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!)

Sylvia Townsend Warner 299, 390

I read a couple of Sylvia Townsend Warner novels before starting this blog, and as I have just read Summer will show (review to follow tomorrow...), I thought I would post about them today. The more of Townsend Warner that I read, the more fascinated I am by her. She is by no means my favourite Virago author thus far, but I am intrigued by the diversity of her writing matter. A number of Virago authors write books that are easily pigeonholed - if you like one of them, then you will very likely like the rest of them. Townsend Warners books are so different that it is difficult to make that assumption. On the other hand, it can be refreshing to find an author who writes such different books.

The two books that I have read are Lolly Willowes and The corner that held them.

Lolly Willowes is the somewhat magical tale of a spinster who, having spent 20 years living with relations, following the death of her father when she was 28, moves to a small village where she discovers a secret vocation of witchcraft. It's been published twice by Virago with italicised and modern green covers.

The corner that held them is set in the 14th century, and follows the inhabitants of a nunnery under 4 different prioresses. It has been published three times in green covers. I particularly like the most recent one, which was the one that I borrowed from the library that I used to work in.
Virago also publish a book of short stories, Mr Fortune's Maggot, After the death of Don Juan, and the Flint Anchor which I look forward to reading in due course, as well as Summer will show which you can read about tomorrow.

I also recently acquired her diaries, and as I read my way through the rest of her novels I shall be dipping in and out of that. My mind boggled at what Townsend Warner must have looked like from the illustration on the cover of this volume:
But she looks reassuringly normal in this picture which I found of her online at the Sylvia Townsend Warner archive (well worth a visit):