Sunk by U-boat

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.

Extracts from old letters

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. 

Victor Hugo and Guernsey: My school years at Elizabeth College, by Jean Hugo

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.

Victor Hugo and Guernsey: Léon Daudet: Hauteville-House just after Hugo’s death

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.

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