with mrs palfrey as well as the initial rescuing of her outside where he lived she gave him an insight into another world which was better than watching life go by in harrods banking hall this was more real and interactive ludo was lost in london as much as mrs palfrey and they found each other and i think that it gave them what they needed at the time even at the end for mrs palfrey she was not forgotten by ludo but erased from her own families records as if her death was an inconvenience can you think of any other novels on the theme of ageing and elderly death that you have read or do you have any thoughts on this topic david one would expect there to be more novels on this theme particularly in britain and the rest of europe where we seem very much aware of having an ageing population having said that britain in particular has long seemed to me to be obsessed with youth the older you get the less important your needs seem to be considered this is something that already occurred to me in my teens and not just a reaction to getting older myself if you ll excuse me for behaving like the librarian i nearly was and the data analyst i now am you may be interested to know that on librarything as at 10th november 2012 the tag ageing has been used 8176 times by 3038 members the tag youth is used by a similar number of readers 3515 but with significanty greater frequency 37 485 times these results may well be biased by a tendency to regard fiction for young people as a distinct genre in a way that is not mirrored in what is increasingly being called later life books aimed at young people very often feature young people thereby increasing a tendency to tag such books with youth related labels nevertheless these numbers do seem to offer some anecdotal evidence in support of verity s suggestion that ageing is something of a taboo subject in literature or at least in literature that is popular i found only two other books in my collection that were tagged with age one was catherine o flynn s the news where you are a novel that seems to me to be of its time in a stronger way than might have been the case when mrs palfrey was published the residents of the claremont hotel probably seemed like relics from the age of empire even when the book was first published even the hotel owner would appear to prefer not to have to rely on their custom by contrast the older characters and the old people s home that feature in o flynn s book for all my suspicions about the marginalisation of the old seem more integrated into a multi generational story the second book that i tagged with age was strangers by anita brookner stylistically brookner is much closer to taylor than the younger o flynn of course brookner is now in her eighties getting older does not oblige an author to write about being old but it is not suprising if such circumstances prompt an interest in the theme perhaps we can expect an increase in the number of books about ageing now that the likes of rushdie and amis have turned sixty jo i have really racked my brains and continue to do so in regards to reading novels which death and ageing feature strongly in them i think that there is either very little or it has passed me by it is not necessarily a theme i would pick up if i am to be honest although i have read plenty of novels where death is a common theme but generally with those that are young and not old at the moment i put this down to the loss of my own grandmother and how even now it suddenly comes over me in a wave the loss at the most oddest times it is with the lack of interest by mrs palfrey s daughter and son that made me quite cross i suddenly realised that there are many people out there who are on their own and that no one cares what happens despite them having relatives verity i am fascinated by david s analysis of data and the conclusions that he has drawn i think jo makes a valid point that she would not necessarily pick up a book on such a theme as i think that i would agree with that maybe that goes some way to explaining david s findings to be continued posted by verity at 08 00 6 comments saturday 20 october 2012 elizabeth taylor centenary mrs palfrey group read one of the things that i regret most about neglecting this blog so much during 2012 is that i have failed dismally to participate in the elizabeth taylor centenary readalongs organised by laura it would have been the perfect opportunity for me to reread some for the third time elizabeth taylor s novels which were initially read pre blog and record my thoughts here but it was mostly not to be however i did agree to host the readalong for mrs palfrey at the claremont which was my second encounter with the writer back in 2009 and what i felt at the time was a very memorable read and i m looking forward to re reading it in the next couple of weeks as i m struggling to balance a few things at the moment and had doubts about the interest of what i could write about it i ve asked a two or three of my bloggy friends to read it and i am hoping that i may be able to ask them some questions about what they thought about it if you haven t read it then do pick up a copy if you can to join in and here to tempt you is the first page mrs palfrey first came to the claremont hotel on a sunday afternoon in january rain had closed in over london and her taxi sloshed along the almost deserted cromwell road past one cavernous porch after another the driver going slowly and poking his head out into the wet for the hotel was not known to him this discovery that he did not know had a little disconcerted mrs palfrey for she did not know it either and began to wonder what she was coming to she tried to banish terror from her heart she was alarmed at the threat of her own depression if it s not nice i needn t stay she promised herself her lips slightly moving as she leaned forward in the taxi looking from side to side of the wide frightening road almost dreading to read the name claremont over one of those porches there were so many hotels one after the other along this street all looking much the same she had simply chanced on an advertisement in a sunday newspaper while staying in scotland with her daughter elizabeth reduced winter rates excellent cuisine we can take that with a pinch of salt she had thought at the time at last the cab slowed down claremont hotel she read as clear as could be in large letters we ll meet back here on november 15th to chat about it posted by verity at 19 05 3 comments saturday 21 july 2012 virago modern classics coming of age collection wow little reading has been going on in verityland of late and thus even littler blogging on my virago venture but a parcel from virago is just the thing to whet my appetite and lead to a blog post these beautiful hardbacks with dreamy covers are part of virago s coming of age collection released at the start of august which i think would make wonderful presents the blurb that came with the books says virago modern classics has broken ground with its beautiful collectible limited edition hardbacks of perennial favourites now virago modern classics has created a unique set of hardbacks a collection of six modern classic coming of age stories for adult and young adult readers alike beautifully bound and with stunning custom designed and interlinked jacket artwork by new york based illustrator mira nameth these are gorgeous books intended to be collected enjoyed cherished and pressed into the hands of other readers whatever their age each has been selected for its striking depiction of a time a place and of a young woman on the cusp of adulthood the titles are slammerkin emma donaghue invitation to the waltz rosamund lehmman my brilliant career miles franklin tipping the velvet sarah waters the river rumer godden i know why the caged bird sings maya angelou invitation and my brilliant were already vmcs the rest were not although the authors were already virago ones i ve read all but the rumer godden novel and invitation to the waltz has to be one of my favourite books ever but as she is an author who i have greatly enjoyed in the past i am very much looking forward to picking up the river oh and virago collectors may be interested to know that these titles don t seem to be numbered absolutely they are things of beauty which i have written about here posted by verity at 16 20 5 comments thursday 1 march 2012 an update and some new vmcs it s been exactly a month since i last posted on this blog i haven t been managing to keep up with much reading at all let alone vmcs i have actually been doing some rereading i have gone back to rosamund lehmann and have dusty answer in my bag for work for tomorrow and i reread my cousin rachel by daphne du maurier last week whilst on my holidays not sure that a gothic novel is the best choice for a sunny beach holiday but i did enjoy the reread nonethless i was excited to return home from my holidays yesterday to a parcel of new vmcs three of which i have read before and two which i haven t i m very excited that virago have decided to reprint sylvia townsend warner with the corner that held them and lolly willowes out at the start of march i wrote about them a while ago on the blog and i rather like these whimsical new covers there is also going to be an e book release of the dolls house and other stories which is four short stories which have been recently discovered in the new york public library archive introductions to the two physical books are by philip hensher and sarah waters it s always great to see eminent contemporary writers championing the virago modern classics i didn t actually own any swt books so i am excited to have these as part of the collection released on the 8th march is a new paperback edition of daphne du maurier s vanishing cornwall this is one of my very favourite books which i was very happy that virago brought out in a beautiful hardback about 6 years ago and now it appears as a glossy paperback with all of the original pictures this book was described by the times as an eloquent elegy on the past of a county she loved so much and i do recommend it to anybody with an interest in cornwall or ddm finally amid these goodies is the second volume of vera brittain s autobiography which tells the story of winifred holtby i don t think that i ve ever read this book and i am looking forward to learning more about holtby and the relationship of the two women if it s as good as testament of youth then it ll definitely be worth reading i ve just spotted the the stw novels are under embargo until the 1st so i shall set this post to post then posted by verity at 18 20 5 comments labels 299 390 528 563 thursday 26 january 2012 charms for the easy life kaye gibbons charms for the easy life is the fourth kaye gibbons novel that i ve read for this challenge and she s an author that i have enjoyed reading who i probably would not have picked up otherwise the front of this novel compares her to a later eudora welty another author i ve read as a result of vvv and i think that this is true through the way that she writes about women s lives in rural america charms for the easy life follows the story of three generations of women told by the grandaughter margaret it is a story without a strong male presence neither charlie kate her grandmother or her mother sophia is married any longer although they have various romantic entanglements and it is interesting to see a world depicted where women can very much try to make it on their own even though it is the 1930s and there are many obstacles in the way charlie kate is a healing woman with considerable skill she is the person often summoned when neighbours and other people in the town suffer ill health much to the chagrin of the local doctor who does almost everything he can to impede her work even though it is almost immediately obvious to the reader that she does things better what is so striking about this book is the way that the women depend on each other and can cope without depending on men which makes it an interesting companion read to some of my most recent vmc reading such as gissing s the odd women it s been published just the once by virago with a green spine but very ungreen cover posted by verity at 19 57 no comments labels 440 gibbons monday 23 january 2012 two mary webb vmcs so last week i decided to tackle two more mary webb books which had been languishing in the tbr pile not overly enamoured by the ones that i ve read so far is it really only three it feels like many more but at least there is only one more to go after these two the first and last books that she wrote the golden arrow was webb s first novel apparently penned in just under three weeks set in a poor farming community in shropshire and strongly infused with christian morals it tells the story of stephen and deb who are searching for a golden arrow which is said to bind couples together if it is found on palm sunday the sunday before easter an old shropshire legend he was originally a preacher but came to reject religion and convinces deb to live with him out of wedlock which is the start of their dow...