Product Description

Flora's own 'lost' sequel to 'Lark Rise to Candleford'

When the young Flora Thompson took up her duties at Grayshott post-office in 1898, she found to her amazement that her customers included Arthur Conan Doyle and George Bernard Shaw. The neighbouring settlement of Hindhead had attracted many eminent Victorians to take up residence, and the telegraph machine at Grayshott which Flora was employed to operate was their prime means of communication to the outside world.In 'Heatherley', she tells us that as a result of meeting these famous authors she 'destroyed her own scraps of writing, saying to herself as they smouldered to tinder that that was the end of a foolish idea.'Fortunately it did not stop her altogether, and from the perspective of some forty-five years after the events described, Flora Thompson remembers with her usual clarity back to a time when bicycles and Kodak cameras were just becoming popular, and she herself was guilty of crossing the strict conventions of propriety at the end of the nineteenth century.With this book, Flora picks up the story of her life a year after she left 'Candleford Green' and her native Oxfordshire to arrive in 'heathery' Hampshire. Here she was to stay, off and on, for the next 30 years of her life. But although she completed the typescript of this sequel to 'Lark Rise to Candleford', Flora never published it. Instead, many years later, it was included in a posthumous collection of her writings by Margaret Lane entitled 'A Country Calendar and other works' - which has been out of print now for some years.In this new edition, celebrating the centenary of her arrival in Grayshott, we have reviewed Flora's original typescript and added illustrations and historical notes as well as some fresh material found in her archives, now in the University of Texas. Introduction by Anne Mallinson of Selborne; chapter illustrations by Hester Whittle; historical notes by John Owen Smith

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31659 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Reviews
"Author's 'lost' sequel reprinted by enthusiasts - The centenary of the arrival in Grayshott of the late author, Flora Thompson, was celebrated recently with the reprint, by a trio of local enthusiasts, of 'Heatherley'. Described as Flora's own 'lost' sequel to 'Lark Rise to Candleford', this new edition comprises a review of the original typescript with added illustrations and historical notes, as well as some fresh material found in her archives, now in the University of Texas.Published by Headley author and historian, John Owen Smith, with delightful pen and ink illustrations by Hester Whittle of Headley Down, the foreword has been written by Anne Mallinson, who for years has sought to promote the work of Flora Thompson from her former bookshop at Selborne and via local literary societies. Mrs Mallinson, whose own research was helped considerably by the late eminent biographer, Margaret Lane, offers a remarkable insight into the work of Flora Thompson which will add to the reader's enjoyment and understanding of this and other works." - Alton Herald - 5th March 1999

"Flora fans to welcome new volume - If your bookshelf already contains Flora Thompson's 'Lark Rise to Candleford' and one or both of the biographies on the author, you doubtless will want to buy 'Heatherley'. This is described as the lost sequel to the 'Lark Rise' trilogy and has just been re-published. In 'Heatherley', Flora again demonstrates her acute eye for people with a number of telling thumbnail portraits. - though in the light of their continued status it was a pity she did not make more of her sketches of George Bernard Shaw and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Flora's innate modesty even prevented her from naming them and she described Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories as the invention of "a new fiction." We must be grateful for publisher's footnotes identifying the authors. 'Heatherley' is a gentle discourse on the life and times of one part of Hampshire that Flora was to return to later in life when her husband became postmaster at nearby Liphook. Anyone fond of Lark Rise will want to explore this follow-up volume." - Peter Barrington - Bicester Advertiser - 14th January 1999 "This is a book in which to enjoy a variety of keenly-observed situations and topics. There is also a wide review of many nostalgic memories of the age. Flora Thompson returned to Heatherley as Laura in the last chapter, some 20 years after she left, and found the village "little changed in appearance." She walked among the old familiar scenes like a ghost of the past. Very few people were in the streets of the village and of those few, none recognised her. 'Heatherley', which is published by John Owen Smith and illustrated by Hester Whittle, is a book to which I will certainly return." - Roy Kersley - Bordon/Petersfield Post - 17th March 1999

Kathy Lemaire - School Librarian - Vol 47, Number 2, Summer 1999
Unlike the well-known 'Lark Rise to Candleford' trilogy, this later semi-autobiographical work was never published in Flora Thompson's lifetime. What makes this edition of 'Heatherley' particularly interesting is the footnotes and additional material, giving information about the people on whom she based her fictional characters. The publishers have taken great pains to consult Flora Thompson's original typescript for this edition, as well as earlier drafts which include an extra chapter, and thus have produced a fascinating document which could be read both for the story and for the background that it gives to the life of this village at the turn of the last century.

From the Publisher
In producing this new edition of Heatherley to mark the centenary of Flora's arrival in Hampshire, we have reviewed her original typescript alongside the version edited by Margaret Lane and previously published by Oxford University Press.This has enabled us to correct a small number of errors which had occurred in that transcription, and occasionally to revert to Flora's phraseology and punctuation where we felt this was better than in the amended version. We have also looked at a number of her earlier typescript drafts, some of which (including the 'new' chapter) were discovered in the last few years by Flora's biographer Gillian Lindsay, and this has allowed us to add information which the previous version did not contain-and the publisher's own historical research has provided notes into the people and places Flora would have known while she was in 'Heatherley' during the years 1898-1901.Thanks are due to Anne Mallinson for the Introduction; to Hester Whittle for the illustrations at the start of chapters; to The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas, Austin, for loan of original material; to Oxford University Press for permission to republish; and to Elizabeth Swaffield, Flora's granddaughter, for copyright permission.

Customer Reviews

A great find - and a great read
What a wonderful find this book has been - Flora Thompson's "lost" sequel to her classic trilogy "Lark Rise to Candleford". In Heatherley, Flora continues to share her life experiences, which give us a glimpse of rural life almost a hundred years ago. Written in her natural and compelling style, this book, too, will surely become a classic. Jo Smith's historical notes help to identify the characters and places giving the book even greater value for social historians and those who enjoy a great read.

A must buy for fans of Lark Rise!!!!!
Concentrating on Flora Thompsons time as a post office assistant in Grayshott, Hampshire. Heatherley continues in the same beautifully written vein as the more well known Lark Rise to Candleford stories. I finished this book in a day or so and found I just couldn't put it down. Like Lark Rise, this is more of a personal memoir than a story, and it is incredibly heartwarming and moving to realise that the many characters written here were real living, breathing people with very different stories and experiences that Thompson writes with real humanity and feeling.
I live just a few miles from where this is set, but you need not have seen or walked the heath or streets for a picture of the landscape and village, as the writing is so poignantly vivid that you will soon find yourself transported to Flora's time and world.
Any fans of Lark Rise must buy this book to discover what happened next in Flora's (or Laura's as she continues to refer to herself) life, and will again enjoy and appreciate the beautifully written passages on the surrounding nature as much as the tales of the people. Highly recommended!!!!!

Charming
Having read Larkrise to Candleford which was superb, I was looking forward to reading Flora's lost sequal. I was a little tiny bit disappointed in that for me it did not quite have the magical charm of Larkrise to Candleford. But of course Laura is older now and has left home and family and leads an independent life. Chunks of the autobiography centre around various people whose lives Laura is involved in and I missed hearing about her home and family back in Larkrise. However, in this book Flora has given us brilliant insight into life and history at the turn of the century and I have learnt a lot about the Boer War and the death of Queen Victoria. And of course, this is not being written from vast history books but is Flora's very own account seen with her own eye and felt with her tender heart. Having now read her 2 books, I can see what a very special person Flora was. Through her writing she comes over as a genuingly caring, thoughtful, gentle and generous lady. At one point in the book she is lodging with a family and would dearly have liked to help her landlady in the kitchen by doing some cooking and laundry, but to do so would have caused problems with her landlady, which our ever thoughtful Flora would not wish to do. I am convinced that had I been able to meet Flora, I would have liked her immediatley for her delightful personality and gentle soul. I do recommend this book if you are a fan of Larkrise to Candleford, by either book or current TV and / or a lover of nature and history. My aim now is to read her biography. Only then will I feel satisfied that I know Flora from beginning to end