Year of Wonders
I have just read Geraldine Brooks' Year of Wonders and enjoyed it enormously. I have been meaning to read her books for ages and considered starting with March which is about the father of the girls in Little Women. I am named after Amy in Little Women, a fact that did not impress me when I first read the book as Amy is by far the least pleasant of the four girls. Jo was Mum's favourite character but she didn't like her name. Thankfully Amy improves greatly in the following books. My favourite character is Beth and while I wouldn't exactly say that Bethany is named after her, she was Elizabeth after all... and she dies, she played a part.
As I was saying, I didn't read March but Year of Wonders because it is about Eyam, the plague village in Derbyshire and my cousin Trish (my brain refuses to remember how the second cousin/ once removed business works) and her husband Geoff took us there last year. Oh how I wished we had stayed longer in Derbyshire. It is stunningly beautiful and there is so much to see and do.... next time.
In 1665 a bolt of cloth arrived in Eyam from London. As it was dried in front of the fire it released plague infested fleas. The book is told from the perspective of Anna, based on the real woman who lived in the plague cottages which were being restored while we were there.
As the villagers began to die the local minister, William Mompesson, persuaded the village to cut itself off, thereby keeping the disease to themselves. They remained isolated for fourteen months and the plague killed at least 260 villagers. These are the Riley graves, just outside the village, where Elizabeth Hancock buried her husband and six children. She buried them by herself so as not to risk infecting others.
It is an inspiring true story and makes an exciting novel. I was especially thrilled at the mention of Bakewell....
(Yes, the best representative photo I have of Bakewell is food related. We had a Bakewell pudding after a delicious dinner that very night.)
....Chesterfield, where my Granny grew up and where Trish and Geoff live. This is the crooked spire.
...and Chatsworth. The Earl of Devonshire, who lived at Chatsworth, donated food and medical supplies to enable them to cut themselves off.
I am reading like a fiend at the moment. Since finishing Year of Wonders last week I have read Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga and The Horla by Guy de Maupassant. Why would I watch TV when there is so much to read?
As I was saying, I didn't read March but Year of Wonders because it is about Eyam, the plague village in Derbyshire and my cousin Trish (my brain refuses to remember how the second cousin/ once removed business works) and her husband Geoff took us there last year. Oh how I wished we had stayed longer in Derbyshire. It is stunningly beautiful and there is so much to see and do.... next time.
In 1665 a bolt of cloth arrived in Eyam from London. As it was dried in front of the fire it released plague infested fleas. The book is told from the perspective of Anna, based on the real woman who lived in the plague cottages which were being restored while we were there.
As the villagers began to die the local minister, William Mompesson, persuaded the village to cut itself off, thereby keeping the disease to themselves. They remained isolated for fourteen months and the plague killed at least 260 villagers. These are the Riley graves, just outside the village, where Elizabeth Hancock buried her husband and six children. She buried them by herself so as not to risk infecting others.
It is an inspiring true story and makes an exciting novel. I was especially thrilled at the mention of Bakewell....
(Yes, the best representative photo I have of Bakewell is food related. We had a Bakewell pudding after a delicious dinner that very night.)....Chesterfield, where my Granny grew up and where Trish and Geoff live. This is the crooked spire.
...and Chatsworth. The Earl of Devonshire, who lived at Chatsworth, donated food and medical supplies to enable them to cut themselves off.
I am reading like a fiend at the moment. Since finishing Year of Wonders last week I have read Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga and The Horla by Guy de Maupassant. Why would I watch TV when there is so much to read?
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