feather_ghyll

Challenge for the Chalet School: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, Armada, 1991

Oh, look, I’m quibbling about titles again, but perhaps ‘Challenges for the Chalet School’ would have been better, with ( Read more... )

The Chalet School Does It Again: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. Armada, 1990

I am excruciatingly slowly completing my Chalet School collection, and yes, with the aid of abridged Armada publications.

The title of this story always ( Read more... )

A Thrilling Term at Janeways': Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, Nelson

I found this 'School Story for Girls' ( Read more... )

Collected over months (or longer):

A tribute to Elinor M. Brent-Dyer by nobodyjones

The thrill of the used bookstore hunt

Amanda Diehl talks about book hunting practices involving second-hand bookshops that I can partially sympathise with. I do have strange habits about books, but let’s focus on the euphoria of finding something you’ve long looked for at a reasonable price.

Daniel Dalton recommends 33 Books You Should Read Now, Based On Your Favourite Films. Having read and seen some pairs, I can see where he’s coming from and have found a cuple of recommondations.

There are a few Nancy Drew icons here by misbegotten.

Angela Brazil: dorm feasts and red hot pashes

Kathryn Hughes has been rereading Angela Brazil (spoilers for A Patriotic Schoolgirl).

Here’s a new blog about children’s books that I think will be worth keeping an eye on: homeintimefortea

The Chalet School and the Lintons: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer Chambers 1940 reprint

I’d previously read this story as split into two by Armada. It was nice to have it all in one hardback volume, although I managed to slosh some coffee over it at one point.

The story is that Gillian and Joyce Linton( Read more... )

One thing that I learned from reading A. M. W.’s ‘The Kettle of Fortune’ in Blackie’s Girls’ Annual is that trespassing is all right if you are posh and English, but not if you are poor and Scottish. Yes, I'm still working through that annual.

The Coming of Age of the Chalet School: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer

Reading ‘Excitements at the Chalet School’ inspired me to read ‘Coming of Age’, the next in the series. I have an Armada paperback copy that I bought back in the day when Chalet School books cost £1.95, and I had a habit of underlining all the Chalet girls’ names that appeared in my copy. Fortunately, I only kept up that bad habit for the first chapter, perhaps because I realised that in this book, of all Chalet School books, where so many Old Girls come back for a visit to join in the school’s celebrations, that it would be a bit much.

So, what did I think, now that I am closer in age to those Old Girls? ( Read more... )

Unlikely Chalet School titles: ‘An Arsonist at the Chalet School’, ‘The Chalet School Expels a Maynard’ and ‘A Quiet Term for the Chalet School’ (also published as Health and Safety at the Chalet School).

Which is to say, I have a new icon by lost_spook, (I had a hard time choosing between her Chalet School icons) and in between the tennis talk, I hope to post a review of a Chalet School book. It inspired the above titles, but that’s not much help.

Monica Turns Up Trumps: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. Lutterworth Press 1944

I read this at the start of the month, but only got around to finishing typing up my review tonight.

( Read more... )

Via callmemadam and lizarfrau

( Read more... )

The meme did make me think a little about chapter breaks and how the author really can't control the readers' experience. I was rereading the Binchy book; I came to it with a bit of a prejudice, but after reading about half in one go (circumstances meant that I read the second half in a bitsier fashion) I found that I was enjoying it more than I'd expected, and during the break had a bit of a think about what I remembered (not much) and guessed what would happen next and circled around what I made of the characters. I couldn't remember whether I'd read it in one go the first time, without the break to muse five years ago.

It occurred to me that there are so many possible permutations of a reading experience that the writer can't control. Chapter breaks, to some extent, but for most novels, the reader isn't likely to stop after every chapter, and they could stop anywhere almost. There are some chapters where it's easier, such as if the main characters have to get to Venice to do something, you'd be inclined to stop when they got there, whereas the momentum of the story meant that you 'couldn't' tear yourself away before the point. Perhaps it's more likely for books that have distinct Parts (fantasy novels and historical novels spring to mind). Those create natural breaks. Even so, that's up to the reader or the reader's circumstance, and those breaks from the books vary the experience - you may come to a definite conclusion about a certain character, fair or not. In that break, external events may colour your whole reading of a book.

That probably seems very obvious to everyone else. I tend to (or think I tend to) read books (novels then) in as close to one go as I can get, which may be why it struck me.

Noel Streatfeild news and resources:

Ballet Shoes to be made into a feature length drama to air on BBC One later this year - read the press release. I got the heads up from Digital Spy. This could be great, the BBC, after all, should be able to handle this sort of material in its sleep, but it rather depends on who they cast to play the Fossils and what the director gets out of them.

h2g2 has an overview of the 'Shoes' "series" (which was artificially created as such, though some of them are obviously connected, says the person who never could read 'The Bell Family', in fact I'm not sure if I didn't give up and give it away.)

For more, there's this well-presented Noel Streatfeild site: http://www.whitegauntlet.com.au/noelstreatfeild/

Discussion - girls in fiction and the women writing it

Girl wonders
As Nancy Drew returns to the screen, Laura Barton remembers the fictional female heroes who bested the boys, bucked convention and shaped her childhood

Were you an Ann or a George? (Plus, it may be made more explicit in later books, because, yes, I am of the Nancy Drew Files/strawberry blonde generation, but is Ned Nickerson not 'the love interest' and sidekick to Nancy? Sadly, there's no mention of the Swallows and Amazons girls in this article.)

Editorial anonymous, a children's book editor, discusses the question of whether children's books are a girls' club and if so why? This mainly refers to modern children's literature.

I recommend
Essay/Discussion: Twins, part two by sangerin, which focuses on the twins of the Abbey Girls and Chalet School series.

Malcolm Saville resources:

The Malcolm Saville centenary website, through which I discovered 'Three Towers in Tuscany' is the first of a sequel, which ends with 'Marston Baines - Master Spy'. My delight at the fact that there are more books and that one of them has such a title cannot be textually rendered.

Quizzes:

http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/literature/specific_subjects__themes/childrens_literature.html