Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring,
And pensive monitor of fleeting years!
The tiny white helmets each of them wears – a tiny hint of their strength and resilience. These diminutive characters, strong in number, sweeping across the grass in great drifts – the advance party announcing the Spring about to come. Fragile limbs battling against a strong north wind, the entire battalion marching as one. The cyclamen outriders, resplendent in purple and yellow uniforms; the centurion daffodils upright, still and poised – trumpets hidden but ready to burst into tune.
This scene, played out on the verges, glades and gardens up and down the land is uncannily similar to an article from one of last weekend’s papers – about farmers, and in particular a nascent number of vine growers, in Ukraine. Despite the odds, this army of passionate cultivators and producers continue to graft away, keeping going with what semblance of normality and purpose they can muster under such challenging circumstances.
Resilience is all around us, from the tiny white flowers to the farmers on the eastern edge of Europe. When the history books are written about this time, let us hope they are a celebration of a much-underrated human quality, one we’ve picked up from nature – the quaity of resilience.
Cheers to the little guys, cheers to the snowdrops – better times lie ahead.
To a Snowdrop by William Wordsworth
Lone Flower, hemmed in with snows and white as they
But hardier far, once more I see thee bend
Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend,
Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day,
Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops, waylay
The rising sun, and on the plains descend;
Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend
Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed May
Shall soon behold this border thickly set
With bright jonquils, their odours lavishing
On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers;
Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,
Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring,
And pensive monitor of fleeting years!
If you’re feeling particularly literary of late then the 2024 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Han Kang, has just released her latest creation, We Do Not Part, set to be one of her greatest; and we also have two poetry books (Poyums by Len Pennie and 44 Poems on Being With Each Other by Padraig O Tuama)! However, if you’re after something more factual Friends in Youth by Minoo Dinshaw is a history book about the beginnings of the English Civil War that has just been published, and it’s selling incredibly well in the shop! Or maybe something for someone younger? A fellow Oxfordian, Philip Pullman, offers us two of his most enchanting tales for children in a beautiful Everyman’s Library hardback with colour illustrations.
As always, if there’s anything you need, just pop by or reply to this email!
From Amber
Feeling curious? Click on the book covers below to explore the book.
The full newsletter with links to books – including this week’s Signed Editions – can be found HERE
