REVIEW: Winter Holiday

Happy New Year! I've been away reading for a fortnight, among other things, one of Jane Shaw's Susan stories; 'Red Caps at School' by Ethel Talbot, a really slight story, but not as annoying as I found some of her books over the past year; 'Sadie Comes to School' by May Wynne, a busy story with a new American girl, spies, near fatal accidents and an undercooked Christian moral; the much older 'Captain Polly' which was more of a Seven Little Australians/What Katy Did family story. I also read 'Nancy Drew and Company', a collection of academic essays about North American girls' series books, which I gleefully covered with exclamatory glosses, even though I wasn't familiar with about two thirds of the series that were discussed.

I've just finished 'Winter Holiday' by Arthur Ransome, which was a perfectly seasonal book to read at the end of the Christmas holiday, although of course, a Ransome is a good read it any time.

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After a lousy 24 hours, I finally caved and spent nearly £9 on a Swallows and Amazons mug from Borders that I've been eyeing for months. My other excuse is that there was a broken mug incident over the holidays. It features illustrations from the books on a green background and the quote about how the books almost wrote themselves. I have yet to use it.

Coming soon (maybe): a review of the TV adaptation of Ballet Shoes and Finding Minerva, which I read over the holidays.