{"title":"Walmer Belles-Lettres","description":"\u003cp\u003eDiscover the captivating world of the Walmer Belles-Lettres series, a collection celebrating female voices and literary brilliance. Perfect for lovers of insightful essays and timeless correspondence from remarkable women.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"letters-to-a-friend-book-winifred-holtby-9780992422028","title":"Letters to a Friend","description":"Winifred Holtby met Jean McWilliam in a WAC camp at Huchenneville in France very near the end of the First World War. McWilliam was the camp commander, and Holtby her new hostel forewoman. They took to each other instantly, became firm friends, and lifelong correspondents. Through a world overshadowed by war in both directions, they kept up a lively discussion of events, politics, literature and life, even when McWilliam relocated to South Africa in pursuit of her teaching career. Seeing each other very rarely in the flesh, their relationship was played out in the written word poignantly and entertainingly. I shall be really disappointed if I go through life without once being properly in love. As a writer, I feel it my duty to my work - but they are all so helpless and such children. How can one feel thrilled? These vibrant letters are Holtby's side of the correspondence, and outline the extraordinarily varied elements of her personality: her dynamism, her political savvy and commitment, as well as her bright wit, and her tenderness. They also bring to life some of the most important of her literary friendships, especially those with Vera Brittain and Stella Benson. Her pithy and self-deprecating comment on her progress in writing, and on the literature of her time, amounts to a hugely valuable document in itself, let alone the wisdom of what she has to say about life and living it. Novel-writing is not creation, it is selection. Once characters have been born they assume a complete life about which everything exists, waiting to be recorded. The whole of art lies in the omissions. One of the finest letter-compilations of the between-the-wars period, this searching and candid book was first published in 1937, two years after Holtby's untimely death.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49522065244433,"sku":"GOR010318777","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49733092704529,"sku":"NGR9780992422028","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51011219357969,"sku":"NIN9780992422028","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52867861578001,"sku":"GOR014649781","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0992422027.jpg?v=1751109775"},{"product_id":"pagan-papers-book-kenneth-grahame-9780648690979","title":"Pagan Papers","description":"\u003cp\u003eBefore the publication of \u003cem\u003eThe Wind in the Willows\u003c\/em\u003e, Kenneth Grahame's reputation was quite different. He was known both as a writer of delicately observed essays on childhood, and as an exquisite stylist, whose essays on adult subjects were pithy and distinctive exercises in wit. \u003cem\u003ePagan Papers\u003c\/em\u003e was the collection with which he established his name in 1893.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Romance of the Rail\u003c\/em\u003e he is torn between the joy of a train's night-whistle - the dreams of discovery it heralds, and the realisation of the 'crowning wrong that is wrought us of furnace and piston-rod'; in \u003cem\u003eLoafing\u003c\/em\u003e he muses over pleasures of mind and their indolent harmony, contrasting them with the 'corporeal pangs' of the thirst for activity; in \u003cem\u003eThe Rural Pan\u003c\/em\u003e he bemoans the advent of dull and good suburban behaviour, relishing that there are still hidden country places where the cheery simple sinner still survives; in \u003cem\u003eOf Smoking\u003c\/em\u003e he offers a paean to the more refined (\u003cem\u003enon\u003c\/em\u003e-cigarette) delectations of tobacco; in \u003cem\u003eThe White Poppy\u003c\/em\u003e he guardedly discusses opium's healing 'magic juice of oblivion'; and in \u003cem\u003eJustifiable Homicide\u003c\/em\u003e he gleefully considers the merits of bumping off irritating relatives \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn these, and twelve other brilliant excursions here, where he leads us through the lures and dangers of books, the open road, the countryside, and all the varieties of sensual pleasure, Grahame's consummate style and elegant language mark him out as a master.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49739012440337,"sku":"NGR9780648690979","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52736505938193,"sku":"NIN9780648690979","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0648690970.jpg?v=1750742637"},{"product_id":"defendant-book-g-k-chesterton-9781763565654","title":"The Defendant","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52754433638673,"sku":"NIN9781763565654","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53154780905745,"sku":"NGR9781763565654","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781763565654.jpg?v=1763569281"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/walmer-belles-lettres-book-series.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}