feather_ghyll

Barbed Wire—Keep Out!: Agnes M. Miall Brock Press 1950

Isn’t this one of the most brilliant titles for a children’s book ever? It demands that the reader dives in, just like the barbed wire and the injunction to keep out has no influence on the main characters of this adventure.

They are Perry (really Perilla, poor thing) and her sister Prue and their chums Hump and Noel. They have appeared in other books, one of which, Snowed Up With a Secret, I own and had read years and years ago, but don’t remember a thing about. Perry and Hump are aged about sixteen, Prue’s about fourteen and Noel about eleven. So, if you like books about gangs of children bringing down gangs of criminals, you’ll like this.

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Happy Easter!

A Term on Trial: Mary Gervaise Cassell (First published in 1929)

It’s been far too long since I’ve read a proper girls own book, by which I mean a boarding school story, and this one features a lot of staples of the genre.

Barbara ‘Bobby’ Laurence ( Read more... )

I don't know if I'll get around to typing up a full review of 'Molly Hazeldene's Schooldays' by Maud Forsey, which I read over the holidays, but I felt it should be noted that one of the other school girls is named, rather magnificently, Leah Venus Sheepwash.

Looking back, my favourite Girls Own books read in 2014 were The Scholarship Girl at Cambridge by Josephine Elder, Dimity Drew's First Term by Nancy Breary and Mullion by Mabel Esther Allan. I also loved Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens (and look forward to more Wells and Wong cases) and enjoyed rereading The Chalet School and the Lintons.

I hope to write about a couple of books that I read over last weekend soonish, but for now, here’s a meme via slemslempike. Abridged – I skipped a lot of questions.

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Girl Reading: Katie Ward Virago 2012

I picked up this book in a charity shop because of the title, of course. It’s a collection of (long) short stories that all feature girls (or women) reading that, until the last story, are only tangentially linked. The stories cover various periods of time and places and, ( Read more... )

Princess Anne: Katherine L. Oldmeadow. The Chirldren's Press (this edition published some time before Oct 1961, and wonderously, the previous owner's name was...Anne.

I finished reading this book this morning as I couldn't sleep, so that may influence what I type next.

I'm gradually rereading all my Oldmeadows and hoping I'll come across new-to-me copies of her books soon because of it. (Since reviewing Princess Charming, I reread Princess Prunella, and never got around to reviewing it.) Princess Anne never left that much of an impression on me, and I vaguely wondered if it was because I got Princess Charming and other books first. Having reread it, I think it's caused by more than that. ( Read more... )

Via callmemadam and lizarfrau

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The meme did make me think a little about chapter breaks and how the author really can't control the readers' experience. I was rereading the Binchy book; I came to it with a bit of a prejudice, but after reading about half in one go (circumstances meant that I read the second half in a bitsier fashion) I found that I was enjoying it more than I'd expected, and during the break had a bit of a think about what I remembered (not much) and guessed what would happen next and circled around what I made of the characters. I couldn't remember whether I'd read it in one go the first time, without the break to muse five years ago.

It occurred to me that there are so many possible permutations of a reading experience that the writer can't control. Chapter breaks, to some extent, but for most novels, the reader isn't likely to stop after every chapter, and they could stop anywhere almost. There are some chapters where it's easier, such as if the main characters have to get to Venice to do something, you'd be inclined to stop when they got there, whereas the momentum of the story meant that you 'couldn't' tear yourself away before the point. Perhaps it's more likely for books that have distinct Parts (fantasy novels and historical novels spring to mind). Those create natural breaks. Even so, that's up to the reader or the reader's circumstance, and those breaks from the books vary the experience - you may come to a definite conclusion about a certain character, fair or not. In that break, external events may colour your whole reading of a book.

That probably seems very obvious to everyone else. I tend to (or think I tend to) read books (novels then) in as close to one go as I can get, which may be why it struck me.