Picking up the theme from my post about the Bulgakov Collection, another independent publisher I follow with interest is Michael Walmer. Based in Australia, Mike has a history in publishing (having worked for the legendary Marion Boyars) and he specialises in bringing back into print neglected works over a wide rage of genres and time periods. I’ve read several books from his imprint and a fascinating lot they are – I was particularly taken with Stella Benson, whom I might not have read had it not been for his promotion of her.
I wanted to focus on one particular strand of books Mike publishes, and that’s his Belles Lettres series. Comprising so far four volumes, it really is an interesting collection, and the titles to date are:
Letters to a Friend by Winifred Holtby
Letters of Lord Byron
Letters to the Sphinx by Oscar Wilde
The Sins of Society by Ouida
I own three of the books (as you can see from the picture!) and I’ve read one in full so far in the form of the Wilde, and you can read my thoughts here. It was a lovely book, and I spent some time over the Christmas break dipping into the others.
The Holtby volume is fascinating; she’s an author I know of course from her novels published by Virago, and I have a number of these on my shelf. Best known for “South Riding”, Holtby died tragically young but left behind quite a legacy and these letters are to her lifelong friend Jean McWilliam. Holtby and McWilliam met towards the end of WW1 in a WAAC camp, and the letters range from 1920 to 1935, the year of Winifred’s death. This a lovely, varied book, and the letters make fascinating reading, featuring poems and fragments of poems, thoughts on books, little drawings and the like. What also makes the book stand out is the picture it paints of the lives of women in the 1920s and 1930s, and even if you have no particular interest in or knowledge of Holtby, I can still highly recommend it as an excellent read.
Ouida is an author who’s been on the periphery of my vision for decades – possibly since I read “Literary Women” back in the 1980s, or maybe from my first reading of Dorothy Richardson’s “Pilgrimage” where she’s mentioned as being vaguely scandalous. I knew she wrote fiction but I wasn’t aware she wrote essays, and this lovely little collection Mike has issued was a surprising treat and great to dip into. Dating from the late 1800s, Ouida’s essays range over subjects like the vulgarity of her modern world and the stupidity of politics (nothing changes, then…) I was particularly taken with the piece entitled “Gardens” where she bemoans the trend of regimented gardens, designed in straight lines and all neat and tidy, with no individuality. I was also with her when she expressed her views on cut flowers – I can’t bear seeing flowers massacred for the sake of home decoration, and would rather have them growing wild than hothoused, cut and wired and then wilting after a day.
In the great world, and in the rich world, flowers are wasted with painful prodigality. The thousands and tens of thousands of flowers which die to decorate a single ball or reception are a sad sight to those who love them. ‘The rooms look well tonight,’ is the utmost that is ever said after all this waste of blossom and fragrance. It is waste, because scarcely a glance is bestowed on them, and the myriad of roses which cover the walls do not effectively make more impression on the eye than the original silk or satin wall-hanging which they momentarily replace… the ballroom in the morning is as melancholy a parable of the brevity of pleasure as any moralist could desire.
Finally, I’ve had an unexpected pleasure in the form of another non-fiction book from Mike Walmer. Not a part of the Belles Lettres series, “The Spring of Joy” by Mary Webb is subtitled “A Little Book of Healing”. Webb, of course, is best known as the author of such books as “Precious Bane”, and that’s a book that divides readers, particularly in the LibraryThing Virago group! As the book features large chunks of dialect, it tends to be something of a Marmite experience, and it was roundly satirised by Stella Gibbons in “Cold Comfort Farm”. I read the latter and loved it, but I never felt able to read Webb, so taking on a non-fiction book by her was a bit of a leap. However, I needn’t have worried; Webb’s book collects together a series of essays on aspects of nature to bring Joy, Laughter and Beauty. Nowadays, the idea of nature as a balm for the soul is not new, but I wonder how prevalent that was in Webb’s day? Nevertheless, her writing is lyrical and lovely, and I really enjoyed her thoughts on the natural world.
Insects are the artists of fragrance; they have a genius for it; there seems to be some affinity between the tenuity of their being and this most refined of the sense-impressions. Ghostly calls summon them to their banquets… Moths call each other by scent; so do bees; and probably the smallest ephemera follow the same law. These calls and answers cross the world continually like a web of fine threads, most of them too slight for our comprehension.
I’ve spent some happy times over recent weeks with all these books, and if you have an interest in essays, letters and nature writing these could well be volumes you would enjoy too. Michael Walmer’s catalogue is full of interesting books and so I’d encourage you to search out his website (there’s a link on my sidebar) and have a browse, especially if you’re bored with insubstantial modern writing! I must admit I often find the older books are the best!
Jan 11, 2017 @ 09:32:00
What lovely treats and well done for finding and sharing this publisher.
I am a Mary Webb fan; yes, CCF is a satire on it, but she also satirises Hardy, and I don’t think Webb is THAT much more melodramatic than Hardy can get at times. If you can cope with the George Eliot Lifted Veil, you can cope with a bit of Webb! The sense of place is amazing and immaculate and will draw you in.
Jan 11, 2017 @ 10:46:41
Agreed!
And Cold Comfort Farm wasn’t so much a satire of Mary Webb and Sheila Kaye-Smith as of all of the writers who sent her short stories in a similar style, hoping for similar success, when Stella Gibbons was working for a magazine.
Jan 11, 2017 @ 11:23:49
🙂 Well, maybe I’ll give her fictions a try!
Jan 11, 2017 @ 11:22:20
🙂 Well, I liked Webb’s prose here so I suppose I really should give her fiction a try! (though *whispers* I’m not a Hardy fan….)
Jan 11, 2017 @ 22:10:56
You’re like this friend I have who doesn’t like chocolate or cats … how can we be friends? Not really, of course. We can’t all like the same things. But if you don’t like Hardy, you might not like Webb. INTERESTING, though!!
Jan 12, 2017 @ 10:02:36
It’s odd really – I can read gloomy rural 19th century Russia but I have a mental block about gloomy rural 19th century Wessex! 🙂
Jan 11, 2017 @ 11:42:37
So great, Karen, to have your friendship for my company and interest in so many of the books for a few years now. And really pleased that Webb is not a complete no-go zone! Thanks so much for your continuing support.
Jan 11, 2017 @ 14:02:35
No probs Mike – I was very pleasantly surprised with the Webb!
Jan 11, 2017 @ 12:07:13
I do like the look of these! I only discovered Winifred Holtby last year and have loved what I’ve read of hers so far, and my interest in Ouida was also piqued by the mention of her ‘scandalous’ writings in ‘Pilgrimage’. I shall put these on my wish list for when my book-buying ban has been lifted!
Jan 11, 2017 @ 13:59:06
🙂 The wish list never gets any smaller, does it?
Jan 11, 2017 @ 17:04:19
Oh, lovely! At some point I lucked into an old copy of the Holtby volume and I was planning to dip into it this year (as part of my “read more NF” plan, so broad it’s doomed to fail unless I actually get to making some sort of list, so I can then avoid that list studiously!). But the Mary Webb sounds delightful too. (I’ve actually read two of them and survived the dialect just fine. Afterwards it feels like other novels should BE in dialect!) Thanks for mentioning all of these: what lovely options!
Jan 11, 2017 @ 20:23:16
They’re lovely books – the Wilde was very moving and I was pleased to *finally* get to read Ouida!
Jan 11, 2017 @ 18:57:37
What lovely little books, the Holtby particularly interests me.
I read Precious Bane in my teens and loved it – I wonder what I would think now. Webb’s essays do sound lovely though.
Jan 11, 2017 @ 20:22:32
They *are* really nice books – and I *may* give Webb a second chance now! 🙂
Jan 11, 2017 @ 20:37:43
Thank you for this useful reference. I’m most taken (because of my own interests) with the letters of Winifred Holtby but the whole outlook is so disadvantaged today that to see this heartens my spirit.
Jan 11, 2017 @ 20:54:15
I think the Holtby is definitely one that will be popular – she’s so highly thought of! But as someone who rarely gets on with modern books, this kind of publisher is the sort I like!
Jan 11, 2017 @ 21:51:12
A new angle to publish from
Jan 12, 2017 @ 10:02:46
Very much so – and some interesting titles!
Jan 11, 2017 @ 23:26:56
I agree the old books are best. I don’t read enough of them but that is about to change. I have just come into a stack of Viragos. They can be tricky to find here second hand. Had to laugh as several of them are Mary Webb. I had a couple of Mary Webb’s in my Penguin collection. The Holtby sounds wonderful. Our library has a couple of them but their server is down at the moment so can’t book them. Will later. Thank you for information re: this publisher. I have only begun to really appreciate the smaller independent publishers who bring things back to life. I am so tired of contemporary popular fiction. It seems either too creative and clever for its own good (author trying to outdo every one else) or so formulaic I want to fall over backwards and hit myself with wet noodles.
Jan 12, 2017 @ 10:01:53
🙂 Me too – I can’t bear modern bestsellers! And I probably need to be less judgemental about Webb without having read her fiction. Thank goodness for the indies!
Jan 12, 2017 @ 21:09:26
This is why I love reading my book bloggers. I’ll aways find something new to add to my ever lengthening lists.
Jan 13, 2017 @ 09:01:25
Me too! Very bad for the wishlist!
Jan 17, 2017 @ 17:12:55
Mary Webb sounds particularly appealing. I shall be putting it on the list!
I love the quote! Quida’s as well. I have been thinking the same thing recently, while I was reading The Rectors Wife. Such a waste!
Jan 17, 2017 @ 17:28:29
Indeed. These are certainly books worth searching out if you want something thoughtful and away from the norm.
Jan 24, 2017 @ 13:58:12
What lovely books! I’m a fan of Precious Bane and would probably enjoy The Spring of Joy. I’ve never read Ouida either.
Jan 24, 2017 @ 15:01:02
I’d like to read one of her novels one day just to see what the fuss was about!
Dec 09, 2019 @ 07:03:22