General Chat

" The Loving Spirit " was a book that my late mother particularly loved . She encouraged me to read it many years ago when I was in my teens . I have since attempted to get my eldest daughter to give it a go but she rejected it as it looked " old fashioned " in its musty cover .
Back in April we all went on holiday to Wales and in the house we stayed in was a large selection of random books shoved in a cupboard......one of them happened to be " The Loving Spirit " , daughter was bored so I shoved the book in her direction and left her to it.......come the morning , there she was , bleary eyed having stayed up all night reading it . A triumphant moment for me .

She phoned me this morning in a state of amazement , having just been in a charity shop up the High Street with a friend , she tells me she saw a copy of said book on the shelf and started saying to her friend " you HAVE to read this , it's a beautiful story " she picked it up and opened it ...........and there was her Nans name scribed on the inside ! .

I can just imagine that my Mum is smiling from the " other side " ............and The Loving Spirit continues one it's way : )))

It had that effect on my daughter Beverley......lovely isn't it : ))

That is lovely Amanda :))) I'm all 'teary' now lol.

xx

wow, thats amazing amanda, like ti was ment to be, x

LOL...Rose , I knew you would like it .

What I can't understand is how the copy got to the shop . My Mum had a vast book collection and as she often said she was a " greedy old woman " when it came to things she loved , she would buy every copy of a book that she stumbled upon , hence four copies of " Mary Rose " , three or four of " Precious Bane " and several of " The LOving Spirit " .
I have her oiginal copy ( 1953 ) written on the cover by her . I had a copy of my own ( which I can't find ? ) ..........this one must have slipped under my " radar " when I was sorting out her collection back in 2006.

I'm just so pleased that it's found it's way back..........lol

Stray .....thats exactly what I said to my daughter : )) x

http://www.dumaurier.org/reviews-spirit.html


The Loving Spirit ......... I 've just finished reading it again , well I had to really didn't I , seeing as my daughter gave me the copy she had " found " in the charity shop : )

It is a beautiful novel and I've always thought it had the feel of being very real . Being a bit curious I googled the title and found the info ( in the link above ) ..............then , being curious about the fact the author had apparently used a real family as the basis of her I novel , I looked them up in the cencuses .....and there they all are ( names a bit muddled from the ones in the novel but it's them for certain ) .

All very interesting and strangly heart warming .

how wonderful xx

Amanda you're made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up lol amazing coincidence!!

Will lookout for the book

Mau :O) X

Hello Mau ......it's a wonderful novel , really it is . I hope you manage to get hold of a copy : ))

What a lovely story. Couldn't make it up could you?

What a lovely surprise for you,
Kind regards, Liz

thats a book I couldnt get into but still have kicking about ,,,,mind I'm not a fan of her...

thats a spooky one,,,,}

How lovely that your daughter found the book with her Nan's name on, it sounds my kind of book so will look out for it when I check out bookstalls or charity shops.

Lizx

just googled.....


Daphne du Maurier’s first novel was The Loving Spirit. She wrote it in 1929, at Ferryside, the du Maurier family’s holiday home at Bodinnick in Cornwall. She was twenty-two years old and had already written a number of short stories, some of which had been published in a magazine called the Bystander
She was inspired to write the book after discovering the wreck of a schooner called the Jane Slade in Pont Creek and then reading the letters and boatyard records of the Slade family, who were shipbuilders in the nearby village of Polruan. She visited the Slade family graves at the local church of Lanteglos and talked to Harry Adams, who was a member of the Slade family. Gradually she built up a picture of the family and their life and history, until the story of The Loving Spirit began to form in her mind. The Slade family became the Coombe family, with Janet Coombe as the central character. Polruan became Plyn and Lanteglos church became Lanoc church.

The Loving Spirit is a family saga spanning four generations of the Coombe family, ship builders and mariners, who live in and around the Cornish village of Plyn. The key characters are Janet Coombe, her son Joseph, his son Christopher and Christopher’s daughter Jennifer.

Its still available from Amazon.com - printed book or Kindle download.


xxxx mick

Sorry to hear you couldn't get into it Kay .......having said that , the first time I tried to tempt my daughter with it so wasn't in the least bit interested ...lol
I haven't read any other De Murier books ( but I do like the Birds film ) .

Liz .....that's the bit I read that alerted me to the Slade name and thus looking it up in the censuses .
It is the sort of book that turns up at jumble sales and charity shops .

I saw it was on Amazon Mick ...... I have two copies already .....lol

If I don't find it I will get one from Amazon, there are plenty of pre read copies so cheaper still.

Lizx

I hope you enjoy reading it when you get hold of a copy Liz : ))