📚 🚶Introducing our December book
Discover more about A Touch of Mistletoe by Barbara Comyns
Dear walking book clubbers,
I can’t wait to discuss this book with you! It is a longish one, but I literally couldn’t put it down and the pages whizzed past…
A Touch of Mistletoe is a novel in which basically everything bad that can happen does happen. We are in the company of two sisters (it’s narrated by one of them, Vicky), beginning as they come-of-age in the 1930s. Their mother is an alcoholic, they get awful jobs, they have little enough money to resort to cooking over a candle flame - getting boils from the terrible food; love comes with heartbreak, depression, death, and there is the Blitz to contend with too. And yet, it is an extraordinarily funny book! Barbara Comyns’ observations are eccentric and witty, her tone so matter-of-fact, and following Vicky through all the messiness of life ends up being oddly life-affirming. Somehow if she can get through all that, I feel we can get through anything.
It’s the perfect tonic for any gloominess that can descend over the challenging Christmas period. And for those of you lucky enough to be feeling full of festive cheer, it is a perfect accompaniment.
For an added seasonal treat, we are going to be having a lucky dip of wrapped, pre-loved books on our Hampstead Heath walk this Sunday - not that you needed any more of an incentive to come along…
Our December discussions
As usual, we have three chances to discuss this month’s book:
THIS SUNDAY 11th December, 11.30-1pm:
Join us for a walk on Hampstead Heath, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB. Please make sure you’ve read the book!
N.B. Remember to bring a wrapped, pre-loved book to put in a lucky dip for another book clubber. (I will bring spares so if you can’t, don’t worry.)
Monday 12th December, 8-8.40pm
Join us on Zoom - feel free to show up, even if you’ve not read it. This conversation is open to anyone who’s interested.
Friday 16th December, 2-2.30pm (Note the date change)
Live Discussion Thread - Join the thread (link will arrive on the day) to discuss the book & share what else you’ve been reading this December.
Buy A Touch of Mistletoe from Daunt Books HERE and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout, or just tell them you’re in the group if you’re buying it in the shop.
More about Barbara Comyns
THIS TINY PERSONAL PIECE by writer Camila Grudova for Granta, arguing that A Touch of Mistletoe is the best book of 1967, is a great introduction.
‘Artist’s model, dog breeder, painter, writer, wife of a spy – Barbara Comyns (1909-92) certainly lived a wild life, which is reflected in her novels …’ so begins Lyn Barber’s excellent obituary of her in the Telegraph. Read the full thing to get an enlightening picture of elements of her life that made it into her novels HERE.
I loved listening to two podcasts about Barbara Comyns. Neither of them has that much to say about A Touch of Mistletoe, unfortunately, but it’s helpful to get an idea of where this book sits amongst her other work - one of her realist novels as opposed to gothic - and also some more details about her extraordinary life. Backlisted has THIS RELIABLY BRILLIANT EPISODE about Comyns’ novel, The Vet’s Daughter, featuring the wondrous critic Lucy Scholes (who joined us on our previous Barbara Comyns walk, many years ago when we discussed Our Spoons Came from Woolworths). And The TLS have THIS EPISODE about the Comyns revival (hurrah), featuring her biographer Avril Horner. (I think the biography is still forthcoming.) Horner also wrote THIS INTERESTING PIECE about her literary relationship with Graham Greene for the TLS.
Definitely read Lucy Scholes’s eloquent long essay about Barbara Comyns on Boundless, HERE. I love the description of going to stay with her granddaughter in a very Comynsian (?) house. And HERE’S her more recent Comyns-focused column for Paris Review.
Nathan Scott McNamara argues HERE on LitHub that Comyns should be appreciated as an Outsider Artist.
Finally, there’s THIS INSIGHTFUL PIECE by Jane Gardam (yes, she who wrote A Long Way from Verona, Old Filth and more) about Comyns’ The Vet’s Daughter in The Spectator. Insightful mostly as it describes Gardam going round for tea, and you get a bit of a feel for what Comyns might have been like to know.
What’s next?
Look out for another bonus newsletter this Thursday announcing our first books of 2023. Well done to the clever cloggses amongst you who have already worked out what we’re reading from these back covers:
In case you missed it, you might enjoy browsing our Seasonal Gift Guide:
And finally - watch this space for some exciting audio news, coming your way later this week…
Happy reading,
Emily