2 January 1924 - Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould died. 100 years ago today.

English clergyman and prolific author. 

Parish priest from 1871, from 1881 in his home County of Devon. Baring-Gould wrote dozens of novels and short stories many with an element of folklore and a touch of the supernatural about them, often set in rural Devon. He also wrote extensively on history, travel, mythology and religion.

His most famous work is the words to the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers (1865). Among his best known novels, although largely neglected today, are Mehalah (1880) and The Gaverocks (1887), The Book of Were-Wolves (1865) is a study of the mythology of the werewolf.

He may be the kind of novelist you would like Shula, as you've mentioned before Project Gutenberg is a great place to find out of print works, there are quite a few of his there.   

It was the only hymn I would sing at school with its stirring refrain. 

And here she be

It was the only hymn I would sing at school with its stirring refrain. 

Refrain? Please advise. 

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,

With the cross of Jesus going on before.

The song has a medieval crusader theme.

The Book of Were-Wolves is going to be a daunting read, but I am determined to take it on for the history of the legend.

I've never read any Baring-Gould, his books are hard to come by unless you're happy to buy a modern reprint via the internet. In fact I've only ever seen a "genuine" old copy in Hay-on-Wye once - Red Spider which I didn't buy.

3 January 1892 - J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) Tolkien born.

Famous for his two works of fantasy fiction The Hobbit (1937) and the Lord of the Rings trilogy (1954-55). He also wrote many poems and academic works mostly on a fantasy theme. 

Born in the Orange Free State his family returned to England when he was just three.

He has connections with my County of Staffordshire. He trained at the Army Training Camp on Cannock Chase in World War I and lived with his wife in lodgings in the village of Great Haywood. It is thought that some of the locations in his novels are based on the area around Cannock Chase.

Same song the Hitler youth use to sing and they were sent off to war. Some as young a 10 defending Berlin.

And speaking of the Hitler youth, this is a very powerful scene from the film Cabaret. They are in a cafe garden and the German Count (Helmut Green) is telling the Brit (Michael York) how his kind can control the Nazis when a Hitler youth boy stands up and begins to sing a nazi patriotic song and in the growing mood of the time he is slowly followed by the rest of the people, swept up by the nazi dream, the ideal, a portent of things to come

4 January 1785 - Jakob Grimm born.

The elder of the two brothers Grimm.

The more serious of the two, his younger brother Wilhelm liked society and entertaining unlike Jakob. Together they collected and published a series of folk tales under the title Children's and Household Tales beginning in 1812 by the seventh volume in 1857 they had published a total of over 200 tales. 

Jakob also became involved in German politics serving as one of the representatives of the Landgravate of Hesse-Kassel to the Peace Conference in 1814. An early advocate of German unification he served in the short-lived Frankfurt Parliament during the revolutionary year 1848. 

5 January 1902 - Stella Gibbons born.

English writer whose fame rests almost entirely on a single work, her debut novel Cold Comfort Farm (1932).

Gibbons regarded herself more as a poet than a novelist but none of her works reached the fame of her first novel. Set on an isolated farm it is a parody of the rural fiction popular at the time and gave rise to the phrase "something nasty in the woodshed" the words uttered by the domineering but reclusive Aunt Ada Doom locked away in her bedroom for decades.

I saw something nasty in the woodshed,’ said Aunt Ada Doom, fretfully moving her great head from side to side. ‘’Twas a burnin’ noonday … sixty-nine years ago. And me no bigger than a titty-wren. And I saw something na—’
‘Well, perhaps she likes it better that way,’ said Flora, soothingly. She had been observing Aunt Ada’s firm chin, clear eyes, tight little mouth and close grip upon the ‘Milk Producers’ Weekly Bulletin and Cowkeepers’ Guide’, and she came to the conclusion that if Aunt Ada was mad, then she, Flora, was one of the Marx Brothers.
‘Saw something nasty in the woodshed!!!’ suddenly shrilled Aunt Ada, smiting at Judith with the ‘Milk Producers’ Weekly Bulletin and Cowkeepers’ Guide’, something nasty! Take it away. You’re all wicked and cruel. You want to go away and leave me alone in the woodshed. But you never shall. None of you. Never! There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort. You must all stay here with me, all of you: Judith, Amos, Micah, Urk, Luke, Mark, Elfine, Caraway, Harkaway, Reuben and Seth.’

A great novel made into a superb TV drama in 1995 available on DVD.

I have a two-volume set of Grimm's Fairy Tales.  They are not to be read at bedtime, but they were the basis of my addiction to the TV show Grimm.

I just watched a 10-minute clip of the first episode of Cold Comfort Farm. They had me at Flora's wardrobe.

The Hitler youth scene in Cabaret was absolutely chilling.

6 January 1840 - Frances Burney died.

Known as Fanny Burney, one of the first successful female novelists.

Her debut novel was her most popular, Evelina published in 1778 about a naive young woman's entrance into London society mirrored her own experiences. She followed it with Cecilia (1782) and Camilla (1796).

Her connections with high society enabled her to obtain the post of Second Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, a post she held for six years. 

In 1793 she married an exiled French army officer Alexandre D'Arblay and after the worst excesses of the French Revolution were over he and Fanny settled in Paris. She returned with her son to England in 1812 only rejoining her husband in France three years later. After his death in 1818 she finally settled in England where she died aged 87.

A great scene from Cold Comfort Farm.