OVERVIEW: Christmas reading

[feather_ghyll]

I meant to post this sooner, but things have been rather busy.



The Peal Book of Girl Guide Stories is an omnibus of books by three different writers. Of the three, Mystery Camp by Violet Methley; With the Speedwell Patrol by Marjorie Taylor; and The Island Camp by Margaret Middleton, I thought the first was the best.

With the Speedwell Patrol isn’t particularly well titled, as it’s about the patrol’s leader, Mary, and her growing friendship with a crippled and orphaned neighbour, Dawn. It starts off in Scotland, goes to Switzerland and then even further afield, with Mary’s good influence winning over not only reluctant Dawn but her own brothers and sisters to becoming Guides, Scouts, Brownies and Cubs. The two Camp stories also feature rather incredible adventures, in Mystery Camp a company of fourteen guides and their young lieutenant faces a mystery and extremely wet weather, while The Island Camp is about a tent of three Patrol leaders in the middle of their mystery. Guide lore helps solve both mysteries, of course!

I then read Love on the Line by Deeanne Gist, a recently written romance set in the US at the turn of the last century. Georgie Gail operates a telephone switchboard for a small town in Texas that is suspected of being the headquarters of a gang of outlaws who have a Robin Hood-like reputation among most people. Undercover Texas Ranger Luke isn’t one of them. This belongs to the ‘inspirational’ genre, although I wouldn’t say that Christianity is emphasised more than it would be in a romance written at the time – perhaps less – but it’s a superior romance, with well-rounded characters, the sparks between them flying and the obstacles they face growing organically out of who they are and their situation. It was the first book that I’ve read by Gist, but I look forward to reading more.

I also read Olive L. Groom’s Holly of Swanhouse. Holly and fellow Devonian Lyn go to a new school for boys and girls in Bruges. It’s an English school, a bit on Chalet School lines – they all have to speak in various languages at meal times and at the end of term, where the pupils sell their handicrafts, among other things, at a Summer Sale. (I was glad to discover Groom admitted EBD’s influence on her). Lyn left her last school under a cloud, but Holly and the Sinclairs, who run Swanhouse, offer her kindness and a second and better chance.

It’s probably not fair to compare the next two books – Angela Brazil’s An Exciting Term and Josephine Elder’s (superior) Erica Wins Through, in which one of the characters is said to have met Angela Brazil! – but the sympathy with the girls’ POV in both struck me. Erica and others’ thought processes are expressed by the terse style Elder employs. The story is about how young Erica finds her feet at boarding school. Meanwhile, Brazil shows off her facility for getting under schoolgirls’ skins in An Exciting Term, and in other respects too it’s fairly typical for her. Cousins Molly and Meg share the exact same name, but not personalities. Sent to England after living in Canada and Switzerland, misunderstandings with their host ensues – she’s an aunt who is only related to Molly but favours more outgoing Meg. It’s obvious to the reader, even without Brazil pointing it out, that Meg is pretty naughty and Molly doesn’t stand up to her. You keep expecting some consequences to what they do to teach this to them, but they never arrive. Brazil is more interested in offering up a sequence of entertaining events – although for me, the narrative stopped when we had her patented chapter where everyone tells a story.