Gillian Tindall on Stapleton Hall

Mirandola

Gillian Tindall (her of What Lies Beneath has) has written a new book 'Three Houses, Many Lives'. One of the houses is Stapleton Hall. <br><br><img style="width: 463px; height: 347px;" alt="File:Stroud Green Stapleton Hall.JPG" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8a/Stroud_Green_Stapleton_Hall.JPG/800px-Stroud_Green_Stapleton_Hall.JPG"><br><br>Discuss. <br>

Arkady

Perhaps the book group should read this next and tell us all about it.<br><br>Have you read it?<br>

Mirandola

No - it's only just been published. I will do, though. 

Donna

Why has she written about it?

miss annie

Reviewed today in Metro!

gardener-joe

Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/historybookreviews/9305840/Three-Houses-Many-Lives-by-Gillian-Tindall-review.html Telegraph, the author expains: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9297152/The-life-within-stone-bricks-and-mortar.html Evening Standard: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/historybookreviews/9305840/Three-Houses-Many-Lives-by-Gillian-Tindall-review.html Guardian: http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9780701185183

Donna

It's cheaper on amazon but has a terrible review. Have you read it gardener joe? What do you think? Am also interested in one about campbell bunk.

Mirandola

Campbell Bunk is definitely worth reading, but the Tindall is likely to be easier going. May I recommend buying it in the excellent Big Green Bookshop or Miss Annie's Waterstone's rather than Amazon? Or you could buy Campbell Bunk secondhand from Abe:  <a href="http://www.abebooks.co.uk/">http://www.abebooks.co.uk</a>. ;

dion

(abebooks is owned by amazon according to wikipedia)

Mirandola

@dion Yeah, I know but at least some money goes to the bookshops

gardener-joe

@Donna: No, I have not read it. I am not Ms Tindall's greatest fan. For me, the problem is that her acquisition of historical fact, indeed her overall historical method is not solid, although in fairness to the author she writes fiction based on history rather than history 'per se', and so she is entitled to creative licence with the facts. Notwithstanding my own reservations, I wish more strength to her elbow, since she is undoubtedly trying to bring historical period to life, which enlivens people's historical imagination and keeps 'the book' alive.

ChangN4N6

Is she the one who played Cathy Beale in Eastenders? Not seen her around for a long while. Now I know why. Many talents , I guess . And she was a lesbian in Footballers Wives? Amazing. Chang

Ali

<P>Chang  you are as confused as ever</P> <P> </P>

Donna

Have ordered it (from amazon) will let you know what I think. Going to read Campbell bunk first...

Idoru

Kind of relevant - what is the next book group book and when is the next meeting?<br>

checkski

Is that the book by Jerry White? If so, it's a fascinating account of a local den of crime and iniquity, where even the police feared to go. All that remains now is  a wall on the Six Acres Estate, backing the Fonthill Road shops. Before caustic remarks are made about  Six Acres and the Andover today, there is absolutely no comparison with the past. My informants who live there are decent people, and not spooked by a Bunk-style crime scene. Miss Annie will confirm - won't she?

krappyrubsnif

My review of the Gillian Tindall book:<br><br><i>A house in Stroud Green - a muddy place in Middlesex</i>.<br><br><a href="http://krappyrubsnif.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/review-house-in-stroud-green-muddy.html">krappyrubsnif.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/review-house-in-stroud-green-muddy.html</a><br><br>Overall conclusion: interesting read, good information, fascinating on the social history of the area.    But terrible presentation, and she does come over as a bit hoity-toity. Seven out of ten.   <br>

ChangN4N6

Interesting review. I think I was right. Chang

ADGS

As regards the description of modern Stroud Green as "boring and plain", modern Kentish Town gets quite the slagging off in <i>The Fields Beneath</i> too. I think the peril for some writers of seeing the past in the streets around them is that it can bring the present's flaws into starker relief - Iain Sinclair suffers from this too. Whereas I prefer the school who, like Alan Moore, see it in a way that enriches the present by bringing forth hidden treasures. 

krappyrubsnif

 Tell me more about this  Alan Moore.<br><br>If I read TFB again, I would probably agree with you<br>

ADGS

<span style="font-style: normal;">Alan Moore - best known for </span><i>Watchmen</i> and <i>V for Vendetta</i>, especially since the masks from the latter became a global symbol of protest. But has long since lost interest in superheroes, and currently working on his second Northampton-set novel, which he says will solve the problem of death and the afterlife without ever leaving one district of the town. For London psychogeography, check out his Ripper epic <i>From Hell</i>, which bears minimal resemblance to the Johnny Depp film of the same name.

ChangN4N6

Northampton? This seems hardcore. Chang