In my never-ending quest for something good to read, when I find a new author I try to go back and read all his/her novels from the earliest forward, made easy since the library catalog software automatically sorts by publication date. Hence Jane Aiken Hodge’s The Adventurers, a romance that was old-fashioned even in 1965, if memory serves. From the first appearance of the hero (and I mean hero) we know whom the heroine will marry at the end – a great relief (for us) during her dangerous adventures. And by old-fashioned I mean that bedrooms are for secret passages, eavesdropping through chimney flues, and keeping captives but not for sex.
However, old books are for more than enjoying the writing. In newer ones I like to read the metadata (correct usage?) about the publication – what the cover image is, what font, etc, and about the author. The jacket of The Adventurers says very little of the author except that “she is the daughter of the poet Conrad Aiken”. Annoying, I thought but that was then. Well, well, and now I’ve read The Winding Stair, an even better book where the heroine (and I mean heroine) actually considers doing you-know-what with her fiance before they suffocate to death. This jacket does give Ms. Hodge’s impressive credentials, a B.A. from Oxford and an M.A. from Radcliffe, and then notes that:
“She has particularly good sources for the historical background of her novels; her husband Alan Hodge is the editor of the fine English magazine History Today.”
I wonder if her latest work, published in 2003 when she was 86, talks about her eldest son’s profession! (Alas, poor thing had only daughters!)
And now for some sexy knitting:
geometric solid from a book ad
Quick and dirty geometric hat
- quick and dirty from the side
I hope you can see how I tried to use the squares and triangles of the model to create a semi-shere (using my last precious scraps of Malabrigo Silky). The earflaps were a concession to the cold.
