Wigan Album

This puts me in mnd of the opening words of Kathleen Fidler's book The White Cockade Passes. I have a copy that was my Mothers.

I love the sketch....Wigan Parish Church is unmistakeable. The White Cockade Passes is worth a lot of money now, Helen, and many , many years ago I saw a copy of it in a second-hand bookshop in Scarborough and wish I'd bought it! I believe it is even very expensive to get it on "Kindle", which is something I have no interest in. I like "proper" books! I have never read it but I have quite a number of her "Brydons" series of books.

I had heard my Mother's book was of value but why would I want to part with it. It will probably go to my neice in the US, she is the keeper of family books
No I agree Irene, you can't beat a book that you can hold & turn the paper pages...no book gadgets for me either !

Helen, I wasn't suggesting for one moment that you would wish to part with the book....I know I certainly wouldn't part with it if it were mine, so how much it was worth. It is priceless to you as some of my books , are to me. I just didn't know if you realised it was of value. I told my family, when Kindles were introduced, never to buy me one. I love books, I love the smell of new books and I also love the smell of old books. I like to feel a book in my hand and turn the pages, keeping my place with one of my many bookmarks. I particularly love ex-library books that still have a date-stamp page in the front. We have not had a library in Abram for many years but I still have my cardboard library tickets....I found that I just couldn't part with them!

Bu - bump . Once the only sound you heard in the library apart from maybe the occasional screech of a chair leg on the floor .

I know what you meant Irene. We have never met but I feel I know you well , so don't you worry about thing.

Or the bump on the head if reading a book in bed when falling asleep. A kindle bump on the head would be more painful. Although I have never used one and have no intention. You couldn’t turn the page down at the corner either if the bookmark has disappeared under the duvet…. There’s many benefits to books, as Irene says, the handling, the smell, the worn yellow tinged pages, plus the dust they collect on the shelves making them a part of the furniture. Who could live without the escapism of books! Not me….

Kindle came up on Frank Skinner's show , and of course Frank happily despatched it into Room 101 , saying that if ever Neo Nazis came to power they wouldn't burn books but delete them .

I like Frank Skinner a very witty man. Also like Room 101. I think he is underrated. I liked the program he did in the Lake District discussing the Poets - Poet.

I liked that program Veronica . The Scots lass was good too . You mentioning the Lakes poets made me think of another Kindle failing .

I have a proud possession . It is a book by Norman Nicholson , a lesser known but great Lakeland poet . It is tatty , dog eared , pencil marked . The tawny pages going orange in places .
But what it also has , written in fountain pen ink is the great man's signature
across the preface . Kindle can't compete with that .

It's worth having a quick Google at NN . I think Irene would take to him for he held the same philosophy regarding the love of ones own locality above all else . Although born in 1914 he sported those Victorian whiskers which must have looked quite odd in 20th century Millom .

I couldn't agree more with all the comments about books,wouldn't want a kindle at all.Much prefer the real thing.

I will look up the third great man Poet. Who couldn’t love the Lakes and be inspired living in that locality? I often wonder what
W Wordsworth would have thought about his beloved Lakes today with all the traffic and crowds. I always pay a visit to his grave and think on the words…..
“ Though nothing can bring back the hour
of splendour in the grass,
Of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
strength in what remains behind;…..”
lovely words but too many to copy.

I do have a Kindle and I love it, I put on the novels or novellas that I would like to read and would have bought and which then would have piled up until I got around to donating them to Book Cycle which I have done in the past as I find it isn't worth the hassle of trying to sell them on eBay, charity shops don't want them and I've recently heard Book Cycle have stopped wanting them.

I have also recently downloaded onto the device what would have been a massive pile of weighty shelf sagging books of classics, 100 Masterpieces to Read Before You Die is the Amazon description, though I doubt if I'll ever get around to reading them all before I do as both volumes combined there are over 59,000 pages, and on the Kindle they take up hardly any space at all.

Don't get me wrong as like yourselves I do love the feel and the read of an actual book and do have a collection of such. The actual book I've just read is Ruffled Feathers at Blackwaterfoot which is book three of The Arran Trilogy, I've read the first two and all three are very good to read and are by Miller Caldwell and the one I'm reading at the moment is The Parrott's Tale also by the same author, and the next book lined up to read and also by Miller is Restless Waves. Happy reading fellow wiganworlders.

Poet, I will certainly look up Norman Nicholson and thankyou for pointing me in his direction. Cyril, I'm glad you have been able to get used to Kindle and hope you have many happy hours reading from it. Many of my own books are battered to bits, but that's how books should be. I have gone through THREE copies of Bill Bryson's "Notes from a small Island"! I have a book, "Class Act" , by the late Lynda Lee Potter, who was born in Leigh, (as was James Hilton who wrote Goodbye Mr. Chips). Lynda became a columnist for The Daily Mail. My copy was literally falling to bits but I was in a charity shop Leigh last week and got a hardback copy, in almost new condition, for 30p! I don't think the people in the Charity Shop knew she was a "local"! Veronica and I share a love of a book about growing up in Bolton in the 1920s and 1930s by Edna MacCuish....she was just a local writer but had a brilliant way with words. I am currently reading through my collection of Margaret Yorke's crime books and R D Wingfield's Inspector Frost, and can "see" and "hear" David Jason when I read them. ....I have had both authors' books on my bedside shelves for many years and could never part with them. Happy reading, everyone.

Just to let you know Irene I am taking Edna MacCuish with me on holiday soon. Sometimes I read a book 2 or 3 times If I have enjoyed it.
I also knew the niece of James Hilton who wrote ‘ Goodbye Mr Chips’ he went off to America but stayed in contact with his family.

Your description of a book practically falling to bits reminded me of an article I've been reading in a latest Irelands Own magazine about The Packhorse Librarians of America which I'd never heard of before. Women who on packhorses took books around to the mountain folks of Appalachia a 10,000 square mile portion of eastern Kentucky where up to 31% of the folks couldn't read, but with coal and railroads poised to industrialise that part of the state most of these folks were eager to learn and so take part in the hoped for prosperity that would follow, they viewed that the sudden economic changes would be a threat to their survival and that literacy was a means of escape from a vicious economic trap.

After some time these books became worn out and and like yours began literally falling to bits so these women librarians would cut out the stories that were still complete and put them into binders, along with newspaper and magazine cuttings and recipes which were especially sought after by the mountain women. Requests for donations of any reading material from the more affluent areas of America brought in lots of books, magazines, Bibles and Sunday School material, virtually any and every type of reading material was accepted and eagerly received by adults and children too who would run to the librarians shouting for them to bring them story books. Interestingly the majority of the mountain folks liked books by Mark Twain. By 1936 these packhorse libraries were serving some 50,000 families and 155 schools in that part of the state eventually reaching lots more, though by 1946 motorised libraries had taken over. These women must have met with some tough challenges especially negotiating almost impassable out of the way areas and meeting homesteaders being suspicious of strangers just riding in without good reason. I suppose they would have loved going around meeting folks and leaving these much loved books, and folks reading skills improving along with their hope of having a better future ahead of them.

There is a documentary about those Packhorse Liberians. https://www.pbs.org/video/the-pack-horse-librarians-of-appalachia-ioouod/

Very interesting, Cyril. thankyou for sharing that. I once had a copy of "Ireland's Own" pushed through my letterbox in mistake, and I admit I had a little read of it before I passed it to the correct recipient, and I found it very interesting. Many years ago, when Our Jamie was in his twenties and lived in London he appeared in an Irish play and told me someone from The Irish Times had taken a photo of a scene he was in. Well, it isn't easy to get a copy of The Irish Times in Wigan but I managed to get one from Smith's Bookshop on Mesnes Street and turned straight to the Theatre page, And yes, there was Jamie, but the photographer had photographed a scene in which Jamie's character was in despair and had his head bowed and his hands covering his face, so you could only see the top of his head.....it could have been anyone! But of course his Mum was still proud!!

Yes two interesting stories. The Ireland’s. own sounds a good read. I can’t say I have ever seen it for sale anywhere, but in the past I can remember seeing it.

There are many articles of interest and good stories to read Irene and Veronica, I've been getting it for years from the local newsagent. As it says on the front cover - The week wouldn't be the same without it!

In my best Oirish accent to be sure, to be sure ‘twill have to look out for it so I will Cyril…

Used to get 'Ireland's Own' from Smiths and it was a good interesting ready with a 'homely' feel to it.I'm sure it still is,but I haven't bought it for a while.

Veronica, I'm sure your local newsagent should be able to order it in for you from their newspaper and magazine suppliers.