December 12, 2015. Originally posted a year ago, I offer you all this most seasonal book recommendation. It may be a challenge to come by – just two expensive copies show up on an ABE search – but it might still be in some library systems. This one would be a prime candidate for republishing – Slightly Foxed ?
Marijke, thank you once again for the making me aware of this lovely memoir.
The Visiting Moon by Celia Furse ~ 1956. This edition: Faber & Faber, 1956. Chapter-head illustrations by Charles Stewart. Hardcover. 260 pages.
My rating: 10/10
I will tell the very recent history of how I came across this book here, inspired by the words of a fellow reader who recommended it to me.
On December 3rd, I received a comment on a post from Marijke in Holland, and in it she said:
…There is…one book… and as it is about Christmas and as Christmas is coming, I recommend 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, because 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 immediately!
Celia Furse is the daughter of Sir Henry Newbolt, but that is another story and a very peculiar one indeed…
If you think I can resist a recommendation like this, you don’t know me very well 😉 so of course off I immediately went to ABE and ordered myself a copy from a bookseller in England and with wonderful serendipity it arrived well before Christmas.
What a grand book. I think I can safely add it to the “Hidden Gem” category, and I know it will become a favorite Christmas season re-read, though it is so good that one could pleasurably read in in any of the twelve months.
Lady Margaret Cecilia Newbolt Furse – her pen name a shortened version – writing in 1955 when she was 65 years old, tells of a two-week visit to a large English country home at the turn of the 19th Century. The 11-year-old girl in the story, “Antonia”, or “Tony” as she is called by almost everyone, is a boisterous tomboy of a girl, imaginative and occasionally pensive, and our omnipotent narrator (Celia Furse herself, as we are given confirmation of at the close of the story) follows her through a fortnight, recording the goings-on in a large Victorian household packed with visiting relations, and full of family tradition and local custom.
A detailed and loving remembrance of a moment in time now long past, deeply nostalgic but also wonderfully realistic. This is a charming book, but never sticky-sweet: Antonia/Celia has much too much forthright character for that to be a danger.
Here are the first 5 pages, so you can sample this for yourself. (Click each page scan to enlarge for reading.)
It just gets better and better – a perfect gem of its childhood memoir genre.
Highly recommended, though you may have a bit of a quest getting your hands on it. There are only 9 copies listed this morning on ABE, ranging from $2 US (plus $26 shipping to Canada from the UK, so not such a bargain as all that) to $60 US. (Edited to add: Only two copies on December 12, 2015, starting at $50 U.S. plus shipping – perhaps a mite too high-priced?)
This book cries out for republication – it has Slightly Foxed written all over it – spread the word!
Margaret Cecilia Newbolt as a young woman.
A little more information I picked up while (fruitlessly) looking for more by this writer. The Visiting Moon appears to be Celia Furse’s only published memoir (and what a shame that is, for it is really good), but it seems that she was a lifelong writer, as I did come across mention of her as a minor Edwardian poetess, including this rather twee example, circa 1919, from her only published (apparently, for I could not find mention of any more) book of poetry, The Gift.
The Lamp Flower
by Margaret Cecilia Furse
The campion white
Above the grass
Her lamps doth light
Where fairies pass.
Softly they show
The secret way,
Unflickering glow
For elf and fay.
My little thought
Hath donned her shoe,
And all untaught
Gone dancing too.
Sadly I peer
Among the grass
And seem to hear
The fairies pass.
But where they go
I cannot see,
Too faintly glow
The lamps for me.
My thought is gone
With fay and elf,
We mope alone,
I and myself.
Don’t let this put you off, though, for The Visiting Moon is good strong stuff, with prose much less sentimental than this poetic effort.
Celia Furse’s father was the poet Sir Henry Newbolt, as mentioned by Marijke, and I am most intrigued by his particulars.
I’m sure you will have come across one of his most well-known poems, the ubiquitous “Vitai Lampada”, beloved of Great War propagandists, though Sir Henry came to dislike his early effort greatly, as its lasting popularity eclipsed his later work:
There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night —
Ten to make and the match to win —
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame,
But his Captain’s hand on his shoulder smote
“Play up! play up! and play the game!”
The sand of the desert is sodden red, —
Red with the wreck of a square that broke; —
The Gatling’s jammed and the colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England’s far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of schoolboy rallies the ranks,
“Play up! play up! and play the game!”
This is the word that year by year
While in her place the School is set
Every one of her sons must hear,
And none that hears it dare forget.
This they all with a joyful mind
Bear through life like a torch in flame,
And falling fling to the host behind —
“Play up! play up! and play the game!”
Good strong manly stuff, what?
So here’s a rather salacious tidbit about its writer, and of the household set-up of our Celia Furse, who must have had some sort of inkling that her parents’ marriage was of an unconventional sort. (She does refer in The Visiting Moon to “Tony’s” mother’s “boyish” qualities, which the 11-year-old of the memoir feels she has inherited.)
When Sir Henry Newbolt proposed to his wife, Margaret Duckworth, she was already in love with her lesbian cousin, Ella Coltman. Margaret agreed to marry Henry only if she could continue in her relationship with Ella; Henry agreed and went a bit further, by setting up a ménage à trois with both women, and noting in his diaries the number of times he slept with each one, turn and turn about. This situation lasted out the life of the principles, and seemed reasonably successful for all of them, though there were reported to be some to-be-expected flurries of emotion upon occasion.
On my reading list for 2015: a biography of Sir Henry Newbolt. Luckily there appears to be quite a good one out there, 1997’s Playing the Game, by Susan Chitty.
Isn’t this sort of thing quite wonderful? One thing leads to another, and I know I will never run all of these meandering book-related questings and explorations!
Leaves & Pages 
All right, thanks for the Christmas present from me to me; I have nabbed the one Amazon copy that is $24, at least semi-reasonable (as opposed to $50). But I balk at another $22 for Sir Henry Newbold, though I would LIKE it. Dear me, the trail to fascinating literary connections is – fascinating!
I hope you find it as interesting and enjoyable as I did. And yes, what a complex tangle of family relationships! These creative sorts – getting up to all sorts of things. 😉
This sounds utterly delightful. I just found a slightly cheaper (£11) copy on Amazon marketplace place and snapped it up. Thanks for the review. (You keep doing this to me. 😊
I’m sorry! (Well, not really. I have found a goodly number of wonderful books through your blog, so I hope you have been as lucky with my recommendations.) And I see that you have now read The Visiting Moon and have found it delightful – so very pleased. 🙂
I did, a lovely Christmassy read 😊
Thanks for sharing this lovely discovery! Will certainly keep my eyes peeled for an affordable copy from now on. And that bit on Celia Furse’s parents sound just as interesting, too.
glad my library stores has a copy.
This is Fun, dear Babs! Thank you for bringing “my ultimate Xmasbook” all over the world. It is a sweet in memoriam for my Aunt Truus (Trudy, as she was called by the Cheadle family).
I do hope you will read Playing the Game, and enjoy it. It is quite an eyeopener, as I may say so. Strange enough, the biographer Susan Chitty (who is the daughter, and biographer, of Anthonia White, and married to the novelist Thomas Hinde, a great nephew of Sir Henry Newbolt) does not mention The Visting Moon. I wrote her a letter, asking why, but go no reply.
You will like to hear that you can marry nowadays at Orchardleigh Park, the family Duckworth house in Somerset, scene of the Visiting Moon. Celia’s mother was, as you know, a Duckworth. Google: Orchardleigh.net, and enjoy!
There seems to be a book about the house and family: Orchardleigh and the Duckworth by Michael Mc Garvie, but i must still try to get a copy.
The country house of the Furse family, Halsdon Estate, Devon, is the home of Rolling Stone Charlie Watts. Sic.
Celia married Charles Furse when she was 17 and he 19 and they got 4 children. One of them, Jill Furse, was an actress, (and poet) who married Laurence Whistler, brother of the artist Rex Whistler, and an artist himself, he was an engraver. She was extremely beautifull (as her mother), but died young after the birth of her second child. Whistler remarried her younger sister Theresa, etc. etc. He wrote a charming memoir of his first wife: The Initials in the Heart, A Celebration of Love. Their son is also an engraver (I believe, I write this from memory), as were some of the Furses. Theresa is an author of Children Books, I just mailed for a copy of her River Boy.
Are you still there? It is a little bit like Bloomsbury, don’t you think?
I want to thank you for bringing me to the novels of Howard Spring, just the kind of books I need when life is not going as it should. And of course, we share a love for O. Douglas. Her Pink Sugar is another Cheadle-treasure, from 55 years ago.
It is the end of the afternoon, and I see through my window a small moon coming op . Visiting us.
Happy Christmas & New Year,
Yours
Marijke
Holland
Fascinating family. Thank you for the background information, and for the pointers to other areas to investigate. Very Bloomsbury! So many connections and interesting relationships.
Thank you for the review of this beautiful book. I have bought a copy in Holland (www.boekwinkeltjes.nl) and I’m reading it now, just in time for Christmas.
Oh, I do hope you enjoy it! I am replying after Christmas – I do hope you had a happy one.
STUCK IN A BOOKS asks –borrow or buy?
I say borrow–lucky my library store has this one.
Oh, borrowing is such a good idea if you can find it. Glad to hear your library has it tucked away. 🙂
peace for the baker and his loaves,
and peace for the flour, peace
for all the wheat to be born,
for all the love which will seek its tasselled shelter,
peace for all those alive: peace
for all lands and all waters
Pablo Neruda
Best Wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Marijke
Holland
Lovely! Thank you so very much for the kind wishes and the poem. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. Very quiet one here, but most enjoyable. Both of my children were here on Christmas Day and it was grand to have the family reunited for a bit. Now I am looking forward to 2016 and wondering what it will bring. 🙂
[…] but I do really try to keep that spending urge in check. However when I recently read a post from Leaves and Pages about The Visiting Moon by Celia Furse I knew it was a book I wanted to read right away. The only […]
just read it–i would not want to read it again though.The gentry have a lovely life but i pity the poor and servants.Still the Great War was only a few years away and poor baby Humphrey would have gone to war.
Yes, very good points both of those. The book is an interesting “snapshot” of that particular way of life and era. I did really enjoy getting to know “Tony” better as the book progressed; I was hoping that Celia Furse had written something else set a little later, as The Visiting Moon piques my curiousity for what came after that one short episode, and it seemed as though the main character was on the cusp of the next stage in her life, developing her self awareness and moving into a state of greater emotional maturity. I thought the book in its later chapters was a bit deeper than just a pleasantly nostagic tale, though it of course fits into that classification perfectly well.
This does sound very charming indeed. I’ll be looking out for a copy to read, whether borrowed or otherwise, in future. Thanks for the tip; sounds like a perfect seasonal read.
I think the way ‘one thing leads to another’ in books is fascinating too – here is some information related to Celia Furse.
Her daughter Jill was a very talented actress; she married the poet and glass engraver Laurence Whistler and their story is told in his book ‘The initials in the heart’ – a wonderfully evocative book, worth reading for his descriptions of spring coming to a Devon valley alone (published by Michael Joseph and old copies still easy to obtain). The couple lived close to Celia and her husband in Devon; Celia appears frequently in the book as she helped nurse Jill during her frequent illnesses (she died at a young age) and look after their children.
Both Laurence and especially his brother Rex, the artist, were friendly with Edith Olivier, a fifty something Oxford bluestocking and later writer (more books to seek out!), who was a friend and neighbour of Henry Newbolt and it was at her house that Laurence met Jill (Newbolt of course being Jill’s grandfather). Edith and Rex’s friendship is the subject of the recently published (by Panmacmillan) ‘A curious friendship – the story of a bluestocking and a bright young thing’ by Anna Thomasson, which I have just started reading and promises much interest as it includes many of the writers and artists of the period (1920s – 1940s).
And finally to set another hare running, the daughter of Jill and Laurence Whistler, Caroline (known as Robin), married the photographer James Ravilious – who famously captured a disappearing Devon on film- and who was the son of the landscape artist and engraver Eric Ravilious, subject of a great revival of interest recently, not least because of an exhibition of his work at the Dulwich Picture Gallery last year.
Now to try and find a copy of Celia Furse’s book which sounds delightful; thank you for posting
Sally, thank you for this. I do need to get my hands on A Curious Friendship – several others have recommended it as well, and, as coincidence would have it, I recently (last year) read Edith Olivier’s Without Knowing Mr. Walkley, which I enjoyed immensely. And then while reading Elizabeth’s Goudge’s memoir The Glory of the Snow just before Christmas – another book I must talk about on the blog one day – I caught several references to Edith Olivier’s memoir. Everything is connected, indeed! Off I go to search out Laurence Whistler, not to mention the Anna Thomasson book. Again, thank you! Such a pleasure to receive responses such as this one.
[…] Leaves and Pages has gotten me hankering after The Visiting Moon by Celia Furse — which in its turn would seem to be a perfect choice for Slightly Foxed Editions. If I can’t have my own imprint, I can try to offer some suggestions to the publishers that do! […]