A closer look at Rachel Ferguson and The Brontës Went to Woolworths

This article features some material in The Brontës Went to Woolworths that gives me the idea that Rachel Ferguson had personal experience of the problems that creating imaginary relationships and living in fantasy worlds can cause. 

She mentions the importance of being very careful when talking in the real world to people who have been the targets of fantasies; she also says that these people must be accepted and dealt with as they really are. She describes some inner conflicts that result from having too many fantasies on the go.

Being very careful when speaking to targetted people
Some of the things that the narrator Deirdre Carne says give me the idea that Rachel Ferguson herself had been in a situation where someone had been part of her life in her imagination long before she actually met them in real life. Deirdre mentions for example how difficult it is to have to treat people as strangers when they have been one of the family for years! 

This again reminds me of the double agents in Raphael Sabatini's books who were mentioned in the introductory article: people who live a double life must be careful to keep their stories straight and not give themselves away.

Deirdre has feelings of unreality when about to meet Lady Toddington for the first time in real life. The information that she has either invented or obtained via her researches makes her feel both advantaged and disadvantaged when talking to her.

Deirdre slips up a few times but gets away with it. 

She says this about the necessity of bringing Lady Toddington up to speed:

“Meanwhile, there was the spadework of the situation to get through, and I wondered how long it would actually take to bring her up to the point at which I had arrived long since, so that we could all start level.”

I suspect that Rachel Ferguson must have done some similar spadework, slowly putting her cards on the table one by one. How else could she have come up with something like that!

Defence Against the Dark Arts Part XVII: The Farjeons' Kings and Queens

When I was working on the article about the witty and amusing books of W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman, their British history textbook parody 1066 and All That made me think of Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon's Kings and Queens, which was first published in 1932. 

The time has finally come to say a few words about this light and amusing little book.

Something about Kings and Queens
Kings and Queens is a children's classic that adults also enjoy reading. It consists of a collection of forty-one (originally thirty-eight) short poems about English and British monarchs. It is intended to be both educational and fun to read. 

The first poem is about William I, who became king in 1066.

The final poem in the early editions is about George V, who was on the throne when the book was first published. The 1953 edition, which was produced to mark the coronation year, also covers Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II.

In between these monarchs, each member of each dynasty is honoured with a poem. Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell also gets one, even though he was not an actual king!

Kings and Queens is available in several editions and has been illustrated by a variety of artists.

This is the first edition:

Yet more about Rachel Ferguson and The Brontës Went to Woolworths

Readers of Rachel Ferguson's 1931 novel The Brontës Went to Woolworths do not always find it easy to determine which incidents are real and which take place only in the imaginations of some of the characters.

Another key case for consideration is how much of the story comes from Rachel Ferguson's own experiences. 

This book also raises some questions about the effect on all concerned of the ongoing game played by the imaginative and fun-loving Carne family:

What effect does playing this game have on the players?

What effect does it have on the people who are mentally targetted?

What happens to everyone involved in the game when fantasy meets reality? 

The previous article describes some of the dangers and damaging consequences of fantasies that involve imaginary relationships; this one attempts to show why the answers to these questions are not what might be expected. 

What effect does the game have on the players?
It is dangerous to spend too much time living in a fantasy world. People who do this compulsively, intensively and continually may become borderline delusional; they may fall apart when their dream world collapses because they haven't got anything else to live for.

The three Carne girls and their mother get off very lightly however. 

Perhaps they escape the usual consequences because the fantasies are out in the open and shared rather than, as is more common, indulged in secretly by just one person. 

Perhaps they escape because the game they play is mostly treated as a joke and a pastime rather than a matter of life and death. Apart possibly from Sheil, the youngest girl, they know that it is just a game. 

More about Rachel Ferguson and The Brontës Went to Woolworths

The first article inspired by Rachel Ferguson's 1931 novel The Brontës Went to Woolworths features some miscellaneous material of interest from the book.

This one has something to say about the ongoing game played by the eccentric and bohemian Carne family. It was the unexpectedly positive results of this game and the possibility that Rachel Ferguson was writing from her own experience of imaginary relationships that inspired these articles.

The frivolous family saga
The Brontës Went to Woolworths is primarily about the game the Carnes play. They live in a fantasy world of their own creation in which their toys, their dog, people they have never met and even ghosts of the Brontës have starring roles. 

The three girls and their mother mentally appropriate real-life people who appeal to their imaginations and incorporate them into their lives. They invent stories about them; they have imaginary conversations with them; they behave and talk about them as if they were part of the family circle. They even sometimes pretend to be them, acting out the parts with each other.

The benefits of playing the game
The Carnes are high-spirited and playful; they are sometimes rather silly. They love to joke, imitate people and make up stories about the toys, the dog and people of interest and their activities. They sing and dance; they also like acting: they pretend to be a variety of characters. 

While they do all this mainly for their own amusement, they may also do it to distract themselves from a painful family situation. 

The exercising of their imaginations and talents and having fun is enough to explain why they all enjoy performing, creating stories and role-playing, but the Carnes may also be trying to distract themselves from the grief caused by the death of the girls' father. Their obsession with the elderly and illustrious Lord Justice Toddington may be an attempt to compensate for their loss.  

Taking things a little too far?
The Carnes sometimes go a little too far. For example, they give each other cards and presents from their toys and people they have never even met!

The girls go to great lengths to learn about people who capture their interest; they also practice something that comes close to stalking.