28th November 2019
Guernsey miscellanea, a notebook by Edith Carey
10th July 2019
From the Guernsey Press, June 1970.
25th June 2019
'This Guernsey Evening was a huge success.' From the Guernsey Press, 14 July 1970, reporting on the previous evening's event.
21st June 2019
'Crew landed on Lihou island after ship had been sunk by U-boat.' An article by Carel Toms from the Guernsey Star of 27 December, 1951, in the Priaulx Library Newspaper Collection.
31st May 2019
From The Morning Leader, Tuesday 18 April 1889, and Punch, 12 April 1889. Cuttings in the Priaulx Library collection. The original photograph from which the drawing is taken was by Thomas Grut. Do please contact us if you have an example of this photograph.
22nd May 2019
Affecting 18th and early 19th century letters, from the Carey family, transcribed from a notebook of Edith Carey, Guernsey miscellanea. The image is of the famous Bell Savage Inn, on Ludgate Hill, London, where Catherine Baldock nee Carey reluctantly stayed in 1790 (see letter below), and is from the British Museum, Museum number 1880.1113.3266.
10th May 2019
My school years at Elizabeth College, by Jean Hugo (1894-1984), from his autobiographical work, Le Regard de la mémoire, Paris: Actes Sud, 1983. Fond memories of Guernsey and characters such as 'Soapy Sam' and 'Peewee' are expressed in painterly language by the artist and great-grandson of Victor Hugo, who was a boarder at Elizabeth College. The illustration is of a drawing made by Jean's stepfather, René-Georges Hermann-Paul (1874-1940), of Jean, his mother Pauline, and the valet de chambre arriving for Jean's first term at Elizabeth College in 1907. This drawing was sold at Christie's, Paris, in 2012.By Dinah Bott. From the French.
10th May 2019
Victor Hugo's granddaughter Jeanne (1869-1941) was the apple of his eye. She knew Guernsey well. She married a childhood friend, the controversial author Léon Daudet (1867-1942), who had plenty to say about Victor Hugo - very little of it complimentary. The marriage did not last long.By Dinah Bott.
8th May 2019
From Léon Daudet's Ghosts and the Living, chapter 6. Léon Daudet was the son of the celebrated author, Alphonse Daudet. His father was a friend of Victor Hugo, especially in Hugo's later years. Léon was an intimate of the Hugo family; he was the same age as Hugo's grandchildren, Georges and Jeanne. Handsome and brilliant, he was Georges' best friend and married Jeanne when they were both just of age, but he was ever aware of his (comparative) poverty and his irascible and vicious character was such that the marriage did not last long. He began as a young devotee of Victor Hugo, but as he grew older his opinion as expressed in his writing changed to implacable hatred.By Dinah Bott.
25th April 2019
A poignant aspect of the tragic last voyage of 'the Polar Gentleman' and honorary Guernseyman, Jean-Baptiste Charcot. By Cédric Bail, assistant curator at Hauteville House. The article appears in English and French.
25th April 2019
Paul Stapfer, from his memoirs of his time in Guernsey with Victor Hugo, as reported in TP's Weekly, February 22, 1906.
25th April 2019
Hennet de Kesler and Victor Hugo dans le jardin d’hiver/in the conservatory, by Edmond Bacot (between 1858-1862), from the collection of Paris Musées, Maison de Victor Hugo, Hauteville HouseBy Dinah Bott.