REVIEW: The House in the Oak Tree
Dec. 22nd, 2014 04:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllThe House in the Oak Tree: Katharine Oldmeadow (New Edition 1951) the Lutterworth Press
I broke off from my rereading of all my Oldmeadow books (only The Fortunes of Jacky remains, I think) to review a book by her that I hadn’t come across before, although I wish that i had found it a couple of decades or more ago. The House in the Oak Tree skews younger than the other Oldmeadow books that I’ve read. It’s a family/girls story, probably influenced by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s ouvre, set in the New Forest that reminds the author of fairyland, and much like with Evelyn Smith’s Terry’s Best Term (reviewed here, contains familiar elements (some problematic) presented with the author’s charm.
Things seldom happened in their country home miles away from a town, so the thought of a strange little girl coming from a foreign land to live with them was the most thrilling thing that had occurred since that splendid day when father had packed them all into a shining taxi and taken them to the pantomime. (p10-11.)
Mrs Ashe is married to a naval captain, mother of six children, an invalid since a couple of years and worried by financial cares. She asked a family friend to look out for an English girl in India whose family might like for her to be brought up among English children and would be willing to go shares in a governess. The request is taken up almost before she is ready, and Juliette Ross is to join the Ashes: Merry, Tony, Billy and Jill. There are also twins, but they’re babies.
The older four are a nice lot and they share a secret treehouse as a club house for the ‘Forest Rangers’ a sort of DIY Scouts and Guides. Much like the Lone Pine Club, kindness to animals is a big part of it, and the motto is to lend a hand. They decide to wait and see what their guest will be like before allowing her into the FR, for Billy is convinced she will be an Indian as opposed to an English girl brought up in the subcontinent. The Ashes believe she will be used to being treated like a little princess, although that phrase isn’t specifically used, and they’re not far wrong. Motherless Julie is used to her whims being catered to, and has suffered as a result, in terms of character and health. However, she might be a bit Maryish but she also has a touch of Dickon, for very quickly upon her arrival at the New Forest, she rescues a jackdaw being plagued by some other children and adopts it as much as she can.
The four Ashes, led by twelve year old Merry, show Julie a lot of forebearance, even though she resorts to tantrums, punches and isn’t strictly honest. This is put down to her upbringing, for Julie was spoiled by her beloved ayah, Hira, in contrast to the Ashe’s strict, scolding but kind-hearted Irish nanny, who is of course called Biddy and speaks an Oirish brand of English.
Further, there are encounters with New Forest gipsies who look down at mumpers (who aren’t proper Romany and bring gipsies into disrepute). The influence of the Forest Rangers, Biddy, and a more regulated lifestyle as well as a crisis after Billy accuses Julie of being a thief – a false accusation, but an understandable one given the circumstantial evidence – lead to her becoming someone worthy of joining the Rangers and getting her own locker in the delightful Treetops.
The story doesn’t preach too much, although the authorial voice is present. Yes, the treatment of race is of its time and it may not be a fairy tale, but things come right in the end in the way of these types of stories. It’s interesting that Julie has a somewhat similar name to Jill of Princess Charming but shares the name of another character from that book and there’s another Jill in this book – this bibliography suggests that Princess Charming came first by two years. Despite thetitle, the focus is not on ‘The House in the Oak Tree’ but on the children who use it, as it should be.
I broke off from my rereading of all my Oldmeadow books (only The Fortunes of Jacky remains, I think) to review a book by her that I hadn’t come across before, although I wish that i had found it a couple of decades or more ago. The House in the Oak Tree skews younger than the other Oldmeadow books that I’ve read. It’s a family/girls story, probably influenced by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s ouvre, set in the New Forest that reminds the author of fairyland, and much like with Evelyn Smith’s Terry’s Best Term (reviewed here, contains familiar elements (some problematic) presented with the author’s charm.
Things seldom happened in their country home miles away from a town, so the thought of a strange little girl coming from a foreign land to live with them was the most thrilling thing that had occurred since that splendid day when father had packed them all into a shining taxi and taken them to the pantomime. (p10-11.)
Mrs Ashe is married to a naval captain, mother of six children, an invalid since a couple of years and worried by financial cares. She asked a family friend to look out for an English girl in India whose family might like for her to be brought up among English children and would be willing to go shares in a governess. The request is taken up almost before she is ready, and Juliette Ross is to join the Ashes: Merry, Tony, Billy and Jill. There are also twins, but they’re babies.
The older four are a nice lot and they share a secret treehouse as a club house for the ‘Forest Rangers’ a sort of DIY Scouts and Guides. Much like the Lone Pine Club, kindness to animals is a big part of it, and the motto is to lend a hand. They decide to wait and see what their guest will be like before allowing her into the FR, for Billy is convinced she will be an Indian as opposed to an English girl brought up in the subcontinent. The Ashes believe she will be used to being treated like a little princess, although that phrase isn’t specifically used, and they’re not far wrong. Motherless Julie is used to her whims being catered to, and has suffered as a result, in terms of character and health. However, she might be a bit Maryish but she also has a touch of Dickon, for very quickly upon her arrival at the New Forest, she rescues a jackdaw being plagued by some other children and adopts it as much as she can.
The four Ashes, led by twelve year old Merry, show Julie a lot of forebearance, even though she resorts to tantrums, punches and isn’t strictly honest. This is put down to her upbringing, for Julie was spoiled by her beloved ayah, Hira, in contrast to the Ashe’s strict, scolding but kind-hearted Irish nanny, who is of course called Biddy and speaks an Oirish brand of English.
Further, there are encounters with New Forest gipsies who look down at mumpers (who aren’t proper Romany and bring gipsies into disrepute). The influence of the Forest Rangers, Biddy, and a more regulated lifestyle as well as a crisis after Billy accuses Julie of being a thief – a false accusation, but an understandable one given the circumstantial evidence – lead to her becoming someone worthy of joining the Rangers and getting her own locker in the delightful Treetops.
The story doesn’t preach too much, although the authorial voice is present. Yes, the treatment of race is of its time and it may not be a fairy tale, but things come right in the end in the way of these types of stories. It’s interesting that Julie has a somewhat similar name to Jill of Princess Charming but shares the name of another character from that book and there’s another Jill in this book – this bibliography suggests that Princess Charming came first by two years. Despite thetitle, the focus is not on ‘The House in the Oak Tree’ but on the children who use it, as it should be.
