Meet the team

We thought, perhaps vainly, that people might be interested in reading more about those of us involved in producing FOCS. The article was originally written for The Third Chalet Annual - Christmas 1998 and it has been updated for the website.

Ann and I fall into the middle of FOCS, age-wise, Ann being 48 and me being 44. We share a small cottage in what used to be a Somerset mining village and although we are within half an hour's drive (in good traffic) from such lovely places as Bath, Wells and Frome, no-one could describe Coleford as a picturesque village. Having said that, it is full of very friendly people, and we both enjoy living here, although we would love a bigger house!

Having worked in publishing since 1976, I  became freelance in 1994, working from home.  This was quite a change for me, since for the previous nine years I had commuted to London on a weekly basis, spending Monday - Thursday in London, Fridays halfway home in the Macmillan offices in Basingstoke (at least from the end of 1988) and Friday - Sunday in Coleford. When Ann moved back to the UK at the end of 1994 after 27 years in Australia, she had to give up teaching for reasons of health, and so we pooled our resources.

Business wise, my job has changed over the last five years, and become a lot busier. I now work for three publishing companies on a regular basis, drawing up and negotiating their author contracts for them. As well, I consult for a couple more companies on a regular basis, and others occasionally. All this means that I have had to become much more disciplined in the way I work and that FOCS usually gets dealt with in the latter part of the afternoon or at weekends. Ann looks after the house and does the cooking (and anyone who has ever had a meal cooked by Ann will know that I am in clover) as well as doing all the running around (dealing with the post, going to our printer), answering nearly all the FOCS mail, editing individual articles before I put them together for the newsletter or annual and gardening.  

This last is very much Ann's province. When I first came here I was a great vegetable grower but since the late 1980s my main crop seemed to be a hardy variety of thistle. Ann has transformed both the front and back gardens which now are alive with flowers for the entire year. I am vaguely good at admiring, and will reluctantly water in the summer - both my parents garden, and my father is particularly good, having come in the first six of a national competition a couple of years ago, so Ann is not entirely sure why I am so disinterested.

We are very involved with our local church. I am a Churchwarden (I learnt the other day that this gives me the power to arrest troublemakers in church, which gives me a lot of pleasure..), and as well as being on the Parochial Church Council (for the village) I am also on the Deanery Synod (a wider group of churches). Although officially I am Sacristan it is Ann who usually does the Sacristan's job of setting up the church for Sundays, and she also is on the flower rota and looks after the linen.

As well as books, of which more later on, we both enjoy collecting other things, and indeed were our house larger would collect more. Ann likes cat ornaments of all types, but has a very special shelf of Siamese. She also collects teddy ornaments and teddies themselves. Having been the Violet Queen in Sydney (connected with the Abbey books by Elsie Oxenham) she also has a good collection of violet china and Abbey cross-stitches.   As well, she has a dolls house, although three years after I gave it to her, I have yet to have the walls put up and papered! When this is done, she will also collect reproduction Georgian furniture for her dolls house. We both have a collection of nursery china, which is a mixture of old and new, and I also like old kitchenalia and old toys.

Our cottage is a small two up two down terrace of five, built in 1872, into which we have managed to squeeze a lot! In an ideal world Ann would like a six bedroom Georgian rectory, and I would love a Victorian monstrosity with at least ten bedrooms, but that will have to wait until we win the Lottery. Not only do we live here, but also Toosie, Minty and Moppet, our three Siamese. Toosie is now 11½ and so middle aged like us, but Moppet and Minty are one and a bit, and so keep the rest of us very much on our toes. We have sometimes wondered why Doreen Tovey, author of our favourite Siamese cat books, constantly did things like put the teapot in the fridge: now we know.

We both read a lot, both books we collect, and books which we simply read. It is rare for either or us to spend an evening without at least reading part of a book, and sometimes we have more than one on the go at once - one for downstairs and one for reading on the loo.

On the children's side, we both collect Elinor Brent-Dyer, Elsie Oxenham, Dorita Fairlie Bruce, Noel Streatfeild, Margaret Biggs, Clare Mallory, Gwendoline Courtney, Dorothea Moore and Lorna Hill.  In addition I collect W E Johns, Angela Brazil, Enid Blyton, Richmal Crompton, Anthony Buckeridge (Jennings titles only), Monica Edwards, Nancy Breary and pony stories, especially pre 1950. In my secondary league I count Viola Bayley, Jane Shaw's Susan books, and the Twins books (Lucy Fitch Perkins and others). Ann's other children's 'collects' are the Sue Barton books and Jean Estoril's Drina.

However most of Ann's children's books she reads but does not collect (in the sense that a readable book, preferably in a wrapper, is all she wants) and these include cat and teddy bear picture books, the Anne of Green Gables, Pollyanna and What Katy Did books,  C S Lewis' Narnia series, Susan Cooper and Alan Garner. As can be seen from this, she is a lover of fantasy, and in fact her biggest love book wise is adult fantasy, her favourite authors being Robert Jordan, David Eddings and Mercedes Lackey and Lord of the Rings being her all time favourite book. Fantasy is definitely not one of my loves, but lucky Ann can share her interest with Hilary Boulton, the FOCS Librarian, who lives three miles away - when they start discussing the latest Lackey or whatever I simply disappear upstairs! As well as adult fantasy Ann likes historical romances.

My adult reading includes Agatha Christie, Patricia Wentworth, Dick Francis, Jack Higgins, novels about World War II, and Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' Dynasty series (which Ann also likes). As well, I enjoy biographies and letters - eg Winston Churchill, Evelyn Waugh, etc. Most of these authors I only want in paperback (they take up less room).

So, where do we keep all these books? Before Ann moved here, I had thought that I could not really fit more books in, but of course, we did. We did, both, have to cull and it was an agonising process. I found it incredibly hard to get rid of things like Poems from the 1960s which I had never read, a long series of classics which had become waterlogged when the roof leaked, and some very dusty books which I had acquired during my early days in publishing and which I had also never read. Ann found it similarly hard to get rid of similarly unread, or read and not liked titles.   

Even with this culling, we still did not have enough room. In 1990, faced with a similar problem, I had converted the attic into a library, reached by a loft ladder. We squeezed two more bookcases in there, and added another to the existing bookcase on the landing.  At the same time, we lost some shelve space in that the bookcase in what had been a bedroom became part of the office, and downstairs we used two sets of shelves to display china. We built two sheds in the garden, one of which housed, among other things, all the books for which there was not room in the house, and the other of which was originally devoted to the books we were selling. 

When we stopped selling adult books, we moved our 'shed' children's books there, as well as Ann's 'shed' fantasy titles. Earlier this year, this 'second shed' was lined and decorated, and is now known as 'the bookroom'! It is also where Ann does much of her FOCS editing. Both sheds are of course heated, and as well as books contain ornaments and a few pictures. The first shed also has such mundane but necessary things as the freezer and dryer, a cupboard with spare linen, china etc and a large wardrobe which is nearly full with Christmas decorations, and supposedly summer clothes in winter and vice versa.

Mentioning Christmas decorations leads me on to the subject of Christmas, a time of year much enjoyed by both of us. Ann's planning for the festive season is apt to start as we set off for our summer holiday, but I have a firm resolution not to discuss it until the beginning of September. If this seems horribly early, we send not a few of our presents to friends as far away from England as Australia, and sea mail post closes at the end of September. Presents have to be planned, bought and wrapped before then. October sees the season of cake and pudding making, and as Ann makes about eight of the former, and six of the latter, it is a busy time.  

October is also the month when we order from the various charity Christmas catalogues which have been arriving over the last few weeks. Early in November, we go to Bath for a day's Christmas shopping, begin preparations for our Christmas Party for the Somerset Collectors' Group, held in early December, and start writing the roughly 250 cards which we send each year. November is also the month for Christmas Bazaars. We have our own Church Bazaar towards the end of the month, and attend others on Saturdays throughout November. These Bazaars are a wonderful source of Christmas goods - stocking presents, prizes for the party, and more expensive gifts.

Since we have our party on the second Saturday in December, we decorate the house the weekend before. Ann has built up a collection of Christmas decorations over the last 20 years, and this has been considerably expanded in the last few years. We have two Christmas trees in our windows downstairs, as well as a small one on the hall table.   Nearly every room is decorated, and this involves taking down pictures and china, and generally disrupting everything. Once everything is up, it looks truly magical, and we enjoy it for a month.

As well as decorating, there is much food to prepare, both for the party and for ourselves. Ann seems to be constantly in the kitchen during December, and I seem to be constantly licking out bowls and tasting delicious morsels. However, icing the cake is my province, and one which I enjoy immensely.

I am lucky enough to be able to take at least ten days' holiday over Christmas, and I usually stop work on the 22nd or 23rd, not to go back again until after the New Year.   During the two days before Christmas there seem to be masses of last minute preparations, not least helping to decorate the Church which in the Church of England is done after the last Sunday in Advent (unless that happens to be Christmas Eve). As well as at least one floral arrangement, Ann usually makes a wreath or two. By the afternoon of Christmas Eve all is ready, and we set off for the Blessing of the Crib. Home again, it is time for a special Christmas Eve supper, and to hang out the stockings for Father Christmas to fill later. Sometimes we go to Midnight Mass, and always we go on Christmas morning to an informal Communion service.

And after Christmas? We do visit friends, but mostly we rest, eat and read at home. What more could two book lovers and three Siamese want?

Our lives are incredibly busy, and there are times when we wonder if we will ever see daylight. But we are also incredibly lucky: we share a deep faith,  I have a fulfilling job and am able to earn enough to keep us, we share our lives with our beloved Siamese, we share many hobbies and interests - and, last by not least, we have many friends - especially those who are members of Friends of the Chalet School, who have proved themselves true Friends indeed.

Clarissa Cridland