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The book group on 10 December 2022 will be a discussion on CMY and Christian Names – her great work, plus her use of names, plus Are You Called after a CMY character?  

In 2023, to celebrate CMY’s bicentenary, we shall be discussing some of her most significant works: 11 February The Little Duke (her first real historical story – not counting Kenneth – and her first serial in The Monthly Packet 13 May Scenes and Characters (the very first of the linked novels) + The Two Sides of the Shield (its sequel) 12 August (the day after The Birthday!) The Heir of Redclyffe  (her best-known work) 11 November The Carbonels + Founded on Paper (her story based on her parents’, and her own, early years in Otterbourne, with its sequel, dealing with the same village in the 1890s, thus bracketing CMY’s own life) 9 December A light-hearted discussion on Who You Would Cast as any CMY characters in a (sadly unlikely to happen) film or televisation of any of her books. All the books are available online. Some are very well known and others (particularly Founded on Paper) may be unfamiliar

The AGM and Autumn Meeting will be held via Zoom on Saturday 19 November 2022 10:45 AGM (agenda in mailing sent to members) 12:00  Dr Ellen Jordan ‘To occupy the clever young ladies’; Charlotte Yonge and middle-class girls’ education 12:45 Break for refreshment 13:40 Dr Sue Anderson-Faithful : ‘Charlotte Yonge, the Girls’ Friendly Society and the Mothers’ Union’ 14:40 Contributions from members

The November bookclub is scheduled for 3pm GMT on Saturday 12 November. Dynevor Terrace, published in 1857, comes immediately after The Daisy Chain and before Hopes and Fears, while it overlaps with The Young Stepmother (1861, but serialised in The Monthly Packet 1856-60). It is therefore among the group of novels of CMY’s early prime. She herself grouped it with The Heir, Heartsease, and Hopes and Fears as having ‘some sort of analogy to the four seasons’. Dynevor Terrace seems intended to represent Winter.

A week after the Queen’s death, Charlotte M. Yonge reflected on the state of deep mourning that prevailed throughout the country: “I suppose Torquay is one mass of black, and everyone telling of having been the last to get some thing needful. It is altogether solemn and beautiful the fit close of the life.” (Letter of 29 January 1901, to her friend Christabel Coleridge, who lived at Torquay.)

The August bookclub is scheduled for 3pm BST on 13 August 2022.

The Alliance of Literary Societies is an umbrella organisation for more than 120 literary societies. Its AGM is organised by a different member society each year. Next year – Charlotte M. Yonge’s bicentenary! – the CMYF itself will be the host organisation, and the venue is Winchester. The weekend will include an all-day session with talks and entertainment at St Swithun’s School (an institution with strong CMY links), dinner in the Cathedral complex, and outings to places of interest on the following day. Put the date in your diary: 22–23 April 2023. More information will follow soon.