feather_ghyll: Woman lying under a duvet covered by text (Reading in bed)
The Secret Country: Pamela Dean, Firebird (Penguin), 2003

This is Volume One of the Secret Country trilogy, first published in the 80s, and as it ends at a satisfying resting point, but with much left unresolved, I’m looking forward to finding out what happens next. Dean is the author of ‘Tam Lin’, which adapted and updated the ballad, setting the story at an American college in the 1970s, and which I rated very highly. (I’ve also read ‘The Dubious Hills’ by her, but not posted about it.)

Readers of children’s fantasy books will be familiar with the concept Read more... )
feather_ghyll: Girl reading a book that is resting on her knees (Default)
I read a couple fewer books than last year (47, I think.) As usual, the vast majority were by women and new to me. Most of the children’s books I read were of a higher standard than last year, probably because I’d bought them online (mainly in 2021-22) with greater intentionality than when I physically went into charity shops or second-hand bookshops.

I only read one book by any of the big four, Read more... )
feather_ghyll: Girl reading a book that is resting on her knees (Default)
Seven Sisters at Queen Anne’s: Evelyn Smith. Blackie, my copy is inscribed 1933

Seven sisters? Yes, the scenario set out in the book’s title is a lot, Read more... )
feather_ghyll: Girl reading a book that is resting on her knees (Default)
The Guides in Hanover Lane: Anne Bradley. Lutterworth Press, 1958. My copy is inscribed 1967.

Once lockdown started, I decided to try to buy books, especially girls own books, online by authors that I’d thought highly of. One of those was Anne Bradley, author of Katherine at Feather Ghyll, the book that gave me the name of this blog.

It feels as though it’s been a while since I’ve read a Guide book. In truth, I always think of books about Guides as Guiding propaganda, in that the authors are trying to promote the movement as A Good Thing for their readers, either Guides themselves or prospective Guides. But when the story is well written and the characters are engaging, that doesn’t matter.

Read more... )
feather_ghyll: Girl reading a book that is resting on her knees (Default)
I see I'm getting round to this a day earlier than last year. Perhaps 'summary' is a better description than 'highlights.'

I read 49 books in 2023, a decent increase on last year, thanks in part to the Good Thing that happened at the end of April. The vast majority were by women and new to me, and had mainly been bought (mostly online) in 2020. But I returned properly to charity shops and bookshops, so I bought more random books, which have gone on my 'to be read' pile.

Most of the children’s books I read were Girls Own books, although a lot were mediocre and some subpar, and I didn’t bother posting about them (be grateful I didn’t review ‘A Girl Governess’ by A.E. Ward.) Read more... )

Here's hoping the best for 2024.
feather_ghyll: Lavendar flowers against white background (Beautiful flower (lavender))
Flowering Spring: Elfrida Vipont. Oxford University Press, 1960

I wish I’d read the books in this continuity in order. I read ‘The Lark in the Morn’ a while ago, and there are two books and several years between that and this. I was very muddled while I read the first few chapters as a result. Read more... )
feather_ghyll: Back of girl whose gloved hand is holding on to her hat. (Girl in a hat)
The Star of Kazan: Eva Ibbotson, Macmillan, 2004.

I didn’t remember much about this book (only the fate of Rocco the horse, really) so rereading this almost felt like reading a new book, except it had that sense of things proceeding as they ought as so much of Ibbotson’s writing does, and some of that came from some dim memories of first reading it. (This was the my post about it at the time, which also discusses ‘Blue of the Sea’ by L.T. Meade.)

This is the story of Read more... )
feather_ghyll: Woman lying under a duvet covered by text (Reading in bed)
The Pearl Thief: Elizabeth Wein, Bloomsbury, May 2017

This prequel to ‘Code Name Verity’ and ‘Rose Under Fire’ is both mystery and coming-of-age tale, in which Julie Beaufort-Stuart (or Lady Julia if you must) is spending a last summer at Strathfearn, where she and her big brothers would come for holidays. Julie is Read more... )
feather_ghyll: Back of girl whose gloved hand is holding on to her hat. (Girl in a hat)
Waistcoats and Weaponry: Gail Carriger
Finishing School Book the Third, Atom, 2004


As I’ve said before, I enjoy this series, following Miss Sophronia Temminnick of Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing School in a streampunk Britain with supernatural elements. I have to admit that Read more... )
feather_ghyll: Girl reading a book that is resting on her knees (Default)
Over the past couple of months, there were two books that I read that I considered posting a review of here, namely, 'Twice Freed' by Patricia St. John (a reread) and 'Miriam' by Jane Edwards (a Welsh language book). Read more... )

Ha, I did have something to say!

As for ‘Barbara - Called Binkie’, well, I ploughed on with the collection, mainly shorter multi-chapter stories. Read more... )
feather_ghyll: Woman lying under a duvet covered by text (Reading in bed)
The Santa Klaus Murder: Mavis Doriel Hay The British Library (Crime Classics) 2015

I had thought that the only fictional books Doriel Hay had had published were the duology I’ve reviewed previously, but having come across this, apparently not. That and its seasonality appealed. I meant to read it last Christmas, but failed, so made sure I managed to this year. Well, I started on Boxing Day.

Read more... )
feather_ghyll: Illustration of the Chalet against a white background with blue border (Chalet School)
The School at Skelton Hall: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, Girls Gone By Publishers, 2008

I almost feel unworthy of posting my reaction to ‘The School at Skelton Hall’, because after I read it, I went back to read Ruth Jolly’s considered introduction for this GGBP edition, which discusses the plot, setting and the creation of a new school by E B-D for the second time in a career that spawned the famous Chalet School. My mind had kept stumbling over the similarity between Skelton and Skeleton! So please read what follows with that in mind. Read more... )
feather_ghyll: Lavendar flowers against white background (Beautiful flower (lavender))
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.
feather_ghyll: Girl reading a book that is resting on her knees (Girl reader)
The Big House: Helena McEwen (Bloomsbury, 2000)

I very much admired Invisible River, therefore I got this book and it was next on my ‘To read’ pile, but when I started it, I was regretting not skipping it, because it opens with the narrator as a grieving woman. She’s at the big house of the title, on the verge of selling it, and the bulk of the novel is her memories of a year from her childhood there. It’s bookended by a brief return to the present.

Given everything that’s going on, I was not in the mood for literary fiction, where there is no plot, about what seemed to be a family with serious mental ill-health, as you can imagine. Fortunately, the childhood section is much more successful and balanced. Read more... )
feather_ghyll: Lavendar flowers against white background (Beautiful flower (lavender))
I went to see this last week, but I could only post this now.

So, Little Women:

Adapted and Directed by: Greta Gerwig
Based on ‘Little Women’ and ‘Good Wives’. written by Louisa M. Alcott.
Starring: Saorise Ronan, Florence Pugh, Timothee Chalamet, Laura Dern.
Rated: U


Although I had prejudices going in (one big one I’ll get to, but one certainly was that it feels as though we only just had the TV adaptation involving Angela Lansbury) and nitpicks going out, this was very good and emotionally satisfying. Read more... )

Profile

feather_ghyll: Girl reading a book that is resting on her knees (Default)
feather_ghyll

June 2025

S M T W T F S
12 34567
8 910 1112 1314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 15th, 2025 01:57 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios