Reading about winter

 

Maybe someone would like to know what inspired me to take a different view of winter.  I hope so as I'm about to tell you.  None of the articles or books I list has entirely explained my own hibernaculum experience but all have helped. 

I read "Worried about winter? 10 ways to thrive – from socialising to Sad lamps to celebrating the new year in April"  back in November 2024 but didn't do much about it.  I've added a link so you can find this article in The Guardian.  It's about a book written by Dr Stephanie Fitzgerald called The Gifts of Winter.   And I enjoyed the book.

"Winter is coming, but don't panic!" was another article in The Guardian, this time in November 2025.  The main source for this one was  Kari Leibowitz who wrote  "How to winter".  Not as helpful to me as The Gifts of Winter but I still enjoyed it.

One widely recommended book in, "Wintering: the power of rest and retreat in difficult times" by Katherine May.  It didn't do much for me though.

I've included links to the articles and to the books on Amazon UK.  Actually, I listened to the books rather than reading them - my knitting has come on a treat!

It's Winnie the Pooh Day!

That's what Alexa told me when I wished her Good Morning today.

A A Milne was born on this day in 1882.  He was already an established writer for "Punch" and as a playwright when a teddy bear appeared in poetry from the early 1920's.  The bear's name didn't appear until 1925 and was the used in the "Winnie the Pooh" collection of stories published in 1926.  Winnie was named after the female black bear called Winnipeg who lived in London Zoo.  

I was brought up on the two Pooh Bear collections ("Winnie the Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner") with the charming illustrations by E H Shepard which I still prefer to the rather garish Disney jobbies.  These days I still enjoy Alan Bennet's slightly lugubrious readings as an audiobook.  I think my favourite story is "In Which Tigger Comes to the Forest and Has Breakfast" which Alexa often reads to me at bedtime.  Not that I am a big kid, though!

“What day is it?” asked Pooh.

“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.

“My favourite day,” said Pooh.

Pru

Writing about Alzheimer's disease yesterday brought to mind the death of Prunella Scales this week.  She was a wonderful actress (Sybil Fawlty amazed me) but she has had Alzheimer's for many years.  The courage shown by her and Timothy West, her late husband, when they spoke publicly about that terrible disease has been stunning.

She and Timothy West were married over sixty years until he sadly predeceased her not quite a year ago, having cared for her for many years.  He'd noticed that something wasn't quite right as early as 2001.  

She was a wonderful narrator of audiobooks.  Her reading of "Cranford" has long been one of my favourite bedtime stories.  She had just the right voice to read E F Benson's "Mapp and Lucia" books and I also enjoyed her renditions of some of the "Fairacres" stories by Miss Read.  I'm so glad that I will be able to continue to listen to her gentle but wonderfully clear voice.

C is for Cranford

Anybody else love theTV adaptations of the classics?  I find that a good drama series really inspires me to read or, more likely, listen to, the original book.  

Over the years I've read The Forsyte Saga, Nicholas Nickleby, Vanity Fair and many, many more.  Until they are brought to life on the small screen so many classics look too boring to leap onto my reading list   

I loved the TV adaptation of Cranford and rewatched it recently.  With a cast including Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton and Julia MacKenzie, it was bound to be good!  I got an audiobook read by Prunella Scales and it is now my bedtime favourite.

But I can hardly believe how different the TV series and the book are.  The televised version is actually a conflation of three books: Cranford, My Lady Ludlow and Mr Harrison's Confessions.

Mrs Gaskell's "Cranford" has no real plot.  It was written as a series of short pieces about some spinsters and widows who work very hard to keep up an appearance of "gentility".  It's about a changing society and strong aversion to change.  Threats to the established order must be fiercely resisted - and they are!  The lack of a plot doesn't matter: what I enjoyed is the insights into mid-Victorian provincial life.

Have you been inspired by classical adaptations?