feather_ghyll

The Jolliest Term on Record: Angela Brazil, Blackie

I’ll begin, inevitably, by listing some of the names that appear in this book: ( Read more... )

For the School Colours: Angela Brazil. Blackie & Son.

I wish I could say this was a blossomy book, borrowing the top-hole slang that its characters use, but I can’t. Well, it isn’t too bad and it doesn’t feature that dreaded chapter of made-up stories that usually dog Brazil’s books. However, I did mentally say ‘Oh, Angela’ in a ‘what are we to do with you way’ quite a lot. It is set during World War One and features a great deal of propaganda that is glaringly cartoonish and yet sincere from a century’s distance. It’s also not quite the book it seems to be in the first chapter, and perhaps I would have preferred it if it was – I’ll explain.

( Read more... )

A Popular Schoolgirl: Angela Brazil

I had an ‘oh, Angela’ moment when ( Read more... )

Sara Gay Model Girl in New York: Janey Scott

That's New York, 1961 - fit for girls. ( Read more... )

Dance with me by Victoria Clayton

Recommended. ( Read more... )

I look forward to reading more by Clayton (I think another book of hers may have been recommended by callmemadam.)

Finally I reread Three go to Switzerland: Mabel Esther Allan

It can’t have made much impact on me before, because I didn’t remember anything as I read it. ( Read more... )

Of course, I always seem to come across Ethel Talbot, Bessie Marchant and Angela Brazil books because there are so many of them. I had some preconcieved ideas based on the title, Peggy's Last Term, that it would be about a prefect saying goodbye to her school and setting some young'uns right. But that wasn't the story at all. As I've reread Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince recently, ( Read more... ) I didn't need to read that story anyway. And that's the sort of story you'd get in a series, not as a stand-alone.

Peggy's Last Term: Ethel Talbot. Nelson

( Read more... )

Edited for typos and punctuation 7/6/10.

Before I get to the tennis and before I forget, too, I read this review in The Guardian about Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men After the First World War by Virginia Nicholson. It sounds like an interesting book about a group of people I hadn't thought much about, though, obviously, they populated (as those Oxbridge graduates who became mistresses unto retirement) and created a lot of girls own stories.

Anyhow, tennis. Much better far from Eurosport. This is partly because players I have some investment in were playing, but I think the quality was higher. The commentator seemed to believe so, and even salting their hyperbole, there was A Major Upset and tension.

First, watching Sharapova losing the first set, go on the aggressive and, almost bully the second set from Radwanska. But then the serve broke down - and in general, I've always sensed Sharapova's vulnerability as a player, even though she has been consistently near the top, there are others with more talent or raw power - as the momentum shifted. Roddick vs. Johanssen wasn't all that of a match, but I like Roddick (especially in interviews) and Johanssen flubbed the part where he had to keep his own serve, and got dispatched for it.

The Federer vs. Isner match was intriguing as they showed him winning against Montfils in the Washington semi-final, reeling off the wins he'd managed to get there. With his extreme height they were trying to make it out to be a fairy story where the giant was the hero, but as Federer was in imperious form, that was shown to be fiction and the giant was, well, not slain, but taught a lesson. Still, what an occasion to play the world no. 1 in your home slam for someone starting out on their career? As Jo Durie noted - and got slapped down for it by her male colleague, who had been rhapsodising about pretty Maria Sharapova's pretty, pretty dress earlier - Isner looked far more boyish than 2. Federer's outfit was, I would like to point out, very flattering, and his tennis was seriously impressive, as was his deconstruction of his opponent's game.