It was a wet and windy night....
It was a wet and windy night in Grange-over-Sands but the Reading Detectives didn't have time to worry about the weather. They were too busy discussing their latest finds and deciding what to read next!
The meeting began with a 10 minute brainstorming session (no yes...but's allowed) - who is doing what, who is interested in archive material, fiction, poetry etc, who can we ask for help. We quickly had a list of positive ideas and all felt more focused - it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of material that is out there.
We then went round the table and talked about what we had each read since the last meeting and whether we thought it worthy of inclusion as a find. It soon became clear that already we have several books and writers that have caught our interest and have discovered writing which has opened our eyes to the landscape around us. And suddenly it was like a light bulb going on inside my head - this is what Reading Detectives is all about - those hidden facts which link people to the place where they live and work.
Enid Wilson who was born in Keswick and, along with Harry Griffin, wrote wonderful articles which appeared regularly in The Guardian describing the changing Lakeland seasons and the way of life for local people. Discovering that her father was one of the legendary Abraham brothers who pioneered rock climbing in the Lake District and that connection has now led me to a book about the early mountaineers and their amazing exploits. For me this is what Reading Detectives is all about - landscape, however beautiful or ugly, is shaped by the people who live there and how those people are connected by family, by work, by history. The book is called 'Enid J. Wilson's Country Diary' and was published in 1988 by Hodder & Stoughton. Besides the wonderful writing the book includes some beautiful line drawings by Pavla Davey which really complement the words.
Wow - I'd better stop there before I really get carried away! And anyway the sun has come out so I'm going for a walk before it rains again.
30 July 2009 from Mary Rossall
Finds
- On Lindale Hill
- Grange-over-Sands: The Story of a Gentle Township
- The Silent Traveller: A Chinese Artist in Lakeland
- Red Ike
- Cumbrian Privies
- Ethel Fisher's West Cumbrian Dialect titles
- The Embalmer's Book of Recipes by Ann Lingard
- Nella Last's Peace
- Riding the Stang by Dawn Robertson
- Life on the Fell - a pictorial chronicle of a Lakeland community
- About Scout Scar
- William Wilberforce - A Summer Diary 1779
- Beatrix Potter - the unknown years
- Smoke over Shap by Margaret Potter
- Songs of a Cragsman by George Basterfield
- The Grasmere Dialect Plays
- The Grizedale Experience: Sculpture, Art & Theatre in a Lakeland Forest
- An Atlas of The English Lakes
- How Hall. Poetry and Memories. A Passion for Ennerdale by Tom Rawling
- Stumpy, Hero of the Lakes
- The High Places by A. Harry Griffin
- The Highest House in Wathendale
- Kendal by Roger Bingham
- Secrets and Legends of Old Westmorland
- Reminiscences of Wordsworth Among the Peasantry of Westmorland by Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley
- Little Gods by Jacob Polley
- A Lakeland Summer
- Hunter of Harter Fell by Joseph E Chipperfield
- And Nobody Woke Up Dead
- An accessible paradise
- The Fleming Family novels and Graham Sutton
- Excursion to Loweswater. A Lakeland Visit 1865
- Writing on the Wall
- Beyond Scafell by Alan Robinson
- Rogue Herries by Hugh Walpole
- Kendal In The Nineteenth Century by A Wainwright
- In There Somewhere
- The Bondwomen by W G Collingwood
- "Ah'd Gaa Back Tomorra!"
- A Cumbrian Copper by Ray Huddart
- The Arsenic Labyrinth by Martin Edwards
- Old Will Stories by Dudley Hoys
- The Shield Ring by Rosemary Sutcliff
- T'Bacca Queen by Theodora Wilson Wilson
- Furness and the Industrial Revolution
- The Shadow of Black Combe
- The Painted Letters of Percy Kelly
- Ivver Sen
- Lakeland in the 1830s
- Wasdale Climbing Book By Michael Cocker
- Riding High by Barbara Sneyd
- Deborah in Langdale
- Early Recollections of Grange
- Hazard's Way by Roger Hubank
- Yan, Tan, Tethera
- Talk of the Town
- Capturing the Mountains
- Hope On, Hope Ever
- Mildred Edwards: Our City Our People 1889 - 1978 Memories
- Lakeland Limericks
- Surrounding loveliness
- Haweswater by Sarah Hall
- Coast to Coast by Jan Minshull
- Sunshine To The Sunless
- Geese, cattle wallopers and secret Irish paths
- Anarchists, Angels and wet Bank Holiday Mondays
- A more unconventional kind of find...?
- Skiddaw Summit by Kathleen Jones
- Thorstein of the Mere: A Saga of the Northmen in Lakeland
- Wednesday Early Closing
- Smoke Across The Fell
- The Sand Pilot of Morecambe Bay
- The Chronicles of Boggerthwaite
- Carrock Fell
- Feet in the Clouds
- Hercules and the Farmer's Wife
- Shepherd's Warning
- The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices
- I've been so busy reading I haven't had time to blog!
Recent posts
- Reading Detectives film
- Thank you!
- Coffee and books at the Bluebell Bookshop
- Mary learns to blog!
- Lucky 13!
- Grange over Sands get reading
Help the team
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