Ah Yes, The Rainbow! We studied this for my A Level. I think we are of similar age. I fell in love with this book, it spoke to something so primal in me. I was born on the north Notts/south Yorks border, moving south to Bristol when I was six and then on to Falmouth in Cornwall. Lawrence’s description of coal mining country connected to ancient ancestry in me. Last year a friend did my family tree on my dad’s side to discover generations of coal miners, and at one time the family lived in Eastwood, where Lawrence was born - which helped me understand why his description of the land and the industrialisation had such deep resonance for me. We also read Howards End by E M Forster, and those two words “Only Connect” have stayed with me ever since.
So I'm 61. This was the first book we ever studied for English which completely transformed my worldview. Jane Austen was fun but never quite hacked it!
Ah Yes, The Rainbow! We studied this for my A Level. I think we are of similar age. I fell in love with this book, it spoke to something so primal in me. I was born on the north Notts/south Yorks border, moving south to Bristol when I was six and then on to Falmouth in Cornwall. Lawrence’s description of coal mining country connected to ancient ancestry in me. Last year a friend did my family tree on my dad’s side to discover generations of coal miners, and at one time the family lived in Eastwood, where Lawrence was born - which helped me understand why his description of the land and the industrialisation had such deep resonance for me. We also read Howards End by E M Forster, and those two words “Only Connect” have stayed with me ever since.
So I'm 61. This was the first book we ever studied for English which completely transformed my worldview. Jane Austen was fun but never quite hacked it!
I’m 61 too. And neither could I settle with Jane Austen 😀