Shandy Hall.

True Shandeism, think what you will against it, opens the heart and lungs, and like all those affections which partake of its nature, it forces the blood and other vital fluids of the body to run freely thro’ its channels, and makes the wheel of life run long and chearfully round.

Laurence Sterne

Laurence Sterne (1713- 1768) is a writer whose influence far exceeds his output. He had a busy life as a Yorkshire vicar and his health was not good and both of these things limited the time that he was able to give to writing fiction but he had great enthusiasm and a flair for self publicity and they certainly didn’t stop him. His great work, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy was published in nine volumes between 1759 and 1767. It’s a hard novel to describe and it’s a fair bet, if you haven’t read it, that you have never read anything else remotely like it. It was an oddity in its time, both wildly popular and criticised as a flash in the pan by Samuel Johnson, and it still reads like a breath of fresh air blowing in from several hundred years ago. You are carried along by the voice of the author who is having a remarkably unsuccessful but very entertaining attempt at telling you his life story, speaking directly in the first person. The full title is important, since you get to hear as much about Tristram Shandy’s opinions as you do about his life. It wanders about all over the place with no regard for plot, relying on sheer audacity. Tristram isn’t even born until volume three so you have no hope of ever hearing the whole story- it is as digressive and frustrating as real life and there is no point complaining about this because the author shares your feelings and explains that there is nothing that he can do about it. Yes you will have to read a whole paragraph about the fact that when Tristram Shandy uses the word nose that is exactly what he means- enjoy it! Skip a chapter if you want- he has already skipped one for you by tearing it out- and anything might happen along the way from bespoke marbled pages, cyphers, black pages, to sermons, love affairs and much else about noses, gynaecology, classical learning and military fortifications. This is a writer who has a serious and stressful working life as a vicar, serving his flock and writing worthy sermons. He is expected to toe the line and be at the beck and call of others day after day and now he is taking time off to have fun and do exactly as he likes. There are elements of satire, riffs that remind you of a modern day stand up routine and more post modernism than you can shake a stick at. It is the product of a sharp, learned mind at play and it is exhilarating. Rules? What rules?

Sterne’s home, Shandy Hall in the village of Coxwold in North Yorkshire, is a delightful place to visit. It’s the kind of house that you can explore, one which has grown over the centuries and there is a rambling garden which is good for wandering, reading and thinking. It is also fairly quiet so you are unlikely to meet crowds of visitors. The rooms are not as Laurence Sterne left them but they are full of Sterne memorabilia and contain some wonderful books and prints and a beautiful portrait bust of Sterne. In the small book lined study where Sterne wrote the live in curator Patrick Wildgust, a very knowledgeable man and a gifted communicator, invited us to breathe in deeply and perhaps become better writers. I would love to have that room for my own. I am glad that the Laurence Sterne Trust helps to keep alive the memory of a writer who is remembered, but perhaps not as well as he should be, and not taught as often as someone who has been such a strong influence on the writers and artists who came after him deserves to be.