Posted in Poetry | Tagged James Reeves, Poerty, Things to Remember | 2 Comments

2 Responses

1. on December 3, 2014 at 1:57 am | Reply Marijke Stapert-Eggen

   I want to let you know that I am a great fan of your blog, and enjoyed a lot of the “forgotten” books you reviewed. as I am always looking for them. We shared already a love for Elizabeth Goudge and Rumer Godden, for instance, and for Lucy Boston, O. Douglas and Jane Duncan (and thank you so much for reviewing my beloved Mary Stewart), but since I read your blog, I have discovered so many more forgotten and unforgotten names (I started once more after many years on E.M. Forester, for instance: halleluja!)
   There is, however, one book missing, and as it is about Christmas and as Christmas is coming, I recomend it hereby “from all my heart”!
   In 1966, when I was 22, I stayed for 4 weeks in august at a family in Cheadle, Cheshire, England. I had met them some 10 years before at my aunt’s bed and breakfast in my (then) hometown Nijmegen, where I was doing the washing up, and being a tolk for the family: father, mother and grownup daughter. They had come to Nijmegen because the father had fought in the battle around Nijmegen in the winter of 1944-1945, and he wanted to let his wife and daughter see the place. So I went around with them every day, even to some German places not far from our border, and they invited me to come and stay in England, and I went for the first time when I was 17, after finishing school, and, as I said before, again in 1966. Cheadle is near Manchester and I went there to the antiquarian bookshops, looking for Elizabeth Goudge and Beverley Nichols, and one of the bookshop-owners, a very nice and understanding man said, that when I liked these authors I might like THE VISITING MOON by CELIA FURSE (Faber 1956). I bought the book, merely because of the illustrations, and read it, at home again, in the week before Christmas, fell in love with it, and have read it since that time EVERY YEAR at Christmas. It is stained by candlegrease, becaus it is always lying under the Christmastree, and it has lost its cover and it is my very very best Christmas-story ever, and when you do not know it, look for it at Amazon or Abe-books inmediately!
   Celia Furse is the daughter of Sir Henry Newbolt, but that is another story and a very peculiar indeed.
   Thank you for the lovely James-poem (did not know him), excuses for my English spelling and with best wishes
   Marijke Stapert-Eggen
   Holland
   3.XII.2014

   
   
   • on December 3, 2014 at 7:48 am | Reply leavesandpages

     Marijke, this is one of the nicest comments I have ever received on a post! Thank you so much for taking the time to get in touch. I am so pleased that we share so many of the same favourite authors. I do not yet know Celia Furse, but I have just gone and ordered The Visiting Moon – I hope it comes before Christmas, for it sounds like a wonderful book from the brief descriptions on ABE.

     James Reeves wrote many children’s poems, and this is one which I found years ago in one of the many poetry books we read with our children when they were young. Isn’t it perfect for this time of year? We are now surrounded by snow, and have just had a week or so of rather cold weather – it dropped to -31 Celsius several days ago, and it is “only” -15C this morning – the roses do seem like a faraway dream. But Christmas is coming, and the time of dark and candlelight has its beauty too, and then in January the days are already noticeably longer, and it is time to start some early seeds under grow lights in the house, and then before we know it we are poking about in the flower borders looking to see what has survived the long winter…The years seem to turn over ever more quickly, but the pleasures of the changing seasons are just as intense as ever, no matter what other changes there are in our lives, I have found. Perhaps we appreciate those moments of pleasure more as we get older? Or at least in a different way…

     I am looking forward to the book – it will be a good read, I am sure – I have discovered so many wonderful books from people’s recommendations and that is one of the very nicest things about book blogging!

     Warm greetings to Holland from cold Canada, and I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

     All the best,
     ~Barb