feather_ghyll

I am currently reading ‘Barbara – Called Binkie and other stories of school life and adventure’ by various writers, most of whose names I don’t recognise. ( Read more... )

I may or may not keep you updated on the further stories of school life and adventure!

I also read ‘The Mystery of Old Beams’ by Jessie Leckie Hebertson. It started off promisingly ( Read more... )

The Secret Shore : Lillie Le Pla

This book has to have been influenced by ‘The Secret Garden’. (Disclaimer: I haven’t investigated the publishing dates.)

Despite her Scottish name, Sheila McLeod is ( Read more... )

And a reflection, based on these ‘unprecedented times’, I haven’t been a very mindful reader when it comes to the influence of the Spanish flu pandemic on writing from 1918 onwards. I know I’ve talked about the shadow of the first world war on characters in books set in the twenties, but not so much the impact of the pandemic e.g. on attitudes towards hygiene illness and mortality. One example might be here in my review of 'A Head Girl's Difficulties.'

The Great British Sewing Bee has started back, and I am watching it, but via iPlayer, so I expect to post about that at some point.

Here is a round-up of some things I posted about last year. ( Read more... )

Abbey Turns the Tables: Eric Leyland, Nelson 1959

I bought this thinking it would be about a mixed-gender school, but, set at a boys’ boarding school, it’s solely a boys own adventure. I see I’ve never written a review of a boys own book before, but then I haven’t read many and most of those involved Billy Bunter. When I see boys own books in shops, I tend to wish they were girls own and move on.

The most striking feature of this book is ( Read more... )

I caught a bug over Easter, and I’m not quite fully recovered yet. Anyway, here’s what I read...( Read more... )

I've read several children's books over the past few weeks, but I'm not in a position to type up full reviews at present, so here are some one-sentence responses. The Potato Riddle by Agnes and Norman Furlong was a boys' story, a change for me, and definitely operating by a different set of rules to the one I'm used to, which may have been a factor in how entertaining I found it i.e. novelty. Pamela at Peters' by Edna Lake flubs its central mystery horribly, ignoring the gun in the first act rule, but is otherwise a tight story with a new girl and a secret society fighting for a school's honour. Dimsie, Head Girl by DFB is the real deal though. Yes, the title makes the first half mildly irritating as you wait for the story to catch up and for Dimsie to step into the biggest shoes a schoolgirl heroine can, all to save the Jane Willard Foundation from drift - actually, there's a thematic sympathy between those last two books.

Then I read Plough Penny Mystery by Lavinia L. Davis, which features younger characters over a summer, and offers a genuinely perceptive character study in the shadow of the second world war. Catrin in Wales by Mabel Esther Allen is what you'd expect from MAE, first person narrative, coming of age story with romance amidst friendships, good on local detail - although there was something in there about a play about a Welsh valley being drowned performed in Liverpool that the sixties (Tryweryn) rendered a howler.

Finally, there was something in the news a few days ago about land girls and lumberjills (a term I'd never come across before) finally getting recognised for their war work by the UK Government. How? Badges. How very Blue Peter. (I'm not sure how tongue in cheek I feel about this).

French page dedicated to Eric Leyland. It states that Leyland was a friend of Captain W. Johns - author of the Biggles books - and also wrote under the pseudonym of Elizabeth Tarrant (I didn't know this, I have one of 'her' books!). There's a full looking bibiliography - though they warn that it isn't necessarily complete, due to the numerous pseuds that he used - with pictures of covers. This suggests that there is a series of Stanton's books (I wonder if they are about Statnon's in its incarnation before 'Stanton's comes of Age' or after?
This would suggest that it's after.)

Details on the casting for the new Ballet Shoes adaptation. ( My reaction. ) Also, I really need to reread the book.

The Fossil Cupboard - a message board to discuss Streatfeild's books.

And for Ransome fans, on lj, there's ransomefans. (I saw a Swallows and Amazons mug of the classic cover, which I had a bit of a struggle over, but couldn't justify buying it right now, 15 % opening weekend discount or no. This was at the new Borders.

P'raps I can engineer a mug-related accident...

Wikipedia offers this list of fictional works invented by EBD (it hurts me a little that they are not chronologically ordered).

astralis on new girls, honour and girls who don't fit in in girls school stories.

News of two Famous Five productions. Am I the only one who sees the major flaw in looking at the characters' lives decades later? ( Read more... ). Fan Lucy Mangan weighs in on the subject.

The Series Fic yahoo group - dedicated to exploring British children's series fiction of the 20th and 21st century.