feather_ghyll

Treasure at Amorys: Malcolm Saville. Collins, 1969, revised edition.

This is a reread because I bought this without realising I already own a copy. On the one hand, that was annoying – I’m going to make more of an effort to acquire the Lone Pine books I haven’t read and/or got – but on the other, this is a hardback, and the copy I already own is a paperback.

This book is full of ( Read more... )

The Purple Valley: Malcolm Saville Girls Gone By Publishers, 2017.

Having reread ‘Three Towers in Tuscany’, I turned to its sequel, the second in the Secret Service/Marston Baines series. Simon Baines, the main character of the first book, is ( Read more... )

Christmas at Nettleford: Malcolm Saville Armada 1970

This was better than I hoped for. I have another Nettleford/Owlers book but I don’t remember much about it. I think the attraction of ‘Christmas at Nettleford’ is ( Read more... )

Happy New Year! I wanted to post this before doing a 2017 round-up post.

[Lightly edited 4/8/18.]

The Secret of Grey Walls: Malcolm Saville Newnes (Seventh Impression 1972)

I haven't really written about the Lone Piners’ influence on me as a reader. Rationally, I know by now that the books and the characters' adventures don’t stand up well in comparison, but they were quite as influential on me as the Swallows and Amazons books growing up. I was probably reading them higgledy-piggeldy, along with various Enid Blyton books even before The Chalet School and before I was the twins’ age. I admired Peter tremendously, although I never wanted a pony of my own.

I owned an Armada paperback copy of The Secret of Grey Walls and bought this hardback edition to replace it at a reasonable enough price, because I heard that the Armada editions were abridged, which may or may not become a new habit. I found I didn’t remember much about the story – except it fits in with the pattern of the mysteries and adventures that Saville’s gangs of children happen across (I came across the Buckinghams later and the Jillies even later in life, which, along with their being smaller groups and having fewer books devoted to their adventures, made them less important to me than the Lone Pine Club,)

( Every member of the Lone Pine Club signed below swears to keep the rule and to be true to each other whatever happens always. (p 102) )

Made the unexpected purchase of a Mabel Esther Allan the other day. Well, not entirely unexpected, as charity shops and second hand bookstalls are my weakness, and you do find these books there...*

Anyway, yesterday, I reread 'Three Towers in Tuscany' after 'discovering' that it's the first in a series. I say discovering because it says so plain on the back page. My copy is a first publication and is ex-library - a Scottish library, so I got it on holiday there I think, though I can't remember the exact year and am too lazy to figure it out precisely. I must have been early to mid teens when I got it though. And I either paid 5p or 75p for it.

Three Towers in Tuscany: Malcolm Saville, Heinemann, 1963.

( Read more... )

*It was an English-language book at the Eisteddfod! But it's set in Wales, which is probably why they were selling it. However, I am still puzzling over their rationale for including 'Cranford' which is not set in Wales, nor does it have any overt Welsh connection. But maybe it's okay because it's a classic???