feather_ghyll

Terry’s Only Term: Ethel Talbot, Blackie

I had a quick look at what I’ve had to say about Ethel Talbot’s books in the past, and realised how much she likes this ‘Girl’s name descriptive word Term’ formula for titles. ( Read more... )

Captain Anne: Dorita Fairlie Bruce Sprong Books (Halycon Library)

It’s been a while since I posted, because, sadly for me, it’s been a while since I read any books. I’m going to be making up for that over the next few days, I hope and intend.

As I’ve probably said before, I came across the Springdale books by Dorita Fairlie Bruce before her Dimsie series, ( Read more... )

First Term, Worst Term: E.M. De Foubert (Oxford, inscribed 1935)

This book starts off like a family story in which youngsters have to survive on their own in difficult financial straits but then becomes a school story. ( Read more... )

The Fortunes of Jacky: Katharine L. Oldmeadow The Children’s Press (This impression 1968)

So, we come to the last of my Oldmeadows, a collection that’s increased by one since I took to rereading them (see the tags). I’ve owned this book for many a year, although it was fun to reread it as an adult, while ( Read more... )

I am so behind, I finished reading this last weekend and meant to post this then!

The New Girl at St Chad’s: Angela Brazil Blackie.

Three ‘bookmarks’ were found in this book – a pressed flower, which will stay, a picture of E.R.T. Holmes, a cricket player, cut out from a newspaper, and a sentimental verse, cut out of a girls’ magazine based on what is on the back.

( ”Then, with a look of utterly crushing scorn, she burst out:'You needn't think that what you have done is at all clever. It's not the place of a new girl to show off in this way, and you'll gain nothing by it. I am responsible for St. Chad's, and I don't mean to have this kind of nonsense going on there; so please understand Honor Fitzgerald, that if you give any more trouble, you may expect to find yourself thoroughly well sat upon.' p.56 )

Stanton's Comes of Age: Sylvia Little, Stanmore Press 1947

This was the first Sylvia Little book I've read since finding out that Sylvia Little = Eric Leyland, who also used the name Nesta Grant, so, I was hyper-aware of any mention of gender, often in the form of authorial 'asides' about boys' and girls' natures. I hadn't ever suspected that the author was really a man, although I had noticed that boys did tread into the hallowed school grounds in Little's books. I've come across very few mixed boarding school a la Hogwarts. Following the real-life culture, older children's books and their fictional schools were strictly divided. I can think of one Mabel Esther Allan, there's the school that Blyton's Naughtiest Girl goes to, and there may be others, but I don't recall them, except for at least one school (Castle School, I think) that Little has written about. I think that in the other Little book I own, Queen's has a close relationship with a boys school (?), which is the case between the girls' school in Stanton's Comes of Age, the Trebizon books (set much later, though) and By Honour Bound link by Bessie Marchant and Sally at School. You know, the sort of school where the heroines' brothers go to. The language is of being chums rather than girlfriends and boyfriends (hi, Trebizon). This type of arrangement is still pretty rare in most of the girls' boarding schools I've read. Boys are for Christmas hols, mainly.

As for the book itself ( Read more... )