I thought about putting this post on Need To Read, but it’s quite close to my heart. The story starts back when I was about thirteen. I was at the public library, it must’ve been summer because I didn’t read much during the school year, and I was browsing the shelves. Actually, I think I was looking for something in particular, and this was before computers so you just had to hunt for what you wanted on the shelf. Anyway, instead of finding what I wanted, I saw a novel (YA) that looked interesting called The Summer People by John Rowe Townsend (the link is something I wrote about it a couple of years ago).

I checked it out. I thought it was very unusual, being British, set near WWII (forgive me John, if I’ve chosen the wrong war…I haven’t read it in a while and I dropped my copy in the bath and need to replace it still), and it was quite the romance and also a coming of age story. I don’t suppose that I understood the half of it, at least not the British terms. Anyway, I told my mother she would like it, she read it, she loved it, we went back for more by the author. The library had about four or five even though the author had written twenty books or so. We loved them all.

Fast forward ten years. I was living in England then, near a small town in the north called Penrith. The town has a lovely independent bookstore (which I still love to visit), called Bluebell Bookshop and upstairs, in their fabulously well-stocked children’s section, they had more than a dozen John Rowe Townsend books that I’d never heard of. I bought them all! It occurred to me at the time that I might be able to get the others at the local library, and sure enough, they had the ones that I hadn’t read and couldn’t find to buy, including a new book called CRANFORD REVISITED. I read it, I loved it, and I had no idea at the time, or for years to come, that I had totally missed the point!

Fast forward one more year. I was back home and just on a whim, I decided to write my new favorite author, Mr. Townsend. Guess what? Yep. He wrote back. For the last seventeen years we have corresponded. Two years ago, when I was in England again, I went to Cambridge and met John and his partner, Jill Paton Walsh. They had me to their lovely home, fed me lunch, gave me a whirlwind tour of Cambridge, and John sent me on my way with my very own copy of CRANFORD REVISITED because it was the only book of his I didn’t have.

And now, I’m finally getting to the point of all this chit chat! Gosh, if this was a manuscript, my critique group would say, “That is all back story. When does your story actually start? You need to cut!” But my critique group is not getting their helpful paws on this story and I’ll blather if I want to! You can’t stop me! It’s my blog.

So…for those of you still reading…Here is what I found out when I looked a bit closer at JRT’s book CRANFORD REVISITED. It’s called “revisited” because it is exactly that. In the 1850s (or so), Elizabeth Gaskell wrote a lovely book about a fictional English village called Cranford. JRT’s book is a look at that fictional town, told in the 1980s in a modern style. It is a tribute of sorts. I finally, finally, finally got my hands on the original CRANFORD, read it over the last week, and then re-read JRT’s book. And guess what? By reading Gaskell’s book first, JRTs book is about ten times as enjoyable and charming as the first two times I read it, and it was great then!

If you’re wondering about Mrs. Gaskell’s work, and if it would suit you, I think it is a bit tamer (passion-wise) than Jane Austen, but certainly as funny, and funnier at times, but along those lines. It’s set half a century later, but people still visit and gossip and the aristocracy is still a big deal which allows people to move up or down, depending on their mettle or whims. All in all, extremely charming if that’s your sort of thing. And while reading JRT’s CRANFORD REVISITED is recommended no matter what, you’ll like it more if you read them both. If you can find his. If not, try John, himself.

Oh! And guess what I just discovered? I should really cast films. As I was reading JRT’s CR, I was thinking, “They should make a movie of this starring Judi Dench.” I just went to Amazon to get a copy of the cover of CRANFORD and guess what? Well, they haven’t made John’s book into a movie, but they did do Gaskell’s book as a mini-series. Starring….yep! Judi Dench! It gets five stars on Amazon, so I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before the BBC lays their hands on John’s book and makes it into a mini-series too! One can always hope, anyway. It certainly couldn’t happen to a nicer man!