feather_ghyll

Princess Candida: Katharine Oldmeadow, Collins

I wonder if the publishers or someone suggested that Oldmeadow ought to write her own version of ‘A Little Princess’, for there’s a flavour of that to ‘Princess Candida’, although it’s more in the girls own vein, and written with Oldmeadow’s style. ( Read more... )

The Thursday Murder Club: Richard Osman. Penguin, my copy was published in 2021.

Yes, years after everyone else, I have read ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ ( Read more... )

I mentioned at the end of 2017 (!) that I’d bought a book by KLO. Well, this is it!

A Strange Adventure: Katherine L. Oldmeadow Warne (inscribed 1943-44)

This is a book for younger readers, its heroine being about 10 years old and the English vocabulary not too complex, though it’s laced with Scots, Norse and Norwegian words. It’s set at the end of the nineteenth century and revolves around one of Oldmeadow’s orphans. Jane Wren ( Read more... )

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

The Abbey Girls on Trial: Elsie J. Oxenham Collins (between 1949 and 1951)

I found myself reading the first few chapters of this book with more interest than I’d expected, given the last few Abbey Girls books that I’ve read, ( Read more... )

I’ll post an overview of a few books I’ve read over the holidays eventually, but this post is a look back at 2015, following a tradition started by my first post of 2015 when I said I looked forward to the next adventures of Wells and Wong. Well, Arsenic for Tea by Robin Stevens (in which the 1930s schoolgirls investigate another mystery, this time in Daisy Wells’s country house home) lived up to my expectations. I enjoyed Kate Saunders’s Beswitched, originally published a few years ago, but taking the reader back to a 1930s boarding school, a fraction more, even. I loved reading Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery and Gail Carriger’s Etiquette & Espionage.

Turning to hadrbacks, I enjoyed The Little Betty Wilkinson by Evelyn Smith, even though I think she’s written better books. I did read a book each by the ‘big four’: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer’s Chudleigh Hold, Sally’s Summer Term by Dorita Fairlie Bruce, Tomboys at the Abbey by Elsie J. Oxenham, which I didn’t review, and For the School Colours by Angela Brazil.

(In the first paragraph, I build up to my favourite and do the opposite in the second.)

Perhaps the best book I read this year was ‘Rose Under Fire’ by Elizabeth Wein, which is wonderful and harrowing, and I feel incapable of writing about it. I also really loved Helena McEwen’s Invisible River.

I reread Katherine L. Oldmeadow’s The Fortunes of Jacky, which stands the test of time, and now I have no more Oldmeadows to reread. I am, obviously, looking out for more by her in all the shops that sell second-hand books! I hope to read the next case Hazel Wong writes up and the second in the Finishing School series, but I expect to read EBD's 'Fardingales' as I have a copy in the depths of my 'to read' pile.

The House in the Oak Tree: Katharine Oldmeadow (New Edition 1951) the Lutterworth Press

I broke off from my rereading of all my Oldmeadow books (only The Fortunes of Jacky remains, I think) to review a book by her that I hadn’t come across before, although I wish that i had found it a couple of decades or more ago. The House in the Oak Tree skews younger than the other Oldmeadow books that I’ve read. It’s a family/girls story, probably influenced by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s ouvre, set in the New Forest that reminds the author of fairyland, and much like with Evelyn Smith’s Terry’s Best Term (reviewed here, contains familiar elements (some problematic) presented with the author’s charm.( Read more... )

Madcap Judy: Katharine L. Oldmeadow, Collins

This book possibly suffered from being the fifth or so book by Oldmeadow that I’ve reread, although elements also reminded me of several other girls own books that I’ve read. Despite the title, the heroine is Jean Murray ( Read more... )

The Redheaded Patrol: Mrs A.C. Osborn Hann The Girl’s Own Paper (published before 31 July 1938)

I don’t do this often, but I’ll quote the opening and closing lines of this book:

It really was a most extraordinary coincidence. All the girls in the Scarlet Pimpernel Patrol had red hair! And nobody could manage them! Leader after leader had tried and given it up in despair! (p.9)

Now, whether my readers wish to hear any more of Judy and Gladys, and the other members of the Redheaded Patrol, depends entirely on the reception given to this book. (p. 176)

On the first, that’s three exclamation marks and on the second, that’s shilling for a sequel. (This reminds me that the next Oldmeadow that I intend to read is The Pimpernel Patrol.)

One of the greatest strengths of this book, ( 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... )