Hannah Hauxwell

Well, here the reason that I started the blog in the first place. I have just finished the second Hannah Hauxwell book.

These were Grans' books. I had never heard of Hannah Hauxwell before I got the books from Gran.

She seems like a true Northern country woman. Not afraid of hard work, in touch with the reality of her situation and not about to let 'fluff' mix up her ideas of what is the right and proper way to approach a situation.

The first book I read 'Seasons of my life' was great. I could barely put it down. Surprising for me as I don't normally read biography type books - that's more m's thing than mine.

The way that Hannah comes across in the book though is just how people have described first meeting her - she is a natural conversationalist. The book feels real. It expresses both the bleakness and the beauty of the dales. The feeling that time has stood still in that part of the world is apparent in the way Hannah expresses herself.

The second book 'Daughter of the Dales' I did not find as enjoyable and was in fact quite pleased to have finished it - although I seem to have run out of books that are appealing for me to read them - I think a visit to the Big Bro library is on the cards - roll on some fantasy novel!

'Daughter of the Dales' had less of Hannah in - there was more recollections of other people from the area who knew Hannah or her family. Hannah has also moved so the beauty of Low Birk Hatt farm was not as apparent.

I loved the history of the old ways of life that was apparent in both books - it brings back memories of why I wanted to study history in the first place.