REVIEW: Princess Susan
Sep. 3rd, 2019 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllPrincess Susan: Ivy Russell. Nelson, reprint in a new series, 1958.
The title of this book intrigued me. Would it be something like Oldmeadow’s charming ‘Princess’ hooks? Then there was the name, for aside from those giantesses of children’s literature, Susan Pevensie and Susan Walker, the name seems rather down to earth to me. [ETA: Ugh, I forgot Susan Lyle. What's wrong with me?] What would this ‘Princess Susan’ be like? The dustjacket is an illustration of a girl with plaits, lying on her front, stroking a dog, which is about right.
The story begins with a young, disheartened curate, Basil Hornby, who has come to serve the parish containing the villages of Milton Magna and Little Milton, and has met with apathy about religion. What does exercise the villages, though, is the vandalism of the Scimitar Gang, who the police believe are most of the local boys, though they can’t prove it.
Anyway, when Mr. Hornby meets the Susan of the title, she’s a bit despondent. She’s a foundling who might, as she says, be anything, even a princess! Fostered by the Mortons, so she calls Mrs Morton Aunt, and hero worships Mick Morton, who is a little older than her, she doesn’t have many friends beyond her dog Pongo. In trying to cheer her up, Mr. Hornby finds that she helps him and his attitude towards his mission.
When good-hearted Susan discovers Mick is at the heart of the gang, she’s horrified. Her loyalty helps Mr Hornby to get the brainwave of establishing youth clubs, first for the boys (there’s a theme of girls subjugating themselves for the good of tearaway boys, although, in fairness, Mick rises to deserve Sue’s high opinion of him) and then the girls. But problems arise that may stop the whole enterprise before it’s fairly begun e.g. the unforgiving nature of a farmer who’s had much to suffer at the hands of the Scimitar Gang.
The story skirts around ‘what Christianity is really about’, making it almost a Sunday School book. It’s mostly realistic, apart from one almost prophetic dream that Sue has, and is frank about the Mortons’ relative poverty, as Mr Morton is dead – they take in washing, eat fish and chips, and money is scarce. But both Sue and Mick are bright sparks. There’s a nice coming together of a community to undo a lack of, well, social cohesion and its dangers. It does what it sets out to do well.
The title of this book intrigued me. Would it be something like Oldmeadow’s charming ‘Princess’ hooks? Then there was the name, for aside from those giantesses of children’s literature, Susan Pevensie and Susan Walker, the name seems rather down to earth to me. [ETA: Ugh, I forgot Susan Lyle. What's wrong with me?] What would this ‘Princess Susan’ be like? The dustjacket is an illustration of a girl with plaits, lying on her front, stroking a dog, which is about right.
The story begins with a young, disheartened curate, Basil Hornby, who has come to serve the parish containing the villages of Milton Magna and Little Milton, and has met with apathy about religion. What does exercise the villages, though, is the vandalism of the Scimitar Gang, who the police believe are most of the local boys, though they can’t prove it.
Anyway, when Mr. Hornby meets the Susan of the title, she’s a bit despondent. She’s a foundling who might, as she says, be anything, even a princess! Fostered by the Mortons, so she calls Mrs Morton Aunt, and hero worships Mick Morton, who is a little older than her, she doesn’t have many friends beyond her dog Pongo. In trying to cheer her up, Mr. Hornby finds that she helps him and his attitude towards his mission.
When good-hearted Susan discovers Mick is at the heart of the gang, she’s horrified. Her loyalty helps Mr Hornby to get the brainwave of establishing youth clubs, first for the boys (there’s a theme of girls subjugating themselves for the good of tearaway boys, although, in fairness, Mick rises to deserve Sue’s high opinion of him) and then the girls. But problems arise that may stop the whole enterprise before it’s fairly begun e.g. the unforgiving nature of a farmer who’s had much to suffer at the hands of the Scimitar Gang.
The story skirts around ‘what Christianity is really about’, making it almost a Sunday School book. It’s mostly realistic, apart from one almost prophetic dream that Sue has, and is frank about the Mortons’ relative poverty, as Mr Morton is dead – they take in washing, eat fish and chips, and money is scarce. But both Sue and Mick are bright sparks. There’s a nice coming together of a community to undo a lack of, well, social cohesion and its dangers. It does what it sets out to do well.
