Skip to content

Fragments of an ordinary life

Creative non-fiction portfolio

  • Home
  • Forebears
  • Memoir
  • Places
  • Essay
  • Journal
  • 9 to 5
  • Contact

Category: Forebears

Chasing clouds: tracing the Wordsworth connection

June 12, 2019May 3, 2022 ~ beverleystevens ~ 3 Comments

My efforts to pin down the family connection to the poet William Wordsworth have been like the clouds that float high above the hills and vales of the Lake District which inspired him. They’re real but constantly moving; they seem sometimes to come together, then they change direction and are off again. Like family history research, they are quite unpredictable.

Clara’s story: memories of Rippon Lea

February 19, 2019July 17, 2019 ~ beverleystevens ~ 4 Comments

Clara Wordsworth Sargood grew up in comfort and affluence at Rippon Lea in Melbourne in Queen Victoria's time. She vividly recounts stories of a happy childhood, the heartbreaking loss of her mother, and the thrills of sea voyages to England and New Zealand.

Caught driving furiously on Khyber Pass Road

January 6, 2019July 20, 2019 ~ beverleystevens ~ 1 Comment

In 1912, a well-brought-up young man on a new motor cycle knocked a young boy over on an Auckland city street. And so the lives of two families from different social worlds intersected as police and civil court cases plodded on and were reported on at length in the Auckland papers.

The lost love of Linda and Lancelot

November 11, 2018July 20, 2019 ~ beverleystevens ~ 1 Comment

Amongst my grandmother's papers was a photo she had kept all her life of a young soldier who served in WW1.

Blog at WordPress.com.
  • Follow Following
    • Fragments of an ordinary life
    • Join 60 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Fragments of an ordinary life
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...