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Helen Ashton (1) (1891–1958)

Författare till Bricks and Mortar

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25 verk 308 medlemmar 10 recensioner

Verk av Helen Ashton

Bricks and Mortar (1932) 112 exemplar
The Half-Crown House (1956) 73 exemplar
Parson Austen's Daughter (1949) 18 exemplar
Yeoman's Hospital (1944) 16 exemplar
Footman in powder (1954) 12 exemplar
William and Dorothy (1938) 8 exemplar
Letty Landon (1951) 6 exemplar
Mackerel Sky (1930) 5 exemplar
A Background for Caroline (1929) 5 exemplar
People in Cages (1976) 4 exemplar
Belinda Grove 4 exemplar
Tadpole hall 4 exemplar

Taggad

Allmänna fakta

Namn enligt folkbokföringen
Jordan, Helen Rosaline Ashton
Andra namn
Ashton, Helen
Födelsedag
1891
Avled
1958
Kön
female
Nationalitet
England
UK
Födelseort
Kensington, London, England, UK
Bostadsorter
Kensington, London, England, UK
Gloucestershire, England, UK
Grays Inn, London, England, UK
Utbildning
London Hospital Medical College (1916 - 1921)
Yrken
Nurse
medical practitioner
Relationer
Jordan, Arthur (husband)
Kort biografi
Born in Kensington, London, Helen Ashton was the daughter of Emma Burnie and Arthur Jacob Ashton, KC, Recorder of Manchester. Her brother was Sir Leigh Ashton, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.[1][2]

She wrote her first novel in 1913, Pierrot In Town,.[2] During World War I, she nursed as a VAD, and over the course of the war she wrote three novels. After the war, Ashton studied medicine, qualifying from the London Hospital in 1921 and graduating MB, BS in 1922.[1] Ashton was then house physician at Great Ormond Street Hospital until she married Arthur Jordan, a barrister, in 1927.

After her marriage, Ashton retired from medicine but continued to write. Over 43 years she published 26 books, which included several literary biographies, such as I Had A Sister (written with Katharine Davies in 1937 - a study of Mary Lamb, Dorothy Wordsworth, Caroline Herschel and Cassandra Austen), William and Dorothy (1938), and Parson Austen's Daughter (1949) amongst others. Her first major fictional success was Doctor Serocold (1930) in which she was able to draw upon her medical knowledge. Also included amongst her fictional works were Bricks and Mortar (1932), republished in 2004 by Persephone Books, and Yeoman's Hospital (1944), on which the 1951 film White Corridors was based. (Wikipedia)

Medlemmar

Recensioner

It is a rare but lovely thing to be able to read a novel without knowing anything about it.

When I found this book all that I could see was the title and the name of a familiar author. As I started to read I realised that I had found a book that told the story of a life.

Caroline Hill was born in 1888, the only child of a comfortably off but not very happy couple. Her mother left when she was still very young, so Caroline barely remembered her, and on the one occasion when they met, many years later, she fond that she had nothing to say.

Her abandoned father became reclusive, not because his heart was broken but because his new position in society embarrassed him. The consequence of that was that his daughter had a very sheltered upbringing with a very small social circle. It was lucky that Caroline loved books, and that she had a caring and compassionate governess. She was a lost when the time came for her governess to move on, but her father realised it was time for her daughter to step into the adult world, and he hoped that Caroline would marry well, raise a family and find the happiness that had eluded him.

Sadly it seemed that was not to be. Caroline has an ardent admirer, but try as she might she could feel nothing for him. She was relieved when he left to fight in the Boer Was, but she had the grace to mourn when she heard the news of her death. She was drawn to another young man, but he had no feelings for her, and was horrified when he learned that the woman he thought was old-fashioned and destined to be a perpetual spinster thought that there could ever be anything between them.

It was only when the Great War came that Caroline’s life changed. She wanted to help, she wanted to change her life, and so she took up nursing. She struggled with the work and with the conditions, but it was an emotional awakening and it was her real coming of age.

After the war Caroline accepted an unexpected proposal from an elderly widower. They had been good friends and they had a happy marriage, built not on passion but on shared interests and mutual understanding. Caroline was happy in her new role, marriage suited her and she loved being the mistress of her own home in the country.

Sadly it was not long before Caroline would have to call on her nursing experience as she cared for her husband through a long illness. His death shattered her, and it took a long time to for her to pick up the pieces of her life.

Her husband had left everything to her, but she knew that was because he wanted her to support the son of his first marriage. She understood his strengths and his weaknesses and she did her best for him and for the young woman who would become his wife.

The story ends when Caroline had found peace; content with her own company and with the knowledge that she had good friends and a role to play in the lives of her younger relations.

This is a long book, it is very well written and the story is told at a stately pace. At first I found it difficult to warm to. Caroline’s story rang true but it wasn’t engaging, and I didn’t feel close to it. It felt that I was hearing a story second-hand, that I was being told about the friend of a friend; but as the story progressed I came to appreciate it more and more.

Helen Ashton understood her subject, her life and the world she lived in very well, and she portrayed them with sympathy, empathy and wonderful control. She made her points simply and effectively, and I appreciated that Caroline was the kind of woman, she led the kind of life that isn’t often placed at the centre of a work of fiction.

When it was published this must have seen very old-fashioned. The story is set in the twentieth century but the style is nineteenth century; but that I think that it works.

I admired ‘A Background for Caroline more than I loved it, but I am glad that Caroline’s story was told and I think that the style of the story suited its subject.
… (mer)
½
2 rösta
Flaggad
BeyondEdenRock | Oct 25, 2018 |
"He was an architect, and very much in love with his profession"
By sally tarbox on 19 Jan. 2014
Format: Paperback
I couldn't put this down from page 1, where we are introduced to pleasant, enthusiastic young Martin Lovell, off on a visit to Rome where he can indulge his passion for architecture. But at the guest-house he encounters the redoubtable Lady Stapleford, a widow in straitened circumstances, resolved in marrying off her pretty but non-academic daughter Letty:
' "Now I don't believe", said Lady Stapleford with deceptive candour, "in keeping young people waiting about after they've made up their minds to marry each other...It would be extremely selfish of me", said the judge's widow, who did not mean to incur the expense of a London wedding, or risk the sobering effect of a change of scene and the likelihood of a young man's inconstancy.'
The novel then covers the next forty years; the married life of two such different characters, Martin's unabating interest in his subject, children, an interfering mother-in-law... Beautifully written, with a very moving ending.
… (mer)
½
 
Flaggad
starbox | 4 andra recensioner | Jul 10, 2016 |
This is the fourth Helen Ashton novel that I have read, and I have to start by explaining that my feelings about Parson Austen’s Daughter are a little mixed. Firstly, those other Helen Ashton novels concerned houses, architecture and the life of a hospital, all of which Ashton does appear to have been particularly good at writing about. Parson Austen’s Daughter is a fictional account of the life of Jane Austen – although much of the focus of the novel is on the lives of her siblings. Ashton does manage to inject some lovely architectural details into the stories of the places the Austen family live. She sets her novel firmly within the historical context of the times, and so we experience the French Terror and long Napoleonic wars though the eyes of her characters. I think one of the slight problems with this novel is that we already think we know Jane Austen – only our knowledge is from biographies and letters, so somehow even though Ashton is a very good writer – the Jane who emerges from this novel is just a little too flat. Still I don’t want to rubbish the book, it may not be her best novel, it is very readable and engaging, well written and compelling.

“When Cassandra Austen was an old woman, she would sit and remember Steventon. Whether by her own fireside at Chawton Cottage, or in the library of her nephew’s fine house at Godmersham in Kent, or in the sunny window at Portsdown Lodge, visiting her brother the Admiral, she would fold her hands on the lap of her black satin gown under her cashmere shawl, close eyes, nod her head a little and let her mind run back into the past.”

The novel takes us from the year of Jane’s birth in 1775 to her death in 1817. Jane and Cassandra are portrayed as close, quite devoted sisters, who stay pretty close to home after their brothers leave for school or the navy. Visits to family members are made frequently – but the lives of the two sisters are busy enough at Steventon, their father a much respected Parson, treated like a squire by the locals. In time Jane’s elder brother comes into the curacy at his father’s second church, and in time steps into his shoes at Steventon.

One of the fun aspects of this novel for readers who know their Jane Austen novels well is to find – in the characters of Jane’s family – the traits and likenesses of the characters she later wrote about. We see for example in the character of James’s second wife a woman at times reminiscent of Mrs John Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility. Another sister in law Eliza was such a colourful character that she must have provided Jane with plenty of inspiration. One brother is taken into the home of rich relatives, his future assured, while another – Frank Austen – goes off to sea at a very tender seeming age. So those wars which sometimes seem conspicuous by their absence in Jane’s novels obviously loomed very large in her life and that of her family.

Jane is known by her family and friends for being sharp, a good storyteller, but as she starts her writing a little more seriously, only Cassandra and one or two others know about her ‘scribbling’. Using the small amounts of spare time she has to write to the best of her ability, Jane often shares her stories with her sister and later with her adored niece Fanny. Time and again Jane would have to lay aside her writing, often for long periods, but she finished eventually reading them aloud to her delighted father. It took a long time for her books to start appearing, and despite their enormous popularity Jane remained shy of her writing and all the fuss they produced.

Ashton does do a very good job at portraying the terrible heartbreaks suffered both Cassandra and Jane – they both knew what it was to be disappointed in love, to grieve for men they had hoped to find happiness with. Here Jane is shown to have eventually become a little cynical about romance, and the realities of a woman’s lot. No one could really blame her, aside from her own and Cassandra’s heartbreak she watched sister in laws die in child birth, while she and Cassandra had to endure teasing from middle aged matrons about their own dashed hopes of marriage and motherhood. However, we also see how absolutely devoted to her family Jane was, how her nieces and nephews grew up to love and feel true pride in their beloved Aunt Jane.

Over their lifetimes Jane and Cassandra lived in lots of houses, they stayed with relatives and of course spent some years in Bath. Steventon, Bath, holidays in Sidmouth Ashton does a good job at bringing these places to life.

“They remained in Sidmouth for two weeks, until Mr Austen was fit to travel. It was a pretty innocent fishing village, struggling to turn itself into a watering place, with one or two bathing-machines and a circulating library.”

I can’t help but wonder why Helen Ashton chose to write about the Austen family – a fascination I presume – but perhaps other subjects suited her slightly better. I enjoyed meeting the other members of the Austen family who perhaps don’t feature so prominently in the biographies of Jane Austen’s life. Actually Ashton squeezes a lot of fascinating stories about this family into her novel – some stories I already knew from biographies, and others I either had forgotten or didn’t know. I still think Helen Ashton is a very good writer, and I shall continue to seek out these old books by her.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
Heaven-Ali | Jul 3, 2016 |
Recently I wrote about Helen Ashton – and my pleasure at finding some copies of her books which remain (with the exception of one) out of print. My copy, a 1956 hardback sadly lacks the dust jacket pictured above.

I had seen mixed reviews of The Half-Crown House – the third Helen Ashton book I have read – but I have to say I very much enjoyed it. Many readers might find it a little bit of a slow burn – I do think that that is simply Helen Ashton’s style. The story is that of a house on one day – with flashbacks to the past and the recent-ish history of the family who live there.

In the difficult years following the Second World War the families who owned large houses of a certain type had to rethink the way that they were run – if they had any chance of surviving. Fountain Court is a much smaller house than the famous houses like Chatsworth and Althorp – and is less of a draw to sightseers. On Saturdays and Wednesdays between April and the end of October Fountain Court is open to the public –for an entrance fee of half a crown. The household staff and members of the Hornbeam family who live there act as guides to keep down the costs. Built on the foundations of a Cistercian Abbey; Fountain Court had been home to the Hornbeam family since the Reformation. I loved Aston’s portrayal of the house, a place definitely feeling its age – it has its attics and dark corners and alongside the human occupants are the creatures that find their way in through its ancient nooks and crannies.

“At night the rats came out and frisked boldly through the attics, gnawed and scratched their way under doors, ran about with the thumping noises in empty rooms. The house-mice scampered up and down their own long corridors under the floor-boards; they squeaked and fought among the joists, made themselves nests out of nibbled paper and rags. Every autumn, when the corn and been carried, there was an invasion of field-mice; one year they got into the velvet pillows of the state bed in the Queen’s room, shut up for the winter, and nibbled holes in the embroidered curtains; cats and traps could not keep pace with the field-mice. They would get into the larder and drown themselves in cream-pans.”

The novel opens on the 30th October 1954 – the last day of the year that Fountain Court will be open before the long winter break. It is a busy day – the small group of visitors paying their half-crowns to look around just the least of it. Living in the old house now are just two of the remaining Hornbeam family – Henrietta – still mourning the death of her beloved twin brother during the war, and her grandmother; the dowager Lady Hornbeam. Henrietta’s young brother had married just a few weeks before his death, and the posthumous child (the fifth Baron Hornbeam) of that rash marriage is just nine years old – and coming to live at Fountain Court on the day the story opens. His mother has re-married and poor young Victor is being sent to live with his father’s family in the house which one day will belong to him. Sad to be saying goodbye to his mother, Victor won’t miss his horrid stepfather – Mr Pine – who smarts at the memory of his wife’s first husband.

“Henrietta did not come a moment too soon. She had been down the garden, she said, tidying up the herbaceous border. She kissed her nephew and his mother, offered tea or coffee and a walk through the State rooms, but could not persuade Mr Pine to abandon his grievance. “I got no time to spare,” was his ungracious answer to everything. “we’re late as it is. We got to get back to Stafford. There’s a man coming to see me about a conversion-job.” Inside ten minutes he had them all out under the pillared portico and had started up a car with a snout like a mouth-organ; his new wife was kneeling on the black and white marble flagstones, with her fur coat spread round her, kissing goodbye to her son. As they drove away she looked back and saw him standing by his tall aunt. He raised his hand in a timid farewell and his mother’s eyes filled with tears; after this morning he would never really be her boy anymore.”

Cousin Charles; came home from the war minus one arm and one eye, his help and support in running the estate, so invaluable to Henrietta – lives above the stables. Nanny is looking forward to having a child in the nursery again – and Mr Leaf the butler is preparing for an important lunch. Henrietta has been spending time with John Cornell, an American who has been staying at the nearby American base where his younger brother had served. John has organised a meeting between Henrietta and an antiques expert – who might be willing to buy a family portrait – money that the family and Fountain Court, desperately need. As Henrietta prepares for the meeting, all too aware of the feelings that John Cornell has begun to have towards her – her wily old grandmother upstairs attended faithfully by her Swiss maid is nursing a few old secrets. Henrietta is desperately attached to Fountain Court – she is desperate to save it – many people believe she should simply give it up – but would she really consider making a life with the American (as he is invariably referred to) and leave?

Although the action, such as it is – takes place on one day – a day heralding great change – the past weaves in and out of the 30th October 1954 through the stories we hear of the past. Memories are shared and recounted, stories that include a Queen’s visit, a disastrous marriage, several family tragedies and scandals. Ashton creates a lovely sense of history – a crumbling old house and a family still living in the past. As a visitor to many old English houses myself, where one hears so many similar stories – I know what changes the twentieth century brought to houses like this.
… (mer)
½
1 rösta
Flaggad
Heaven-Ali | Feb 14, 2016 |

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Statistik

Verk
25
Medlemmar
308
Popularitet
#76,456
Betyg
½ 3.6
Recensioner
10
ISBN
25

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