In the eighteenth century some remarkable young women crossed the ocean to seek their fortunes. Margaret Maskelyne who married Clive of India and was sister to Nevil Masquelyne, Astronomer Royal, was one of the cleverest – and funniest. Bob Fowke, YouCaxton’s Managing Editor, will be speaking on Margaret Clive and her friends at Hyssington Village Hall, 7.30 Thursday 22nd November.
Peter Francis, author of Sites of Remembrance: Shropshire War Memorials, published by YouCaxton, will be giving a talk on the memorials of Mid-Wales on Thursday 22nd November at Aberhafwesp Church at 7.00 pm, between Newtown and Caersws. All welcome.
Bob Fowke, Managing Editor at You Caxton, will be talking about Robert Clive and Shropshire on Wednesday 14 November, 3.15 pm, at Shrewsbury Museum.
Robert Clive is perhaps Shropshire’s most famous son after Darwin. He was clever, absurdly brave and absurdly rich and suffered from bouts of depression. Bob Fowke pieces together the story of his long and colourful association with Shropshire and examines the importance of ‘county’ or ‘country’ in eighteenth-century life.
Clive was born at Styche Hall, the impoverished family home near Market Drayton, and it was there that he first displayed his ‘martial disposition’. On his return from India in 1760, aged thirty-four and already famous, he returned to Shropshire, rented Condover Hall and became MP for Shrewsbury. The following year, he bought Walcot Hall near Bishop’s Castle where he installed his younger brother William as MP. Later he bought Oakley Park near Ludlow where his widow Margaret continued to live after his death.
Clive’s story started in Shropshire and it ended there. He died in London, at his house in Berkley Square, probably having committed suicide, but his body was returned to Shropshire secretly and buried at dusk in an unmarked grave in Moreton Saye Church near Market Drayton.
The Ironbridge Ogre, a children’s story by Toni Sian Williams, published by YouCaxton Publications and supported by Telford Council, is being launched on 1st November at Southwater Library Telford, 11.00 am – 2 pm. All are welcome.
The Wildlife Roleplay Book by Jenny Sugen, published by YouCaxton, received a charming boost the other day. Jenny’s daughter was at a conservation evening in London where Sir David Attenborough was a special guest. Not only was Sir David happy to pose with Jenny’s daughter and the book, he also wrote to Jenny by hand afterward to thank her for letting him see it.
David Pracy’s minutely researched new book, A Purely Agricultural Parish? Nazeing before and during the Great War, published by YouCaxton and part of our History Series, is being launched at an exhibition by the Nazeing History Workshop, 5-7 May, at St. Giles Hall, Nazeing Road, Essex, EN9 2HU. Admission is free and there is a special offer on titles previously published by Nazeing History Workshop.
A Purely Agricultural Parish? contains a wealth of detailed information about Nazeing families of all classes immediately before and during World War I and is enlivened by 180 illustrations. It is a very effective account of the social make-up of Nazeing at that time. It will be on sale at £10.00.
At 7.30 pm on Thursday 17th May, in Bishop’s Castle Town Hall, YouCaxton Managing Editor Bob Fowke will be repeating his talk, ‘Margaret Clive and Friends’, interest from the public having exceeded the available space in February.
During the eighteenth century some remarkable young women crossed the ocean to India to seek their fortunes. Margaret Maskelyne who married Clive of India and was sister to Nevill Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal, was one of the cleverest – and funniest. Bob Fowke will be exploring her life and the network of her friends, in a talk relating to his upcoming book.
‘Women were an essential element within the Company from its earliest days. The gravestones and memorials around Saint Mary’s Church in Fort St George, Chennai/Madras, bear ample testimony; around a quarter of them are of women, several dying early in childbirth. But those tragic deaths tell only part of the story. It took courage, ambition and a spirit of adventure to travel to the far side of the world in search of love and fortune and the young women who undertook that journey were exceptional people, setting out of their own accord, sometimes with only the grudging consent of parents or guardians, and confidently accepting the risks. Many of them traded independently and some were of high intellect …’
An excellent review in the Oxford Times, 18 January 2018 by Christopher Gray of Ian Flintoff’s novel, Gatsby at Trinity, production and distribution by YouCaxton Publications:
‘THE television showing over Christmas of the excellent 2013 film version of Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio (and an even better Tobey Maguire) prompted me to take out a book that had languished some months in my ‘waiting to read’ pile. This was Gatsby at Trinity (Pitchfork Production, £9.99) by the Oxford-based actor, writer and director Ian Flintoff – and what a delight it proved. Impeccably researched and elegantly written, the novel traces the mysterious millionaire’s formative years, after First World War service in the US army, as an undergraduate at Oxford University. His student days are, of course, alluded to in The Great Gatsby, though it is never entirely clear whether they were pure invention. Gatsby certainly convinced the sinister character Meyer Wolfsheim. Who can forget his observation: “He’s an Oggsford man. He went to Oggsford College in England. You know Oggsford College?” The college in fact was Trinity, alma mater to Ian Flintoff too. Tom Buchanan, supercilious about Gatsby’s claim in The Great Gatsby, is shown a photograph of Jay in Trinity Quad – “the man on my left is now the Earl of Doncaster”. We get to meet the aristocrat as Lord Cusworth, one of Gatsby’s college companions, in Gatsby at Trinity. It turns out that it was his expression “old sport” that came to be borrowed by Gatsby. “Where’d you pick that up?” Tom asked him in The Great Gatsby, but answer came there none.
In the prequel we learn from Lord Cusworth that he employs the device as a means of disguising the fact that he has forgotten someone’s name. “Nobody’s offended and the old memory gets a decent break for a change.” Highlights of the novel (and Gatsby’s Oxford social life) include a ball at Blenheim where guests include Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward and Edward Elgar.
Great stuff.’