Page 56, Winifred Holtby

Last week, for Freda's 56, I chose Vera Britain's 'Testament of Youth' after having seen the film of the same name. Vera was a close friend of the writer, Winifred Holtby. They met at Oxford after the First World War and after Winifred's tragic early death at the age of thirty-seven Vera wrote the following book as a tribute to her and as a memorial.

Virago published a selection of Winifred's books in the '80's. 'The Land of Green Ginger' was first published in 1927. I like her novels very much. Like me, she was Yorkshire born and bred and I understand her voice.

Page 56.

"Oh darling," said Joanna, who did not bring up her children at all properly, and who measured her iniquity in going to the party by the extent of her desire to go. "You shall have parties one day. Lots of them. And lovely silk dresses when, when..."

She did not say "when our ship comes in," because for her the merit of ships lay in their sailing out, away from Scatterthwaite and the North Riding and the grim menace of poverty, the hostility of the land, and the haunting fear of physical disease.

Of course, the book that I can't wait to get my hands on, and shall have to wait until the summer before I can do so, is this weeks literary sensation, the information that Harper Lee is going to have her first book published, the one she wrote before 'To Kill A Mockingbird'. HOW EXCITING!  (And if ever there was a perfect film made from a book, surely it's this one.) I wonder what sort of an adult Scout has become? Wee-One, our younger daughter was always a bit miffed that we hadn't called her 'Scout'. She's quite right, it would have suited her well!