John, somthing along the lines of "Passion Fruit" comes to mind. I found this little gem at a 7-11 behind a copy of "Gentleman's Weekly". It was full of gorgeous garden photos, unfortunately they were all badly out of focus and it was hard to get my eyes past the scantily clad nymphettes holding a variety of garden produce. The world needs more books like that. What i particularly liked about this magazine was the emphasis on the art of the vegitable. I'll never look at a wet tomato the same. I never would have imagined that there was so much i didn't know about gardening. For example, did you know that if you light a daylilly bloom correctly it becomes translucent and barely hides anything? Yes, this was one of those books that changed our lives. We used to throw zucchini away. Now my wife wants me to let them grow, "...just a little bit more..." she says with a hint of smile. Poppa

Vee, good Lord! You know that I love dialects; but if the whole of The Forge and The Store are written as you've cited, I would be slowed down to a crawl trying to figure out and "hear" the dialect and I wouldn't be able to hold onto the storyline, I'm afraid. George Eliot's Adam Bede did that to me as well, so it's not just American southern dialects. I've read only one Pat Conroy book: The Great Santini. While I liked that one quite well, I thought it got a bit melodramatic and mushy in parts. I remember trying to read a couple of other Conroy books, but I think I recognized the same bit of manipulation and was put off. The Ya-Ya things: I read them and thought yuck! They seem to have been written with a formula to reinforce the stereotypes of southern white women as neurotics and Southern Belle wannabes that non-southerners seem fascinated with. Why? My South Carolinian sister-in-law says that southern writers have created a disproportionate impression in the minds of non-southerners that all southerners are "messed up." She blames the writers and not the readers because, as she says, the readers are only ignorant; the writers know better but choose to exploit the stereotypes, anyway, for "easy sale." All of this has moved from Carolyn's original comments about C. Haines and her books. Carolyn, can you give us a sense of how Haines handles the stereotypical? I'm guessing she must have a different angle or you wouldn't have been impressed. Is that right?

Vee, I think what you're suggesting is true. Just as in Wales, there is now nothing whatsoever remaining of the old coalmines and coalfields - it's as if the whole industrial revolution had never taken place: 'Nothing beside remains: boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away' as Shelley said. Halifax for instance, a bowl set amongst hills, was once almost invisible from above for the smoke and fumes of the factories etc. which functioned there. Now the old buildings, cleaned up and turned into things like Art Galeries and Craft Centres and Boutiques, it is really rather a chic place. Dear old Bradford - Priestley's Bradford - he would hardly recognise were he to come back for the immigrant population, as you say, and the curry houses at every corner - you get some of the best curries in UK there. And then there's the tourist industry...... 'Last of the Summer Wine country (Holmfirth) and 'Emmerdale country (around Leeds). and in the early '60s, when I first visited Haworth to pay my respects to the Brontes, the Black Bull (where Branwell bought the gin for Anne......) was just like any other pub and buses ran up and down Main Street. Later, I lived there for 17 years and when I left it was almost totally overrun with tourists to such an extent that it was better known as 'Bronte Village' than as Haworth. Purists and locals threatened to deface the 'Bronte Village' signs, in fact - especially since most of the tourists were bus trippers who'd been taken for a day's outing and had never even heard of the Brontes. But they loved the cobbled streets and the quaint little pubs and probably thought us residents were pretty cute too! Stan Barstow gives us this picture of a changing Yorkshire, too, in his later books - touristy Haworth appears in A BROTHER'S TALE(1978). But in his Ella trilogy (1990s), he turns right back to WW2 to tell his story Dido

About Pat Conroy...I'm a big Conroy fan and am happy to have met him several times. I lived in Beaufort, SC for many years where he lived with his family for several tumultuous years as a child and returned to stay some years ago. Did you all know that his books are based on reality and real people? It's quite an adventure reading his books and being able to put a real face or place to a fictionalized name. I'm attaching a link to his blog (CLICK HERE) which is always a fun read, even if you aren't from Beaufort or familiar with the people. I'm re-reading The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty , something I get the urge for every couple of years. My copy is well worn, well traveled, and much loved.