Notes of Cheer - August
With book updates, prize giveaways and news of my Masterclass in character writing. And I've bought a new tin.
Hello - how are you? I hope your summer is going really well and you may even be planning a little holiday.
Welcome to August’s newsletter which should have been with you on Sunday but a robot went mad and it didn’t send properly.* This was actually rather a relief as I’d spent several long hours wondering why no one had opened it!
[*Highly technical explanation by A Science Boffin that I’ve just made up.]
Huge apologies on behalf of the robot and me, and also if you’ve already read this on Substack and are wondering why I’m sending it to you all over again.
Speaking of science, I was scared of the Lost in Space robot for most of my childhood, and while I’ve moved on from that, as of today I am starting a conspiracy theory that it now runs the internet.
ANYWAY. As you can tell, it’s all go here.
On The Book Front
Dear Miss Lake has been out in the UK for a month and everyone is still being lovely about it so thank you so much again, especially to everyone who has said how sad they are that it’s the last one. It’s weird isn’t it? In my head Emmy and Bunty are getting on with their lives without us. How rude.
BUT there’s also good news in that the book IS NOW OUT in the USA and Canada (I’m shouting). So the wait is over at last!
I think the jacket is an absolute zinger. I put this picture on Instagram last week and said that it was my favourite of all my US covers, which it is, and lots of people agreed so hurrah.
If you’re in the market for a copy, if you buy it from the Simon & Schuster website you can get 20% off with the code ‘VACAY’. I can’t work out exactly how, but that could be because I’m in the UK. So I’m afraid I’m a bit of dud, but hopefully you’ll be able to snaffle the deal despite my lack of help! (I’m also hoping ‘vacay’ isn’t a new word, even though the UK has ‘holibobs’ so we can’t talk.) Anyway, the money off is vg so worth it either way.
Come on Down - Prizes!
If you’re in the US there’s a cracking giveaway of the whole Emmy Lake Chronicles series happening on Instagram this week courtsey of Scribner Books, so if you’re on the old ‘gram, do give it a go. (It closes 11 Aug). Oh, and by the way you can find my Insta account here where I’ve just posted a lovely picture of my dog and her promotional activity for Miss Lake.
If you’re in the UK, this competition with National Book Tokens is really, really good. You can win the entire Emmy Lake series, and an afternoon tea hamper, AND a jazzy yellow typewriter. Nice! Competition is UK only and it closes 28/8/25 so do head on over for a go.
Finally on Dear Miss Lake, I’ve written a handy post here which has Extra Stuff for your reading pleasure:
The Extra Stuff
The handy post includes a reading group guide written by my US publishers which is really good to get a conversation started, and also a playlist I have created with lots of the music I listened to when I was writing the book. It’s kind of a soundtrack really. I can see the scenes in my head with each track. It’s jaunty and it’s sad, just like the book. I’m listening to it while I type this and have just stopped to do some unseemly arm waving at my desk. I blame Benny Goodman and his band.
Right. Now onto A New Exciting Thing.
My Masterclass in Writing Characters
Are you writing, or ever fancied giving it a go? Or perhaps you’d like to get an insider’s view on how to bring a novel’s characters to life.
I’m thrilled to say that I’m going to be doing an online masterclass with The Arvon Foundation in November (the 11th to be exact), and I’d love you to join me. You can access the zoom webinar from anywhere in the world (or watch it on catch up if you prefer).
In it I’ll be showing you how I find the heart and soul of my characters - and through them the heart and soul of writing a novel. I’ll include some of mine as examples, but most of all it’s an interactive class so there’ll be a chance to do some of the exercises I find helpful when I’m writing. (You won’t be on screen so if you wanted to go off and get a coffee during those bits, then that’s all good too!) You can also ask questions via the zoom chat thingy so if there’s anything you want to know about Emmy, Bunty and co, I’ll happily answer that too.
It’s going to be particularly special as I started writing because of Arvon. When I very first started writing I went on one of their residential Introduction to Writing courses at Lumb Bank (Ted Hughes’ old house) in Yorkshire. I am not over-egging it when I say that course changed my life. I went to several over the years, so it’s lovely to get to return as a tutor.
You can find all the information about the Masterclass here, and do check out the website for a ton of online and residential classes and courses. It really is a wonderful organisation.
Now onto what I know is a lot of people’s favourite bit of my posts:
Top Reads Corner
Have you visited the very nearly forty C20th century books list as recommended by readers of this newsletter and on Substack? There are even more excellent suggestions in the comments now and it will keep you stocked up for life! I’m going to try to include some of them here from now on.
This month I’ve been escaping. I’m not going on holiday but reading my first book choice felt almost as good. (Just click on all the titles for more details):
The Unsought Farm by Monica Edwards
Recently re-published by Girls Gone By Publishers, this is the author Monica Edwards’ 1954 memoir about buying a run down farm in Surrey in the late 1940s, becoming cow owners and learning how to run a dairy farm.
It is quite simply a joy.
At Punch Bowl farm (which became the setting for one of her much-loved series of children’s novels) Monica and her husband Bill (with help from their children and friends) take on renovating and re-building everything more-ore-less from scratch (tto begin with the only water supply is from a one hundred foot well). Unsentimental but with a huge respect and love for the land and animals, there’s never a fuss made (even when son Shaun is in hospital for weeks with an indiagnosed illness) while Monica writes her books and helps with an incredible amount of hard work on the farm. For all that, it is idyllic.
Shaun learns to drive the tractor when he is five, and his big sister Shelley rides her pony to school every morning, “about three miles away across wild country … up over the farm fields, jumping the barways ... through the great jungle of the Devil’s Punch Bowl and over the notorious Gibbet Hill and Hindhead Common. What twelve-year-old could have wished for a better way to go to school, if go she must?”
What reader could not love a vicarious visit to Monica’s farm? I loved it.
Henrietta’s War by Joyce Dennys
I was so pleased to see this mentioned in The Recommendeds as I’m a big fan of both this and the sequel, Henrietta Sees It Through, the epistolary novels of Joyce Dennys about a GP’s wife during WW2 which are really compilatons of Dennys’ articles published in Sketch.
Henrietta’s War was one of the first wartime books I read that is funny, in that quintessential British way of making awful things less frightening by gentle mockery and intense levels of seeing it as rather a bother stoicism.
“The soldiery continues its activities, and pill-boxes spring up all around us like mushrooms. Writing one’s name, and a little Hitler abuse, in the concrete before it is dry has provided many of us with a lot of quiet fun, and Perry shows just what he thinks of the Nazi regime every time he passes them.”
Perry, is of course, Henrietta’s dog. Excellent work, Perry. Good boy.
At the same time, there’s never a feeling that the war isn’t being taken seriously. That’s the clever bit. A sentence here and there referencing the losses people bear. And then onwards. It’ll creep up on you just as you’re thinking this is a light-hearted jaunt. Which it is too. Hugely recommended.
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico
Did you see the film version with Lesley Manville? I thought it was lovely. If you’ve seen it but haven’t read the novel yet, you certainly won’t be disappointed.
If you’re not familiar with either, then this is the story of a char lady (a cleaner if you’re outside the UK) who dreams of owning a Dior dress, so goes on an adventure to get one. First published in 1958, it’s charming, optimistic and kind. Just what we need.
I’ve been trying to find my copy and can’t which is annoying, but I think (and by the look of this cover which I must say I copied from The Queen’s Reading Room, which just goes to show we’re in very good company), I think it includes the sequel, Mrs Harris Goes to New York which I also remember enjoying very much. So that’s decent Mrs H bang for your buck.
Mrs Harris is another character that lots of people mentioned re favourites and in a world where uplifting novels are very much welcome, you can’t beat it.
Side note: I’m thinking of doing a big list of books I like with Mrs or Mr or Miss in the title. (Is there a clever word for that?) I might do it another time. I realise this could tie in with shocking levels of self-promotion re at least three of my own books. I’M A MARKETING MONSTER. Dreadful behaviour. We shall not speak of it again.
So, anyway, that’s three cheery books for now. Oh, also if you read July’s Note of Cheer I can tell you that I have tracked down a copy of Ethelind Fearon’s Me and Mr Mountjoy. The one about her pig that I liked the sound of. It is “Decorated by Bernard Reynolds” ie illustrated (although I think “decorated” is better) and if the start of Chapter II below is anything to go by, I’m going to love it. Ethelind fans, I will report back next month.
Right. Now onto some Miscellany of the Month, aka nice things I’ve been seeing/buying/watching/doing. It’s link-mungous.
Where Things Are Mostly Cheerful
This month I’m all about escaping into loveliness.
On Substack, I’ve been mad for accounts with beautiful photos. Une Bonne Maison is absolutely lovely and makes you want to live in the countryside in France. Beautiful.
And do also visit Flourish and Flare, not least for Aimée’s monthly ‘Could-Do’ lists which I think is the perfect approach because life is busy and the last thing we need really is ‘Must Do/Read/See/Eat’ pressure. I’m going for Could-Do, But-Possibly-Won’t should you like the idea of even less urgency.
Meanwhile, on Instagram, I’m loving artists such as Felicity Buchanon Designs and her beautiful watercolours that I’d like to base my entire life on. And Florence Sweryda whose paper miniatures are gorgeous. Look at this house in a box! After I’ve lived in the countryside in France I’d like to live in this house. Even though it is in a box.
I also love Alex T Smith’s Pigeon Post for laugh out loud jollies and chickens and larks. Subscribe immediately for emails of joy that you can save for when you most need a boost.
If you’re in reading/books mode, Bookseller Katie Clapham’s Receipt from the Bookshop is hilarious, and also a great insight into life at an indie bookshop. This is also a good time of the year to mention Katie’s book The Tour at School: A reassuring (and funny!) guide for anxious children starting at a new school or nursery which is excellent (and definitely very funny) as well as illustrated by Nadia Shireen who is a genius. Nadia’s Barbara Throws a Wobbler is one of my all-time favourite books.
And if you’re interested in the publishing side of things, Phoebe Morgan’s The Honest Editor is superb. Phoebe runs one of Harper Collins’ commercial fiction teams (as well as being an author too). This interview with PR legend Alison Barrow for example, is fascinating.
Phew! That’s all for now as I want to send this out to you post haste even though it’s mid-week so tricky to have a loll and a read. You’ll be gutted to hear I haven’t had time to show you my new vintage purchase which is a cardboard box. Yes! It’s a smashing one which no one else wanted. Fools! Or then again, Sensibles!
And I have two new tins. I love a tin. Here they are.
Aren’t they snazzy?
But these are all Major Topics that will have to wait. Disappointing. You can leave can leave me a sharp word via the button here.
Thank you for reading this. If you’ve enjoyed it, please do click on the like button below (#needy). Let me know in the comments if you’ve read anything recently in the mid-C20th (ish) era that you think I might like - or new books too - all welcome. And also, where do you stand on an autumn coat? Too hot, too cold? Tricky aren’t they?
Until next time (Sunday 7 Sept, robot allowing), when it will be autumn and we can talk about jumpers and soup, have a lovely month.
Yours,
AJx
PS: Did I say that Dear Miss Lake is now out in the USA and Canada? Why I’ve barely mentioned it. I hope it’s worth the interminable wait!
Definitely add in 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day' and 'Miss Mapp' to your upcoming post. They are both fantastic book. I am so looking forward to reading what makes the list!
Thank you - I read this after a long and tiring day at work and it was exactly what the doctor ordered. How did I miss a book recommendation about a story with a pig in it? I'm going to look it up at once. Have a lovely evening!