Strictly Gershwin

Last Friday, I went to see the English National Ballet’s Strictly Gershwin at the London Coliseum.  It was a Christmas present for my mum, and it was as wonderful as we hoped it would be.

I love going to the ballet – I first went to see The Nutcracker as a seven year old with my Mum and my grandmother and was completely entranced by the music, and the dresses, and the dancing and the magic taking place on stage.

Strictly Gershwin included a number of different performances, each to a different piece of Gershwin’s music. In addition to a beautiful, traditional piece of ballet, performed to Rhapsody in Blue (one of my highlights), there was a lovely piece danced to ‘Shall We Dance’ which looked as though it had been lifted straight out of a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie. There were awe-inspiring tap-dancing pieces, an amazing Argentine Tango-esq performance to It Ain’t Necessarily So and a breathtakingly beautiful dance to Summertime. The orchestra was on stage as well, rather than in the pit, which meant you could engage more with the music and the conductor, and there were also singers involved.

The whole evening was amazing – but my absolute favourite piece was the An American in Paris performance. An American in Paris is one of my all time favourite movies – Gene Kelly is amazing and I love the ballet scene at the end. This performance was essentially the scene from the movie; there was so much movement and so  many things happening on stage, the spirit of the film and of Paris was beautifully invoked and well.... it was just perfect.

So, all in all, a lovely evening out – I would definitely recommend Strictly Gershwin to anyone, and I would love to see it again! I had hoped there would be a DVD of it but alas, there appears not to be. So I will have to content myself with getting out my Gershwin CD and enjoying the wonderful music.

Bluestockings - Jane Robinson

I received this book as a present when it first came out in hardback, and I can’t believe it has taken me so long to read it. It covers so many of my areas of interest – women’s history, history of education, women’s rights - that it was bound to be something I would find interesting and enjoyable, and I finally got around to picking it up after the New Year.

I know how fortunate I have been to receive the education that I have had; I have always been encouraged by parents and teachers, and later supervisors and tutors at university, to work hard and to fulfil my potential. I never felt that my gender held me back in terms of the education I have received and the opportunities that were presented to me; reading this book reminded me how hard people had to fight to allow me to have these opportunities.

Robinson’s book explores the development of women’s higher education and focuses on the personal experiences of young women who attended university from 1860s, up until 1939. Education for women was seen as a potentially dangerous activity – the arguments ranged from the physical impact on women, (women using their brains meaning that there would be less blood flow through the rest of the body, and therefore damaging to their fertility), the mental affect (women would be unable to cope with too much information and learning, resulting in women becoming nervous wrecks) and, of course, the moral danger of having women living away from home and being educated alongside men.

Women attending universities were therefore restricted in their activities; for a while, some degree subjects were out of bounds and women lived a fairly cloistered life of rules and regulations, including the need to be chaperoned to lectures. Jane Robinson argues that, although there were rebellious students, many students, and their teachers, felt that these regulations were a necessary evil, and rebellious behaviour would result in universities denying women their studies entirely.  

Robinson also highlights how the huge breakthroughs in women’s university education did not mean that women were then able to progress into a career of their choice. Women were still left with limited options after graduating; whilst some women did break the mould, most became teachers, if not wives or mothers. Robinson argues therefore that these women paved the way for future generations; they fought for their right to an education, allowing their daughters to be educated and then make their own breakthroughs in the professional world. Therefore, by 1939, where Robinson ends her book, there was still numerous barriers to be broken  -  Cambridge, for example, did not award degrees to women until 1948! I would be interested to know if Jane Robinson is writing a follow up to this book, to chart the progress of women’s education from the 1940s onwards.

Whilst Robinson’s book was clearly thoroughly researched and very engaging, I did feel as though it could have been somewhat sharper in its organisation and analysis. It felt a bit haphazard in places, as though she had so many personal anecdotes that she wished to include that she struggled to find clear themes to draw them together or space to analyse these themes. I think I would have enjoyed the book even more if there had been more in-depth examination of certain issues; I felt in places that Robinson stopped a little short of fully engaging with her topic.

A Little About Me...

Welcome to my new blog venture, which will hopefully be a little insight into my interests, looking at the books I read, the cakes I make and other things which I enjoy doing!!

Before I start the ‘blog-proper’, so to speak, I thought I would tell you a little bit about myself! So, here goes...

Firstly, I love books. Ever since I was a little girl, I have had my head stuck in a book, and I now have a major weakness for buying books. I have always loved escaping into a different world, or a different period, and meeting new characters and experiencing new places. I am an absolute liability in a second hand bookshop, when I cannot control the urge to buy, buy, buy books! 

My book collection spans from Classic literature, through biography, history, feminist literature, to contemporary fiction and cooking books. I have a growing collection of Virago Modern Classics and Persephones, and I am an absolute sucker for attractive covers – hence my set of beautiful Penguin Hardback Classics and Virago Hardbacks. 

I am a history graduate, and also have a Master’s degree in Women’s Studies, which covered feminism and women’s history, hence my collection of feminist literature! I have a fairly eclectic range of history books, related to different periods and countries, though I do have a specific interest in women’s history (is a bit of a theme here...!) A lot of the biographies I own are about authors, as I am really intrigued by how an author’s life and experiences influenced their writing.

I am also a keen baker – though I do have the eternal battle between wanting to bake but not wanting all that I bake to be just eaten by myself and my boyfriend and for us both to become the size of houses! So I love to bake for other people – I really enjoy having a cake stand of cupcakes ready when people come over, or taking a cake to our families for everyone to enjoy.

That’s all I can think of to say about myself for now! Come back soon for my first 'proper' blog post!