feather_ghyll

Coots in the North and other stories: Arthur Ransome (edited by Hugh Brogan) Jonathan Cope, 1988.

This is one for Ransome completists, but it’s also frustrating. It isn’t a collection of short stories, either. The most typical ‘stories’ here of the creator of the Swallows and Amazons are chapters or fragments from uncompleted books, one being the title story, featuring already familiar characters, the other about a brand new boy with a feeling for nature. Then there are short stories, some based on folk tales, the best told in a begrudging seadog’s voice.

( Read more... )

Happy New Year! I've been away reading for a fortnight, among other things, one of Jane Shaw's Susan stories; 'Red Caps at School' by Ethel Talbot, a really slight story, but not as annoying as I found some of her books over the past year; 'Sadie Comes to School' by May Wynne, a busy story with a new American girl, spies, near fatal accidents and an undercooked Christian moral; the much older 'Captain Polly' which was more of a Seven Little Australians/What Katy Did family story. I also read 'Nancy Drew and Company', a collection of academic essays about North American girls' series books, which I gleefully covered with exclamatory glosses, even though I wasn't familiar with about two thirds of the series that were discussed.

I've just finished 'Winter Holiday' by Arthur Ransome, which was a perfectly seasonal book to read at the end of the Christmas holiday, although of course, a Ransome is a good read it any time.

( Read more... )

After a lousy 24 hours, I finally caved and spent nearly £9 on a Swallows and Amazons mug from Borders that I've been eyeing for months. My other excuse is that there was a broken mug incident over the holidays. It features illustrations from the books on a green background and the quote about how the books almost wrote themselves. I have yet to use it.

Coming soon (maybe): a review of the TV adaptation of Ballet Shoes and Finding Minerva, which I read over the holidays.