Hi everyone.

Since my last blog post Off To Egypt (Not Literally) I have uncovered some interesting items about Howard Carter’s house which I thought I would share with you. (Yes I know. Two blog posts in one week. I’m spoiling you.)

As I mentioned in that post, I am now typing up and researching the letters and postcards that Ethel wrote to my grandmother from Egpyt when she and Lady Burghclere visited there in 1928. It seems that the main purpose of their visit was to meet up with and support archaeologist Howard Carter following his discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb six years earlier.

This is an extract from one of the postcards that Ethel wrote from Egypt:

“Had lunch with Mr Carter at his little house and then spent the rest of the time in the Valley of the Kings and most of that in the tomb of Tutankhamun and the laboratory where the things are being fixed up. Hope to have time for a detailed letter soon.”

This “little house” was built for Howard Carter at Thebes, now the modern city of Luxor, by his patron and friend Lord Carnarvon (Lady Burghclere’s brother) in 1910 and used bricks sent over from England. Carter designed the house himself and it was always known as “Carter’s Castle” which was an ironic reference to Lord Carnarvon’s home, Highclere Castle. I have it on very good authority that it was Lady Almina (Lord Carnarvon’s wife) who was responsible for the ideas behind the wiring of the house.

The house was reopened as a museum in 2009 and there is an extremely interesting blog post by renowned Egyptologist and author Jane Akshar about her involvement in the grand opening ceremony which was attended by several dignitaries including the present Lord and Lady Carnarvon, as well as members of the Carter family. Jane has posted some great photos that she took at the event which really give you an insight into what the house was like when Carter lived there.

http://luxor-news.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/opening-of-carter-dig-house-luxor-egypt.html

I also came across a post by Lady Carnarvon herself about the Carter house which is well worth a look. She tells us that Lord Carnarvon (the 5th Earl) often stayed at the house rather than at his hotel as it was nearer to the dig sites. He even built a darkroom at the back of the house so that he could process his photographs. Some of these photographs may be some of the ones that Lady Carnarvon has kindly shared in this post.

https://www.ladycarnarvon.com/tutankhamun/

Finally, just to make sure that the house was still in existence today, I did a bit more research and found a post on Egypt Today, the news website of the nation’s oldest and bestselling English-language social affairs magazine. Again there are some excellent photos including ones of Howard Carter’s original tools and his typewriter. Even more interesting was finding out from this post that work is being done to corroborate a new theory that there may be more to discover behind the walls of the burial chamber and treasury of the tomb of Tutankhamun than was first thought. The plot thickens!

http://www.egypttoday.com/Article/9/3090/In-The-Footsteps-Of-Egyptologist-Howard-Carter

 

Hi everyone.

I seem to start every blog post I write at the moment with an apology for not having blogged recently and this one is no exception. But I am back and still in the land of the living (no thanks to the whole menopause malarkey!) and off to Egypt. Not literally, sadly, although to be fair that doesn’t really bother me as I definitely don’t have the desire for travel that Ethel and Lady Burghclere clearly had.

After over five months of not working on My Dear Elsie for all sorts of reasons, I suddenly felt a real sense of urgency to crack on with it. I’m now determined to get all the rest of Ethel’s letters and postcards typed up as soon as possible and the end-notes for each one researched and written. It feels really important to at least have a manuscript of the book in existence in case anything happens to me. After all, with everything that’s been going on in the world recently, it does make you a lot more aware of the fragility of life.

But on to happier topics! The section of the book I’ve now started typing up contains Ethel’s letters and postcards sent to my grandmother Elsie from January 1928 to March 1928 when Ethel and Lady Burghclere travelled to Egypt and the Holy Land. The reason for this trip may well be explained by this quote from an earlier letter that Ethel wrote to my grandmother:

“Now comes along Mr Howard Carter who has been lecturing in America this last few months. He has heard from the Egyptian government who want him to return, offering everything, but apparently he reads between the lines that they mean him to work under them. This in a sense he does not want to do but as he doesn’t want a thing out of the tomb and as he has difficulty to get the money out of Almina, Lady Carnarvon – why not? So what he really wants is Lady B to go out to him. He says she will have more influence than anyone else. He finds it a great drawback or did last year in not having any members of the family out there to back him up. Lady B is seriously contemplating same and in that case if I can choose, what shall I say? Egypt or America! Could anyone find a more difficult choice?”

In many ways, the letters and postcards written from Egypt are among some of the most fascinating and interesting in the whole collection. In particular, the letters that Ethel writes after she and Lady Burghclere are shown round the Tutankhamun excavations and relics by Howard Carter himself are amazing. Some of her descriptions are wonderful to read and really help to bring the whole experience alive.

Here is a little taster of one of the letters that I’ve picked out for you:

“You would not believe the marvellous workmanship unless you actually saw it. Hundreds and hundreds of things, even to a beautiful ostrich feather fan such as they carry today. There is a dummy on which his [Tutankhamun’s] clothes were made, his slippers and a little gold charm he wore round his neck fashioned in a copy of his favourite dog. A most beautiful thing, really. I must not stop now to tell you all the wonderful things I saw but I hope I shall remember them to tell you later.”

Ethel starts writing this letter from the Semiramis Hotel in Cairo and while I was doing some research on the Semiramis, I came across an excellent website based around a book by the journalist Andrew Humphreys called Grand Hotels of Egypt and its follow-up On the Nile. If you’re interested in finding out more, the website can be found at http://grandhotelsegypt.com

I left a comment on one of the blog posts and as a result, a very nice lady from Nashville in the USA contacted me showing great enthusiasm for and interest in My Dear Elsie. This has encouraged me even more to get on with the book. She also very kindly provided me with some extremely useful information on the famous Vanderbilt family as in an earlier letter from 1925, Ethel mentions that she and Lady Burghclere are going to stay with the Vanderbilts when they get to New York.

So I promise that by the time I blog again, I will have made progress!

 

Hi everyone.

Here I am again with my second blog post about the recent ITV drama series Tutankhamun. If you’ve not read my first post on the topic, here is the link to it:

https://ladyburghclereandethel.com/2016/11/24/tutankhamun-on-the-telly-1/

As I mentioned in my first post, I found the series to be somewhat careless with the truth or at least the truth as it is presented in the letters that Ethel North (Lord Carnarvon’s elder sister’s maid) wrote to my grandmother. And here is why.

Howard Carter, the famous archaeologist who discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb, came over in the series as very serious and “po-faced”. Definitely not the sort of guy you’d choose as an amusing dinner party guest. However, in one of Ethel’s letters, she paints quite a different portrait when she describes to my grandmother a journey that she undertook with her mistress Lady Burghclere (Lord Carnarvon’s sister), Howard Carter and the Crown Prince of Italy during a visit to Egypt in February 1928.

Lady B, Mr Howard Carter and self were in a carriage together and we had to drive through streets lined with troops and have rousing cheers. Mr Carter made lots of jokes and so I was bound to see the funny side but I want no more trips with royalty.

On the other hand, the series seemed to have no problem at all with the idea that Howard Carter was able to find time during his hugely important archaeological work to jump into bed with two women (although not at the same time as even ITV didn’t go that far) one of whom was the daughter of an Earl. I must admit I found the supposed affair between Carter and Lord Carnarvon’s daughter Evelyn completely unbelievable. Of course, if it had been Lady Burghclere’s youngest daughter, also called Evelyn, as opposed to Lord Carnarvon’s daughter, that might have been a fraction more likely. Evelyn was a “bit of a one” where men were concerned and in one of her letters to my grandmother, Ethel has this to say about Lady B’s youngest daughter.

Wicked Miss E. left her husband a fortnight ago to go off with another young man, worse off than her husband and she has only been married a year. They have got her away from the young man now and she is going with Sir Geoffrey and Lady Fry to Venice for a while…Personally I don’t think it any use. She’ll do the same thing again I’m sure…These girls [Lady Burghclere’s daughters] were never meant for marriage. 

And don’t get me started on Howard Carter’s moustache. It could have had a series all to itself. In the scene in Tutankhamun where Carter (played by the actor Max Irons) is staring into the ante-chamber of the tomb to view all the treasures, his moustache takes up practically the whole TV screen. That amused me almost as much as the rather surprising (and completely unnecessary in my opinion) scene where the famous Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, whom I vaguely remember learning about at school, comes out of a cave to greet Carter wearing absolutely nothing at all! At least when he was on his deathbed after the fatal mosquito bite, Lord Carnarvon (played by Sam Neill) had the decency to wear a fetching pair of what looked like Marks and Spencer pyjamas.

Other elements of the series that I had problems with included the clunky dialogue such as Evelyn saying to Carter “Some people lose things all the time” in reference to Tutankahmun’s “lost” tomb. I was also amused by the sight of Carter’s bare back in one of the bedroom scenes which looked like it had been smothered in half a ton of baby oil and had never been exposed to the harsh Egyptian sun in its life. And as for the fleeting glimpses we received of Lord Carnarvon’s wife Lady Almina, who in real life was a considerable force to be reckoned with, she looked more like she was on her way to Ascot for the day, rather than going to try and rescue her ailing husband.

However for me, the most disappointing aspect of the whole series was the way in which the fabulous treasures and relics of Tutankhamun were portrayed. After all, those incredible finds were what the whole story was really about. I would have thought that in these days of CGI, the producers could have come up with something a little more spectacular to get across to the viewers what the “wonderful things” were that Howard Carter, Lord Carnarvon and Evelyn saw when they first entered the young Pharaoh’s tomb after it had remained sealed for such an unprecedented length of time.

In the fifteen page letter that Ethel North wrote to my grandmother from Egypt in 1928 when she and Lady Burghclere were shown round the Tutankhamun treasures in the museum at Cairo and the excavation site in the Valley of the Kings by Howard Carter himself, her lengthy and detailed descriptions of what she saw make fascinating reading. Here she describes going into the tomb.

We waited a little whilst the steel gates were taken down and then we were in the Tomb. The outer chamber first, now clear of the objects it once held. About 4 steps down and we were in the Chamber where the sarcophagus with the mummy is. All looked as though it had just been found. The gold was so shining that Mr C said it wanted toning down with a little powder.

The great outer case is made of a lovely pink stone, quartzite or some name like that. It has a little crystal in it. It is a tremendous coffin. I believe the lid weighed several tons…At each corner of the stone are the four Goddesses, exquisitely graceful with wings outspread. At the north end are the golden oars for the king to row himself across the underworld. The walls of the tomb were painted with vignettes and inscriptions. These are not plain to see as the wonderful gold panels that formed the shrine are at present propped up against them. Such long panels of pure sheet gold and inlaid panels of brilliant blue faience [Egyptian self-glazing ceramic]. The extraordinary thing is, one feels at once that one is in the presence of the dead and yet 3,000 years have passed.

Of course, it’s very easy to criticise something and often less easy to find something positive to say about it. There were some parts of the Tutankhamun series that I enjoyed such as the (intentionally) amusing character of Herbert Winlock from the New York Metropolitan Museum and even I felt moved by the moment when Howard Carter shouted  “It’s an entrance” while all the Egyptian workers stood round clapping and cheering. Also, the South African scenery where the series was filmed was a spectacular and quite convincing substitute for the Valley of the Kings.

My overall view of the drama is that it was an enjoyable piece of hokum but it has also done me a favour. Quite a number of people who watched Tutankhamun have been asking me how I’m getting on with My Dear Elsie (the book I’m writing about Ethel’s letters) so that has spurred me on to try and finish it. In fact I’m going to go and work on it right now. So thanks ITV.  I owe you one!

Hi everyone.

Well, it wasn’t the “kind autumn” I’d been hoping for after the “cruel summer” I referred to in my last post! Just as I was beginning to feel I’d turned a corner, I was ill again (or maybe just totally exhausted after the less than agreeable year I’ve had) and ended up having to go AWOL for a whole month. Now I’m working round the clock in an effort to catch up but also trying hard not to overdo things  so that I don’t become ill again.

While I was out of action, I didn’t do any work at all on My Dear Elsie but I did watch all four episodes of a new ITV drama called Tutankhamun which launched on UK television on 16th October. I was very interested to see this because the premise for the drama was the story of the discovery in 1922 of the Egyptian boy-king Tutankhamun’s tomb by the archaeologist Howard Carter and his famous patron Lord Carnarvon.

In case you are wondering what this has to do with my proposed book and this website/blog, Lord Carnarvon (or the 5th Earl of Carnarvon) was the brother of Lady Winifred Burghclere. As you will know if you have read the static pages on this website, my grandmother’s close friend Ethel North was Lady Burghclere’s lady’s maid and travelling companion for many years, including those covered by the discovery of the tomb. In the letters and postcards that Ethel sent to my grandmother while she was employed by Lady Burghclere (and on which My Dear Elsie is based), there are many references to Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter’s discovery. In particular, there is a fascinating fifteen page letter that Ethel wrote in 1928 when she and Lady Burghclere visited Egypt and were shown round the Tutankhamun excavations and relics by Howard Carter himself.

As for the drama series, I must admit that I watched most of it either laughing out loud or shouting “That would never have happened!” at the television. It did cheer me up, which was probably what I needed, but not for the right reasons! I’m not a big fan of biopics at the best of times but when you feel you know the characters that are being portrayed and have some insight into the background to the story, it’s difficult to keep a straight face at some of the more preposterous elements.

I suppose I should have been alerted to the fact that the series was going to play somewhat fast and loose with the probable truth by the advert for a well-known supermarket which preceded the opening titles. It described the product it was promoting as a “fantasy drama”. Although I hate to be critical of a fellow scribe’s work, I can’t help feeling that the writer Guy Burt had been given a brief by whoever commissioned the series to “sex it up”. Literally at times! I thought this was unnecessary really, given that it is already a cracking story. But then I suppose he was writing a drama series for ITV and not a documentary for BBC4!

In fact there are so many things from Tutankhamun that I’d like to comment on and link to some quotes from Ethel’s letters that I think I shall have to stop for now and write a second blog post as soon as I can. So watch this space and providing I can stay standing, I’ll be back very shortly.

Are you familiar with the song Cruel Summer by the 1980s girl-group Bananarama? Well, that title sums up how I feel about the last few months although to be fair there is a way to go before it beats the summer of 2013 which was definitely one of the worst times of my life.

If anybody had said to me in March that the flu-like symptoms I was experiencing would get worse instead of better, that I’d feel too dizzy to look down, that I’d have to walk with a stick and that one weekend I’d sleep for 40 hours, I’d never have believed them. And if they’d told me that all these debilitating symptoms were caused by hayfever even though I’d never had it before in my life, I’d have thought they were mad.

But believe it or not, hayfever has pretty much knocked me off my feet for the last five months. In addition, I’ve also had a cancer scare although thankfully everything is OK, some unexpected “emotional” problems that I could really have done without and enough money worries to last me a lifetime.

But I’m back! Not quite firing on all cylinders but definitely getting there and keen to crack on with my book My Dear Elsie before anything else happens to me.

I mentioned in a previous post that Lady Carnarvon (yes, “the ” Lady Carnarvon) had unexpectedly got in touch and that I’d sent her some of Ethel North’s letters to my grandmother that I’d already typed up and researched. If I’m honest, I was really hopeful that this might lead to something. After all, it was Lady Carnarvon we were talking about! Unfortunately, although she sent a very nice email saying how much she’d enjoyed reading them, she didn’t seem quite so bowled over as I’d hoped (or even presumed) she would be which was rather a disappointment.

However, while I was ill I had an unexpected conversation with a neighbour that I’d never really spoken to before, about Ethel’s letters. Her enthusiasm for the project and her interest in it, really fired me up again and made me determined to keep going, despite all the many setbacks there seem to have been along the way.

So it was quite a milestone to have recently reached the halfway point (I hope!) in terms of typing up and researching the end-notes for each letter. There is no doubt in my mind that it’s the letters themselves and their fascinating content which inspire me the most and make me really keen to share Ethel’s musings with the rest of the world.

For instance, the letter I’m currently working on which was written when Lady Burghclere and Ethel were staying in Rome for six weeks in 1926, has some really interesting insights into the character and personality of General Douglas Haig. As I’m sure you are aware, General Haig was Commander In Chief of the British Expeditionary Force during WWI and is particularly associated with the Battle of the Somme.

This is what  Ethel says to my grandmother about one of the most important and also controversial military leaders that Britain has ever had.

“My dear, I love him. He is so shy and quiet. It is very difficult for me to believe he commanded the British Army and he talks in such a slow, almost hesitating way. So different from what one imagines of a great soldier. He’s not what you call a sightseer (sic) really but he likes these little trips around Rome. He sits in front with the driver and one sees the soldiers peeping forth, for as soon as we get outside the walls of Rome, out come his maps.”

She then goes on to talk about the problems that the General and his wife (whom Ethel describes as “..very sweet but terribly old looking for her age”) appear to have in dealing with their eldest daughter, “a real, young modern” according to Ethel.

“G.H. can do nothing with her and he’s been awfully kind to her, riding one old horse himself to hounds and giving her three young and fresh ones, so that each day’s hunt may be as enjoyable as the preceeding (sic) one.  He tries to point out to her that her mother is none too strong but I fear it has but little effect. Strange. He can command an army but one girl of 18!!!”

I really enjoy these little insights into famous names from history that Ethel provides. The same letter also has some interesting “gossip” about the Royal Family as the then Duchess of York was expected to give birth at the end of April or beginning of May and was due to move into a house at the bottom of Green Street, near to Lady Burghclere’s London residence.

“The King and Queen are awfully pleased. The Queen said a strange thing the other day to Lady Margaret [Lady Burghclere’s sister]. In talking about the Duchess she said, ‘Yes, she is such a dear little thing and so kind and friendly towards us.’ This is much for a Queen to say!!”

Of course, as I’m sure you’ve already worked out, the Duchess of York was our present Queen’s mother and the impending royal birth was that of Queen Elizabeth II who was born on April 21st 1926.

And that’s all for now but I will be back soon, health permitting, with more updates. Hopefully it will be a kind autumn!

 

 

I daren’t even look to see how long it is since I last posted anything on this blog but I just wanted to let you know that I am still in the land of the living!

It’s been a bit of a strange time in my life recently (it’s felt like I’ve taken a few steps forward and about 27 back) and for some reason, much as I enjoy blogging, it often gets relegated to the bottom of the pile when there is a lot of other stuff going on.

As I type this, I can hear the cars tooting their way along the A47 Hinckley Road as Leicester City fans make their way back from the  “party in the park”.  This took place earlier today, along with an open-top bus tour through the city centre, to celebrate Leicester City football team’s amazing achievement of winning the premier League title/trophy for the first time in their 132 year history.

Even if you have no interest in football and are living on a remote island off the corner of Mars, you have probably heard this incredible story. “Little Leicester City” with its team of rejects and no-hopers took on the financial Goliaths of the Premier League and beat them at odds of 5000-1. Some are calling it the greatest sporting story ever and who am I to argue?

I’ve supported Leicester City for about 40 years now and although I’m delighted for the team, the manager and the fans, this story has also been tinged with sadness for me that my parents, who were lifelong  Leicester fans, are not here to witness this amazing event.  However, I’ve also felt extremely grateful to them that their passion for football and all things LCFC was passed onto me and has been such a source of pleasure (as well as some discomfort!) for a huge part of my life.

When I read Ethel North’s letters to my grandmother, it took me by surprise how many references she makes to the Leicester City football team. She was obviously very interested in their progress and clearly knew that my maternal grandmother and grandfather also had great affection for them. Here are a couple of examples:

“So pleased to receive letter, but what on earth did you save the cutting for? Fancy telling me that and not even telling me the score or even telling me who scored? I wrote to Doris  but no answer and after 5 weeks that is your answer. Doesn’t matter. I’m in the heart of this country and “football” is a long way off.”

I have worked out from the dates that this probably refers to Leicester City losing 3-7 to Burnley in the first round of the FA Cup on 8 January 1921. It was written on a postcard that Ethel sent to my grandmother from Cordova, Spain.

“I am not going to write at length now but will write more fully after I’ve been in Madrid for a day or so. Will you please save me and send me a cutting out of the papers about Fulham and Leicester on Saturday. I shall not see a paper for three months except a miserable continental thing and I want to hear how the football goes on.”

I’m sure Ethel would have been pleased to eventually discover that Leicester City beat Fulham 2-0 on 28 January 1922 in the second round of the FA Cup.

I was also quite surprised to discover that Ethel enjoyed watching ice hockey, a very “unladylike” sport, which I also enjoyed (from the safety of the stands!) when I lived in Nottingham and regularly went to see the Nottingham Panthers play.

She discovers this affection for the sport during a trip to Canada with Lady Burghclere in February 1925:

“I have been each Saturday to see the crack teams play ice hockey. It is the national game here, taking the place of football and I do believe I am more thrilled over the former than the latter. The skill is amazing. Altogether I’m a very happy and extremely interested person.”

Ethel’s interest in football and even ice hockey seems to add to my view that she was quite a “character” in many ways as in those days, a woman interested in football and ice hockey would be quite unusual. Fast forward almost 100 years and I’m sure she would have been delighted to see the current football team achieve such an incredible feat and put her home town of Leicester very firmly on the world map.

 

Well, it’s not every day that a member of the aristocracy gets in touch. Sadly not by King’s Messenger, herald or even a royal carrier pigeon, just by good old email.

And not just any aristocrat either but none other than Lady Fiona Carnarvon or the Countess of Carnarvon to assign her with the correct title. Yes, the Lady Carnarvon,  wife of George Herbert, the 8th Earl of Carnarvon and the one whose ancestral seat and current home is  Highclere Castle, the real life setting for the TV series Downton Abbey.

I actually wrote to Lord and Lady Carnarvon in November 2014 when I was first thinking of trying to get Ethel North’s letters, that I inherited from my grandmother, published as a non-fiction book. I only wrote as a matter of courtesy, really. In places, Ethel is rather disparaging about certain members of the Carnarvon family, especially Almina, the 5th Earl’s wife and the current Earl’s great-great grandmother and I wanted to make sure that the family were OK with me doing this.

I’m quite sure that Ethel only picked up these views from her mistress Lady Burghclere (the 5th Earl’s sister and the current Earl’s great-great aunt) but I still felt it was only polite to let them know. As it happened, I didn’t receive a reply but decided at the time that no news must be good news.

Lady Carnarvon actually contacted me to ask permission to use the image of Lady Burghclere that is on this website and which I was fortunate to obtain from Ethel North’s nephew, Michael Foster. Images of Lady Burghclere seem to be quite scarce as unlike her more flamboyant brother, she doesn’t seem to have courted publicity.

In one of her emails to me, Lady Carnarvon mentioned that she loved reading old letters and found them fascinating. She is an historian and has had three books published herself on key members of the Carnarvon family, including one about Almina. (http://www.ladycarnarvon.com/about/)

I decided that I had nothing to lose and asked her if she’d like to read some of Ethel’s letters that I’d already transcribed. Much to my delight, she said she would.

In the end, I decided to send her what amounted to the sample copy that I had been sending out to literary agents, before I decided to concentrate on trying to find a publisher by another means. I haven’t heard back from her yet but I’m really hoping that she finds the letters as interesting and informative as I have. I’m sure I don’t need to say how helpful it would be to have her on board with the project.

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted and in the meantime, I’m continuing to type up and edit the letters on a daily basis. Ethel and Lady Burghclere are currently in Canada at the moment. It’s February 1925 and 24 degrees below zero. Next stop… America!

 

 

So how was it for you? I must admit I shed the odd tear and although it was about as action packed as a plum pudding, I still enjoyed seeing everyone’s faces as they received their happy endings courtesy of Saint Julian of Fellowes.

Yes, of course I’m talking about the last ever episode of Downton Abbey which those of us in the UK were able to watch on Christmas Day after we’d stuffed ourselves silly on sprouts and all the other stuff we only eat once a year.

It will be missed, there is no doubt about that and by me in particular as I’ve felt a huge affinity to the series because of Ethel North’s letters to my grandmother recounting her time as lady’s maid to Lady Winifred Burghclere, sister of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. I often found myself looking at those fabulous interior and exterior shots of Highclere Castle in Berkshire where most of the “upstairs” scenes were filmed and imagining Ethel strolling around the magnificent grounds or helping Lady Burghclere dress for dinner in one of the beautiful bedrooms when they were visiting Highclere.

But all good things must come to an end and no doubt there will be some spin-offs from the series or even a film, not to mention endless repeats on ITV2 for many years to come.

I have to confess I didn’t actually watch the last ever episode on Christmas Day but saw it on  New Year’s Eve instead. It felt fitting that the episode ended with a celebration of New Year and a “looking forward” to the future, whatever it might bring.

I’m certainly curious as to what could happen in 2016 regarding Ethel’s letters to my grandmother and my attempts to get them published as a non-fiction book. A great many things happened last year that were very unexpected and it felt like a really important stage in the “journey” I seem to be undertaking. It was not without its setbacks (the copyright issues and the problems with agents to name two) but it was also the year I discovered and subsequently met some of Ethel’s living relatives, an experience I shall never forget!

Although I haven’t set any definite New Year resolutions regarding my proposed book, I do feel strongly that I should like to be much closer to having transcribed and researched all the letters at the end of 2016 than I am at the start. I should also be very pleased indeed if I could finally, once and for all, find out exactly who the copyright holders are as I’m now leaning much more towards self-publishing the book than I was before and therefore probably need to sort out the copyright issues myself. A little matter of having to raise almost £1000 to pay a solicitor who specialises in intellectual property is all that is holding me back at the moment!

Anyway, whatever 2016 holds, I look forward to sharing my progress with you.

Happy New Year!

 

 

My last post was originally going to be a Christmas related one but it got rather hijacked by Downton Abbey so this is just a very quick extra one to wish you all a Merry Christmas and to thank you for your interest in this website and blog since I set it up earlier this year.

Ethel mentions Christmas quite a bit in her letters to my grandmother and I thought it might be a nice little Christmas treat to include a snippet from one of them. The letter I have chosen is dated December 6 1923 and this extract both amuses me and also shows that nothing about Christmas has changed much in almost 100 years!

Here is her first paragraph.

“I’m thankful to come home and sit down peacefully to write. I have been out shopping this afternoon and Oxford St is impossible. People hang about so – gaping here and gaping there, hindering  those who would be about their business.”

I think we get a bit of an insight into Ethel’s character in that snippet as well, don’t you?

Anyway, all that remains for me now is to once again wish you a Merry Christmas and a very happy and peaceful new year. See you in 2016!

So the Big Day is almost here. Only one more sleep to go. I know we say this every year but it really is amazing how quickly it seems to come round. And of course, this year we’re probably approaching it with even more of that strange mixture of excitement and dread than usual because at last, it’s nearly time for the Downton Abbey Christmas Special. Not only that but this year’s festive offering will signal the end for one of the most successful and popular television dramas of all time.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably thrown in a couple of extra packets of tissues along with the brussels sprouts because there will be tears and not just because no one likes brussels sprouts.  I suspect that this episode will be less about Christmas and more about tying up loose ends (and there are quite a lot of loose ends) as well as giving as many characters as possible a decent send-off. Of course we have questions. Will Edith finally find a man or is she destined to be a Single Parent for the rest of her life?  Will Mary realise she’s made a terrible mistake in marrying What’s His Name and elope to Florida Keys with Tom? Will the Dowager Countess finally reveal the brand name of her anti-ageing cream?

Like most people who’ve followed the series from the very beginning, although I must confess it was only because of Ethel’s letters that I started watching it in the first place, I shall definitely miss it. However, I’m also slightly concerned that if interest in all things Downton begins to wane, I might find it harder to interest a publisher in My Dear Elsie. I’m not too worried though as I believe there is plenty of fascinating stuff in Ethel’s letters to delight readers who have never even heard of Downton Abbey, if such a person actually exists.

Anyway, short of kidnapping Julian Fellowes and keeping him prisoner in Mrs Patmore’s pantry until he’s written another series, there isn’t much I or anyone else can do about it. In the meantime, I shall keep working on the book and who knows what 2016 might bring?