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  Home Life Relayed - BBC presents...

  E M Delafield

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  Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, née de la Pasture, and more commonly known as E M Delafield, was born in Steyning, Sussex on 9th June 1890.   
   
  Raised in the fading years of the Victorian era with its Empire and strict moral codes Delafield, not yet married at twenty-one, joined a French religious order, in Belgium, but soon decided that this was a totally wrong choice for her.   
   
  Her next challenge was her work during the horror of the First World War.  Delafield decided to take up a position as a nurse in a Voluntary Aid Detachment in Exeter.  It was whilst here that she managed to write her first novel, ‘Zella Sees Herself’.   
   
  With the end of the war new opportunities were sought and she now took up a position for the South-West Region of the Ministry of National Service in Bristol.  With it came enough time to write two more novels: ‘The War Workers’ (1918) and ‘The Pelicans’ (1918).   
   
  On 17th July 1919, she married Colonel Arthur Paul Dashwood, OBE, an engineer responsible for building the massive docks at Hong Kong Harbour.  The marriage produced two children; Lionel and Rosamund.  That same year her fourth novel, ‘Consequences’, was published.   
   
  The couple spent their early years in Malaya but returned to England to live in Croyle, an old house in Kentisbeare, Devon.  Delafield continued to collect responsibilities and organise whatever she could.  At the initial meeting of the Kentisbeare Women's Institute, Delafield was unanimously elected president, and also became a Justice of the Peace, raised the children and, of course, continued to write her best-selling novels.   
   
  Her greatest work is undoubtedly the largely autobiographical ‘Diary of a Provincial Lady’, which is a simply structured journal of the life of an upper-middle class Englishwoman, living mostly in a Devon village of the 1930s.  It spawned several best-selling sequels.  Her works also includes stage and radio plays, film scripts and short stories.  
   
  After the death of her son in 1940, her health began to markedly decline.    
   
  E M Delafield died on 2nd December 1943 after collapsing whilst giving a lecture in Oxford.  She was 53.

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  Behind the Scenes - The Dramatic...

  Angela John

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  Philip Burton (1904-95) is best remembered as the schoolmaster responsible for training and transforming his pupil Richard Jenkins into Richard Burton, world-famous star of stage and screen. Together they produced a remarkable symbiosis. The stage-struck Philip Burton was present behind the scenes for the rest of the actor's life, intervening at crucial moments to ensure consummate stage performances in, for example, Coriolanus, Hamlet and Camelot. This biography, drawing upon a number of previously unseen sources, provides a fresh angle on this compelling story. And by placing Philip Burton's story centre stage, a remarkable figure also emerges in his own right. In a life that virtually spanned the twentieth century, he demonstrated resilience and transatlantic triumph against the odds.
  
  Like his best-known protégé, he was born into an impoverished south Wales mining family. Alongside teaching, he acted, wrote and produced plays and in 1945, with wireless at its height, he became a BBC radio producer. He worked on almost 200 radio programmes, encouraging newcomers and producing work by Dylan Thomas. He wrote scripts for the fledgling television and penned its first 'soap.' Reinventing himself in the mid-1950s, Philip Burton moved to the United States where, after dabbling in the film industry and working as a theatre director, he became the inspirational first director of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. He took American citizenship and travelled across the States, delivering sparkling Shakespearean lecture-recitals. He published five books, living in Key West, Florida from the 1970s. Philip Burton died in 1995 aged ninety, his expertise and encouragement having enabled numerous aspiring actors and writers to flourish on both sides of the Atlantic.

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  Petrarch's Secret - or The...

  Francesco Petrarca

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  Three dialogues in which Petrarch argues with Saint Augustine about his own soul, his ambition and his love for Laura, with Truth standing silent between them. He wrote it for himself and never published it; it is the first modern self-examination in European letters. This edition is accompanied by sixty plates of Venetian views by Canaletto, Bernardo Bellotto and Francesco Guardi, and is translated by William H. Draper.

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  The Extraordinary Life of Edwin...

  Valerie Winans

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  There was a mystery around the walking stick hidden away in the front hall closet. It was rarely even mentioned. It was revealing to pull it down from the top shelf and slide it out of the sleeve that protected it and into the light of day. The walking stick made of California redwood and topped with a nugget of quartz veined with gold is beautiful and impressive, stopping its observer in his tracks and making him wonder where it came from and who owned such an ornament. Who was the man who had the hubris to stroll down the street swinging such a glorious walking stick? The man, Edwin Winans, is as impressive as his stick. His story is revealed here in stages of his growth, starting as a young man in his quest for gold. He suffered much before he was successful; there's a love story to recount, adventures, and political intrigues. This story of his life presents an insight into the unusual man who left Michigan a better place because he lived, worked, served, and left a legacy.

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  Stranger

  Scott Beggs, Phil Cummins,...

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  Between doppelgängers and shape-shifters, magical healers and clever tricksters, you should trust no one – including yourself! 
  In this collection, 15 writers try to find answers to how we can truly know each other; on the way, they find psychedelic worms, supernatural roommates, new dimensions and the deeply rooted question of how to know even ourselves.

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  I Love My Job: A Pondering Memoir

  Greg Wittstock

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  MAKING OF AN INDUSTRY: 
  Every pond has a story. This one starts with a hobbyist who fell in love with water, made nearly every mistake imaginable, and turned those failures into the foundation of a global company. 
  In 2026, the author marks 56 years around the sun, 44 years as a pond hobbyist, and 35 years as the founder of Aquascape Inc.—now the world's largest manufacturer of professional-grade pond equipment. But long before the accolades and the industry recognition, there was just a young dreamer with a shovel, a hose, and a stubborn refusal to quit. 
  This is the full, unfiltered story—warts and all. From the early missteps that could have ended the dream before it started, to the philosophy that changed an entire industry: work with Mother Nature, not against her. That simple idea became the Aquascape Ecosystem approach, reshaping how the world thinks about ponds and water features. 
  Written over ten emotional days in Hawaii while reflecting on more than four decades in the hobby he was lucky enough to turn into his life's work, this book is part memoir, part business lesson, and part love letter to the pursuit of a passion. 
  Whether you're a hobbyist chasing a dream, a self-employed professional weathering the grind of entrepreneurship, or simply someone who loves a good story about persistence paying off, this book will remind you: the mistakes aren't the end of the story. Sometimes, they're the beginning of a legacy. 
  I hope you enjoy reading about my journey and in turn are inspired to live your own dreams around “Living the Aquascape Lifestyle!”

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