Comments on: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf https://www.themarionfsblog.com/a-room-of-ones-own-by-virginia-woolf/ Sharing a personal adventure together Thu, 08 Oct 2015 16:44:35 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 By: marion https://www.themarionfsblog.com/a-room-of-ones-own-by-virginia-woolf/#comment-159 Thu, 08 Oct 2015 16:44:35 +0000 http://www.themarionfsblog.com/?p=12744#comment-159 In reply to Michael Radcliffe.

How very interesting, Mike. You were privileged to be in a position to get to know all this. As a youngster it is very easy to be unaware that behind the older exterior lies someone who has also been young once and probably led a most interesting and useful life. It’s something that carers and nurses ought to be reminded of. When my father was old and ill and treated often very patronisingly by carers who were ‘superior’ to him only by virtue of their youth and ignorance I used to wish I could convey an understanding of his true worth. (I feel a blog post coming up…)

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By: Michael Radcliffe https://www.themarionfsblog.com/a-room-of-ones-own-by-virginia-woolf/#comment-156 Wed, 07 Oct 2015 04:40:56 +0000 http://www.themarionfsblog.com/?p=12744#comment-156 No, Dorothy would never have been resentful. As the youngest sibling she lived in the shadow of her distinguished brother and elder sister who became a JP. They all lived into their 90’s and it was only after her elder siblings died, she came out of her shell and revealed to me what a wonderful person she was, deeply committed to her faith, full of compassion and caring about the weak and disadvantaged in society. As her executor and with power of attorney for her affairs I was privileged to get to know her very well in her waning years.

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By: marion https://www.themarionfsblog.com/a-room-of-ones-own-by-virginia-woolf/#comment-155 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 20:51:33 +0000 http://www.themarionfsblog.com/?p=12744#comment-155 In reply to Gillian Radcliffe.

Thank you, Gill. How lovely, if that is the right adjective. You’ve captured the bleak atmosphere. She was such a tragic figure, but could write with such cheer and enthusiasm at the same time. The contrast is rather bewildering really.

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By: marion https://www.themarionfsblog.com/a-room-of-ones-own-by-virginia-woolf/#comment-154 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 20:47:03 +0000 http://www.themarionfsblog.com/?p=12744#comment-154 In reply to Michael Radcliffe.

Mike, how very interesting! Was she resentful, or simply accepting? I think my mother was luckier, in that her parents were happy for her to go to the Sorbonne after school, and then Oxford. There as you know she met my father, and thereafter – I always felt – most willingly committed her life to being a supportive wife but also working in her own right at the same time, after we children were past the infant stage.

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By: Michael Radcliffe https://www.themarionfsblog.com/a-room-of-ones-own-by-virginia-woolf/#comment-153 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 17:35:35 +0000 http://www.themarionfsblog.com/?p=12744#comment-153 Hi Marion,
Yes Dorothy was at school with your mother whom she remembered well as a gifted linguist at Sherborne School. Dorothy did not go to university though I am sure she could have done. When war broke out in 1939 she joined the ATS, the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British Army and rose to become the commandant of the officer training college in Edinburgh where she personally interviewed and vetted all women who became commissioned officers in the ATS during WW2, so she did reach the heights, with an appropriate senior rank. After the war her main interest was charity social work in the east end of London. Dorothy is a classic example of how women were treated in those days. Her family disapproved of her social work. Her mother died in 1940 so her eldest sister, my godmother had to abandon any idea of a career to look after her father. Her eldest brother, also a linguist, and my godfather, was in the Burmese Civil Service, then on Mountbatten’s staff at the Independence of India and Pakistan, and eventually in the Foreign Office with NATO in Paris. When his father died, most of his estate was left to the eldest son, with just modest income to the daughter’s from capital held in trust by the Public Trustee. This is a classic example of how women were treated in those days. The eldest son went to Charterhouse School and New College Oxford. His sisters could have gone to university.

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By: Gillian Radcliffe https://www.themarionfsblog.com/a-room-of-ones-own-by-virginia-woolf/#comment-152 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 17:04:41 +0000 http://www.themarionfsblog.com/?p=12744#comment-152 In reply to marion.

I remembered I wrote a poem about Virginia Woolf.

VIRGINIA

“There is anguish here. The roots make a skeleton on the ground.”
Virginia Woolf, “The Waves”

I watch the sharp beak flare
as the bird dives for the kill,
the fish leap high from the water
and sink like a knife
under the black mud
of the stream.

The willow trails its fingers
at dusk, shaking the silk
from its roots,
and a face, pale,
rises from the depths,
dead long ago.

The stones from her pockets
give shelter to the fish,
cloth shredded to silt.
I sit by the window,
watching the bird,
the paper stiff under my hands,
immersed in her words.

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By: marion https://www.themarionfsblog.com/a-room-of-ones-own-by-virginia-woolf/#comment-149 Sat, 03 Oct 2015 14:48:43 +0000 http://www.themarionfsblog.com/?p=12744#comment-149 In reply to Gillian Radcliffe.

I’m sure you’re right about poetry being an acquired taste – I’d better get a move on! Pity about the birds but are you painting, even if not photographing?

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By: Gillian Radcliffe https://www.themarionfsblog.com/a-room-of-ones-own-by-virginia-woolf/#comment-148 Sat, 03 Oct 2015 14:44:20 +0000 http://www.themarionfsblog.com/?p=12744#comment-148 In reply to marion.

I guess poetry is an acquired taste!
Alas, the flamingos are not here, and I have come with my new bridge camera, Fuji HS50 EXR. All very disappointing. We suspect the water is too saline, and the swish new golf course has been taking the water from the two small rivers. Gialova lagoon is supposed to be a world class wetland site for migrating birds. Otherwise, this place is heaven.

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By: marion https://www.themarionfsblog.com/a-room-of-ones-own-by-virginia-woolf/#comment-147 Sat, 03 Oct 2015 08:11:37 +0000 http://www.themarionfsblog.com/?p=12744#comment-147 In reply to Gillian Radcliffe.

Thank you Gill. You writing poetry, Mike photographing birds…? It sounds idyllic. Are your poems for public consumption? In spite of the fact my brother is a poet, I’ve never found poetry easy to enjoy. One silly reason is that I read too fast, too keen to move on rather than linger. Perhaps now I have more time I should try again. I loved the refrains from ‘Maud’ that Virginia Woolf quotes – perhaps I should try with Tennyson… (Never thought I’d say that!)

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By: marion https://www.themarionfsblog.com/a-room-of-ones-own-by-virginia-woolf/#comment-146 Sat, 03 Oct 2015 07:58:19 +0000 http://www.themarionfsblog.com/?p=12744#comment-146 In reply to Michael Radcliffe.

Thank you Mike, all the way from Greece – I’m so glad you enjoyed the post. A Room of One’s Own is mentioned so often I think we all imagined that we had read it, but actually none of us had… What a lot of missed opportunities for interesting chats we’ve all let slip, concentrating more on the here and now. Your Aunt Dorothy was at school with my mother, wasn’t she? Did she go on to Oxford too?

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