Monday 26 June 2017

Now the Book Festival is Over...

The display of members'
published works...
I spent Saturday (24th) at the last day of the Lowdham Book Festival, with other members of Nottingham Writers' Club.

Sadly my cork board display was too large for the three-legged stand (height-wise), and if I'd had time to try it out the night before I would have realised- not that I could have done anything about it!

In the end the board rested against the stand by the table...

At least this year we were able to display flyers for books by a number of members- and not just mine.

There were a lot of small publishers in the hall this year, and out in the marquee there were plenty of second-hand books, but only a few were really old, so I didn't come home with any useful books this time.

But I did add to my postcard collection with a few old postcards. Two stable scenes; both postcards were images of painting by John Morland (1763-1804) and immediately appealed to the historical romance writer in me.

You can see the images used on the postcards here and here. Though the image had been coloured for printing, so the contents of the wheelbarrow becomes green and yellow, and the stable lad's face becomes very distinct, as does the jar on the window ledge.

The strange thing was that these two postcards had been sent to the same person by two connected individuals (sisters?) and sent from Plaistow in 1905 both on the 4.15 post on the 17 JU (June or July?).

The one from Beatie is affectionate but short with the lines well spaced- she's thanking the sender for the book she's sent, whereas the second, while neatly written, each line is close together. It mentions that 'Beatie is putting a new braid on the bottom of her dress'.

Postcard messages can be as inspiring as the image on the front. Over a century later their moment in time messages remain, leaving the reader to wonder, and the writer to create...




13 comments:

liz young said...

I have quite a collection of old post cards and photos which I keep in reserve for inspiration too!

Carolb said...

Yes, they are great for inspiration, as they are so varied. Especially the old black and white seaside promenade scenes. :-)

Teresa Ashby said...

I love old postcards for the pictures and the writing on the backs. People don't seem to send so many these days sadly. I can see why those particular postcards appealed to you.

Bea Charles said...

I now have my father's collection of old postcards. I too find those with messages of more interest than the blank ones. It's that tantalising glimpse into lives past that begs for you to find out more, or to create the story for yourself.

Carolb said...

I don't think the postcards are as good nowadays either, Teresa. And of course with smartphones there's no need to send a postcard when it's easy to send a text, and photos.

Carolb said...

That's a wonderful collection to inherit Bea.:-)

Yes, the messages on the back are wonderful snatches of a past time. I always wonder what happened to the people who sent and received the postcards.

Maria said...

I haven't been to Lowdham Book Festival for a few years now, but when I did, I really enjoyed it.
Old postcards are great aren't they? What will future generations look at? Maybe blog posts? Or will we have moved on again and they too will be lost?

Helen Laycock said...

I think that the messages on postcards are far more interesting than the images, raising all sorts of questions about the sender's history.

Carolb said...

Book festivals are fun if you're attending as a visitor, Maria.

I believe tweets are being recorded for posterity, so any historian looking at them in future will get a very skewed view I think.

Carolb said...

So right Helen. Even in short messages you can learn so much.

In the two postcards I mentioned I got the impression that Beatie was older and more serious, while the second came over as younger and more effusive nature- she was talking about studying and how important it was to her, so I imagined she was Beatie's younger sister...

Maria said...

A very skewed view! Blimey, I'm surprised to hear Twitter are doing that...

Regards the book festival - yes, organising anything is hard work. Many hands make light work though if you ever think of organising one.

Rosemary Gemmell said...

Old postcards are a fascinating item for research - love finding messages on them!

Carolb said...

Yes, I like the black and white seaside scenes especially,Rosemary, and the messages can be intriguing too.