A forgotten Victorian childrenās book helped me grieve my father
The stories in Mrs Leicesterās School, written by a woman who killed her own mother, were suffused with grief, and finally triggered mine as I
The stories in Mrs Leicesterās School, written by a woman who killed her own mother, were suffused with grief, and finally triggered mine as I was teaching a class of students When my dad went into hospital for what would be the final time, shortly before Christmas last year, I had been finishing up a lecture series on early childrenās literature for the university where I teach.
My dad had had a drinking problem practically my whole life, but his alcoholism had worsened across decades. Then suddenly, after years of poor health, his liver just gave up on him. He was dead within days. Shortly after his death I was due to lecture on a relatively forgotten book of stories for children called Mrs Leicesterās School, mostly written by the English writer Mary Lamb but with parts by her more famous brother, Charles.
I was not prepared for how moved I would be by the simple message of one of the stories. That often bizarre and sometimes grim
collection of tales for pre-Victorian boys and girls changed the way that I, an almost 40-year-old man, think about grief. Continue reading...
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