Just yesterday I posted a photo of one of my Armchair Traveller Magnetic Bookmark line to my ArtFire site. It was of the lonely phonebooth in Strath Oykel, Ross, Scotland. I bemoaned the fact that these iconic British forms of archetecture are now being removed from the landscape forever!

But maybe not…

Apparently, there are others who share my sentiment, and who have found a creative use for them. And it’s a use that really jives with my bookish sense of the world, too! See & read more!!

Never heard of Paul Gallico (until yesterday’s entry)? Maybe you have but you just didn’t it. Perhaps you’ve seen Angela Lansbury in Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris? Gallico wrote the book, which was published in 1957.

Mrs. Harris is a London char (house cleaner), who ‘does’ for a number of rather grand ladies. The story opens with her seeing an elegant gown at one of her clients’, fashioned by the House of Dior in Paris. From that moment, Mrs. ‘Arris decides that one day, she too will own a Dior dress. And she begins to save toward it.

Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris is a story about following one’s dreams and making them reality. Read the One Minute Manager and other such motivational fiction? Add Mrs. ‘Arris to your list. It has a depth that other motivational books lack. Paul Gallico really understands human nature, and he fills his novels with all aspects of it, and shows very cleverly the influences that our behaviour can have on others around us. I think it is because of this that his stories engage readers so deeply. There is, in a relatively short space, determination, courage, optimism, innocence, genuine love (not the love of romances, but something deeper and finer that exists in lasting friendships), selfishness, egotism, thoughtlessness, disrespect, and so on, all of which play against one another to produce a variety of effects on the different characters. We see ourselves there with the characters, sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. We can relate, both as a victim, perhaps, and in the successes. We see how we and others influence those around us and are inspired. Mrs. ‘Arris is not a glamorous heroine, but in the end, we hope we can be more like her! She really is inspiring.

There is always an element of tragedy to a Gallico novel – at least to the few I’ve found to read – but there is also one of those lovely beams of sunlight that bursts through the clouds, providing hope and a deep satisfaction for readers. The joy in the story doesn’t necessarily come from the expected success of the protagonist (who, by the way, may or may not be ’successful’), but more often from some unexpected development of which perhaps even the main character is unaware. In this sense, Gallico’s novels are very true to life; the story isn’t necessarily written about the character or, at least, about the character’s gratification, but for the reader. It is the message that comes to us through the story that is the story, and because he is so successful in bringing that message home, readers remember his novels vividly for a very long time.

Ever pick up a book by an author you loved so many years ago and read it, only to discover that something in you must have changed over the years because his writing just isn’t vibrant anymore?

I found a book on my bookshelf last week by E. V. Thompson. He’s an English writer, for those of you who aren’t familiar, who writes historical novels, many of which are set in Cornwall. A friend introduced me to him one day when we were together in the University of Manitoba Book Store, and I bought three books of his Ben Retallick series.

And I loved them. I was swept into the lives of the tin miners of Cornwall and fumed at the hardships and injustices they suffered. I was horrified when Ben’s son lost the love of his life to another (evil) man, was transported (I forget what the crime was, but if I recall, the charges were trumped up…), overjoyed when his love left her husband to sail with him, only to see the couple shipwrecked on the desert coast of southern Africa… and so on.

Moontide, the book calling me from the shelf, is also a Cornwall novel. It follows the challenges facing a Royal Navy chaplain wounded at Trafalgar, discharged and given a curacy with no parishioners (their landlord threatens to evict anyone attending the church).

The drama was there. The plot, if unlikely was entertaining. But Moontide lacked the depth and sense of involvement that I crave in a satisfying read now. I kept thinking it would be a great young adult novel. Which is what I was when I enjoyed Thompson in university, I guess.

This isn’t the first time this has happened to me. But there are other books that I can read again, and again that remain favourites upon rereading: Jane Eyre, Blue Castle, The Tub People (well, okay, I wasn’t a kid when I read it, but I loved it anyway! And the sequel – Tub Grandfather, is equally delightful)….

So, I wonder, why is it that some books and authors withstand the test of time and others, equally loved, do not?

View other books at Elizabeth Campbell Books in the Historical Fiction genre!

I had a ‘Eureka!’ moment on Wednesday.

It has taken me years to track down one set of my maternal 3g-grandparents. My great-aunt, Ruth Buck, was an historian, and had done a fair bit of family research that I could tap into. She noted that the couple had arrived in Lower Canada in 1843, gave one of their children, my 2g-grandmother, to another couple to bring up, and later moved to Michigan.

Parents and daughter kept in touch over the years, and when my 2g-grandmother was being pushed to marry the son of her ‘adoptive’ parents against her will, she ran off to her parents in Michigan, followed by her sweetheart. They married there with her parents’ blessing.

It was finding that marriage record that led me to the location of my 3g-grandparents, Thomas Beckett and Rebecca Dickinson. Once I knew where they were, I could learn more about them and their lives in Michigan. But the mystery of where they came from remained. All I knew was that they were from England.

I endlessly wandered through a maze of spelling variations before I hit upon the right combination and found Thomas and Rebecca on the 1841 Census. He was a lime-burner in Coddington, Nottinghamshire. Both were born in that county. Search as I might, though, I could not find their marriage.

I think it was the discovery that Thomas’ eldest son, also Thomas, was born in Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, that made me think of looking there. Thomas Jr., according to Michigan records, was born to Thomas Sr.’s first wife. I hadn’t found her, either – and for good reason.  I learned through a query on a Lincolnshire website that there was a Thomas born to a Rebecca Dickinson in Caythorpe at about the right time…

I ordered in the microfilm of the parish records for Caythorpe. I found Thomas Jr.’s baptism. Several months later, I found the record of Rebecca’s marriage to Thomas Sr.

Unfortunately, Rebecca’s parents were not mentioned in the marriage record, and I was unable to find her baptism anywhere in the records of Caythorpe, although there were Dickinsons in that area. Perhaps the Census was correct in stating that she was born in Nottinghamshire. The next trick will be finding her there!

That’s fine. The only thing I like better than reading a good mystery is solving one!