Meike, my blogging friend from Germany wrote a very interesting post which you may read just here. Meike lives in Ludwigsburg and while walking through a local graveyard, she noticed the gravestone of an English woman . Being the curious, intelligent woman that she is (once a Librarian, always a Librarian she tells us!) she researched the name and dates that she observed and gave us as many details as she could find! She also showed us clothes and a hairstyle that the woman, Dolly Dick might have worn during the time that she lived. Now, when I read this post it reminded me very much of TWO books that I want to tell you about, one set in England and the other in Georgia (USA) but both were inspired by visits to graveyards...
Eugenia Price wrote "The Beloved Invader" after she saw the gravestone of Anson Dodge at Christ Church on St. Simon's Island, Georgia. It is based upon an Episcopal priest who was sent to Georgia after the Civil War. Even though he was a Northerner and was at first distrusted, he came to love the Georgia people, Anson Dodge was also very much loved by the islanders, hence the name, "The Beloved Invader". Even though this is a work of fiction, you imagine that Eugenia Price researched the life of Anson Dodge so thoroughly that the whole book reads like non-fiction. (For me, that is the highest praise!) I read this book many years ago, as a teenager, and I have never forgotten it. If you are ever in St. Simon's Island, Georgia, you may visit the church and the graveyard. Now, Eugenia Price is buried in the same graveyard, as she also was a devout Episcopalian and a beloved citizen of the island as well.
Jeremy Seal wrote the book, "Treachery At Sharpnose Point:Unravelling The Mystery of the Caledonia's Final Voyage". When he was walking through a graveyard at a church in Morwenstow, Cornwall...he saw what he considered a strange looking angel but realized that it was instead a wooden figurehead from a ship! From that unlikely sighting, he researched the sinking of the ship, the Caledonia, which went down in 1842. I have very mixed feelings about this book. At first, I really enjoyed the research that he did and the story of the Caledonia, but I felt that too much of it is conjecture on his part and not based on any facts. Perhaps there were some villains who tried to make ships wreck just so as to strip them, but somehow, the way that the author presented this just did not ring true to me. In particular, making an Anglican priest such as Robert Stephen Hawker, the bad guy is a bit of a stretch to me.
So, two books that I know of that were inspired by trips to the graveyard. One that I truly think is excellent, the other...not so much. Now, what books can YOU think of that fit this category? And make sure you read Meike's post and encourage her to write her own book!
Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! It is almost Spring! All the Bradford Pear trees that are blooming now look like brides dressed in their bridal gowns, so full and beautiful this year!
Hi Kay, I've been a little awol lately but I've just caught up with your latest posts. First, we have the Band of Brothers set and we have watched it so many times I feel like I know those men. They truly were the Greatest Generation! Second, I love Eugenia Price and St Simons, but I haven't read that one. It's now on my list. And third, I wanted to personally invite you over to my new blog. I have moved from Blogger to WordPress.org after taking an online blogging class. It has been a HUGE challenge, but I'm about to get it the way I want it. I still have The Drowsy Bee set up but won't be putting new posts there. I have to say Thank you for being such a faithful commenter. I really feel like we're friends. my new home is www.myyondermountain.com and I hope to see you soon :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Jeanette!
DeleteThank you for your comment! If you get the chance, I hope you will listen to at least some of the videos of Wild Bill and his friend, Babe that I had on one of those posts, you will love listening to them, I am sure!
Good luck with your new blog! I know I need help blogging, I can barely do the things on it that I do, I know there must be so much more that could be possible! I have not been able to comment as much lately, I am getting to be an old lady now, even though I call myself a Georgia GIRL! HA!
Once again, the very best of luck to you, my friend! xx
Dear Kay, thank you very much for mentioning me (again!) on your blog and linking to my post about Dolly Dick.
ReplyDeleteBoth the books you have presented here sound interesting. Well, some authors form their own ideas and will write them down, whether they match all the facts or not. And when there are facts missing, they make them up - that is an author's job if they write fiction, but not if they write non-fiction.
Spring is definitely here, there is already a lot of colour in the gardens around me, yellow forsythia and many different colours of primroses and primulae, and I am sure the cherry tree in front of my kitchen window will start to blossom some time next week, hopefully before I'll go away for my course.
Interesting thing, when I read that book by Jeremy Seal years ago, it WAS catalogued at our local library as NON-fiction. (I hope it has been corrected now. HA! You should have seen me when I read it, I kept going back to the side of the book, looking at the NONFICTION label on it, scratching my head!) The trouble for me is when an author takes a true story about real people and real events and gives us his spin on it, even telling us what each person involved actually SAID. There are only four reviews on the Amazon website (USA). The first one says "The book sunk"!) Certainly, you may read such books as fiction but it doesn't seem fair to me to do that to real people, even though they are dead. But that's just me, you know non-fiction is what I love!!
DeleteWaiting for the post with you posing with your cherry tree!
While i don't know offhand of any books written that were inspired by graves, i do know that when my Sweetie was working as an archaeologist, he found a private family plot way out in the country. It had been forgotten and neglected, so he copied down all the names and we researched and got the family tree together and it was put in the book someone was writing about the area.
ReplyDeleteWell my goodness, I think that's wonderful! Do tell, do you know the title of the book, sounds like my kind of book!
DeleteHow lovely your trees are blooming. I would so love to see them. Here we are only 21 degrees this morning. Nothing will be blooming here for a while yet. I do love those Pansies in your topper picture too! Hope you have a wonderful Sunday!
ReplyDeleteYes, we are truly enjoying these white blossoms, and my header photo, those flowers are in our own back yard!! Take care and have a great week ahead! x
DeleteThat's the great thing about the internet is that its so convenient to find out details that once would have meant slogging round birth, death and marriage record offices and a lot of legwork. On the downside there is so much info on it now there is a real danger of it killing paper books and the publishing industry in the same way that the music and film industry has been altered by file sharing and downloading. The first three chapters of any book are free to download and read on kindle so you could build up a collection without buying or finishing any. Most are also under £2 to £4 so the author earns less as well even if someone buys the full book. Here you can buy 3 brand new paperbacks for £5 in any supermarket. 15 years ago one paper book cost that alone.
ReplyDeleteI have a kindle but still prefer paper books in my hand to feel directly connected to the author. You probably have a large bookcase as well with all your favourite authors in it Kay. You don't get that with kindle you just get a long list of titles in digital form so the same warmth and affection is missing. I still remember my dad reading a children's book to me when I was around 4 or 5, ill in bed, and the full story is imprinted in my memory banks to this day. That's the power of written words and pictures in a pure tangible form. Both books sound interesting and are new to me.
I must tell you that my Dad likes to call me and say "Look this up for me" and he knows that I will research whatever topic he gives me and I will call him back with a full report!! I love the internet for that reason.
DeleteI know what you mean about real books, I know it is popular to read books in digital form but honestly, I need to turn paper and to even see maps and photos!! One of my favorite books that I read last year was "Sailing Alone Around The World" and it had the most wonderful illustrations...how could you get that from a Kindle? And you do not want to know how much I LOVE children's books! If someone asked me what would be the one thing that I would most like to do, it would be to write a children's book!
And I think you would like those books too, but I think I would have liked the Jeremy Seal one better if I had known it was fiction!!
I had no idea that Eugenia Price was buried on St. Simon's island, will have to look for her grave the next time we're down there.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, please do and take a photo and do a post, would you? It has been years since I saw Christ Church but I will never forget the beauty of it.
DeleteOn the way over to Meike's post… We live behind an old graveyard and I can understand how inspiration lurks. I am in there regularly--we have friends buried there and the older section goes back to the Revolutionary War.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see that section from the graveyard from the American Revolution, I would find it fascinating.
DeleteI admire the inquisitive natures of some...without them and their insatiable curiosity our bookshelves and libraries would lack lots of books; and our own curiosity wouldn't be sated.
ReplyDeleteI don't know either of these books. I do know that the deliberate wrecking of ships is true though particularly around Cornwall - they would put lights on the cliffs to confuse sailors into sailing against the rocks instead of into safety - well, that's what I've seen on documentaries and films over the years anyway. I've just finished reading The last runaway by Tracy Chevalier and really enjoyed it - it had 2 of my faavourite subjects, quilts and pioneers. x
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