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Reading My Mother
In this haunting memoir, Kathleen Jones, acclaimed biographer of Christina Rossetti and Katherine Mansfield, turns her forensic gaze on her own life – exploring how she fell in love with books, and how she overcame poverty, rural isolation, rigid class barriers and a tumultuous family, to become first a reader and then a writer.
With mixed Italian, Scottish and Irish heritage, Kathleen’s family had plenty of strong characters. They also had secrets, including illegitimacy, illicit love and even paedophilia. But in this memoir two very different women take centre stage – a mother held in a social and religious straitjacket, and a daughter who rebelled against the forces that kept women ‘in their place’.
After her mother Ella died, Kathleen found some tiny notebooks in a 1940s crocheted bag. They listed every book her mother had read for sixty years, since the end of the Second World War. Ella was a compulsive reader. In remote crofts and farmhouses beyond the reach of electricity, she taught Kathleen to read and helped her discover a world of story and adventure. Kathleen and her mother had little in common. Reading was almost the only thing they shared – but it became their salvation.
With mixed Italian, Scottish and Irish heritage, Kathleen’s family had plenty of strong characters. They also had secrets, including illegitimacy, illicit love and even paedophilia. But in this memoir two very different women take centre stage – a mother held in a social and religious straitjacket, and a daughter who rebelled against the forces that kept women ‘in their place’.
After her mother Ella died, Kathleen found some tiny notebooks in a 1940s crocheted bag. They listed every book her mother had read for sixty years, since the end of the Second World War. Ella was a compulsive reader. In remote crofts and farmhouses beyond the reach of electricity, she taught Kathleen to read and helped her discover a world of story and adventure. Kathleen and her mother had little in common. Reading was almost the only thing they shared – but it became their salvation.
Kindle Edition
Published September 15, 2024
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About the author
Kathleen Jones
127 books4 followersThere is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. For the English poet, novelist, and biographer, please see Kathleen Jones.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 29, 2025
Reading My Mother by Kathleen Jones
My first biography read has taken me away from the fiction genre (temporarily) which has astonished me.
I was lucky enough to be in the Lake District when I spotted an evening with the author Kathleen Jones where I purchased my good to feel, signed copy.
Delighted to meet her and learning about Reading My Mother has been an amazing experience.
The book is wonderfully crafted, portraying family trials and tribulations of a farmer’s wife and daughter. And much more. A crochet bag is found listing every book that Kathleen’s mother, Ella, read which was her saviour whilst living in such remote crofts and farmhouses.
The author discovers a mix of stories littered with emotion and adventure taking you on many diverse journeys in these times. The list is also a treat to research, numerous powerful, classic stories. Guaranteed to bring a tear or two.
Descriptions of farmhouse living and the rugged hills come rain or shine, even snow will turn on the heat, send a chill down your spine, together with family character’s lives and scenes that will shock you in someway.
I’m still picking this book up after having it several months later and finding something new each time. Not only do I feel I’ve been inside Kathleen and her family’s world for a while I feel I’ve been part of the family.
I urge biography lovers not to miss this unique, exceptional story and digest to its full extent as I have.
My first biography read has taken me away from the fiction genre (temporarily) which has astonished me.
I was lucky enough to be in the Lake District when I spotted an evening with the author Kathleen Jones where I purchased my good to feel, signed copy.
Delighted to meet her and learning about Reading My Mother has been an amazing experience.
The book is wonderfully crafted, portraying family trials and tribulations of a farmer’s wife and daughter. And much more. A crochet bag is found listing every book that Kathleen’s mother, Ella, read which was her saviour whilst living in such remote crofts and farmhouses.
The author discovers a mix of stories littered with emotion and adventure taking you on many diverse journeys in these times. The list is also a treat to research, numerous powerful, classic stories. Guaranteed to bring a tear or two.
Descriptions of farmhouse living and the rugged hills come rain or shine, even snow will turn on the heat, send a chill down your spine, together with family character’s lives and scenes that will shock you in someway.
I’m still picking this book up after having it several months later and finding something new each time. Not only do I feel I’ve been inside Kathleen and her family’s world for a while I feel I’ve been part of the family.
I urge biography lovers not to miss this unique, exceptional story and digest to its full extent as I have.
June 23, 2025
As a general rule I usually find these autobiographies tedious but this was a definite exception. Believable, tragic, funny - read it in one day. Would recommend highly
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews