Volume I

      I am delighted to launch the Cornflower Book Group following the tremendous response to the suggestion on yesterday's post, and while in future I hope title selection will be a collaborative effort, I've chosen our first book, and here it is:

Vita Sackville-West's 1931 novel, All Passion Spent. I haven't read this so it will be a discovery for me and I hope for many of you. Here is the synopsis from the Virago Modern Classics edition: "In 1860, as a young girl of seventeen, Lady Slane nurtures a secret, burning ambition: to become an artist. She becomes, instead, the wife of a great statesman, and mother to six children. Seventy years later, released by widowhood, she abandons the trappings of wealth and retires to a tiny house in Hampstead....She revels in her new-found freedom, and in an odd assortment of companions...[including] Mr. FitzGeorge, an eccentric millionaire who met and loved her in India, when she was young and very lovely."

      This edition includes an introduction by Victoria Glendinning whose biography, Vita - The Life of Vita Sackville-West, I have read and can recommend. To set the novel in some sort of context, around the time of finishing it Vita and her husband Harold Nicolson had recently acquired Sissinghurst and ' "planted 500 daffodil and narcissus where the cherries are to go at the end of the moat. Six wild geese flew over. A lovely afternoon. Planted roses and the Persian peach. Saw a big white owl..." Everything in the garden was becoming lovely; and in the same month the Nicolsons dined with Albert Einstein, and met Charlie Chaplin at luncheon.'

      Victoria Glendinning goes on to say that "All Passion Spent" was Vita's best novel and "it has moved tens of thousands of readers who found and still find Vita's fierce simplicities inspirational". It was dramatised a few years ago with the wonderful Dame Wendy Hiller playing Lady Slane.

      I hope this will be a good choice to start us off and it should be available internationally. I'm going to set up a separate section of the site for the book group (there will be a link in the sidebar later) and please feel free to suggest titles for future reading there. Meanwhile, I propose we give ourselves four weeks to read the current book, reconvening on Saturday, 15th. December to begin our discussions. I'm looking forward to it!

Comments

[Simon]

Ideal! I haven't read this, but have had it recommended two or three times in the past couple of weeks. Not sure if I own it, so shall have to go a-scouting...

[Claire]

Good choice. Glad to be pushed into something I wouldn't have chosen. Seem to remember reading a biography many years ago.

[BooksPlease]

I haven't read any Sackville-West, so this will be completely new - great.

[Becca]

I love this book! Read it many years ago after seeing the PBS production with Hiller (fabulous). So I will very much look forward to reading it again. I may get the Glendinning biography to go with it. Great selection, Karen. Thank you.

[adele geras]

Perfect!! Thanks very much....can't wait to read.

[Fay Sheco]

This book has been sitting on the shelf for an age, and now you've provided the nudge. I know Sackville-West mostly as friend of Woolf and as a gardener, and this is as good a time as any to read some of her fiction.

[sheila]

Brilliant! I've read a lot about VSW--and her marriage and gardens--but never delved into her fiction. Her garden writing, which I've also enjoyed, made her more famous than her novels (much to her chagrin). She'd be pleased to know what we're up to, reading her!, in the 21st century.

[rosie]

Excellent! Looking forward to this, as whilst I've read virtually everything by Virginia Woolf I'm far less familiar with VSW's work.

[Harriet]

That's great for me as I have this book but have not read it, or indeed anything by V S-W. Really looking forward to this.

[Lesley]

Looks like a great start. I'm off to my local Barnes & Noble right now to see if I can get it here, otherwise I'll amazon it (that's a new verb, by the way!).
Thanks, Karen, for organising all this.

[Elizabeth]

Perfect! I too saw the TV production. That led me to read the book, and I look forward to reading it again and the discussion. Thanks Karen,for suggesting the book club and getting it organised so quickly.

[carole bruce]

I have this one and actually know exactly where it is! I haven't read it for years. Looking forward to re-reading it. Thank you for launching this b.g. - my first.

[Thimble]

Recently I've read several excellent histories of English politics in the late 1930s and Harold Nicolson often is mentioned and quoted in these books. He was one of the Tory rebels who helped topple Chamberlain and catapult Churchill into power.

I've never read any of Nicolson's wife's books, but will see if my library (I'm in the US) has this one.

[Lyn Baines]

I read this many years ago so I'm looking forward to rereading. I'm always looking for a reason to reread my favourites.

[Danielle]

I found this at the last library book sale. I've been wanting to rad it ever since. Great choice--I will add it to my book stack.

[Erika Tsugawa]

I absolutely loved this book when I read it many years ago. I've packed up most of my books to make a new baby room, but will buy a new copy if I can't unearth it! It's so good that I'd love to have two copies, you know, just in case.

[Mosi]

I've never read this book but have heard quite a lot about it. Hope to have my copy within the next few days and then the reading can begin...

[GeraniumCat]

I feel I ought to have read this but don't think I have, so I'm looking forward to it (I've had to amazon it too).
Jodie

[carol]

Not a copy to be had in bookstores independent or big box for miles around here - but my local library surprisingly had one and to be honest I think I am the first person to actaully open the book and start reading. According to the stamps in the front, they have had it since 1985. I guess Vita Sackville-West is not well known out here in CA.
Great choice, thank you - I am enjoying it already.

[tara]

Oh good - I have this one on my shelf. Thanks Karen for organizing this.

[Wanda]

Please include me in your book club. I'm looking forward to reading and sharing together.

This book looks interesting and my regional library system has three copies.

[Margaret Powling]

What on earth have I started! Midwife to the Cornflower Book Group! I think this will be a very good choice of book. I've not read a Vita novel, but have read her letters to Virginia Woolf. But, like others, saw the TV version with Wendy Hiller (excellent actress.)

[Linda]

This is one of my favorite books--I've read it twice at different times in my life. Now, at 63, it will be a joy to read it again!

[Nan]

I love this book, and have read it twice I believe. Also I loved the televised version. It was strange for me to come here and read this post because I've found myself thinking about this book for about a week.