We dwell for a moment with heart-sore Giles Winterborne in Hardy’s The Woodlanders; We Spy a Roaming Hedgehog; and Celebrate the life of Bridget of Sweden

Listener mail is warmly welcomed 🙋‍♀️ Good evening and thank you so much for joining me. We gently peruse tonight the usual random clutch of literary treasures, and are joined not only by the usual suspects (Mr Katt, gulls, swifts and goldfinches), but also by Mrs Hedgehog who trotted, in a most ladylike way, though in the style peculiar to small, snouty, prickly mammals. Any suggestions as to her name? A note: for all those who subscribe between now and November, I will post small packages to all to celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving and the winter season. Let’s not dwell on winter any more, as we’re still in the heart of summer, but tuck the information under your hat and think about whether you would like to subscribe regularly. You don’t get anything for it in terms of extra content, as I’m not a fan of all that, but as current subscribers can attest, you get the odd package of random things and an awful lot of appreciation from me. I wish you a happy Thursday evening and I look forward to catching up with you tomorrow. Thank you to Brendan for your delightful email which I hope to read out tomorrow. Goodnight 🤗🙋‍♀️🌷 Support the show Gretel le Maître likes to look for the beauty and curiosities in life, one day at a time. She shares with you snippets from books about history, art and literature and regularly takes you on adventures to new locations, to explore churches, cathedrals and architecture. We’ve reached over 80,000 downloads. Don’t try to listen in order, unless you’re very committed. Dip in and out, choosing an episode based on the title information. Whether you are interested in history, literature, poetry or one-to-one chatting, I try to give you something that will interest you. This is a podcast for the curious, the kind and - possibly - the suffering or lonely. Historian Tom Holland is the Honorary Patron of this podcast. Thank you Tom🙏 Gretel invites you to accompany her as she navigates the world a day at a time; the podcast is unscripted, it’s ad-free. Gretel loves the world and history, architecture, literature and people. And so is determined to walk this path with light footsteps and with humour and warmth. Let’s gather up the beautiful things and ponder them in our hearts. Top 10 in Global Rankings according to Listen Notes. I would be so grateful if you would spare the time to give me a kind review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 😬☺️🥴 Previous guests include historian Tom Holland; Sir Richard Eyre; Actors Guy Henry and Enzo Cilenti; Art historian Philip Mould; Writer David Willem; Author Nicola Cornick; Composer Matthew Coleridge; Vicar Angela T...