Friday, July 15, 2011

If it’s serious AND funny it could be Hepworth

I have always maintained that a novel can be funny AND serious (take a look at Zuzu’s Petals and But I told you last year that I loved you) and this year the judges of the Man Booker Prize agreed with me and gave it to Howard Jacobson for The Finkler Question. I have been trying to read it. It is not hard going and it is funny. But it has not engaged me, and I have cut my losses and given up. I read for pleasure and not for improvement and any book that smacks of hard work or “application” gets slung in a pile in the corner to be given to more worthy friends with greater stamina and a more serious frame of mind. (So, shoot me.)

I have turned instead to The Mitfords, letters between six sisters, which is the collected letters of the Mitfords from 1925 to 2002.  A book that is 800 pages long would not normally get past our front door, but I’m glad this one sneaked in as I am still engrossed, 300 pages in. There is a lot to like, but I am particularly taken with their exuberant enthusiasm for such a huge variety of nicknames. I long to start a letter “Darling Honks” and to sign off “Love from Sooze,” so if you get one from me like that, you’ll understand why.

p.s. Jane Linfoot and I still address each other as Daisy and Giovanna in our emails (see Plotting for Beginners) so maybe we are Mitford manquées?

p.p.s. Yes, I know one of the sisters is missing from the picture above. It’s Debo (the last surviving one, the one who lives five miles from here, the one who used to be the mistress of Chatsworth House, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire.)

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9 comments:

lyn said...

I loved The Mitfords. I love reading letters & diaries but this was as good as a novel. Beautifully edited & lots of footnotes - my idea of reading heaven! Jessica (Decca)'s letters are also wonderful if you feel like more Mitfordiana after this.

galant said...

I have a correspondent whom I call "Little Pal" and she calls me "Matey" ... not as upmarket as Daisy and Giovanna, though ...
Margaret P

Sue Hepworth said...

Oh I don't know, Margaret, I rather like Little Pal and Matey.

galant said...

I love reading both letters and diaries (published ones, I mean!) Of course, the best correspondence for me has to be 84 Charing Cross Road (I love the film, too!) and if you've not read them, then The Lyttelton Hart-Davis Letters are great (all six volumes.) OK, it's more than 24 years since I first read them, but these are some of my favourite books. They are the letters between George Lyttelton (who was a house master at Eaton) and his former pupil, Rupert Hart-Davis. George was, of course, the father of Humph, and Rupert the father of journalist Duff and TV science chap, Adam. They were written for 6 years in the 1950s until George's death, my 'formative' years, Suez, the Hungarian uprising, etc, pre-Beatles. I don't want to bore you witless with descriptions of these books, but if you love letters, then do get the first volume and give them a try. They were published first in hardhack as single volumes and then in paperback, 2 volues per paperback (i.e. three in total.)
Margaret P

Sue Hepworth said...

Thanks, Margaret I will bear it in mind. i too love 84 Charing Cross Road.

Diane said...

Ooh, I'm addicted to Mitford books! Jessica's book of letters is also massive and really interesting, and her memoir Hons & Rebels is great, too. I also loved The Mitford Girls.

Sue Hepworth said...

Ah, another fan of Jessica's letters. My friend (with more stamina and a more serious frame of mind) has lent me Hons and Rebels so I am well set up when I have finished this.

Diane said...

Oh good, it's a fun read :) Although Lovell points out in The Mitford Girls that her memory might be a little mistaken in places...

Ps: You know Decca was friends with Jon Snow, right?

Sue Hepworth said...

Now why on earth would you think I'd be interested that she was friends with Jon Snow??? Do you think I have a crush on him? Why would you think that, Diane?