Virago Monthly Reads: November 2018: F Tennyson Jesse OR Antonia White

This month we have a choice of two authors!



F Tennyson Jesse (1 March 1888 – 6 August 1958) was an English criminologist, journalist and author. She also wrote as Wynifried Margaret Tennyson. Her most notable books include A Pin To See the Peepshow, a fictional treatment of the case of Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters, and Murder & Its Motives, which divided killers into six categories based on their motivations: those who murder for Gain, Revenge, Elimination, Jealousy, Conviction and Lust of killing. This classification of motive has remained influential. She also wrote The Lacquer Lady, a "neglected classic" published by Virago.
More info: Wikipedia



Antonia White (1 March 1899 – 10 April 1980). In 1933, White completed her first novel, Frost in May, which fictionalized her experiences at Catholic boarding school and her expulsion. This novel was also the first Virago Modern Classic, published in 1978. Virago also published White's sequels to Frost in May: The Lost Traveller, The Sugar House, and Beyond the Glass.
More info: Wikipedia

Thanks Laura! FTJ also has another Virago title, Moonraker.

I have unread books by both authors so will try and read at least one by each. I have Beyond the glass and Strangers by White and The lacquer lady and Moonraker by Jesse.

>2 kaggsy: thanks Karen, sorry I missed that.

>3 Sakerfalcon: I have a few books by these authors, including the entire Frost in May quartet, but I've read all of them. So I will sit this month out. Instead, I'm going to read the fourth & last of Margaret Laurence's Manawaka novels, The Diviners.

>4 lauralkeet: A great choice!

I have picked up Antonia White: A Life from the library. I noticed their stack also contained a novel by F. Tennyson Jesse called The White Riband, which sounded intriguing. If I have time later in the month I may pick that one up too. In the meantime I will give first priority to my own VMC's and am looking at Moonraker (which seems to be some sort of piracy adventure story of all things!) and Frost in May at the moment.

>6 europhile: My review of the biography (3½***).

Moonraker is the only Jesse I've got, and since I'm trying to concentrate on getting around to books I already have, I'll definitely be reading it.

I've read a great deal of White already, but I haven't read As Once in May (a posthumous collection of occasional pieces, I think) or the diaries. My first shot at White, though, might be a reread of her short-stories, anthologized as Strangers.

As for White's translations, I've already read the The Complete Claudine and I may have a go at some of her other Colette (a novel and a couple collections of short stories).

I've only read Frost in May by Antonia White and would really like to get to The Lost Traveller this month. I do already have four books on the go though, so am aiming to complete at least two of those before I start.

I've only read Frost in May by Antonia White.
Just about to start Strangers.

I'd forgotten about Strangers and was thinking I'd only read Frost in May. I shouldn't have forgotten as the first and final of the short stories left quite an impact at the time.

I've read Beyond the glass, which was an incredible, powerful end to the Frost in May quartet. Such superb writing, and a terribly convincing, painful portrayal of Clara's descent into madness and eventual recovery. One day I will go back to the beginning and read the whole quartet one after the other, rather than spacing the books out over a few years.

I also read Strangers, White's collected short fiction, several pieces of which echo the Frost in May books. Several pieces focus on mental breakdown and alienation; The House of Clouds strongly resembles the asylum section of Beyond the glass. The stories are short but moving and powerful and I highly recommend them.

Now I've moved on to our other author of the month and am reading The lacquer lady.

>11 Sakerfalcon: One of my all-time favorite stories, I think it was titled "The Exile." It was the monologue by the nut case who wanted to be a nun and the bishop wouldn't have anything to do with her. Don't ever let anyone tell you White didn't have a sense of humor. (It helps with her if you knew pre-Vatican2 Catholicism.)

>12 CurrerBell: I did like "The exile" It was very different from most of the other stories, but just as good.

ETA I am really enjoying The lacquer lady. Though it has some of the expected attitudes to race of its time, the politics is very nuanced in its portrayal, with Europeans seen to be just as flawed as the Burmese. It's a fascinating look at an area of history that I knew nothing about. It also shows how events in one part of the globe can impact another place very far away.

I finally got on to Moonraker a couple of nights ago and read it very quickly. A rollicking good yarn, in the tradition of Stevenson's Treasure Island which I reread only 2-3 years ago. This author obviously knows her stuff when it comes to sailing terminology as it's full of it. The story has plenty of tension and adventure and a small dose of romance as well.

Now I'm now having to toss up between The Lacquer Lady and Frost in May. A difficult choice!

I finished A lacquer lady and really enjoyed it. The sense of place is as vivid and detailed as in Ann Bridge's novels, but the plot and characters are far deeper and more nuanced. Fanny and Agatha are a good pair of contrasting protagonists, comparable to Becky Sharp and Amelia in Vanity Fair, although this is a very different novel. It's also a very interesting look at colonial politics in the Victorian age, and of the interconnectedness of events.

Now I've started Moonraker and so far I echo Europhile's comments on it.

>14 europhile: Very difficult! A lacquer lady will take longer to read, so if time is of the essence then I'd suggest Frost in May. But both are good reads though very different.

>15 Sakerfalcon: As it happens I did choose Frost in May, partly because it was shorter but also because I had only read Antonia White's short story collection Strangers previously and thought I should try at least one of her novels (particularly as this was the first VMC!). I had not realised that this was a girls' school story until I read Elizabeth Bowen's introduction. There was a lot of description of Catholic ritual but this was very well integrated into the story, and I found it all fascinating. The novel was impressively well written and I should really have read it before now. I have the other novels in this series and could well continue with the second one straight away.

>16 europhile: The whole series is fantastic! So well written and moving; it's painful at times to see Nanda/Clara groping her way in a world for which she is unprepared.

I finished Moonraker and, while the adventure yarn is not a genre I'm interested in, the historical events were interesting. It wasn't as well-written as A pin to see the peepshow or A lacquer lady (although as Grant noted, her technical knowledge of ships and the sea is impressive) and I felt distanced from the characters, even Jacky through whose eyes we see the story unfold. But the Caribbean setting is good and it's certainly an unusual offering from Virago.

Now I've gone back to Antonia White, to something totally different from her other books - Minka and Curdy which is a fictionalised memoir of her life with two very different kittens. As a cat lover I'm finding it delightful, but others opinions may differ!

I'm just starting White's As Once in May. I'd been planning a reread of Strangers (which I only gave 3*** first time around, and I do want to give it a second chance because "The Exile" is one of my all-time favorites), but I thought I'd go to something I haven't read yet.

>17 Sakerfalcon: Those two(?) cat books are about the only ones by White that I don't have. I've got some unusual ones like The Hound and the Falcon, several of her translations (mainly Colette, but also a Voltaire), and I've even got Three in a Room (her play, and my copy's the only one I've ever seen on Abe, so I really ought to get it into my safe deposit box). I'll be interested in your thoughts on Minka and Curdy.

>18 CurrerBell: I finished Minka and Curdy and it was delightful. It reads almost like a children's book in style, with relatively simple prose and structure when compared to the Frost in May quartet, but her knowledge of cats is spot-on and all the felines in the book spring off the page. If you are not a cat lover you might find it twee, but I loved it. I do have Living with Minka and Curdy as well, but I'm not sure if I'll fit it in this month.

Yesterday I managed to find a second hand copy of Antonia White's Diaries from 1958-79. I definitely won't get to those for a while but I was very pleased with my purchase nonetheless.

I was going to do a reread of White's short-story collection, Strangers, but I decided on something new and read As Once in May. I'm delighted that I did! I didn't care all that much for the fiction and the short autobiographical pieces (with the exception of loving "The Most Unforgettable Characters I've Met," about her two great-aunts), but the autobiography, by far the lengthiest piece in the novel, was wonderful.

It covered only the first four years of White's life (yeah, we know she had a writer's block!) but it was a beautiful collection of childhood reminiscences that somehow reminded me of Muriel Spark's Curriculum Vitae.

4**** review and a must-read for lovers of White, but don't try it unless you've read at least the four novels or most of it will go over your head.

I couldn't find my copy of A Pin to See the Peepshow, so I read Moonraker instead. Within the standard seafaring yarn format, there was (to me) the interesting and unusual subjects of female pirates and Toussaint L'Ouverture. An enjoyable if rather unusual read for me.

Just finished The Lacquer Lady 4****, which (combined with As Once in May) gives me a book for each of this month's authors.

I'm not going to be able to get to anything else for this month's read, not even a reread of the fairly short Strangers, because I've still got a bit to go on a book I'm reading for the Reading Through Time group.

Started A Pin to See the Peepshow on the 30th, just to participate in the month, and finished it earlier this week. This was an author I had not read before. Looking for information on her, I found this somewhat odd review of a biography of her on the web: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v06/n10/susannah-clapp/you-are-my-hearts-delight

Edited to say it made me wonder about the reviewer and biographer. Went looking for info on the biographer, but it was scanty to say the least.

Wow Sassy - that is a wonderful review. No need to read the actual book because she covers everything. I loved it!

I read Antonia White: A Life over just four days last month because it was due back at the library. It contained quite extensive coverage of her emotional life and relationships, as well as her difficulties with her writing and her mental health. I would not call it a literary biography, which tends to be my preference these days, but it was interesting nonetheless.