Mawson’s Guardian Says: Fortunately, we happen to know about books that are entirely suitable for your bears. They are suitable too for everyone you know who loves them. Oh yes, our Mawson the Writer-bear’s little books are just the thing to get your paws on
As everyone knows, bears read books. They’re not just sitting idly on your bookshelves -they are reading. But when they aren’t looking you can take out the books and read them yourself!
Our publisher is Odyssey Books. Just type in www.odysseybooks.com.au and there they will be. They will look like this:
What Mawson’s books look like on Odyssey Books Website
Plonk Down Your Paw: Just click on this blue stuff right here to find them. Collect them all for your bears, for your plushie loving friends, or … Just for yourself. Carry them about and dip into on dreary days.
KINDLE TOO: Mawson’s books, It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In and She Ran Away From Love , are FREE on Kindle Unlimited on most Amazon regions. Or buy the Kindles for only around $US 3. All the books are in soft cover copies that you can keep and turn to whenever you feel a bit too baffled, a bit too ruffled, and just want a cosy world to sink into.
Happy Christmas reading for you and all your bears and friends.
PLEASE FOLLOW USAt Baffled Bear Books . Simply plonk your paw on the FOLLOW buttons on this very page. You can also follow on Amazon and on GoodReads. We are also on Instagram, and Tiktok, and Anchor/ Spotify and Mastodon (link is @mawsonbear@mastodon.au. )
OH!! Yesterday we went to the faiwy festival!! Thare was so much to see there so the Teddy didnt get as many picshures as I wanted. But we did get some good ones!!! Wook at this big gnome guy we found!!! Hes so big!!! And guess what?? He was able to walk awound!!! We didnt […]
The post above is by our long time friend Teddy. We love Teddy’s Family and hope you do. Why not read his fun stories and follow Teddy along for more. Just plonk a paw on the bit above that says, Fairy Festival.
Lady Susan, a short novel in letter form, remains unknown to many Austen fans even though a movie version, Love and Friendship, was made recently.
The Tedettes Jane Austen Bookclub with their discoveries about Jane Austen
The novel is packed with exquisitely written barbs and eyebrow-raising cynicisms, the best delivered by Lady Susan herself as she confides her schemes to her ally, Mrs Johnson. Here is Lady Susan speaking of the wickedly expensive schooling of her 16 year old daughter, Frederica.
Not one lover to her list
“To be mistress of French, Italian, German, Music, Singing, Drawing etc. will gain a woman some applause but will not add one lover to her list.”
Austen is thought to have writtenLady Susan before Northanger Abbey, but exactly when is not known. The Austen-philes quoted below guess at 1803, 1805 and 1808, which puts Austen in her mid to late twenties. She wrote the first version of Pride and Prejudice, of course, when younger still.
A Lion In The Path
“Lady Susan … (is) a lion in the path of those persons who would call Jane Austen charming, soothing, refreshing etc. G. H Lewes, when he recommended Charlotte Bronte to “follow the counsel which shines out of Miss Austen’s mild eyes” was unaware of Lady Susan, where Miss Austen’s eyes are those of a hunting cat. … In controlled grimness it looks forward to a masterpiece never written.”
Sylvia Townsend Warner, novelist, wrote the assessment above in a 1951 essay published by The British Council. (The essay, sadly, is probably no longer available, even if you do have one shilling and sixpence net*).
Before Becky Sharp there was Lady Susan
But David Cecil, author of A Portrait of Jane Austen , is among many Austen-philes determined to keep Miss Jane’s eyes as mild as possible.
“Lady Susan Vernon is a sort of blue-blooded Becky Sharp, an unscrupulous adventuress, far more sensational in her evil doing than any character in Jane Austen’s later books.”
The Tedettes Jane Austen Bookclub (and Knitters). Their main bother is to find the bonnets.
Cecil thinks of the novel as a youthful experiment, even a mistake.
“It is lively and readable … All the same, Lady Susan is not a success. Jane Austen had no acquaintance with smart society and has to describe it from hearsay: with the result that her picture lacks the intimate reality with with she portrays the country gentry … We may suppose she realised this for she made no effort to have the book published in her lifetime … She was gradually learning her art.”
The Perils of Gout
Mawson’s Guardian thinks that if a reader’s frisson of guilty delight is a desirable part of entertainment then young Austen had thoroughly learnt her art. Even the brutal lines in Lady Susanthat make Cecil wince are delivered superbly. Here is Lady Susan commiserating with Mrs Johnson about her husband’s gout.
“My dear Alicia, of what mistake were you guilty in marrying a man of his age! just old enough to be formal, ungovernable, and to have the gout – too old to be agreeable, and too young to die”.
Mr Johnson (Stephen Fry in the movie) has forbidden Alicia from seeing Lady Susan on pain of her being despatched to his properties in America if she persists, for he believes Lady Susan to be a Bad Influence. If you’ve never seen Fry play a ruthless role, watch on as he delivers the line, “I hear the Atlantic crossing is very cold this time of year”.
Subtle, Terrifying
The Tedettes with their prized Folio editions of Jane Austen’s work
Richard Church, in the Foreword to the Folio edition of Austen’s shorter works, is perplexed that Austen even penned such a work as Lady Susan.
“This is a masterpiece, powerful, subtle and terrifying. It is as cruel as Les Liaisons Dangerous by de Lachol. This Lady Susan may well be compared to .. Madame de Merteuil for coldness of soul, amoral cruely and icy lust. What was this feature of Jane Austens’s personality? so primitive, unladylike and deadly? Here was no chronicler of the drawing room and the country house tea party.”
Bright Eyes
“In her person she was very attractive. Her figure was rather tall and slender, her step light and firm, and her whole appearance one of health and animation. In complexion she was a clear brunette with a rich colour, she had full round cheeks with a mouth and nose rather small but well-formed, bright hazel eyes and brown hair forming natural curls around her face.”
What kind of eyes did Jane Austen really have? Here is a word-portrait penned by her nephew. (Jane and Cassandra loved the role of Aunts.)
Hmm, so hazel eyes, greenish eyes, and bright. The green of a hunting cat’s eyes, perhaps?
Take your own look atLady Susanwho herself certainly seems to deserve that description. And then enjoy Kate Beckinsale’s excellent portrayal in the inexplicably renamed, but otherwise guiltily-delightful film,Love and Friendship.
Where to find Lady Susan, in various editions: On Amazon and at Booktopia.
PLEASE FOLLOW USAt Baffled Bear Books . Simply plonk your paw on the FOLLOW buttons on this very page. You can also follow on Amazon and on GoodReads. We are also on Instagram, and Tiktok, and Anchor/ Spotify and Mastodon (link is @mawsonbear@mastodon.au. )
Do you sometimes feel a bit muddled about, well, Things ?
Sometimes rather ruffled when Things just go and, well, Happen ?
Sometimes feel confused one moment and completely baffled the next?
It’s not easy being Grownup. All this business of having to be sophisticated and industrious all day long! It just wears you down. But when you arrive in Mawson’s cosy world, the frazzled reader can flop down among the cushions and relax.
Here you can find the answers to just about nothing at all. You can forget you ever had questions anyway.
Mawson and his friends are befuddled about most things most of the time – just like so many of us. And that’s all right.
She Ran Away From Love,is all about his friend Frilly feeling hopelessly baffled by Big Questions.
‘A magical little grand tour into the meaning of happiness.‘ Sharri Williams Author of The Maybelline Story.
‘A book about optimism, searching for new adventures, and making the most of life and love.’ Review on Goodreads by Debbie Young, author of the Sophie Sayer Mysteries.
‘Mawson is a precious teddy who should be a staple read on every little one’s bookshelf. He certainly has a home on ours. I know he certainly inspired my own inner child.’ Lyndie, Bookaholic reviews.
By 1942, thousands of Australian soldiers were captured in the fall of Singapore and most of the remaining Australian soldiers were fighting in North Africa. The total occupation of New Guinea had been halted, but only just, by the Battle of The Kokoda Track. The towns of the northern coast were being bombed* and the invasion of Australian shores looked imminent. Britain declined to help. They were fully stretched fighting Germany and Italy. The Australian Prime Minister, John Curtin, turned to President Roosevelt of the USA for help.
General Douglas (‘I will return’) MacArthur retreated from the Phillipines and set up headquarters in Brisbane. Thousands of American army and navy personal were despatched to the ‘sunburnt country’, a land most of them knew little about.
The booklet shown below was No. 23 in a series rushed off the presses to inform Americans about their new allies, in this case Australia. The foreword says the booklet ’emphasises the importance of Australia’s position not only for the Southwest Pacific, but also in the grand strategy of the United Nations.’
There are all kinds of things in here that both Australians and Americans will find of interest, I think, even though much has changed. The author reminds his American readers that the Australian colonies came into existence because of the American Declaration of Independence. The loss of the American colonies, where the British often dumped their convicts, motivated the British to attempt to plant a new colony in the unexplored land mass on the far side of the globe. Of the 1400 members of the First Fleet, half were convicts**. Eventually 160,000 convicts were shipped to the new colony, first to Sydney and Hobart town, and later to South Australia and Perth. Many of them were only petty criminals or ‘political agitators’ who the Brits wanted to get rid of, especially ‘Fenians’ from Ireland. Nowadays some 40% of Australians can trace their heritage back to Ireland including your correspondent, an O’Dwyer by name.
Another connection with the USA that Americans in 1942, and now, may not have known about was the gold rushes. Many hopeful men headed from Australia to California in 1849 including, apparently, my own great-great grandfather. When gold was found in Victoria in the 1850’s, disappointed miners, including thousands of Americans, then flooded to the Great Southern Land. The largest rebellion against arbitrary authority in Australia was by angry gold miners (‘diggers’) at the ‘Euraka Stockade’. Among them were some Americans.
A third big connection, which was strangely omitted by Timperley in his booklet, is that in 1918 Americans fought with Australians on the Western Front at Chuignes, Mont St Quentin, Perrone and Hargicourt under the overall command of Australian general Monash.***
The booklet’s author, Timperley, blandly sets down the racist and patronising views of 1942, and at these you just want to weep. Concerning the Australian Aborigines we read (gulp), ‘ ‘Authorities have set aside native reserve where these remnants of a dying race may end their days in peace.’ Yes, it’s all true. The ‘natives’ were supposed to quietly go away and die. These were also the ghastly days of the White Australia immigration policy, the excuse of which was to keep out feared hordes of ‘coloured labourers’ from anywhere in Asia.
On the other hand, pre-1942 Australia had got a lot right. As the author notes, the Labor Party stimulated political reforms such as votes for women in 1902, free and compulsory education, pensions for invalids and veterans, and ‘a great body of social legislation which has made Australia one of the most liberal of world democracies’. Prime Ministers had by then included a former miner, an itinerant labourer, a storekeeper, a school teacher, and the great war time leader John Curtin who left school at age 13. Timperley contrasts this with the unlikelihood of such things happening in the USA.
Timperly could not know then of course that the alliance being forged between Australia as the USA even as he wrote would continue after the war in the Pacific. It remains bi-partisan Australian national policy to this day.
My thanks go to Lisa C. who stumbled on this treasure in a ‘pre-loved bookshop’ and generously sent it on to me.
*The movie ‘Australia’ depicts the first day of the months-long bombing of Darwin.
**Many an Australian now trawls the genealogical websites hoping to discover that their forebears were convicts, especially one from the First Fleet.
***Monash had 208,000 men under his command, including 50,000 Americans.
Mark is guardian and blundering typist for Mawson, one of this bright world’s few published bears.
From the book’s cover: It’s little Grim’s first day at his new school. But the other kids .. call him ‘freak’ and refuse to play with him.
A parent drops his kid off at school. Ok, he’s the Grim Reaper, but what of that detail? Just another parent doing a drop off, really, whatever that parent’s job might be. His son, Little Grim, like every new kid, worries if anyone will like him.
‘Little Grim gripped his lunchbox tight. He tried to steady his shaking knees.’
To his distress, he is seen as ‘different’ from the start. And he does something normal, so normal that most of us have done it at some time: he runs away.
But what if other people, lots of people in fact, are seen as ‘different’ too?
Beautifully presented in hardcover and with full page glorious coloured illustrations, this story lucidly tells how ..
.. Bullying is never ok. And you are not alone.
At Sticksnstones you can see a website by young people for young people about dealing with bullying. And here is KidsHelpLine for the same purpose.
Where to find it this book: From Odyssey Books , and Amazon and also Waterstones, Barnes and Noble and Chapters Indigo. Or, ask your friendly local bookstore to order it in for you, and for any friend who might appreciate this little gothic tale.
PLEASE FOLLOW USAt Baffled Bear Books . Simply plonk your paw on the FOLLOW buttons on this very page. You can also follow on Amazon and on GoodReads. We are also on Instagram, and Tiktok, and Anchor/ Spotify and Mastodon (link is @mawsonbear@mastodon.au. )
Mark is guardian and blundering typist for Mawson, one of this bright world’s few published bears.
‘This is no game .. Zeus means for the Trojan bloodline to join that of the Latins. His empire will mean starvation for all gods. Go now. Shatter the peace, turn brother against brother.’ Hera to Athena and Ares.
In The Way Home, the first book of TheAshes of Olympus trilogy, the survivors of Troy flee the Greeks and take to the wind dark sea to find a new home. Before reading on you might like to read my review here.
Now in The Ivory Gate , the second book, Julian Barr continues this emotive and action packed story. We are reminded that Aeneas’ troubles, the fate of the Trojan’s and of the Latins, all arise from the feud between the goddesses Aphrodite and Hera. I enjoy how Julian Barr gives us gods you can not only fear but also feel for. Hera’s machinations, for instance, are driven by her fierce desire to protect her daughter, Queen Dido of Karkhedon (later known as ‘Carthage’).
Aphrodite recruits the Furies, Poseidon, Cyclops and Hephaestus, god of fire and forger of weapons. Hera ramps up this arms race by summoning not only the warrior Athena but also the war god himself, Ares. And this is no mere spat among the Olympians. This is for their survival.
As the narrative moves from Karkhedon to Scilia and on to Italia, the Olympians plot and interfere, causing grief. But the mortals struggle on, protecting the ones they love while striving for their destinies.
Julian Barr brings to life Dido’s anguish at being abandoned by her lover Aeneas’, his clumsy attempt to connect with his son Julos who resents being pulled away from Dido, the only mother figure he has known, Lavinia’s attempts to live up to her father’s memory, and Beroe’s smouldering grief at the loss of her partner.
There are many reasons for me to give this trilogy my whole hearted recommendation: it brings to life the misty times of legend, it delivers Virgil’s stories in an exciting form to a modern audience, it contains maps and superb illustrations (like the one above), and anyway I simply love stories like this.
*The images here are copyright, and shown by courtesy of the author and Odyssey Books.
PLEASE FOLLOW USAt Baffled Bear Books . Simply plonk your paw on the FOLLOW buttons on this very page. You can also follow on Amazon and on GoodReads. We are also on Instagram, and Tiktok, and Anchor/ Spotify and Mastodon (link is @mawsonbear@mastodon.au. )
‘The gods give no more than you can bear. The unfriendly sea shall be your road. A new homeland lies far across the roaring waves’. Kruesa’s ghost to Aeneas, p.44
The first lines of The Way Homeplunge us into the night a civilisation was turned to ashes. The Greeks raze Troy. Trojan leaders are cut down. After trying in vain to save King Priam, young Aeneas fights his way past Ares himself, the god of war, to bring his father and son to the hills where they join the survivors. These, the last of the Trojans, huddle together, shocked by the disaster. Like refugees through the ages, they have no idea what to do, where to go.
‘We need you for a king, Aeneas’, said Mmestheos. ‘The people are ready to make their oaths’. Anxiety crept over Aeneas. P. 41
Aeneas, only 19, is racked by grief for his wife Kruesa, struck down by Hera, queen of the Twelve Olympians, whose determination to wipe out the Trojans knows no bounds. But he must summon the resolve to play the part of a leader. He plans to steal Greek ships, but the land loving Trojan men do not know how to sail them across the dark sea.
The Way Home, by Julian Barr, takes place in the dawn of western history, among the early Greeks and peoples of Italy. Number 10 on the map shows the site of Troy.
Social boundaries must give way to character and ability. Aeneas takes counsel from all ranks, including commoners – and women. Beroe leads forward her fisher women, and they take charge of the sailing. The Trojans turn their prows toward an unknown world where men and gods alike are hostile. During this search for their new home, Aeneas must dig deep for the courage to challenge the accepted way of things, to do what must be done for the good of all.
This is a great read for anyone who loves seeing the misty times of legend turned into a driving adventure. Lest because of a few spear throws and dented shields this be misconstrued as a ‘book for boys’, I am going to make special mention of recommending it to young women. The female characters outnumber the men, I think: healer Eumela, ‘Little Red’ who will one day become Lavinia, no-nonsense Beroe, tragic Andromakhe, Queen Dido of Karkhedon, the warrior Amata, and more. The entire story, in fact, is propelled by the terrible feud between the goddesses Hera and Aphrodite.
‘Most of our playmates die of the flux by the time they’re old enough for betrothal’. Ankhises, p.63.
With short, fast sentences packed with both action and feeling, Julian Barr , novelist and itinerant bard, turns harpies, cyclops, nymphs and bitter gods into breathing characters. And Barr is also an historian; he shows us an early world where life for humans was hard, slavery the norm, marriage came early (Aeneas and Kreusa were betrothed at the age of eight) and death came soon.
‘Aeneas.’ Sergostos’s lips tightened. ‘Just don’t die’. Aeneas gave a bark of laughter. ‘You know me. I’m going to live forever’.
Aeneas indeed lives on, in myth and poetry, and now in Julian Barr’s highly readable trilogy, The Ashes of Olympus. The series is based on the latin epic The Aeneid , written by Virgil around 25 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans.
The Way Home, with illustrations by Matt Wolf and maps by Linc Morse is published by Odyssey Books, ‘where books are an adventure’. And what an adventure this one is!
Mark is guardian and blundering typist for Mawson, one of this bright world’s few published bears. He is the writer-bear of It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In. ISBN: 978-1-922200-44-0
You can find Dreamy Days and Random Naps on this link. Here is more about ‘Dreamy Days’:
‘Mawson Bear awakes and ponders on the art of creative napping. Scotland The Brave imagines doing great deeds. Professors Caddy and Bree hold the highest hopes for their visionary inventions. Samantha sees wondrous things all round her. The Seekers journey all the way to the edge of the world, being sure to return, of course, by bedtime.
Flop down and relax awhile with Mawson and his drowsy friends. Refresh the soul in the tranquility of simple joys and innocent dreams.
Dreamy Days and Random Naps celebrates taking time out for yourself, slowing down, enjoying the moment, allowing your daydreams to surface, and of course slipping into a nap for a while, or for even longer. It will delight all who enjoy daydreaming and napping. Could this be you?
‘I enjoyed Dreamy Days and Random Naps for its ability to show the young and old that it is good to use your imagination. This was another delightful read from Mawson Bear.’ Jolenes Book Corner.
‘The images in the Mawson Bear books are so charming and endearing you can’t help but smile at them.’ Review by Adele on GoodReads
Mawson Bears books for cheering up frazzled grownups. Kids like them too!
You can also see all about Mawson on Amazon Page. (This writer-bear is all over the book world.) And be sure to plonk a paw down on the ‘FOLLOW‘ buttons on this page.
‘This gentle little book snuck up on me. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was glad I dove in.’ (Reviewer B. Sneedy)
A teddy on the cover, yes, but this is mostly a book for grownups
‘She Ran Away from Love is an adventure on more than one level. It’s the physical journey of a small, frightened bear who finds love just a bit too bright for comfort, but it is also an inner journey in which the little bear finds herself.’
‘I suspect this book will touch different readers in different ways. I smiled through the entire book.’ Review by Bernice Sneedy at Amazon AU. ‘
Thank you Bernice Sneedy for this kind review of Frilly’s quest to find herself.*
Mawson’s Guardian adds: And LOOK! Its only $3 or do on Kindle everywhere.
Go on, get snuck up on to, yourself!
Other places to find She Ran Away From Love by Mawson, one of this world’s few published Writer-Bears:
Baffled Bear Books 