The persimmon tree (Barnard) 190

The final volume of short stories in my week of short story reading is The persimmon tree and other stories by Marjorie Barnard. It's a slim volume, containing over 20 stories, which means the stories are not just short, but somewhat petite, almost sketches rather than anything more developed.

The stories were originally published in 1943 and predominantly centre on women's experiences. We see a small girl go to the ballet for the first time, and have the experience ruined by her companion's determination that she will enjoy it, rather than let her just enjoy it herself. We read about a woman win the lottery and leave her husband. We follow the girl who buys a new dress for an important date, and watch as the dress ruins the date because she is unwilling to get it dirty, and then after getting caught in a rainstorm she is too embarassed to return to have tea with her date's Aunt as planned.

I found the stories extremely enjoyable but couldn't help wondering what a novel by Barnard would be like - would it be as readable? Well, I was interested to note that a VMC which has been languishing on my shelves for a while - Tommorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow (mainly I think because it is somewhat sci-fi, a genre that I shy away from) was written by Majorie Barnard in collaboration with Flora Eldershaw under the name M. Barnard Eldershaw. So given my experiences with these stories perhaps I will be brave enough to get stuck in to Tomorrow... before too long!

It's just been published once by Virago with an original green cover.

Dancing girls (Atwood) 136

Another collection of short stories, this time Margaret Atwood's Dancing girls. I really enjoyed reading these - they were from my favourite side of Atwood, where she writes about everyday life as opposed to science fiction. The stories are all about women, in a variety of situations - from Laura who is being stalked by a foreign student to a Canadian graduate student at a university that seemed to be modelled on Harvard. My only negative was that the "contemporary" setting felt a little dated by now.

Three very different Virago covers - I have the second one which actually has a green spine although there is not a hint of green on the cover!

She knew she was right (Litvinov) 277

Another collection of stories, this time by Ivy Litvinov. The name sounded familiar, and when I read the blurb, I remembered that Maxim Litvinov was Stalin's Commissar for Foreign Affairs; Ivy was his wife, and one of the very few Englishwomen with a close connection to the Russian cabinet. I couldn't resist buying this title from ebay, purely for the title, She knew she was right. I invariably know that I am right. And I was quite right about choosing this book - it is a lovely collection.

The introduction says that Ivy Litvinov coined a phrase to describe her writing - "sorterbiography" - a mixture of memoir and fiction, and the stories in this collection, some previously published in the New Yorker, and a couple of unpublished ones reflect that. The first four stories in the collection, including the title story, draw of Litvinov's childhood growing up in England. The middle section of stories are set in Russia and the last few return to England.

It's just been published once by Virago, but I absolutely adore the cover image of a woman who certainly looks as though she knows that she is right!

Fireworks (Carter) 289

Claire at Paperback Reader's Angela Carter month has given me the impetus to get through the remaining Angela Carter titles on the Virago Modern Classics. Two weeks ago I steeled myself to read Several Perceptions, which was more enjoyable than some I had read, and so, there was just Fireworks left. This fitted in rather nicely with my plan this week to blog about some of the short story collections.

The stories were wide-ranging - set in Japan, in the Orient, in the Jungle, but all full of intense imagery. My impression was that they did not really feel like stories in the conventional sense. I often struggle with short stories as I am such a plot-driven reader, and there wasn't so much plot in them. But having read Carter previously, I know that one of the things that I *do* like about her writing, is the writing and the quality of it.

Overall, my favourite story in the collection was The smile of winter which is all about the seaside and the seashore. As a big ocean and beach lover the subject matter really appealed to me and I enjoyed seeing how the mistress of prose described it. It was more like a painting than a short story as such.

Two Virago covers - I love both of them, they are colourful and definitely evoke the spirit of the collection contained within. I borrowed the more recent edition from the library. I am not sure that I am an Angela Carter convert, but am glad to have had the opportunity to read her as part of this Venture, which is what the Venture is all about really!

Where the apple ripens (Kesson) 385

This week's posts are all going to be short story volumes, following recent acquisition of a number from ebay, and I'll also be writing about Angela Carter's VMC volume of short stories for Claire from Paperback Reader's Angela Carter month.



Where the apple ripens was a random ebay purchase, and turned out to be an utterly delightful, a little bit of a Cider with Rosie book. It's a collection of short stories written by the Scottish author Jessie Kesson, set in rural Aberdeenshire, and based around the themes of childhood and adolescence and growing up, they draw heavily on Kesson's own experiences. There is a tale about the mental hospital where Kesson was a patient, a story set in an orphanage and an account of a Christmas party for a group of deprived children.

Overall, I loved the writing style of these short stories, and I was very happy to see that two of Kesson's novels - White bird passes and Another time, another place - are on the list - I am keen to track these down very soon. It's just been published once by Virago, with an italicised green cover.

James Tait Black Memorial Prize

I've noticed that a couple of the Virago Modern Classics that I've been reading have won the James Tait Black Memorial prize - it wasn't a prize that I'd heard of, so I looked it up, and found that it is awarded (and is still awarded, last being awarded in 2009 to Sebastien Barry for The secret scripture) for "literature written in the English language". According to wikipedia, where you can see the whole list of prize winners, it is the oldest and one of the most prestigious book prizes in Britain (although it doesn't seem to get nearly as much publicity as Booker or Orange for example).

Anyway, I was interested to spot the VMC winners among the list - it is good to see that there are some recognisably great books on the list that I am working my way through. I've in fact read half of them. Of the other half, two are ones that I am keen to read as they are by authors that I have previously enjoyed; the ICB I'm a little nervous of trying for the first time - maybe this would be a good place to start.

1930: EH Young - Miss Mole
1931: Kate O'Brien - Without my cloak
1936: Winifred Holtby - South Riding
1953: Margaret Kennedy - Troy Chimneys
1955: Ivy Compton-Burnett - Mother and son
1961: Jennifer Dawson - The ha-ha

I must investigate what other prizes VMCs have a trend of winning!


(Thanks to Paperback reader Claire for suggesting the idea for this post)

Seducers in ecaudor / The heir (Sackville-West) 269

Since enjoying the key Sackville-West novels as part of doing this challenge, I was excited to spot a copy of The Heir in the library the other day. Unfortunately it wasn't a Virago edition, it was published by Hersperus press, but Virago did publish it in an edition with Seducers in ecuador. I haven't been able to get my hands on Seducers yet, but I'm hopeful to eventually - I'm not sure if it has been published anywhere else, so I might have to hope to eventually spot the Virago edition.

The heir was a wonderful novella; it was originally published in a print-run of only 100. It's about a man called Peregrine Chase, who has been waiting for his aunt to die in order to inherit her country house. He intends to sell the estate so that he can live comfortably on the proceeds. However, it doesn't turn out to be so simple, as Chase falls in love with the property, but doesn't realise this until the day of its auction.

The pair of novellas has only been published once by Virago, with the original green cover above.