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quote from a book i was re-reading last night,
"In times of storm and tempest, of indecison and desolation, a book already known and loved makes better reading than something new and untried. The meeting with remembered and well loved passages is like the continual greeting of old friends; nothing is so warm and companionable." ( Elizabeth Goudge)
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I'd go along with Goudge, Rose. Cannery Row is my go-to book.
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I've been fascinated reading through this thread!
I started to read early, was allowed to walk or take the bus to the local library on my own from the age of about 7. I'd go home with 6 or 7 books and be back again within a week ................. I've always been a fast reader. :-D
I devoured Enid Blyton, Arthur Ransome, Dennis Wheatley, John Wyndham, etc etc
Re Helen Forrester ........... I think I've read all, or almost all her books.
Have any of you read any of Maisie Mosco's books?? I enjoyed all of them
Most of them are about Jewish families. The first series starts with the book Almonds and Raisins, and is set in north Manchester around 1900 with a Jewish immigrant family just arriving in England. Another series begins in Oldham, which is my home town, and I have to admit that I didn't know there had been a Jewish community there until I read that book!!
My mother-in-law sent me Almonds and Raisins as a Christmas present because there is a bit of a family connection to it .........
.......... in one early scene a character walks past a shop or restaurant, and sees a "little Welsh woman sweeping the pavement".
M-i-l and her sister believed that that was their aunt who went to live with her daughter, the manageress of a restaurant in that area at that time. She would sweep the pavement every morning.
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Sylvia, when she was young and before she was married, my grandmother collected rents in Manchester for two old ladies who had several properties. Unusual at that time (early 1900s) for a young lady to be doing that type of job away from home (Liverpool), I think.
Luckily she was never mugged!
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Joy ...............
I wonder whether it really was all that unusual. Although hers could have been a slightly more dangerous occupation!
I'm finding more and more independent women, especially in OH's family who moved away from home and went in business for themselves.
Two sisters opened a confectionery shop in Liverpool around 1890, their home was in Westmorland. Neither ever married.
Another sister ended up managing a hotel in Newcastle, eventually married a widowed sea captain with 2 small children and moved down to the London area where they ran a hotel, and had at least one more child.
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Sylvia, it was the type of job she did that I felt was unusual.
As you will know, women were employed in various occupations and places, in the mills, the fish quays and even in the mines for example, but I had not come across another female rent collector so young and in the early part of the century - not to say that Gran was the only one of course.
I did know that it was not unusual for women to work way back in time because many of the females in my family did so.
Incidentally, one of my Liverpool great-aunts was a confectioner.
My 3 x gt grandmother was the publican of a pub in Soho Street, Liverpool in the 1800s - as was another female ancestor there.
My 2 x gt aunt, the daughter of the female publican, was a teacher during the 1800s.
I could go on but while many women in my family had occupations outside the home I have yet to come across another young female given the responsibilities of what was then seen as a male occupation, if only for the fear of attack.
That particular forerunner of what could possibly be construed as equal rights was not confined to that side of my family. I have a copy of a wonderful will from the late 1700s where my 5 x gt grandfather leaves his farm and possessions to be divided equally between all of his children including the girls; very unusual for a farmer to do so as farms were usually passed on to the eldest son.
That particular family farm was lost, of course, but I have to admit I am more than a little pleased and proud to have such an ancestor.
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