Jane Eyre & Thornton

Having seen many adaptations of Jane Eyre on the television, I finally got around to reading the book, which I found absorbing, even if I always did know the outcome. I have to admit that I needed to spend some time peering into my dictionary to check up on some words, particularly some of the Archaic ones. I also realised that my schoolboy French from some 50 years ago could not totally cope with some of the French used in the book - never mind, I really enjoyed the read and some of the descriptive passage were absolutely marvellous.

There is obviously a connection between Charlotte Bronte and Thornton, in as much as she was born there on Market Street (There is a photo of the commemorative plaque in October’s archive on Holiday - Day 6). The reason for the double heading on this Post is that I have also just acquired and read “Thornton Road” by Michael Smith of the Thornton Antiquarian Society. There is an enormous amount of information in this booklet and I need to read through certain parts again to identify places on a road, which I fondly thought that I knew quite well - oh how wrong can one be! if I look really closely, I can just see the top of “Oakroyd” on the photograph of Priestly Street.

Endurance

For Father’s Day this year, Andrew and Amy bought me “Endurance” by Alfred Lansing. This is the story of Ernest Shackleton’s voyage to the Antarctic commencing in 1914. I have just finished reading it and although I knew something of the voyage, it was well worth reading what was an incredible story of survival. For anyone who hasn’t read it, I would strongly recommend it. I have just one criticism of the book; there is only one map included and it does not show a lot of the place names mentioned in the text, so, before you start, obtain good maps of Antarctica adjacent to the Weddell Sea and of South Georgia Island. Enjoy your read.