Sunday, December 07, 2025
More Book Junk: Giggleswick Edition
I've been thinking about how one book always makes you read another book. I've been thinking about it for so long that I entered the "Who cares?" stage of my thinking, which consumes a large portion of my thinking process. I've been thinking of it (again) ever since that Lydia Davis book made me read a John Ashbery book. Another thing that happened... our most recent Million Dollar Book Club selection caused me to buy a 1923 edition of Lady Anne Clifford's diaries, with a long preface by Vita Sackville-West. Megan and I discussed whether the author made Vita Sackville-West's preface sound good or whether she tried to make it sound bad but it sounded good anyway. Or some variation on that. I can't explain the book club's intricacies! And anyway, the big news is that when I opened the 1923 edition of Lady Anne Clifford's diaries with a long preface by Vita Sackville-West, some old letters (1973-74) fell out! The letters were addressed to an E.M. Bottomley (familiarly known as Michael?) from a Cecil (I think) who lived at Huntsman's Cottage in Giggleswick. Giggleswick! It's a real place! And now I am imagining everyone from Giggleswick saying yes, so what, Giggleswick is an everyday name, why are you so bothered about Giggleswick, everybody knows about Giggleswick, why would you even think it is a funny name, or whatever it is that you think? Shut up about Giggleswick, these voices are saying in my head. Well, as I was about to "click" publish, I decided on a whim to see if I could find E.M. Bottomley, who obtained this very copy of Lady Anne Clifford's diaries on April 14 of 1946, according to his inscription on the flyleaf, and I am 100% sure, based on the content of the letters, that this ("click" here) is him. (See also.)