Thank you, Dame Cicely

I refer, of course, to the late, great Dame Cicely Veronica Wedgwood (1910-1997), a superb historian, an unashamed lesbian and a highly intelligent and gracious lady.  She, like me today, was fascinated by the English civil war.  She wrote several histories of the period under the simple name of C. V. Wedgwood in order to disguise her femininity which might, back in those days, have affected her reputation in a male dominated discipline.

As you all know, because I never stop boring on about it, I have become hooked on the civil war period and having finished two excellent histories I came across a rather battered and tattered paperback edition of "The King's War" written by C. V. Wedgwood.  Alas,  the font size is so tiny my poor old eyes cannot cope and, about to give up in despair  because I was enjoying the book so much, I suddenly remembered my local 'Eldorado', or to be precise, Bookbarn International, just up the road from Shepton Mallet, a few miles from here, a warehouse stuffed to the rafters with second-hand books!  They have a proper full-size edition of the volume, it might be a bit scruffy but at least I will be able to read the bloody thing!

I have linked above to C. V. Wedgwood's Wiki entry which provides an outline of her life but more revealing is the obit produced by The Economist at the time of her death.  She sounds like a very principled and intelligent woman.  She lived happily with her female partner for nearly 70 years.  She warded off the sniping of the mostly male historians of her day whilst at the same time receiving much praise from others of them including the usually ultra-prickly A. L. Rowse - another 'hero' of mine.  From what I have read so far, I like her writing style and the signs of a judicious intelligence at work.  Above and beyond all other things, she was, apparently, a keen supporter of Margaret Thatcher - so what's not to like?!

 

Comments

[H]

Nothing to disagree with here, Duffers. The Bookbarn is a great place, and even if you're illiterate, they sell tea and cake. And CVW's three or more (I think) civil war books are even better.

[David Duff]

Quite right, 'H', I was going to mention the café but sometimes the 'Memsahib' reads my nonsense and I didn't want to give the game away!