Lazy Sunday

Best Beloved is out today, recording a brass band on location, so he was up and away at the crack of sparrowfart and I have had the laziest Sunday morning ever, tucked up in bed with Jasper Fforde. Not him personally, you understand, but 'The Eyre Affair' which a couple of non-SFnal friends have recommended, independent of each other, within recent months. I am enjoying it - but with reservations. I'm only two-thirds of the way through, so not passing judgement  yet, however already some of the lit-mania jokes are so hammed up that I'm past even groaning let alone laughing. I really hope there's going to be a good payoff and that the whole point of the book doesn't turn out to be the jokes. So far Rochester has only appeared three times and everyone seems to be getting their knickers in a twist over Martin Chuzzlewit. Hopefully somebody named Eyre will arrive on the scene soon. It is keeping me reading, though.

It's difficult not to compare a writer such as Fforde with Pratchett. All I can say is that with Pratchett I have laugh-out-loud moments. So far with Fforde I have had only slight-smirk moments. With a few noteable exceptions (let's not talk about Rincewind and The Last Continent) Pratchett's plotting and characterisation stand independent of the jokes and one-liners and I'm not sure about Fforde yet.

But the one good thing is that... at least I do want to read on and find out.

More anon...

Lazy Sunday

Best Beloved is out today, recording a brass band on location, so he was up and away at the crack of sparrowfart and I have had the laziest Sunday morning ever, tucked up in bed with Jasper Fforde. Not him personally, you understand, but 'The Eyre Affair' which a couple of non-SFnal friends have recommended, independent of each other, within recent months. I am enjoying it - but with reservations. I'm only two-thirds of the way through, so not passing judgement  yet, however already some of the lit-mania jokes are so hammed up that I'm past even groaning let alone laughing. I really hope there's going to be a good payoff and that the whole point of the book doesn't turn out to be the jokes. So far Rochester has only appeared three times and everyone seems to be getting their knickers in a twist over Martin Chuzzlewit. Hopefully somebody named Eyre will arrive on the scene soon. It is keeping me reading, though.

It's difficult not to compare a writer such as Fforde with Pratchett. All I can say is that with Pratchett I have laugh-out-loud moments. So far with Fforde I have had only slight-smirk moments. With a few noteable exceptions (let's not talk about Rincewind and The Last Continent) Pratchett's plotting and characterisation stand independent of the jokes and one-liners and I'm not sure about Fforde yet.

But the one good thing is that... at least I do want to read on and find out.

More anon...

Mmmm Leek and Potato Soup

It's amazing how much soup you can make with two leeks, two potatoes and a few stock granules (not even real stock this time). I'm beginning to think someone's put a spell on my soup pot to turn it into a never-ending one. I'm going to have to freeze some of this since - sadly - Best Beloved is not a soup person. But first I'll just have another helping... mmmm....

Mmmm Leek and Potato Soup

It's amazing how much soup you can make with two leeks, two potatoes and a few stock granules (not even real stock this time). I'm beginning to think someone's put a spell on my soup pot to turn it into a never-ending one. I'm going to have to freeze some of this since - sadly - Best Beloved is not a soup person. But first I'll just have another helping... mmmm....

Eyre Affair Part Deux

OK - I finished it. Yes, as I suspected, my previous stopping point was just before Eyre became relevant to the whole Affair. The book offered a decent payoff in the end, but I still can't help thinking that the first two-thirds of the book was a little overlong to carry the last third. No spoilers but at the conclusion there were some nice wrap-up sequences and a few possible leads into future books which were well done.

Looking at the back of the book the potential reader is told for starters that Thursday Next (the heroine) is on the trail of Mr Big for crimes against literature and that Jane Eyre (the character) has gone missing from the novel. When this pivotal plot point doesn't happen until page 295 of a 373 page book I reckon that's a badly written blurb. Or - if the missing Jane Eyre is the book's most saleable plot point maybe we shouldn't have had to wait until past three-quarters of the way into the book for it to happen. I feel a bit cheated.

Having said all that, I did make time to keep reading it though you can tell I'm not a total convert. Final analysis? I wouldn't wriggle too hard if someone put: 'Lost in a Good Book' or 'Well of Lost Plots' on my to-read pile, but I probably won't spend money on either of them just yet as I have other books on my most-wanted list.

Shopping:
I weakened and ordered Lost - Season Four which is released tomorrow on DVD.

Eyre Affair Part Deux

OK - I finished it. Yes, as I suspected, my previous stopping point was just before Eyre became relevant to the whole Affair. The book offered a decent payoff in the end, but I still can't help thinking that the first two-thirds of the book was a little overlong to carry the last third. No spoilers but at the conclusion there were some nice wrap-up sequences and a few possible leads into future books which were well done.

Looking at the back of the book the potential reader is told for starters that Thursday Next (the heroine) is on the trail of Mr Big for crimes against literature and that Jane Eyre (the character) has gone missing from the novel. When this pivotal plot point doesn't happen until page 295 of a 373 page book I reckon that's a badly written blurb. Or - if the missing Jane Eyre is the book's most saleable plot point maybe we shouldn't have had to wait until past three-quarters of the way into the book for it to happen. I feel a bit cheated.

Having said all that, I did make time to keep reading it though you can tell I'm not a total convert. Final analysis? I wouldn't wriggle too hard if someone put: 'Lost in a Good Book' or 'Well of Lost Plots' on my to-read pile, but I probably won't spend money on either of them just yet as I have other books on my most-wanted list.

Shopping:
I weakened and ordered Lost - Season Four which is released tomorrow on DVD.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

I just spotted the date. One hundred and fifteen years ago today that Thomas Bennett was born to Lilly and Fred Bennett in Barnsley.

Here's Tommy, aged about 21 or 22. I've not managed to trace the Bennett side back very far yet. My great great grandfather Matthew Bennett is as far back as I can go right now. he was born around 1854.

But I can go quite a bit further back for Lilly Bennett, born Lilly Kearsley in 1870 in Ickles, near Wickersley, Rotherham.

Lilly doesn't look like much of a charmer, does she? (Probably would have looked better with a full set of teeth.) But my mum says she was a sweet a gentle soul who was very hospitable and never had a bad word for anyone.

Anyhow, Lilly Kearsley is the daughter of Thomas Kearsley and Hannah Pashley. Thomas Kearsley is also a dead-end after another generation because he first pops up on the 1841 census as a 5 year old child living with his dad, William Kearsley, born 1816, but they are both living as lodgers in another household in Lowton Common in Lancashire and there's no sign of his mother Elizabeth. William eventually goes to work as 'railway servant'  in Leeds, remarries and ends up in Sandal, Wakefield. (Isn't it amazing how things fold back in on themselves. I used to be the branch librarian at Sandal library barely half a mile from where they lived.)

Thomas however ends up in the Sheffield/Rotherham steel area (as a labourer) where he meets Hannah Pashley who is working (on the 1861 census) at the Duke of Wellington pub on Greasbrough Road, Thornhill, Rotherham - a house newly opened in 1856. (Remember a while ago I pointed out Transcription Error of The Month where some hapless scribe had read Greasbrough as Grassmangle?)

I have much more luck Tracing Hannah's line. In fact I can go back another four generations, but not through the Pashley line, My research jinks off through the maternal line again. How come it's the women who end up on official records while the men keep their heads down when anyone comes close with a pen and paper? Hannah Pashley is the daughter of Thomas Pashley and Esther Whinfrey of Ickles, a tiny village near Wickersley, now a suburb on the Tinsley side of Rotherham in the valley where all the steelworks are. It can't have been a pleasant environment to grow up in, especially as her father died in 1849 when she was only five and her mother, with five children between the ages of five and twelve was declared a pauper. By the 1851 census Hannah is living with William and Eizabeth Whinfrey, her uncle and aunt. her older sister, Martha, is already working for a living by the age of ten, listed as a nurse on the 1851 census, servant to Henry & Sarah Wadsworth of Wickersley, who have 3 children under 4 yrs old.

The Whinfreys seem to be a large and close family. There are lots of aunts and uncles and I suspect that Esther must have relied on them to help with the children after she was widowed. Esther's parents were John Whinfrey (1780) and Anne MacKintosh (1784) and John's parents were Thomas Whinfrey, born 1746 in Tickhill, Doncaster. His wife was another Esther but I have nothing on her except her name.

Of course, as to professions... labourers all the way once again at least as far back as the earliest census of 1841. I really doubt I shall find any long lost heirs to the throne or romantic aristocratic French emigres, just solid working classes (or shifty un-working classes maybe).

The search continues.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

I just spotted the date. One hundred and fifteen years ago today Thomas Bennett was born to Lilly and Fred Bennett in Barnsley.

Here's Tommy, aged about 21 or 22. I've not managed to trace the Bennett side back very far yet. My great great grandfather Matthew Bennett is as far back as I can go right now. he was born around 1854.

But I can go quite a bit further back for Lilly Bennett, born Lilly Kearsley in 1870 in Ickles, near Wickersley, Rotherham.

Lilly doesn't look like much of a charmer, does she? (Probably would have looked better with a full set of teeth.) But my mum says she was a sweet a gentle soul who was very hospitable and never had a bad word for anyone.

Anyhow, Lilly Kearsley is the daughter of Thomas Kearsley and Hannah Pashley. Thomas Kearsley is also a dead-end after another generation because he first pops up on the 1841 census as a 5 year old child living with his dad, William Kearsley, born 1816, but they are both living as lodgers in another household in Lowton Common in Lancashire and there's no sign of his mother Elizabeth. William eventually goes to work as 'railway servant'  in Leeds, remarries and ends up in Sandal, Wakefield. (Isn't it amazing how things fold back in on themselves. I used to be the branch librarian at Sandal library barely half a mile from where they lived.)

Thomas however ends up in the Sheffield/Rotherham steel area (as a labourer) where he meets Hannah Pashley who is working (on the 1861 census) at the Duke of Wellington pub on Greasbrough Road, Thornhill, Rotherham - a house newly opened in 1856. (Remember a while ago I pointed out Transcription Error of The Month where some hapless scribe had read Greasbrough as Grassmangle?)

I have much more luck tracing Hannah's line. In fact I can go back another four generations, but not through the Pashley line, My research jinks off through the maternal line again. How come it's the women who end up on official records while the men keep their heads down when anyone comes close with a pen and paper? Hannah Pashley is the daughter of Thomas Pashley and Esther Whinfrey of Ickles, a tiny village near Wickersley, now a suburb on the Tinsley side of Rotherham in the valley where all the steelworks are. It can't have been a pleasant environment to grow up in, especially as her father died in 1849 when she was only five and her mother, with five children between the ages of five and twelve was declared a pauper. By the 1851 census Hannah is living with William and Eizabeth Whinfrey, her uncle and aunt. Her older sister, Martha, is already working for a living by the age of ten, listed as a nurse on the 1851 census, servant to Henry & Sarah Wadsworth of Wickersley, who have 3 children under 4 yrs old.

The Whinfreys seem to be a large and close family. There are lots of aunts and uncles and I suspect that Esther must have relied on them to help with the children after she was widowed. Esther's parents were John Whinfrey (1780) and Anne MacKintosh (1784) and John's parents were Thomas Whinfrey, born 1746 in Tickhill, Doncaster. His wife was another Esther but I have nothing on her except her name.

Of course, as to professions... labourers all the way, once again, at least as far back as the earliest census of 1841. I really doubt I shall find any long lost heirs to the throne or romantic aristocratic French emigres, just solid working classes (or shifty un-working classes maybe).

The search continues.