Cambridge Edition November 2019

BOOK CLUB

CAMBRIDGE EDI T ION

BRINGING YOU TOP NEW FICTION PICKS, AUTHOR INTERVIEWS, DISCOUNTS AND LOTS MORE BOOK CHAT, THE EDITION BOOK CLUB IS A PARTNERSHIP WITH CAMBRIDGE LITERARY FESTIVAL AND HEFFERS

WORDS BY CHARLOTTE GRIFFITHS STANLEY AND ELSIE BY NICOLA UPSON f the name Stanley Spencer doesn’t immediately flood your mind with intensely lavish, almost claustrophobically busy people- packed paintings, then a quick internet search is in order or – better yet – a stroll to The Fitzwilliam Museum, where a collection of Spencer’s paintings can be seen in Gallery One. It was one such visit to the Fitzwilliam that first inspired local author Nicola Upson to embark upon writing this month’s read, Stanley and Elsie , which tells the tale of the relationship between Stanley Spencer and Elsie Munday, his small family’s housekeeper. “I’ve always loved Spencer’s work. I remember having a postcard of his ‘The Resurrection, Cookham’ as quite a young girl,” Nicola explains, “and although obviously then I didn’t understand all the different levels to it, the painting has always fascinated me. Being at college in Cambridge, with that wonderful collection of his paintings at the Fitzwilliam on my doorstep, meant I’ve kept in touch with his work over the years – but it was particularly an exhibition that they put on about ten years ago called Sargent, Sickert & Spencer .” The exhibition included a small pencil sketch by Spencer of a young woman in a maid’s uniform who “seemed to be flirting, at the front door, with either a postman or a delivery man,” Nicola recalls. “As well as being a prolific painter, Spencer wrote thousands and thousands and thousands of words – all now all in the Tate’s archives – but what was selected to go with that picture was the fact that the woman was called Elsie Munday, and that she was a maid who Spencer hired when they moved to Burghclere with his family.”

“As well as being a prolific painter, Spencer wrote thousands of words, all now in the Tate’s archives”

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