Continued from Part 7
In this part Ina goes on to talk about books and music.
As to the place of books in my life - how they became so important to me I don't know. They were not readily accessible - there was a small library in which there were very old, dark, hard-backed books. One I remember was called 'Eric or Little by Little'. I remember getting comics called The School Friend - I think we must have clubbed together and shared them around. I must have borrowed from others because I don't remember owning any. There was series about girls in a boarding school - very middle class, I realise now, and about budding ballet dancers and horse riding. At school we had a class book - I remember Coral Island, the Cloister on the Heath, and Silas Marner. We would read around the class, a chapter each week. The books were collected up for other use so we couldn't continue reading and it was frustrating if someone read slowly or stumblingly. When we went up to Scotland in the summer my Aunt had women's magazines and read those. There were one or two books but none I remember. Yes, The Wide, Wide World - a sob story. When we were older we were allowed to get the bus into town and I went to the library. I just browsed and picked up what I fancied. Then we would exchange notes on our books and widen our horizons. I remember reading Baroness Orczy - The Scarlet Pimpernel and his daring escapades, 'We seek him here, we seek him there, that damned elusive Pimpernel'. Then Georgette Heyer - romantic historical novels, but historical novels didn't follow me into adulthood. Nevil Shute - 'A Town Like Alice' etc. I don't think I even heard of Jane Austen. Somehow I got hold of Enid Blyton's 5. Monica Dickens wrote about nursing stories. At some point, Vth or VIth - we read Great Expectations and we did a play of Tale of 2 Cities so I read that. When I met Brian he was crazy about Dickens and I read Dombey and Son. In the play of T of 2 C I acted Madame Defarge - this consisted of sitting knitting most of the time. We did plays once a year and I also remember doing Little Women when I acted Aunt March - supporting roles. And yes I read Louisa Alcott's Little Women and Jo's boys and loved them. Many many years later on a visit to Boston we passed Louise Alcott's house - just out of Boston. There were also books about Heidi - these were set in Switzerland, rather idyllic and I seem to remember one involving goats scampering up mountains.
I discovered Stanley Middleton - who wrote novels set in the Potteries. In my twenties I gobbled up American writers - Scott Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Sinclair Lewis, Erskine Caldwell, etc. For A level we had to read Howard's End (and Forster's essays 'Abinger Harvest') - a very strange choice for teenagers, probably because other options were Lawrence or other authors who had sexual references or scenes. H.E. was rather boring. I remember that in my 20s the Alexandra Quartet by Durrell had a great impact on me. Very original. And I read Henry Miller. I also read a lot about heroics - climbers, seafarers, disabled people who overcame odds. In my later years I have been less interested. I guess there is so much of that ilk in newspapers, TV, etc. I found Ivy Compton-Barnett (not heard of now) - she was very original. In the brief times when my parents were here and we spent time with them my father would read a chapter from a book of his choosing after a meal. I remember Rita Snowden - they were just episodic pieces about this and that. We were rather disdainful - we had enough of being required to sit and listen to sermons, readings etc. Every night and about 3 times on Sunday. However, I can see that it did imprint on us the value of books and reading. Don't really remember my mother reading except the Irish newspaper that was sent to her and the Christian Herald.
I realise that I could write a book about reading books so I will move on to music. The music that I encountered was mainly religious and that was very lowbrow - not chorales, requiems, cantatas etc. Hearty hymns with very simple and predictable tunes and harmonies. The repertoire was not that huge and many tunes resembled each other. As soon as I hear the line of one now I can pretty well remember the words and tune. If I was in solitary confinement I could go through them - what a pity it wasn't poetry that came my way and lodged in my memory. On sleepless nights and boring conditions I could remember worthwhile things.
My main musical experience was learning the piano. For lessons we had to walk up to the road about half a mile to the College (for students training to be missionaries). It was a chance to gaze into houses and gardens and imagine what living in a house must be like. My teacher was Miss Raven, not that inspiring but doing it for nothing only keep. Her true reward would be in heaven as it would be for all staff. Lessons were only about half an hour I think, but I guess they were longer as I moved on, doing 8 grades in exams. To do these exams we went to the drawing room in the Edwardian house where the Director of the School/College lived with his wife. It seemed very sumptuous. We played 3 specified pieces, then a piece of sight reading and had oral tests. I would be alone in the room with an examiner who came from the Royal College of Music. I passed all but my greatest triumph was getting distinction - I think in Grade 7. By passing Grade 5 this qualified me for doing O level music. So I chose music instead of maths - only person to do so. Guess I was such a dud at maths, it didn't matter. I had to study the score of the Prague Symphony by Mozart. I have the score now. We had context questions just as in literature and also had to answer questions about it. Also studied Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream - the Nocturne and Scherzo - but not in quite such detail. I still like those works very much. I suppose I have realised that learning the structure, the dynamics etc of a piece of music helps you to enjoy it more.
Once a year another rather eccentric music teacher - Miss Bodley, who helped with the O level - had a sort of soirée. Pupils were invited to go and hear her sometime out of school hours. She would choose a composer and speak about him and play excerpts on piano - maybe she had records too. It was good of her - wanted to enthuse us, I suppose. But she wasn't a good disciplinarian and the boys who came messed about, as we used to say, and we girls would feel sorry for her and it diverted us from the purpose.
Then there was Ken Butterfield, an Anglo-Indian. His family lived at the College - no idea why. He was quite young but did some teaching - not sure what - and his sister was a pupil. There were mysterious people who lived on the periphery, waifs ? from some problem, I think. Anyway, Ken Butterfield had lunchtime sessions once a week for a while when we were in the VI form. He introduced us to some music - I think Grieg's Piano Sonata. He could play the piano really well. His aunt was at the college and she was another piano teacher. I didn't have her but the word was that she was very strict. I think Samson and Delilah came my way thro' these occasions. He didn't teach, just exposed us to some classical music. Again, it was of his own volition. No reward for him except that we were VI form girls who were invited. I think that was the reward for him. Not that there was hankey pankey.
Finally we had a choir. Mr Lee - Thumbs we called him - ran it. He was a horrible man but the choir was good. We went to churches round and about and sang and it was a change from being stuck in the same old place. Also it was a mixed choir and an unusual chance to mingle with boys (tho' our classes were mixed, of course). There was paranoia about boys and girls making contact. I once phoned Dorothy from Mumbles - out of school. I put on a boy's voice, purported to be Alan Howells. All hell broke loose for Dorothy - when I got back I had to go to matron and confess it was me. Must have been a good impersonation! There was a friend of Beth's - Betty Collier's sister in fact - who was smitten with David Robinson (a glamorous sporty guy). It was mutual. they would get up in the night and go down to the gym and what happened there was probably not nothing but probably not that much. Beth was apparently very worried that pregnancy would ensue and warned her friend that she ought to stop these night liaisons - if she didn't she would have to snitch. They didn't stop and she did snitch. Friendship was broken. I felt horrible because snitching was the lowest of the low. In fact, the two married, had 3 sons. He was a lecturer at Davis University. There is a lot more to this story that I know and more, I am sure, that I don't know. For some time and for some strange reason I had to share a room with 2 girls much older than I. I would be woken when they came to bed and hear their whispers. One night it was about a girl being expelled because of hanky panky. In the case of David Robinson he was demoted from Head Boy/Prefect and I guess they were both watched like eagles after that. Anyway this is a big diversion from music but probably after religion this was the most significant aspect of our lives - notes being clandestinely passed from boy to girl maybe thro' brother and sister who were allowed to communicate. I was taken to the bushes once and kissed by a boy called Keith Webb. I found it most unpleasant. On the whole, I preferred to observe than participate in these 'crushes'. So - other than the choir there was the pop music taking place at that time. For a time, we had a small radio in a common room and could listen to that. I know crooning was the thing - Alma Cogan with a 'hiccup' as she sang, Ruby Murray from Ireland, a group who sang 'By your side, satisfied. For I was born to be with you' close harmony. I think day pupils genned us up a bit on the pop scene outside but it was not a memorable part of my life.
In the next and final Part 9 Ina talks about Newburgh in Scotland where she and her sisters spent their summers with Auntie Edie.