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Girl With Dove: A Life Built By Books
‘The word “mesmerising” is frequently applied to memoirs, but seldom as deservedly as in the case of Girl With Dove’ Financial Times‘Reading is a form of escape and an avid reader is an escape artist…’
Brilliantly original, funny and clever Honor Clark, Spectator, Book of the Year
Growing up in a dilapidated house by the sea where men were forbidden, Sally’s childhood world was filled with mystery and intrigue. Hippies trailed through the kitchen looking for God – their leader was Aunt Di, who ruled the house with charismatic force. When Sally’s baby brother vanishes from his pram, she becomes suspicious of the activities going on around her. What happened to Baby David and the woman called Poor Sue? And where did all the people singing and wailing prayers in the front room suddenly go?
Disappearing into a world of books and reading, Sally adopts the tried and tested methods of Miss Marple. Taking books for hints and clues, she turns herself into a reading detective. Her discovery of Jane Eyre marks the beginning of a vivid journey through Victorian literature where she also finds the kind, eccentric figure of Charles Dickens’ Betsey Trotwood. These characters soon become her heroines, acting as a part of an alternative family, offering humour and guidance during many difficult moments in Sally’s life.
Combining the voices of literary characters with those of her real-life counterparts, Girl With Dove reads as a magical series of strange encounters, climaxing with a comic performance of Shakespeare in the children’s home where Sally is eventually sent.
Weaving literary classics with a young girl’s coming of age story, this is a book that testifies to the transformative power of reading and the literary imagination. Mixing fairy tale, literary classics, nursery rhymes and folklore, it is the story of a child’s adventure in wonderland and search for truth in an adult world often cast in deep shadow.
Brilliantly original, funny and clever Honor Clark, Spectator, Book of the Year
Growing up in a dilapidated house by the sea where men were forbidden, Sally’s childhood world was filled with mystery and intrigue. Hippies trailed through the kitchen looking for God – their leader was Aunt Di, who ruled the house with charismatic force. When Sally’s baby brother vanishes from his pram, she becomes suspicious of the activities going on around her. What happened to Baby David and the woman called Poor Sue? And where did all the people singing and wailing prayers in the front room suddenly go?
Disappearing into a world of books and reading, Sally adopts the tried and tested methods of Miss Marple. Taking books for hints and clues, she turns herself into a reading detective. Her discovery of Jane Eyre marks the beginning of a vivid journey through Victorian literature where she also finds the kind, eccentric figure of Charles Dickens’ Betsey Trotwood. These characters soon become her heroines, acting as a part of an alternative family, offering humour and guidance during many difficult moments in Sally’s life.
Combining the voices of literary characters with those of her real-life counterparts, Girl With Dove reads as a magical series of strange encounters, climaxing with a comic performance of Shakespeare in the children’s home where Sally is eventually sent.
Weaving literary classics with a young girl’s coming of age story, this is a book that testifies to the transformative power of reading and the literary imagination. Mixing fairy tale, literary classics, nursery rhymes and folklore, it is the story of a child’s adventure in wonderland and search for truth in an adult world often cast in deep shadow.
289 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2018
25 people are currently reading
481 people want to read
About the author
Sally Bayley
13 books24 followersDr Sally Bayley is a tutor in English at Balliol and St. Hugh’s Colleges, Oxford and a member of the Oxford University English Faculty. She is the author of Eye Rhymes: Sylvia Plath’s Art of the Visual (Oxford University Press, 2007). Eye Rhymes was the first study of Plath’s art work in relation to her body of poetry and prose and was featured in the Sunday Times magazine, on Radio 4 and at the Royal Festival Hall alongside a series of uniquely commissioned pieces of theatre, dance, art and animation, several of which won awards.
In 2007 alongside the publication of Eye Rhymes Sally Bayley commissioned a play exploring the representation of Sylvia Plath's biography. The award winning play, I Wish I Had A Sylvia Plath, a one woman show written and performed by Elisabeth Gray, will run Off Broadway for the month of October 2010. The play will feature alongside a symposium at New York University and will include the director and producer of the forthcoming film adaptation of Plath's novel The Bell Jar: Tristine Skyer and Julia Stiles.
Source: http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/about-fac...
In 2007 alongside the publication of Eye Rhymes Sally Bayley commissioned a play exploring the representation of Sylvia Plath's biography. The award winning play, I Wish I Had A Sylvia Plath, a one woman show written and performed by Elisabeth Gray, will run Off Broadway for the month of October 2010. The play will feature alongside a symposium at New York University and will include the director and producer of the forthcoming film adaptation of Plath's novel The Bell Jar: Tristine Skyer and Julia Stiles.
Source: http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/about-fac...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
February 6, 2019
Books can save you.
Meandering and refreshing and meandering even more. Obviously, books are good to help us deal with situations we don’t know how to deal with. A wild childhood of a girl helped by books, saved by books, enchanted by them.
Q:
All stories have backstories, at least all stories worth knowing about, and all readers want to pry into those unlit spaces. We read to get back to those dark and dusty corners, to scrape back to old patterns: the strange symbol beneath the damp plaster, the squiggles on the crumbling wall. Reading is a strong torch shining through the dark. (c)
Q:
Reading is a form of escape, and an avid reader is an escape artist. I began my escape the moment I started to read. Aged four, I already had sentences stored up; I knew some words and I could put them together in a line. (c)
Q:
He doesn’t know that you don’t have to go very far to find a fact. (c)
Q:
Peter and Jane are always playing and they are always happy. They are never at school and they are never reading. I don’t know why, because reading is the most important thing. Reading, my grandmother told me, was the stepping stone to better things. (c)
Q:
‘A little bit more than that dear, a little more … you’re always a bit more than you think you are.’ (c)
Q:
History is remembered by a series of smiles. (c)
Q:
Every story has a backstory. Backstories are stories in disguise. (c)
Q:
That night there were clear panes of glass running between everyone else and me and I was suddenly quite separate, stuck on a solitary rock, far out at sea. (c)
Q:
By the time I’d finished reading Jane Eyre I knew that you can find missing people inside books. Jane Eyre, who reads a lot of books, calls these natural sympathies. Sympathies are relatives you never knew you had, the ones you always wanted. Sympathies are family ghosts and fairies, and sympathies keep you up at night. (c)
Q:
When you read a book like Jane Eyre, you start to see things, small fragments of this and that that shoot across your eyes like stars. Tiny pictures appear in between the pages as you turn them. You begin to see and hear things: a woman’s smile, a woman’s laugh, a woman with her hands held high, a woman speaking gobbledygook. And then suddenly, without warning, you are in Lancing on Sea a long time ago and you don’t know how you got there. Some strange spirit has carried you away. (c)
Q:
If you listen carefully, you can work out things that adults don’t tell you. You can hear small scraps, words floating through windows on a hazy summer day. (c)
Q:
‘What fuckin’ moron is gonna believe she’s been standing around for fuckin’ years pretending to be a statue? Shakespeare’s fuckin’ stupid, Dave.’
‘Yeah. “Hello, I’m” – what’s-her-name? – “Herpes, and I’ve been hanging about for … err … fifteen years waiting for you to show up.” What kind of moron stands around waiting for his wife for fifteen fuckin’ years? That’s fucked up, Dave, really fucked up!’ (c)
Q:
Outside of books, nothing much happens. Most of life is boring, which is why you have to make some of it up. (c)
Meandering and refreshing and meandering even more. Obviously, books are good to help us deal with situations we don’t know how to deal with. A wild childhood of a girl helped by books, saved by books, enchanted by them.
Q:
All stories have backstories, at least all stories worth knowing about, and all readers want to pry into those unlit spaces. We read to get back to those dark and dusty corners, to scrape back to old patterns: the strange symbol beneath the damp plaster, the squiggles on the crumbling wall. Reading is a strong torch shining through the dark. (c)
Q:
Reading is a form of escape, and an avid reader is an escape artist. I began my escape the moment I started to read. Aged four, I already had sentences stored up; I knew some words and I could put them together in a line. (c)
Q:
He doesn’t know that you don’t have to go very far to find a fact. (c)
Q:
Peter and Jane are always playing and they are always happy. They are never at school and they are never reading. I don’t know why, because reading is the most important thing. Reading, my grandmother told me, was the stepping stone to better things. (c)
Q:
‘A little bit more than that dear, a little more … you’re always a bit more than you think you are.’ (c)
Q:
History is remembered by a series of smiles. (c)
Q:
Every story has a backstory. Backstories are stories in disguise. (c)
Q:
That night there were clear panes of glass running between everyone else and me and I was suddenly quite separate, stuck on a solitary rock, far out at sea. (c)
Q:
By the time I’d finished reading Jane Eyre I knew that you can find missing people inside books. Jane Eyre, who reads a lot of books, calls these natural sympathies. Sympathies are relatives you never knew you had, the ones you always wanted. Sympathies are family ghosts and fairies, and sympathies keep you up at night. (c)
Q:
When you read a book like Jane Eyre, you start to see things, small fragments of this and that that shoot across your eyes like stars. Tiny pictures appear in between the pages as you turn them. You begin to see and hear things: a woman’s smile, a woman’s laugh, a woman with her hands held high, a woman speaking gobbledygook. And then suddenly, without warning, you are in Lancing on Sea a long time ago and you don’t know how you got there. Some strange spirit has carried you away. (c)
Q:
If you listen carefully, you can work out things that adults don’t tell you. You can hear small scraps, words floating through windows on a hazy summer day. (c)
Q:
‘What fuckin’ moron is gonna believe she’s been standing around for fuckin’ years pretending to be a statue? Shakespeare’s fuckin’ stupid, Dave.’
‘Yeah. “Hello, I’m” – what’s-her-name? – “Herpes, and I’ve been hanging about for … err … fifteen years waiting for you to show up.” What kind of moron stands around waiting for his wife for fifteen fuckin’ years? That’s fucked up, Dave, really fucked up!’ (c)
Q:
Outside of books, nothing much happens. Most of life is boring, which is why you have to make some of it up. (c)
May 9, 2018
Sally Bayley is an academic, who explores her childhood in this literary memoir. As she says, “Reading is a form of escape. Avid readers are escape artists.” Although Bayley does not spell out all the details of her dysfunctional childhood, we see events, and people, through her childish eyes. She grows up in a house by the sea, with mummy, who lives under a, “thick, dark spell,” brother Peter, and her grandmother, Edna May, or ‘Maze.’ Boyfriends and husbands, it is generally agreed by the women of the house, are, “nothing but trouble.”
The problem with Bayley is that she is a questioning, inquisitive child. Once she discovers the library and, especially once moving from, “Milly-Molly-Mandy,” to Miss Marple, she becomes something of a detective. Although we are not given all of the information about her childhood problems, we are aware that things are not well in the household. There is mother, who disappears upstairs and stays there, baby David who vanishes, in the hot summer of 1976, without explanation, a cast of odd characters and a host of late Seventies and early Eighties memories – from ‘that’ summer, to Thatcher and ‘Dallas.’
Overall, this is an interesting memoir. However, although clever and full of literary references, I found myself often confused about what was actually happening. This is a useful device to show us life as Sally Bayley, when a child, saw it. It does, though, make for a confusing read at times. Still, I enjoyed the author incorporating literary figures, from Miss Marple, to Jane Eyre and characters from ‘David Copperfield,’ into this account of a difficult, but bookish childhood.
The problem with Bayley is that she is a questioning, inquisitive child. Once she discovers the library and, especially once moving from, “Milly-Molly-Mandy,” to Miss Marple, she becomes something of a detective. Although we are not given all of the information about her childhood problems, we are aware that things are not well in the household. There is mother, who disappears upstairs and stays there, baby David who vanishes, in the hot summer of 1976, without explanation, a cast of odd characters and a host of late Seventies and early Eighties memories – from ‘that’ summer, to Thatcher and ‘Dallas.’
Overall, this is an interesting memoir. However, although clever and full of literary references, I found myself often confused about what was actually happening. This is a useful device to show us life as Sally Bayley, when a child, saw it. It does, though, make for a confusing read at times. Still, I enjoyed the author incorporating literary figures, from Miss Marple, to Jane Eyre and characters from ‘David Copperfield,’ into this account of a difficult, but bookish childhood.
January 3, 2021
Very good indeed, and comes highly recommended.
Two things to start, which were immediate big ticks for me: (1) while it may be described as a memoir, it really is not - Sally has described it as a "literary coming of age" and it has commonalities with the classic bildungsroman - as well as a "mystery", in the style of her heroine Miss Marple in which she, and we, are trying to work out what the hell is going on - and I have a fondness for texts that play with form and category, as this does, and refuse to be pigeon-holed; and (2) at the level of the sentence, the use of language is just lovely - particularly in the evocation of a childish mind (the obvious point of comparison for which is the early parts of Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man) - and she uses voice, and the variations and permutations of voice, with great skill. There was ne'er a clunker to be seen.
Your enjoyment may also depend upon how content you are with texts that elude and elide, and leave you rather (pleasantly) fogged-in (and this text can, at times, bring on a real pea-souper). There is an honesty in leaving things a little blurred, particularly when one is speaking of the past - and Sally's childhood was not one where information was easy to come by. If you are looking for a "memoir" in the traditional sense, which leads you by the hand through a long, straight, corridor of facts till you arrive neatly at the author herself with pen poised above paper in the pristine present...well...this probably 'aint the book for you.
This book deserves a proper, detailed review, but sadly work means I don't have the time to do one just yet. Hopefully I can re-visit in the future.
Regardless - if you are curious, I would certainly recommend getting hold of a copy.
In the interests of complete openness, I should note that I am lucky enough to count Sally as a friend (though one I sadly have not seen since the Oxford days). The ramblings above, however, honestly reflect my opinion of her book.
Two things to start, which were immediate big ticks for me: (1) while it may be described as a memoir, it really is not - Sally has described it as a "literary coming of age" and it has commonalities with the classic bildungsroman - as well as a "mystery", in the style of her heroine Miss Marple in which she, and we, are trying to work out what the hell is going on - and I have a fondness for texts that play with form and category, as this does, and refuse to be pigeon-holed; and (2) at the level of the sentence, the use of language is just lovely - particularly in the evocation of a childish mind (the obvious point of comparison for which is the early parts of Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man) - and she uses voice, and the variations and permutations of voice, with great skill. There was ne'er a clunker to be seen.
Your enjoyment may also depend upon how content you are with texts that elude and elide, and leave you rather (pleasantly) fogged-in (and this text can, at times, bring on a real pea-souper). There is an honesty in leaving things a little blurred, particularly when one is speaking of the past - and Sally's childhood was not one where information was easy to come by. If you are looking for a "memoir" in the traditional sense, which leads you by the hand through a long, straight, corridor of facts till you arrive neatly at the author herself with pen poised above paper in the pristine present...well...this probably 'aint the book for you.
This book deserves a proper, detailed review, but sadly work means I don't have the time to do one just yet. Hopefully I can re-visit in the future.
Regardless - if you are curious, I would certainly recommend getting hold of a copy.
In the interests of complete openness, I should note that I am lucky enough to count Sally as a friend (though one I sadly have not seen since the Oxford days). The ramblings above, however, honestly reflect my opinion of her book.
June 6, 2018
When Sally Bayley was around the age of four, her baby brother, who had been put in the garden in his pram near the roses, suddenly vanishes. This single incident was pivotal in changing Sally's life; her mother went to bed 'for a very long time'. This was just one of a series of events that Sally had; to say she had an unconventional upbringing would be an understatement. The house close to the sea where she lived with her mother and other siblings was dilapidated and filthy, they shared it with Aunt Di, a hippy with plenty of charisma and influence, her grandmother and what seemed to be a never-ending stream of people. No men were allowed to live in the house, though on rare occasions, one might be permitted to visit, including her father once, though that was marred with peculiarities.
To cope with this Sally lost herself in a world of books. On discovering Agatha Christie she turns detective to try and discover what had happened to her brother. Reading Jane Eyre is the beginning of a journey into the rich landscape of Victorian literature. These characters that she discovers in the covers of the books offer comfort and friendship, something that is lacking in her chaotic home life. She takes a look at herself in the mirror one day and all of a sudden she realises that the pale apparition staring back is her. This sliver of a girl takes herself to the doctor; something that never happened as visiting the doctor was forbidden in her family. Realising that things are really not right, she seeks further help and hands herself into care.
The first two parts of the book have a vague narrative as she weaves between fictional characters and the reality of her life as a child in that messed up house. It is not particularly easy to follow, it was almost like reading the story through a fogged up mirror at times. I fully understand why she has written it this way, it reflects just what she was experiencing when living in that household. The final part of the book is the most visceral though, as Sally realises that this is not normal and the act of involving outside parties to help provokes the ire of the matriarchs of the household. It did make me wonder just how these children were under the radar of the authorities for so long. There are elements that Bayley does not revisit in the final part and that left me wondering what had happened. These blurry memories are her recollection of a childhood that many others would have preferred to have forgotten.
To cope with this Sally lost herself in a world of books. On discovering Agatha Christie she turns detective to try and discover what had happened to her brother. Reading Jane Eyre is the beginning of a journey into the rich landscape of Victorian literature. These characters that she discovers in the covers of the books offer comfort and friendship, something that is lacking in her chaotic home life. She takes a look at herself in the mirror one day and all of a sudden she realises that the pale apparition staring back is her. This sliver of a girl takes herself to the doctor; something that never happened as visiting the doctor was forbidden in her family. Realising that things are really not right, she seeks further help and hands herself into care.
The first two parts of the book have a vague narrative as she weaves between fictional characters and the reality of her life as a child in that messed up house. It is not particularly easy to follow, it was almost like reading the story through a fogged up mirror at times. I fully understand why she has written it this way, it reflects just what she was experiencing when living in that household. The final part of the book is the most visceral though, as Sally realises that this is not normal and the act of involving outside parties to help provokes the ire of the matriarchs of the household. It did make me wonder just how these children were under the radar of the authorities for so long. There are elements that Bayley does not revisit in the final part and that left me wondering what had happened. These blurry memories are her recollection of a childhood that many others would have preferred to have forgotten.
October 9, 2018
I almost never rate a book with a "1," because when a book fails to engage me this badly, I stop reading it. But my brand-new book club chose Girl With Dove as our very first book, based on a recommendation in The Guardian, and so I forced through to the end. In short, this book almost killed our new book club (so few people read the book, we cancelled our meeting twice). So here is my caveat emptor: Girl With Dove is not the book it purports to be.
I *think* that the author, Sally Bayley, had an interesting, challenging, ultimately very brave childhood. I *think* that she grew up in an eccentric, dysfunctional home with at least 10 other children and numerous Jesus Freak types who wandered through. I *think* her baby brother disappeared, and that a murder was committed in her house, and that she herself suffered from either anorexia or self-harm, or both, and that by reporting her home life to Social Services, she saved herself. I *think* these things, because this is what the book jacket tells me. But the book itself, for all 266 pages, seems to be doing all it can to avoid or skirt around these characters and these events.
Reading Girl With Dove, I felt like a therapist trying to get a trauma survivor to verbalize what she'd been through -- while every time, rather than telling her own story she told me a story about someone else. Don't get me wrong: No trauma victim should be forced to tell their story. And honestly, that is what this book read like to me: a primary document of trauma.
The book jacket (and the recommendation in The Guardian) both echo the book's subtitle: that this was a life "built by books." But rather than reflecting on her own relationship to reading and the psychological and emotional resources books provided her, Bayley mostly summarizes various plots. We get substantial chunks of Jayne Eyre, David Copperfield, and Agatha Christie novels -- summarized. We even get an episode from the TV show Dallas. Again, summarized, not analyzed, not interwoven into Bayley's own emotional journey. Rather, the plot summaries seem to intrude just when Bayley had reached the point in her own narrative where something interesting (or scary, or awful) is about to happen to her. She stops her own story and fills in with the plot from a novel instead.
The book is full of such deflections. Surely there are fascinating characters here; when Bayley does let herself go and writes a fully fleshed out scene or her home life (or, in one instance, of her life at the Lowood-like school she attended after leaving home), the writing starts to sing, and you catch a glimpse of the sharp, vivid, emotionally penetrating book this could have been. But too often, when action does happen in Girl With Dove -- action from Bayley's life, I mean: not the life of a fictional character -- it is so shrouded by very high, abstruse language, you see it only (see it dimly) through a fog of poetry and allusion.
My overall impression after reading Girl With Dove is that the author did not really want to tell this story -- perhaps to protect her surviving family members, perhaps to protect her own psyche. These are completely understandable and honorable reasons, and (again) no one should be forced to tell a story that is too painful to tell. But here it is: we have this book, Girl With Dove. It's been written. To what end, or for what purpose, I'm not sure. To read Bayley's bio on book jackets or in reviews is to understand and and deeply admire that hers is a story of survival. Girl With Dove, on the other hand, reveals so little of the author's actual life -- both the external and the internal -- that, in these pages, it's hardly there.
I *think* that the author, Sally Bayley, had an interesting, challenging, ultimately very brave childhood. I *think* that she grew up in an eccentric, dysfunctional home with at least 10 other children and numerous Jesus Freak types who wandered through. I *think* her baby brother disappeared, and that a murder was committed in her house, and that she herself suffered from either anorexia or self-harm, or both, and that by reporting her home life to Social Services, she saved herself. I *think* these things, because this is what the book jacket tells me. But the book itself, for all 266 pages, seems to be doing all it can to avoid or skirt around these characters and these events.
Reading Girl With Dove, I felt like a therapist trying to get a trauma survivor to verbalize what she'd been through -- while every time, rather than telling her own story she told me a story about someone else. Don't get me wrong: No trauma victim should be forced to tell their story. And honestly, that is what this book read like to me: a primary document of trauma.
The book jacket (and the recommendation in The Guardian) both echo the book's subtitle: that this was a life "built by books." But rather than reflecting on her own relationship to reading and the psychological and emotional resources books provided her, Bayley mostly summarizes various plots. We get substantial chunks of Jayne Eyre, David Copperfield, and Agatha Christie novels -- summarized. We even get an episode from the TV show Dallas. Again, summarized, not analyzed, not interwoven into Bayley's own emotional journey. Rather, the plot summaries seem to intrude just when Bayley had reached the point in her own narrative where something interesting (or scary, or awful) is about to happen to her. She stops her own story and fills in with the plot from a novel instead.
The book is full of such deflections. Surely there are fascinating characters here; when Bayley does let herself go and writes a fully fleshed out scene or her home life (or, in one instance, of her life at the Lowood-like school she attended after leaving home), the writing starts to sing, and you catch a glimpse of the sharp, vivid, emotionally penetrating book this could have been. But too often, when action does happen in Girl With Dove -- action from Bayley's life, I mean: not the life of a fictional character -- it is so shrouded by very high, abstruse language, you see it only (see it dimly) through a fog of poetry and allusion.
My overall impression after reading Girl With Dove is that the author did not really want to tell this story -- perhaps to protect her surviving family members, perhaps to protect her own psyche. These are completely understandable and honorable reasons, and (again) no one should be forced to tell a story that is too painful to tell. But here it is: we have this book, Girl With Dove. It's been written. To what end, or for what purpose, I'm not sure. To read Bayley's bio on book jackets or in reviews is to understand and and deeply admire that hers is a story of survival. Girl With Dove, on the other hand, reveals so little of the author's actual life -- both the external and the internal -- that, in these pages, it's hardly there.
July 31, 2018
I wanted to like this, but I found the structure really hard going. On one hand I kind of appreciated the vaguely dreamy quality, but this was defeated by the 'for goodness sake tell me what is going on' feeling.
July 18, 2018
I was smitten as soon as I saw the title – especially the subtitle – but I would soon discover that this is a book about books and childhood quite unlike any other I have ever read.
There were times when I was enchanted, and there were times when I was bemused; and I have to say that this is a very eccentric memoir indeed.
‘Reading is a form of escape, and an avid reader is an escape artist. I began my escape the moment I started to read. Aged four, I already had sentences stored up; I knew some words and I could put them together in a line.’
I couldn’t help but love sentences like those, the lovely mixture of childishness and poetry in the pose, and the way that Sally Bayley completely opened up the worlds of beloved books, taught herself lessons from them, and drew their characters right into her world. She needed all of that to help her through a chaotic childhood in an wildly unsettled household on the Sussex coast.
Three fictional characters — Jane Eyre, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and David Copperfield’s Peggotty in David Copperfield — became her touchstones; and they would inspire her to re-set the course of her life.
She put herself into care at the age of fourteen.
That might make you think of misery memoirs, but this book is nothing like that.
'What’s the difference between laughter and tears? They’re very close. I think it depends a lot on your character, whether you laugh or cry. Some people like moping about. Others wouldn’t be seen dead near a tear. Speak for yourself, but I’m a laughing sort of person.'
Sally Bayley launches straight into her story, and it felt like a stream of consciousness that was very nearly bursting its banks as it was so eager to show that stories and real life were inextricably intertwined.
The picture that emerges is of a bohemian household where people drift in and out. Her mother often took to her bed after her infant son disappeared from his cradle under the washing line and will always be unreliable; other relations – aunts and a grandmother – are a little more practical. Sometimes people are taken away in ambulances, and sometimes male strangers are found sleeping on the floor in the morning. One stranger is said to be her father, and he takes the family for a hotel meal; it was a treat but the children didn’t think that grapefruit for dinner a long way from the beach was a treat at all.
None of this is explained. Memories are scattered through the book, beautifully related, and you could just let them wash over you or you could try to put them together like a jigsaw puzzle. You would never find all the pieces but you might find enough to form an idea of what the whole picture might look like ….
It was a little like reading Dorothy Richardson: creativity and confusion!
But it was the books that made the story sing. They offered reliable adults, younger kindred spirits, and so many other characters with stories that helped to explain the world and the people who passed through the household. The way that the worlds created by Christie, Dickens and Bronte merged with the world of one bookish child was sublime.
'Mr Dick’s brother places Mr Dick in a mental asylum. His family say this is necessary because of his madness. What they really mean is that Mr Dick is a peculiar sort of chap. Maze says that when you go all peculiar you are more than likely to find yourself flat out on the hallway floor without knowing how you got there. I think that Mr Dick was just too full of funny turns for this family to manage, After all, the hallway floor is a long way down.'
The child’s voice is perfectly realised, and it is so east to understand how and why she drew fictional characters into her life, and how the things they said and what she learned about their lives offered her away to navigate through her own life.
Of course it was Jane Eyre who made her realise what she had to do:
'Now, years later, I know for sure — it was Jane Eyre who led me away, Jane on her small brown wings. That winter I pushed aside the thick velvet curtain and I stepped onto the ledge. I ruffled up my brown wings; I flapped and flapped. Then I flew up into the sky towards the dark blue sea, where the Northern Ocean, in vast white whirls, coils around the naked melancholy isles; and the Atlantic surge pours in among the stormy Hebrides. I flew to the far off place where the spirit of Jane Eyre lived and breathes'
There were things in this book that I loved – the voice, the literary appropriations, the style – and there were things that I was rather less taken with – the stream of consciousness, the short chapters, the lack of clarity – and I imagine that it will divide opinions.
When I consider ‘Girl With Dove’ as a whole though, I have to say that I loved its spirit, I loved its energy, and most of all I loved that a child in an unstable world could be guided to her path through life by a love of words and language and by the reading of the right books.
There were times when I was enchanted, and there were times when I was bemused; and I have to say that this is a very eccentric memoir indeed.
‘Reading is a form of escape, and an avid reader is an escape artist. I began my escape the moment I started to read. Aged four, I already had sentences stored up; I knew some words and I could put them together in a line.’
I couldn’t help but love sentences like those, the lovely mixture of childishness and poetry in the pose, and the way that Sally Bayley completely opened up the worlds of beloved books, taught herself lessons from them, and drew their characters right into her world. She needed all of that to help her through a chaotic childhood in an wildly unsettled household on the Sussex coast.
Three fictional characters — Jane Eyre, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and David Copperfield’s Peggotty in David Copperfield — became her touchstones; and they would inspire her to re-set the course of her life.
She put herself into care at the age of fourteen.
That might make you think of misery memoirs, but this book is nothing like that.
'What’s the difference between laughter and tears? They’re very close. I think it depends a lot on your character, whether you laugh or cry. Some people like moping about. Others wouldn’t be seen dead near a tear. Speak for yourself, but I’m a laughing sort of person.'
Sally Bayley launches straight into her story, and it felt like a stream of consciousness that was very nearly bursting its banks as it was so eager to show that stories and real life were inextricably intertwined.
The picture that emerges is of a bohemian household where people drift in and out. Her mother often took to her bed after her infant son disappeared from his cradle under the washing line and will always be unreliable; other relations – aunts and a grandmother – are a little more practical. Sometimes people are taken away in ambulances, and sometimes male strangers are found sleeping on the floor in the morning. One stranger is said to be her father, and he takes the family for a hotel meal; it was a treat but the children didn’t think that grapefruit for dinner a long way from the beach was a treat at all.
None of this is explained. Memories are scattered through the book, beautifully related, and you could just let them wash over you or you could try to put them together like a jigsaw puzzle. You would never find all the pieces but you might find enough to form an idea of what the whole picture might look like ….
It was a little like reading Dorothy Richardson: creativity and confusion!
But it was the books that made the story sing. They offered reliable adults, younger kindred spirits, and so many other characters with stories that helped to explain the world and the people who passed through the household. The way that the worlds created by Christie, Dickens and Bronte merged with the world of one bookish child was sublime.
'Mr Dick’s brother places Mr Dick in a mental asylum. His family say this is necessary because of his madness. What they really mean is that Mr Dick is a peculiar sort of chap. Maze says that when you go all peculiar you are more than likely to find yourself flat out on the hallway floor without knowing how you got there. I think that Mr Dick was just too full of funny turns for this family to manage, After all, the hallway floor is a long way down.'
The child’s voice is perfectly realised, and it is so east to understand how and why she drew fictional characters into her life, and how the things they said and what she learned about their lives offered her away to navigate through her own life.
Of course it was Jane Eyre who made her realise what she had to do:
'Now, years later, I know for sure — it was Jane Eyre who led me away, Jane on her small brown wings. That winter I pushed aside the thick velvet curtain and I stepped onto the ledge. I ruffled up my brown wings; I flapped and flapped. Then I flew up into the sky towards the dark blue sea, where the Northern Ocean, in vast white whirls, coils around the naked melancholy isles; and the Atlantic surge pours in among the stormy Hebrides. I flew to the far off place where the spirit of Jane Eyre lived and breathes'
There were things in this book that I loved – the voice, the literary appropriations, the style – and there were things that I was rather less taken with – the stream of consciousness, the short chapters, the lack of clarity – and I imagine that it will divide opinions.
When I consider ‘Girl With Dove’ as a whole though, I have to say that I loved its spirit, I loved its energy, and most of all I loved that a child in an unstable world could be guided to her path through life by a love of words and language and by the reading of the right books.
January 2, 2023
“Tutte le storie hanno degli antefatti, o quantomeno tutte le storie che valga la pena conoscere, e tutti i lettori desiderano ficcare il naso in quegli spazi non illuminati. Leggiamo per tornare in quegli angoli bui e polverosi, per ritrovare sfregando i vecchi motivi: lo strano simbolo sotto l’intonaco umido, gli scarabocchi sul muro fatiscente. La lettura è una torcia potente che illumina il buio.”
La piccola Sally impara a leggere molto presto, la mamma le insegna a frequentare la biblioteca fin dai cinque anni. È così che la bambina impara a conoscere Miss Marple, David Copperfilel, Jane Eyre. Diventeranno tutti suoi amici, suoi complici, suoi salvatori. Ben più che personaggi letterari, ben più che finzioni circoscritte alle pagine di un libro. Creature vive e vere e presenti. Suggeritrici di discorsi e di comportamenti.
In una famiglia disfunzionale, dove un bambino piccolo all’improvviso sparisce e una madre comincia a dormire sempre come l’Addormentata colpita da maleficio, Sally ha un mondo a disposizione per salvarsi dalla tenebra.
È un mondo che interferisce, no, meglio, è un mondo interagisce con la quotidiana follia che abita la sua casa vicina al mare: gli ambienti sudici, l’assenza di una figura maschile, fratellini e sorelline accuditi da improbabili zie nel microcosmo di un piccolo villaggio inglese, mentre vanno snocciolando come grani del rosario gli svagati anni Settanta.
Un racconto dove le interferenze letterarie sono la storia, i dialoghi immaginari sono la via di fuga, Miss Marple la suggeritrice di trame, David Copperfield lo specchio di un possibile riscatto, Jane Eyre (oh, Jane!) l’eroina protagonista. Sola e resiliente.
Tutto questo fino a quando Sally, alle soglie dell’adolescenza, deciderà di rivolgersi a un dottore - evento inaudito! perché è chiaro ormai che in quella famiglia disgraziata c’è davvero qualcosa che non va e il suo disagio trabocca il limite protettivo che i libri le hanno costruito intorno.
Una storia speciale, tutt’altro che lineare, ibrida, una mescolanza attraversata da suggestive lame di luce. Un affascinante omaggio al potere salvifico della letteratura ma anche alla speranza intima e segreta di attraversare la peggiore delle notti dell’esistenza e poter vedere l’alba. Ovvero raggiungere la consapevolezza di sé, comprendere il significato dell’essere al mondo.
Questo è il viaggio miracoloso di una bambina/ragazzina che riesce a salvarsi. Grazie alle parole dei libri: pagine aperte verso la scoperta del proprio daimon.
3/4
La piccola Sally impara a leggere molto presto, la mamma le insegna a frequentare la biblioteca fin dai cinque anni. È così che la bambina impara a conoscere Miss Marple, David Copperfilel, Jane Eyre. Diventeranno tutti suoi amici, suoi complici, suoi salvatori. Ben più che personaggi letterari, ben più che finzioni circoscritte alle pagine di un libro. Creature vive e vere e presenti. Suggeritrici di discorsi e di comportamenti.
In una famiglia disfunzionale, dove un bambino piccolo all’improvviso sparisce e una madre comincia a dormire sempre come l’Addormentata colpita da maleficio, Sally ha un mondo a disposizione per salvarsi dalla tenebra.
È un mondo che interferisce, no, meglio, è un mondo interagisce con la quotidiana follia che abita la sua casa vicina al mare: gli ambienti sudici, l’assenza di una figura maschile, fratellini e sorelline accuditi da improbabili zie nel microcosmo di un piccolo villaggio inglese, mentre vanno snocciolando come grani del rosario gli svagati anni Settanta.
Un racconto dove le interferenze letterarie sono la storia, i dialoghi immaginari sono la via di fuga, Miss Marple la suggeritrice di trame, David Copperfield lo specchio di un possibile riscatto, Jane Eyre (oh, Jane!) l’eroina protagonista. Sola e resiliente.
Tutto questo fino a quando Sally, alle soglie dell’adolescenza, deciderà di rivolgersi a un dottore - evento inaudito! perché è chiaro ormai che in quella famiglia disgraziata c’è davvero qualcosa che non va e il suo disagio trabocca il limite protettivo che i libri le hanno costruito intorno.
Una storia speciale, tutt’altro che lineare, ibrida, una mescolanza attraversata da suggestive lame di luce. Un affascinante omaggio al potere salvifico della letteratura ma anche alla speranza intima e segreta di attraversare la peggiore delle notti dell’esistenza e poter vedere l’alba. Ovvero raggiungere la consapevolezza di sé, comprendere il significato dell’essere al mondo.
Questo è il viaggio miracoloso di una bambina/ragazzina che riesce a salvarsi. Grazie alle parole dei libri: pagine aperte verso la scoperta del proprio daimon.
3/4
April 8, 2021
“La ragazza con la colomba” è il romanzo con il quale Sally Bayley racconta la sua infanzia e il modo in cui, grazie alla biblioteca comunale di Littlehampton, abbia avuto “un’educazione gratuita dai cinque ai quindici anni”: “Senza quei libri non avrei mai potuto trovare la mia strada oltre le tende”.
Oltre le tende di una casa, nell’Inghilterra degli anni ’70, piena di contraddizioni. Ci vivono “dodici bambini e tre adulti”, tra i quali nessun uomo, nessuna figura paterna, è lercia e piena di muffa, per cena ci sono sempre e solo toast al formaggio, è teatro di fatti orribili ma, allo stesso tempo è una casa in cui si impara Shakespeare, nella quale la madre di Sally recita poesie di Dylan Thomas.
Una donna che aveva “la sua riserva di parole” e che smette di leggere quando inizia ad avere tutti quei pannolini da cambiare. Ma alla figlia di sei anni indica la strada per arrivare alla biblioteca. È lì che Sally si innamora dei libri. Per primi quelli per bambini, poi passa ai gialli con protagonista Miss Marple e dopo scopre Jane Eyre.
Tutto quello che so, viene dai libri. Tutto quello che ho scoperto, lo devo a Miss Marple e poi a Jane Eyre. Dopo aver scoperto Jane Eyre, niente è stato più come prima. Lei era sempre lì, guardava e sentiva le cose che nessun altro osava guardare e sentire.
La prima parte del libro è narrata intrecciando i fatti alle trame e ai personaggi di questi romanzi. Un meccanismo che all’inizio crea un po’ di confusione ma basterà entrare nel ritmo e decidere di lasciarsi trasportare per cambiare punto di vista.
Non sarà facile tenere il filo, ma sarà chiaro, andando avanti, che questa scelta narrativa altro non è che un meccanismo di difesa: Sally opera una sovrapposizione della sua vita con quella dei romanzi che ama per evadere da quello squallore, per “guardare oltre quelle tende”, perché “fuori dai libri succede poco o nulla”.
L’immaginazione cambia radicalmente le cose. Cambia le prospettive e le apparenza, delle persone e dei posti, gli stati d’animo e i sentimenti, persino l’epilogo delle cose.
Rivelatrice sarà la terza parte del libro. Quando Sally inizierà a sentire il peso della condizione in cui vive, non riuscirà più ad accettare passivamente di essere diversa dal resto della sua famiglia e chiederà aiuto a un dottore. Un dottore che coinvolgerà i servizi sociali, i quali saranno promotori del suo allontanamento da quella casa.
La recensione completa è qui: https://www.silenziostoleggendo.com/2...
Oltre le tende di una casa, nell’Inghilterra degli anni ’70, piena di contraddizioni. Ci vivono “dodici bambini e tre adulti”, tra i quali nessun uomo, nessuna figura paterna, è lercia e piena di muffa, per cena ci sono sempre e solo toast al formaggio, è teatro di fatti orribili ma, allo stesso tempo è una casa in cui si impara Shakespeare, nella quale la madre di Sally recita poesie di Dylan Thomas.
Una donna che aveva “la sua riserva di parole” e che smette di leggere quando inizia ad avere tutti quei pannolini da cambiare. Ma alla figlia di sei anni indica la strada per arrivare alla biblioteca. È lì che Sally si innamora dei libri. Per primi quelli per bambini, poi passa ai gialli con protagonista Miss Marple e dopo scopre Jane Eyre.
Tutto quello che so, viene dai libri. Tutto quello che ho scoperto, lo devo a Miss Marple e poi a Jane Eyre. Dopo aver scoperto Jane Eyre, niente è stato più come prima. Lei era sempre lì, guardava e sentiva le cose che nessun altro osava guardare e sentire.
La prima parte del libro è narrata intrecciando i fatti alle trame e ai personaggi di questi romanzi. Un meccanismo che all’inizio crea un po’ di confusione ma basterà entrare nel ritmo e decidere di lasciarsi trasportare per cambiare punto di vista.
Non sarà facile tenere il filo, ma sarà chiaro, andando avanti, che questa scelta narrativa altro non è che un meccanismo di difesa: Sally opera una sovrapposizione della sua vita con quella dei romanzi che ama per evadere da quello squallore, per “guardare oltre quelle tende”, perché “fuori dai libri succede poco o nulla”.
L’immaginazione cambia radicalmente le cose. Cambia le prospettive e le apparenza, delle persone e dei posti, gli stati d’animo e i sentimenti, persino l’epilogo delle cose.
Rivelatrice sarà la terza parte del libro. Quando Sally inizierà a sentire il peso della condizione in cui vive, non riuscirà più ad accettare passivamente di essere diversa dal resto della sua famiglia e chiederà aiuto a un dottore. Un dottore che coinvolgerà i servizi sociali, i quali saranno promotori del suo allontanamento da quella casa.
La recensione completa è qui: https://www.silenziostoleggendo.com/2...
July 16, 2020
I had to read this book for a class I'm taking on British Detective Fiction. This book only barely fits that context. Sally Bayley was supposed to be my professor for the class but last minute could no longer do so. This is probably for the best because it would have been super awkward to talk about her own memoir to her face, but let it still be known that I'm salty she made me buy her own book. That bias definitely colors at least a bit of my review.
As a mystery/detective novel, this failed. There was no resolution of truths and the mysteries were incredibly vague. This was frustrating. I get that life doesn't necessarily give closure to everything, but still. Frustrating.
As a memoir, this didn't work well for me either. I'm not trashing on her life story -- there is nothing there for me to trash about because what am I going to ask her to do? Lie about her life? That's absurd and defeats the point of a memoir. However, the way she constructed the narrative of her life was shoddy. A lot of the book wound up being summaries of various books that were important to her life and I didn't appreciate those moments.
Overall, one of my lowest rated books of all time: too confusing, too frustrating. It has a lot of potential as an idea, but I don't think Bayley executed it well. What a shame.
As a mystery/detective novel, this failed. There was no resolution of truths and the mysteries were incredibly vague. This was frustrating. I get that life doesn't necessarily give closure to everything, but still. Frustrating.
As a memoir, this didn't work well for me either. I'm not trashing on her life story -- there is nothing there for me to trash about because what am I going to ask her to do? Lie about her life? That's absurd and defeats the point of a memoir. However, the way she constructed the narrative of her life was shoddy. A lot of the book wound up being summaries of various books that were important to her life and I didn't appreciate those moments.
Overall, one of my lowest rated books of all time: too confusing, too frustrating. It has a lot of potential as an idea, but I don't think Bayley executed it well. What a shame.
May 10, 2018
This is described as a memoir and ‘a life built by books’. Sounds perfect. A completely unusual formula with excerpts from texts like Jane Eyre and Janet and John reader books. I promise I was not just confused, I was bewildered. I read a quarter of the book and just abandoned it. Now this is serious for me: to abandon a book in the middle of the night with no replacement – never! But, hands up, I did. Sorry Sally Bayley.
I accept that the prose was quite lyrical, but then if you are quoting classic prose, how could it not be? I accept that the language was evocative. I wholeheartedly accept that it is clever. Did I find it illuminating; did I know what was going on? No. True if I had persevered then all might have become clear. Couldn’t do it. Did not have a clue as to what was happening, where it was going, or why.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.
I accept that the prose was quite lyrical, but then if you are quoting classic prose, how could it not be? I accept that the language was evocative. I wholeheartedly accept that it is clever. Did I find it illuminating; did I know what was going on? No. True if I had persevered then all might have become clear. Couldn’t do it. Did not have a clue as to what was happening, where it was going, or why.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.
July 13, 2018
Sally Bayley's Girl with Dove was recommended to me as a fan of Ali Smith's work, which made me both sceptical and intrigued. At first, I found Bayley's memoir quite a mesmerising one. It is narrated in what one imagines to be a reconstruction of Bayley's childhood voice; in this, memories of rather a dark girlhood are mixed in with books that she has read. Bayley discusses some of her favourite characters - Miss Marple, Milly-Molly-Mandy, Sleeping Beauty, Jane Eyre - and offers quite revealing synopses of particular novels. Whilst this is interesting if one has read the books in question, I feel as though the detailed plot outlines which Bayley gives have made it now unnecessary for me to read a few of the classics I have yet to get to.
Whilst Girl with Dove is quite a thoughtful memoir in some ways, I found the narrative style and lack of chronology within it a little wearing after a while. The structure is rather a loose one; Bayley flits from her own memories to rehashings of stories and detailed literary criticism quite quickly; there is little coherence in places here. I did enjoy Girl with Dove to an extent, but I think perhaps I was expecting a little more from it. For me, Bayley's writing did not come close to Ali Smith's. This memoir is an entertaining one at times, but I felt as though the approach could have been greatly tightened up.
Whilst Girl with Dove is quite a thoughtful memoir in some ways, I found the narrative style and lack of chronology within it a little wearing after a while. The structure is rather a loose one; Bayley flits from her own memories to rehashings of stories and detailed literary criticism quite quickly; there is little coherence in places here. I did enjoy Girl with Dove to an extent, but I think perhaps I was expecting a little more from it. For me, Bayley's writing did not come close to Ali Smith's. This memoir is an entertaining one at times, but I felt as though the approach could have been greatly tightened up.
July 29, 2018
If every anybody needed an escape from reality, then it was Salley Bayley as she grew up in a very dysfunctional family where there were many changes in the adults in the home, and when her baby brother disappears from his pram one day then she is even more confused about the world around her.
And that is how books helps protect her. Encouraged by her mother at a young age to visit the library, Salley is soon mesmerised by the worlds she visits, especially by the female characters she reads about - Miss Marple, Jane Eyre - and uses their thought processes and experiences to try and make sense of her life through theirs. This was a fascinating way of dissecting many classic books and offered her comfort where there was very little in her immediate world.
This was quite a dark and often bleak read, considering the things she witnessed as a child. She only had books to turn to, until she did eventually did reach out to a Doctor about her health and this caused a huge split in the family.
It is beautifully written, if a little confusing at times with the constant switching of timelines and events, and a striking memoir and a different way of looking at how books can help us even in the darkest of times.
And that is how books helps protect her. Encouraged by her mother at a young age to visit the library, Salley is soon mesmerised by the worlds she visits, especially by the female characters she reads about - Miss Marple, Jane Eyre - and uses their thought processes and experiences to try and make sense of her life through theirs. This was a fascinating way of dissecting many classic books and offered her comfort where there was very little in her immediate world.
This was quite a dark and often bleak read, considering the things she witnessed as a child. She only had books to turn to, until she did eventually did reach out to a Doctor about her health and this caused a huge split in the family.
It is beautifully written, if a little confusing at times with the constant switching of timelines and events, and a striking memoir and a different way of looking at how books can help us even in the darkest of times.
February 3, 2022
A strange memoir of the author’s childhood liv8ng in a seaside town with her mother and aunt and assorted siblings and other people who are really never explained. Just as you think she is going to say something real about her childhood she goes rambling on about David Copperfield or Jane Eyre and you are none the wiser. I’m sure it’s all very clever and literary, but I wanted to know more about her real life rathe than her musings about characters in literature. She’d read all of Agatha Christie by the time she was ten (though someone should point out to her that the Vicar’s wife in Murder at the Vicarage is Griselda, not Greta). But at the end of the book I didn’t know much more about her life really than before I started. Oh well, maybe the next volume will be more revealing. Or perhaps not.
May 22, 2020
An interesting read. Wasnt quite sure at the beginning but once I got used to the writing style I began to enjoy it more and my reading picked up pace.
Would definitely recommend you give it a go as the content is a fascinating insight into a childs life and how reading and books influenced her.
Would definitely recommend you give it a go as the content is a fascinating insight into a childs life and how reading and books influenced her.
abandoned
January 14, 2019
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000...
Description: Sally Bayley recalls how a strange home life made her bond with characters from books, abridged in five parts by Katrin Williams:
We are introduced to the household in a village in Sussex, mother, grandmother and some brothers. One day baby David goes missing and mummy retires to her bedroom for "two hundred sleeps". At this point the author turns to Miss Marple to make sense of things..
Not for me at this time...
January 18, 2019
I couldn't put this one down. I identified with the child, I remember 'becoming' the characters in the books I was reading as a child to escape reality. It is a disturbing book, especially towards the end, but child abuse, in whatever form is always going to be disturbing. I would have liked to find out how some of the situations ended. I felt they were left hanging a bit. However I highly recommend this book.
June 29, 2018
My expectations weren’t met so I was disappointed. I learnt a lot about other characters- which I could have found out for myself by reading the books- but not much about Sally’s story and that’s what I wanted know.
May 12, 2020
Written whimsically in a near ‘stream of consciousness’ almost fairytale-like style, delightfully poetic. A young girl coming of age influenced by her appetite for reading with countless references to Jane Eyre, Miss Marple and David Copperfield. Beautifully written, refreshingly English.
April 16, 2021
Un vortice, non saprei come definire diversamente questo romanzo fiume.
Un lungo flusso di coscienza che, tra visioni, ricordi, riferimenti letterari e storici, ci trasporta nella vita dell'autrice in questo memoir che più che raccontare una storia mira a trasmettere sensazioni.
E che sensazioni arrivano al lettore che legge queste pagine?
Confusione, smarrimento, ricerca, insicurezza, dolore ... il tutto condito dal tentativo della voce narrante di dare un senso alle sue sensazioni, alle sue emozioni, alla sua vita.
Da Agatha Christie a Jane Eyre, da David Copperfield a Dylan Thomas tanti sono i riferimenti storici, culturali e letterari che Sally Bayley utilizza per raccontare la sua storia.
Ma quello che conta qui, di certo non è la trama, che resta avvolta dalla nebbia dei ricordi e delle interpretazioni personali. Quello che conta qui è lo stile, la ricchezza lessicale, l'affascinante mix degli elementi che vanno a comporre un ricchissimo mosaico biografico che fotografa anche una generazione e un'epoca della storia inglese.
Di certo non una lettura per tutti.
Bisogna essere disposti a lasciarsi trasportare dal ritmo della narrazione in un flusso di coscienza dove le cose, spesso, non hanno senso o almeno sembrano non averlo.
Un lungo flusso di coscienza che, tra visioni, ricordi, riferimenti letterari e storici, ci trasporta nella vita dell'autrice in questo memoir che più che raccontare una storia mira a trasmettere sensazioni.
E che sensazioni arrivano al lettore che legge queste pagine?
Confusione, smarrimento, ricerca, insicurezza, dolore ... il tutto condito dal tentativo della voce narrante di dare un senso alle sue sensazioni, alle sue emozioni, alla sua vita.
Da Agatha Christie a Jane Eyre, da David Copperfield a Dylan Thomas tanti sono i riferimenti storici, culturali e letterari che Sally Bayley utilizza per raccontare la sua storia.
Ma quello che conta qui, di certo non è la trama, che resta avvolta dalla nebbia dei ricordi e delle interpretazioni personali. Quello che conta qui è lo stile, la ricchezza lessicale, l'affascinante mix degli elementi che vanno a comporre un ricchissimo mosaico biografico che fotografa anche una generazione e un'epoca della storia inglese.
Di certo non una lettura per tutti.
Bisogna essere disposti a lasciarsi trasportare dal ritmo della narrazione in un flusso di coscienza dove le cose, spesso, non hanno senso o almeno sembrano non averlo.
August 11, 2019
It took me some time to get into this book, but when I did I found it intensely immersive. I identified a lot with the way that the young Sally imagined characters alongside her as real people, and interpreted the world through their voices and experiences. I was fortunate not have been as deprived in childhood as she was, but I was extremely lonely, and I had Asperger's Syndrome, which causes certain things, in my case books, to fill up your brain and heart like a room full of Christmas lights. It is a very readable book, and poetic. I agree with the below comments that it may be frustrating if you're looking for a solid plot. The book's focus isn't an A to B - it's bringing to life the haunted imagination of a child.
October 4, 2018
Everyone who loves literature should read this book. It is an extraordinary triumph, a stunning testament to the power of language and imagination. Bayley weaves together a living, breathing palimpsest, masterfully spinning an extensive literary cannon into a bold, new, and refreshing form. Bayley invites readers into a hypnotic and vivid synthesis of history and imagination, and her observations are striking in both their visual clarity and emotional precision. Bayley is poised to inspire a generation of readers, as Bronte, Dickens, and her other guides have her. She is a true luminary. Her work dares to charter untrodden territory. Do not miss out on this incredible work.
February 22, 2024
What an interesting way of telling a story. Had to read this for my book club and someone had indicated that they hated the book. But I actually liked the way it is written.
So the story is told through three main books/characters. Miss Marple from Agatha Christy, Jane Eyre and David Copperfield. The latter the only book am not too familiar with. I liked the weaving of these characters from these books with the main biography of the story being told. The writing sometimes makes you wonder is this real or something being imagined. Kept me guessing till the last page.
So the story is told through three main books/characters. Miss Marple from Agatha Christy, Jane Eyre and David Copperfield. The latter the only book am not too familiar with. I liked the weaving of these characters from these books with the main biography of the story being told. The writing sometimes makes you wonder is this real or something being imagined. Kept me guessing till the last page.
April 15, 2019
A good read and written as a child mixing fiction with real life and a nice reminder of favourite books l read as a child and classics. A nice change to read a memoir and recommended.
April 12, 2025
so unusual, like nothing I've ever read before
March 18, 2021
I heard Sally Bayley speaking about this book on Radio 4, and thought that (as she had had a different and quirky upbringing) it would be worth reading. However, I have to say that I think I learned more from the short radio interview than I did from the book. Sally Bayley's early life was difficult; the strategy she developed to help her cope was to immerse herself in literature, finding parallels and characters she could believe in, and tackling classic novels at an early age. The book begins with the disappearance (death?) of Sally's younger brother, described with varied imagery - nothing is really explained and although there is a rough linear plot to the book, time and time again images, fragments of stories and quotations from other novels are repeated. A lady called Sue who lived upstairs also disappeared but again this is not explained. All I can assume is that the confusion in the book mirrors the confusion of early childhood, when you often don't really understand what is going on, but it didn't make an enjoyable read. You have to be fairly well informed about characters from Agatha Christie's novels for some references to make sense. David Copperfield, Jane Eyre and the poems of Dylan Thomas are also much quoted.
If I hadn't paid good money for this, I would have probably bailed out after one sitting, but I did persevere (especially as one of our family recommends never rejecting a book until you have read 100 pages!). I would rate this as one of the most frustrating books I have ever read.
If I hadn't paid good money for this, I would have probably bailed out after one sitting, but I did persevere (especially as one of our family recommends never rejecting a book until you have read 100 pages!). I would rate this as one of the most frustrating books I have ever read.
February 20, 2019
'So the child with the white blanket runs across the meadow and the clouds puff and blow, puff and blow, and the child lifts up his arms and sails into the sky'
One of the most extraordinary books I have read. Powerful, moving, unsettling, enchanting, obscure. Navigating your way through the fog of Bayley's life is often challenging - as her mother says, facts are often thin on the ground - but 'Girl with Dove' is so good at capturing the hazy, often confusing world of childhood and the way in which we can make sense of often traumatic experiences through literature. As child Sally discovers, books are a refuge in which we can hide - but they also allow us to fly free, sparrows rising from the ash and dust towards a better world.
One of the most extraordinary books I have read. Powerful, moving, unsettling, enchanting, obscure. Navigating your way through the fog of Bayley's life is often challenging - as her mother says, facts are often thin on the ground - but 'Girl with Dove' is so good at capturing the hazy, often confusing world of childhood and the way in which we can make sense of often traumatic experiences through literature. As child Sally discovers, books are a refuge in which we can hide - but they also allow us to fly free, sparrows rising from the ash and dust towards a better world.
June 18, 2018
Girl with Dove
Author looks back on a disturbing childhood and finds solace in books. Quite interesting.
Not what I expected, this book by Sally Bayley is about being brought up in a dysfunctional family in which she feels out of place, leading to unusual consequences. An early reader, she finds inspiration from Jane Eyre, David Copperfield and Miss Marple.
Quite interesting in a higgledy piggeldy style, jumping back and forth in time and from one fictional character to another, it’s not the easiest of reads. Not really my sort of book but I’m sure that there are many who will be inspired by it.
Author looks back on a disturbing childhood and finds solace in books. Quite interesting.
Not what I expected, this book by Sally Bayley is about being brought up in a dysfunctional family in which she feels out of place, leading to unusual consequences. An early reader, she finds inspiration from Jane Eyre, David Copperfield and Miss Marple.
Quite interesting in a higgledy piggeldy style, jumping back and forth in time and from one fictional character to another, it’s not the easiest of reads. Not really my sort of book but I’m sure that there are many who will be inspired by it.
February 20, 2021
A powerful and disturbing memoir but one which, when I reached the final page, left me with more questions than answers. She described avid readers as 'escape artists' (a reflection I can certainly identify with!) and there were many times when I was reading that, through her eyes, I felt I was reacquainting myself with the characters who helped her to make sense of her chaotic childhood rather than getting to the 'essence' of who Sally Bayley is.
April 8, 2019
Confusing - undoubtedly deliberately so as the book is the memoir of a neglected child from a dysfunctional family. I don't really know what happened, but I do know it wasn't good. Disturbing. Not a book to read for fun
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