The Boy and the Mouse

After last week's excursion we're back to more regular ground  here after spending a few weeks with a few friends reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle from cover to cover. 

You see, and I'm no expert on literature, actually that had it of come from this side of the Atlantic would be seen a classic Boys Own  novel which of course it is really because the motorvation was writing for her (Beverly Cleary's) son and no girls are involved.

It captures that boyhood friendship between the mouse in room 216 and him at a level we'd get, the trust and betrayal when Ralph loses Keith's beloved motorcycle but how Ralph risked his life to get him the aspirin that saved his life from a fever.

Keith could of been any of us at the age of eight or nine with our collections of toy cars we'd play and Beverly's son did play with them while sick as many of us did, capable of striking up a friendship over shared interests.

And we're all carrying around a bit of 'Keith' as sophisticated as we may feel as much as we all can identify with Ralph's longing for freedom, independence and adventure  being probably as reckless in his innocence too, having scrapes in our pasts.

To me, between the pages of The Mouse and the Motocycle lies the spirit of childhood in rude health .

Let's drink to it.

Re-reading the Chalet School series

Reading is one thing I do like and I have read Juliet at the Chalet School a few times with the reminder of that series together with Enid Blyton's boarding school series for good measure. 

In this volume of the series, Redheads at the Chalet School, Flavia Letton, the daughter of a police inspector, is enrolled in the Chalet School. Despite every effort being made to protect her true identity from her father's world of crime, criminals manage to track her down, bringing danger not only to Flavia, but to the whole school.

As a feminine boy back then I did sneak read a number of Girls only girls boarding school based  series  loving the plots and characters but today I need not care about such concerns.

Some great reading

Reading can have a bad press some of which may be down to the lack of encouragement in reading for pleasure especially in an age of instant electronic gratification but part of this I feel is actually the the lack of appreciation of what is people love to read about.

The modern age has many pluses but one negative is the tendency to write notionally gender neutral stories that read more as stories for girls with lots of details around friendships, drama and relationships which is not something that instinctively does anything for you.

You like mysteries and adventures that hold you in suspense and even when they are, the political correct requirement to make the key characters female for gender empowerment   means there's nothing boys can relate to.

One author whose work I loved as a boy and still love to read is Enid Blyton and at least in her world boys are really boys who do have gumption and who doesn't feel the need to write to an agenda.

As a sissy gurl I'm glad boys have a proper place in the scheme of things.

Today I'm looking at a few I think are good for littles

While being a mixed gender series, The Six Cousins series has  quite a bit for a boy looking at the lives of six boys and girls, three of whom has lost their home in a fire and three whose lives are affected by having them stay with them.

It's less a 'kitchen sink drama' thankfully as more an adventure looking at the different characters in the area such as shady poacher, a wondering philosopher the older boy lionizes who tunes out to be a thief  and the importance of working hard.

It looks too at a topic that is relevant today, how it is some boys seem to lack that spirit, more concerned with looks within the older boy being more namby-pandy and yet the one who initially was and clearly most effected by the fire finds meaning in life on the farm letting his sense of maleness out.

The role of a too soft Mum in the upbringing of three of the children and her own lack of adult maturity are explored too

Although aimed more at the eight year old reader, this is the story of Donald who can't really concentrate on academic things in school as he's always dreaming about a life with animals sometimes seeing himself as a naturalist, sometimes wanting to be a vet although his school reports are a concern for his father.

When is Grandma offers to get him a puppy for his birthday his excitement is shattered as at one his parent reject it and the story is of his attempt to secure the object of his fascination -that puppy.

Reading it again, his boyish nature and the longing for a pet really connected to me.

The Boy Next Door is an unusual novel in the extensive Enid Blyton catalogue in that while it is an adventure, the focus of it is a mystery around a boy, a ten year old American boy called Kit who on the outset we are told lost his father and was moved to England for his own protection as his father had left a huge amount of money to him when he's of age and is a target for kidnapping not least by his uncle.

Kit is meant to be hidden away in property miles from anywhere, free from being overlooked where he has a housemaid and a tutor but can be seen by Betty, Lucy and Robin who live next door here he's playing Cowboys and Indians with red indian* dress up attire on.
They didn't know of a boy next door nor did their Mummy.

The book looks at how even though he's not meant to be seen by a soul, he plays with them having adventures although though he's threatened with a spanking if does, how two people suddenly arrive nearby looking for him and ultimately how he foils a kidnapping with the boys and girls help. He also is reunited with his father!

We also learn the source of where he was to be found for the two looking to kidnap him was very much closer to home.

* Intuit or "First Nation" is the preferred term today in Canada.

As unfortunately with most of Enid's works since the 1990's the editors have been changing names of characters, removing unpolitically correct references and the like so to really enjoy these you need to find copies BEFORE 1990.

Dean's editions before this point are easy to find even if they lack all the original illustrations without breaking the bank and Armada paperbacks exist too which the Cousins series in my collection are part of.

The Put-Em-Rights

 There are some books written by Enid Blyton I'm familiar with because I read them when I was in first childhood either owning or borrowing usually from girls and others because she was most prolific author I am not so familiar with.

The Put 'Em Rights comes under the latter although the subject matter is something I am very familiar with which is travelling preachers usually of a evangelical sort who come as the name suggests to galvanize people to action around social or moral issues of the day.

In this particular story it's the impact of travelling gypsy preacher  who inspires Sally, a Ministers daughter, to form a group of six children to do "good works" in their village of Under Ridge after a meeting on the village green.

In modern parlance they act as Social Activists, attempting to put situations right such as a dog being physically and emotional maltreated, a woman with a dirty house and equally dirty baby, a family facing eviction and anther facing lack.

What they discover in their eagerness is often situations are more complex than they originally thought and also less clear-cut such as the mother has a mental illness - depression - the family facing eviction are not only being evicted by the father of one of the boys but for theft which when they get further into it is a father taking the blame for what a severely mentally disabled boy has literally taken a shine to, oblivious to the notion it is theft being in human terms more like a magpie from that point of view.

What is more and I feel is one of more worthwhile aspects to this story is while they start of on the basis of changing other peoples attitudes to the right they soon learn their own are not necessarily any better with Sally being impatient and self righteous, Podge is well looked after but careless in looking after his possessions such as a bicycle  just assuming as they go messing or are stolen because he doesn't put them away safely his parent will just buy  him another, not appreciating the sacrifice they made in buying him them.

Amanda starts to realize she is really is very lazy and selfish being allowed to do nothing and get out of taking turns in helping.

Although Enid doesn't say this (and forgive my C.S. upbringing  and background for dropping a religious point in) what she's alerting the reader to is the notion that caring for everyone else's values and attitudes without looking at your own first is foolhardy.

We may be better off caring about other peoples but working on our own, transforming those we encounter by it even if we may not be perfect rather than coming over as somewhat pious, lecturing others.

The outcome of this book is unsatisfactory in one respect, and that is underneath much of the plot is class attitudes and prejudice. 

Bobby is 'working class' his mother unusually for 1946 has to work as his father is in prison and he feels very much ill at ease with the other five middle class children who haven't struggled as he has.

He starts off being friendly with them, almost an equal but Sally's socially superior attitude starting from how she tries to stop a mother from spreading gossip only goads this woman into revealing the awful truth of where Bobby's father is as his own mother has been hiding it feeling this whole thing has just been a matter of the children playing "goody-goody" to make them feel superior. He feels crushed and for all their mixing he can only ever be with 'his own' although they do make up and share ice creams.

In some respects I feel rather than resigning oneself to your lot, Bobby would of better served by having those children apologize for how he'd been treated and encouraged to give breaking out of his social class a second chance and from that be at the point he is able to take advantage of his own abilities rather than in effect limiting himself because of what had happened. 

Although the ending could of been better thought through, I did feel this was a novel well worth reading.

*There are some alterations in this 1992 version - some of the essential social commentary is diminished although later editions are more altered as sadly the case with most of this authors stories.

Musings from this adult little gurl's dorm

I can't say I ever lived in a house that had large grounds as the best it got with me were the grounds of ones boarding school that had acres for safe exploration and play but if there were pictures to be taken of me in such a setting they'd be like this

For me at least there's always a bit of younger past mixed in with an older on paper present and like her I'd be their holding a plushie or a doll simply because it makes me feel secure, comfortable as myself.

That always was and truthfully is what I've been looking for from relationships with people not that I don't subscribe that you to offer something in them that's of benefit to others - that's a given with me - but in terms of what aids me especially in those that of necessity involving caring for me.

Neither overly cuddly nor sternness really satisfies either one or alternating between the two but warmness, empathy and active listening  is what is called for.

Re-reading a few books this week dealing with the stress of the current political issues rather brought much of this into focus.

 If your co-ordination is anything like mine scenes like these are by no means uncommon now as they were back then where if you could just walk into something or go to pick it up and just end up with everything all over the place then it would.

When things are like that an offer to help sorting things out are much appreciated.

While staying dry I recently bought a book by an author I loved during ones boyhood but had not read before in its first edition.

The Family at Red-Roofs is a family story about the Jackson's, four children between nine and seventeen and their mom and dad who living in cramped conditions were able to rent a bigger property that needed some work doing on it.

They acquire a domestic helper called Jennie and all seems well until their mother is taken will needing surgery and quiet respite just at the time gets a once in the lifetime offer to go to America to work for his company and has left.

Worse still it transpires a ship he was one was hit head one by another with few survivors so Jennie has more to deal with after receiving a letter from his company, the children's mother is too delicate to be told and in an age lacking social insurance, it appears they may become penniless. 

Molly and Peter have to find jobs as the oldest even though both before this tragic news of his assumed death would of been studying for careers in Teaching and being a Doctor respectively. Even Michael aged 11 does clock repairs to bring money in.

Molly's former school friend Prudence, a stuck up daughter of a monied family falls on hard times and so needs to stay with them that means for the first time in her life she actually has to work.

What really happened to the children's dad transpires: He was saved but was so traumatized by the incident, he'd forgotten who he was but as luck would have it a photograph of the four children of his floated and is publicized in the national press. 

Dad and children in time are reunited and mother recovers just in time so she didn't need to be told of his disappearance and presumed death.

The story is genuinely heartbreaking in places, the presumption all is going well from moving to a better house soon moves to that of the actual loss of a breadwinner parent and severe illness of their mother and of sacrificing potential careers to deal with pressing needs.

What is good about it is it shows the children maturing, showing resilience that they'll need as adults and upon his return after all, their father sees the fruit of his efforts fathering them in their ability to cope under pressure.

The old in the new: Paddington and the Secret Seven

Almost a catchphrase with me, the new and old intermingle in this life and this entry looks at some examples .

I tend not to write book reviews on this blog although you'll spot the odd one dotted about but while she didn't write much specifically for boys, one series I did enjoy as a boy first time around by Enid Blyton was the Secret 7 series that had 21 original stories featuring six children in a secret society investigating mysteries and a dog called Scamper.

There has been a trend rather like with prequels in the film industry to extend the scope of original titles through so-called continuation novels written to varying degrees in the style of the original author by people invited by the rights owners of the original authors works.

Pamela Butchart is a well know Scottish author of children's mysteries  and was asked to write two more stories in Enid's Secret 7 series. This came out in February of this year.

This one starts with a Travelling Theatre moving where the Secret 7 live and the children curious because no theatre has been operating here for ages, indeed the premises were boarded up but it transpires they to put on a opening performance as it brought back to life.
The six children are invited to take part in the performance by Mrs Bagnall but as they get involved in learning their lines and rehearsing, strange goings on occur with lights and sound systems playing up, trap downs coming open plus tales of ghosts and it soon becomes apparent someone is trying to sabotage the show.

This provides the mystery the six plus Scamper look into hindered as ever by group leader Peter's nosy sister Susie and her friend poking their noses in, they work out who is doing it, why and bring in adult help as events draw to a conclusion.

Pamela wisely keeps the twenty-first century out of it so we have no smartphones, internet, tracking devices and so on so in some respects it's more like the nineteen-seventies and eighties.

In terms of language it is a little more modern than Enid's own but in the main follows the kind of dialogue she would of used with just the odd term like "try out" which very modern in British English and perhaps too much reference to Scottish Tablet which actual is a caramelized fudge concoction made from condensed milk that much outside her home nation will be puzzled over.

Overall I'd give it a 8 out of 10 for fans of the Secret Seven as she's kept as true to it's roots as she possible can with just a nod toward a more equal role for Pam,Barbara and Janet.

I mentioned Blue Peter, the long running children's BBC Tv series in connection with my birthday and there is a reference in the earlier bit of this blog to the link between a native of deepest darkest Peru and that show,

Around the era I first watched the show, also transmitted in five minute episodes were a series of animated cartoons based on the Michael Bond stories that I and countless boys (and girls too) loved to watch at the time.

Many of us feel that they caught the feel of the books better having more subtle humour for instance  than the more recent live action movies and I recently got a two dvd set that has most of the episodes on it.

This set has all the episodes from the thirty that started January 5th 1976 and the later ones plus the tv specials that run for 21 minutes each including the last one from 1987 although it is lacking information on which ones come where but there is a excellent piece on Wikipedia that lists all, gives a short account including the transmission date that helps.


One new story in an old series I loved and a shiny new dvd of the original paddington bear cartoons are just thing for an eternal ten year old child.

Birthday edition

*Something* happened last week that has a tendency to occur once a year I believe which given how I am remains a child's birthday for a boy in a dress like me.

It was my birthday two days ago in the present into past life I live as this adult in law in all other respects a child it is not that surprising that parts of my birthday are just as you might of expected them to of been when I was younger by date of birth.

I still watch children's programs some different than I did back when I could sing along to "Remember you're a womble" and some that actually still run one of which as you know is my favourite all time program, Blue Peter

  

I might of mentioned I have a many of the books I was given from the late sixties up to the early 1990's for Christmas that I then bought myself but as anyone around that time knows, there were a number of years where they were not issued such as in 1986, 1990 and 1993 through 1998.

Typically they had accounts of the main features on the show, overseas trips with pictures and the 'makes' - things made from paper, card recycled bits and bobs not forgetting the sticky back plastic - of the previous 12 months.

That means some of things I remember by way of the 'makes' such as Tracy Island one of the 1990's featuring locally born Anthea Turner were never documented and as I don't have books 1 through 4 and from 28 onwards there are gaps.

This book with its forward from Valerie came out on the back of last years 60th anniversary covers many of the such as the classic Advent Crown and yes Tracy Island too!

It has suitably old-fashioned feel too it.

For some reason I didn't get that at Christmas so it kind of makes up for it.

The year 2008 that in this blog is only covered by some of my recently imported photography centred posts saw the 50th anniversary and the then recently sacked producer Richard Marson wrote a book giving an impression from what being inside the program making team of what making the show, the challenges of the live segments, filming and so on was like.

For someone like me this kind of book is of interest as the only show I can recall watching about making it was the November 4th 1974 Blue Peter show that explained camera work and the studio side.

Coming out during the same year, Biddy Baxter who played a big part in making the show what it was (and is) wrote an introduction to this book and selected the letters sent to the show by viewers.

Letters as the ten year old me recalls were a big thing about the show because it was how we interacted with it and was a main route by which you earned your badges so it reflects very much what we felt about the programs and our interests at the time.

It also has some letters from adults too as sometimes the show caused controversy like how in 1969 Peter Purves showed men caring for baby Daniel by being doing so and some adults actually thought he should of been doing an adventure instead with Valerie Singleton doing that as she was a woman!

Thank goodness as a society we've moved on from such attitudes!!!

I also had some money that will help pay for some bits for my new digital photography kit I mentioned a few weeks ago.

One tv show I  loved was Blue Peter and this originally published a few years ago is less a potted history of the show by  its producer and film editor from 1975 through 2011 although it does give you a breakdown of presenters, notable program items, years expeditions and appeals talks about the challenges in filming and making the show and working with presenters, guests and yes the numerous pets who were for a long time on the production set.

One thing I also love us music, especially classical music and this acclaimed recording came out but a month ago on Super Audio cd, playable on regular stereo cd on what looks to be a great new symphony cycle by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra of music  by Schubert. My main set is from the 1960's with the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra conducted by the late Karl Bohm.

One thing I am keen to do is expand as far as is possible my range of classical recordings on  super audio cd and Berlioz is one composer I do like.

I got this two disc set of his Romeo and Juliet opera with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony which is highly acclaimed .

There's no one like Andrew, Andrew Davis that is  having seen him conduct and a week ago this brand new recording of Berlioz's L'Enfante du Christ was issued as a double Super audio cd that will join my collection of Berlioz's works on sacd.

Birthdays do have an element of the past in the present for me and so it was fitting a collection of stories that connected a certain Paddington Bear with a tv show I loved was bound to feature.

 The stories were written by Michael Bond for the year annuals of Blue Peter published 1966 through 1972 so tend to be about 14 pages long per story that makes the easy to dip into although a little familiarity with the show and presenting team at the time helps.
Actually I did at one point have a copy as I had other things connected to the tv series  so it's nice to get another hard back copy.

This is an illustration from it and it's in lovely condition, with no felt tip pen scrawling and the like in its original 1973 form.

Hetty Feather's Christmas

Although they are written mainly for girls, the Hetty Feather series is one I like for looking at past lives and attitudes.

Seeing the weather isn't up to much, I though this would be a good time to read this recent addition to that series.

Hetty Feather is thirteen years and a "Foundling" that's to a say a resident of the Foundling Hospital for children of 'fallen mothers' where children are divide by age range and by gender.

It is forbidden for a mother to have any kind of contact with her children so any kind of link however unofficial is highly prized even if for both it may be punished.

Hetty is with Shelia who snores like a pig at night and other girls of a similar age where through an unofficial link she receives a present from her Mom which she keeps safe overnight knowing that all she will have on Christmas day will be an orange from Matron and Christmas Duck dinner that contrasts will with what they'd normally have IF she behaves herself.

That morning she opens the present and find it is a small home made dolls house but then Shelia sees red quite possibly out of envy and in the the ensuing melee tugs at it breaking and ultimately ruining it for Hetty.

Hetty is devastated and very angry so goes to attack Shelia on the head leaving a broken cut that the commotion needless to say bring Matron Bottomley out and Hetty hits her.

Hetty apologizes which is accepted but finds herself being escorted upstairs to a dark cupboard with nowhere to sleep and just a chamber pot which she is to stay missing out on her Christmas dinner or indeed any dinner.

Fortunately for Hetty, Miss Smith, a Governor of  the Foundlings gets to hear of Hetty's situation from another child and manages to get permission to take Hetty out for Christmas w here she consumes a much needed turkey sandwich before every at Miss Smiths including some children she is looking after have Christmas lunch and play.

Through the dialogue around the other children, we learn Miss Smith takes a more liberal approach to managing their children, certainly not locking them in cupboards and allows them to play and generally be children although if are really naughty, they will be punished.

The children take a big part in the Christmas games such as Charades where through mime the other teams have to guess what the topic is.

Although Hetty is meant to be returned in time for supper, between Miss Smith and Hetty they decide if they're going be in trouble for being out for long it may was well be longer so they set out in time for Hetty to go bed being prepared to tell a 'white lie' to explain why they are so late.

As it happens Matron it appears isn't much for sharing presents being the worse for consuming  all the Punch, being fast asleep.

 Hetty gets ready for bed for having the best ever Christmas present she could hope for without having to explain a thing.

What is more, in that time a remorseful Shelia has painstakingly repaired the home made dolls house, not perfectly , but good enough to be enjoyed that enables both of them to move on and be friends.

Shelia has clearly  learned what upset Hetty  more was she attacked a symbol of Hetty's mothers love even in enforced absence just because it was something she herself didn't have.

What I think is the strength of this installment of the Hetty Feather series, is how Jacqueline tells the story, explaining from Hetty and the children's viewpoint how Victorian society blamed their mothers for being born out of marriage and whilst clothing them, starved them of affection and the right to be children rather than just been seen as objects to be trained to be of service to others.

A well read gurl featuring Nancy in the Sixth

 Some hobbies or interests you may have reflect or may only of been possible in or possibly after a specific era such as following the "space race" or more recently using various forms of online social media that simply wasn't an option for this boy.

Reading though not without it's difficulties such as being dyslexic and having a limited vocabulary was however on of mine not least for being portable plus able to paused and resumed at will which in that era advantages over tv and movies.

We were fortunate to have in upper juniors a male teacher with a passion for literature, Mr Rangecroft, who apart from having us read, also read aloud in class to us cos it was and still is the case reading is seen as more a girls thing which as a boy I can tell you isn't something you want to be associated with!

One book we loved to read was  Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner  a German author who wasn't very popular with the Nazi's which was set in pre-war Berlin where being raised by his Mother alone Emil is sent to Berlin to give to his Grandmother her salary but encounters a man, Max Grundles along the way who gives him chocolate that sends him a sleep and when Emil wakes up the man and his money has gone.

The story is his adventure with other sometimes shady children trying to track down the man and bring him before the police

Another transitional book was Ian Serrillier The Silver Sword. It is the story a boy called Joseph in German occupied Poland who gets into serious trouble at the school after he turns on its back one of numerous pictures of the German Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler that gets him sent to a Prison Camp where breaks out of.

The story is about his family and other children caught up in the war and brutal Nazi treatment of the Polish people.

As well,  I thought it's time to return to our book series, Nancy at St  Brides/Maudsley and its heroine.

Originally written in 1935 it is a little more modern than the earliest adventures although we are still very much in a twentieth century mind set where girls would just wonder around woods by themselves with just a bike.

This picks up from The Best Bat although that was a mini novel and sees Nancy and her chums return as they thought to would be the Upper Fifth having taken their School Certificate examinations (a kinda precursor to the British GCE O levels people before 1987 took in the Fifth Form - aka Year 11 in post 1990's terms showing competence in the "Three R's" and other subjects ready to leave school for further study or employment).

I say that because we learn though family circumstances some who would of been in the Sixth left for overseas Colonies of our Empire such as South Africa, some to gain employment needed because their families faced lack  and others won scholarships to colleges and this meant the Sixth for this term would have precisely seven pupils which wasn't viable.

The Head Mistress, Miss Hale, sees actually her Fifth forms are unwieldy with rather more pupils than desirable and decides to move up those more academically capable in other respects mature members such as Nancy to the Sixth.

This is where the story proper begins because on the same day Nancy got moved up to the sixth she was promoted to a vacant prefectship triggering much trouble at Maudsley, their day school.

We learn about Clemency Walton's long standing jealous of Nancy that was triggered by a big misunderstanding that was not discovered until terms end and this jealous came to a head when the games committee proposed to make Nancy the captain of Cricket, this was far more than she could bear.

By the use of school gossip, not least the idea that an offer to play for the Lady Foresters cricket team had been accepted and to whom did play against Maudsley when in fact Nancy had not more for getting between work for the Guildry, Clemency manages to divert this honour -a mere formality given her cricketing and captaincy skills - from Nancy to herself.

But this isn't all in this story of jealousy running amok for Nancy had been down to play for an important school match encounters Ryllis Rutherford also of the the Sixth in something of a scrape offering her the use of her bike only not to make the match and facing being accused of 'cutting' it.
Clemency seizes her chance aided by the Second Form teacher who is the only other person with the final say on the team selection who is out of action with a cold, for malicious action to remove her from one selection and to call for practice sessions in away that Nancy would not of know and to which it would be easy to belittle her.

In the midst of this there is a scholarship -the Woodford-Leigh - for organ playing to which Nancy and Clemency are practising that requires a suitable instrument to practise on for  examination.

Clemency swaps days to use the organ at St Ninians church with Nancy which would be fine other than several stops of it were damaged which naturally upset their organist Mrs Patterson apart from requiring repair. 

Because of the day it occurred on, all involved conclude it must of been Nancy as the swap was only agreed between the two girls before Bijah, a junior, who had attended thinking she'd hear Nancy playing saw Clemency but fell asleep and was rescued by Mrs Patterson makes an unplanned intervention.

It was a chance remark by the new junior schoolgirl  while taking tea with Mrs Patterson talking about her dog, that she know Clemency was playing that very day that unmasked Clemency's refusal to own up and let Nancy take the blame for something she was not responsible for.

Clemency is demoted not just for her use of a rumour she knew not to be tested to get Nancy removed from the cricket captaincy and even for selection but even as a prefect for her underhand ways.

The sorts of issues are not even today untypical of school life or indeed in other fields where we observe others work against people either making unfounded accusations or letting them stand because however wrong they are (and they know it) it suits them to let it happen and not hold out for what is true.

The moral lessons set I feel still stand in Twenty-first century Britain.

Nancy to the rescue

Seeing this is this month's first post we'll begin by catching up with a series of book reviews that by co-incidence is being printed at the start of the Autumn Term.

Following on The New Girl and Nancy, this installment is set at the start of the Autumn term with Nancy being moved to the Upper Fifth  Form with Desda (Desdemona) Blackett which is seen as being a more dull but worthy form more centred around academic work.

It is soon resolved however to do something about this not least by making a AM. group which is really an Amateur Dramatics and Arts group where they'd study to put on short productions, recitals and undertake some games.

Followers of the previous entries might recall this series started not at Maudsley Grammar school but at St. Brides and this past of Nancy's is a key theme in this edition as we are reintroduced to Althea who we learn has moved to Maudsley in somewhat distressing circumstances, her mothers ill health and given the era we are is the nineteen-twenties there is no Welfare State, they ate in a state of acute poverty where Althea and her mother at at risk of losing their rented home and from which Althea has had to leave St. Brides because of being unable pay the school fees.

Nancy's after school life involves her being in charge of ("Maid of Merit") of the Guildry where the adult Miss Knevitt, is talking about setting up a new unit and that it would involve some changes in unit leaders including Nancy.

It was coming back from a meeting where this was being discussed that Nancy hears a flute being played as it happened rather well and upon coming across her realizes this is her lost friend from St.Brides who is malnourished  and Nancy takes her to a cafe for a drink and food and soon realizes things are very bleak.

Disturbed by this, she takes a long detour to Lord Woodridge a local land owner and 'big cheese' of the town and discussed her friend and mothers plight with him suggesting with his mothers knowledge of nature that an offer of the post of Curator of a museum he is about to open soon be given to her and with it a place to stay.

Like many of her generation Althea's mother would feel they could not just accept a place out of charity, it would have to be seen as being in exchange for her services and this way is accepted by him.

Equally Althea herself needs to continue in her education but there is a stumbling block which is that while a 'scholarship' can be issued for any form it is not generally accepted for 'upper school' which is where she belongs but it is in his remit to award one he does and so Althea now goes to  Maudsley Grammar in the upper fifth like Nancy.

Unfortunately, a small rather voracious group of girls lead by Elma hold to the notion that having a Free Scholar rather lowers the tone especially one held to do something vulgar like play a flute for money even though Althea only did this to raise money where her Mum was down to her last three pence and facing eviction and make things difficult by having so they would not play games with her so she helps the Fourth and lower Fifth out instead and having made a big deal in bring her poverty stricken flute playing out so embarrasses her that an offer to join the AM. for which she has considerable talents is just too embarrassing for her to take up.

In time however Althea joins the Guildry, just at the point Nancy is pondering a change to the 2nd new unit as it's leader so she feels supported although the behaviour of those other girls is really bad.

Just before the Museum is about to open and Althea's Mum has moved in, a mysterious Japanese man comes in a demanding a Cedar tree that her Mum refused to sell, refusing to leave until he's gotten it. Nancy and Althea trap him and just by luck Lord Woodridge comes by and has him arrested. 

It transpires what was so desirable about the tree was a Crystal which was buried beneath it as an insurance against hard times for Althea's Mum.

Althea's new found status as an heiress impresses those who so rejected her as the Free Scholar, the shallow meanness thereof not lost on Nancy and clearly transmitted in the book to the reader.  

A area competition for the arts is held called the Rosebury Festival and Nancy's name is put forward as a soloist but Nancy feels strongly this is Althea's time and so puts forward to the Head Mistress that really a change of entry to Althea is really called for as her skills as flautist are the stronger but she'd accompany on piano.

This is accepted so the pair go in the competition judged at City Hall and Althea wins the gold medal  and Nancy awarded a special commendation for the accompanying so the pair have brought honour upon their form and school.

Although in some respects it's a relatively simple book in the series, I think it's strengths are that it tackles head on social prejudice, and poverty in a compassionate, thoughtful  way that reminds me very much of what it felt like being 14 or 15 felt like, caring deeply about issues and each other, wanting to help in the way Nancy did her friend and mother, trying to make a difference for the good.

Making a stand for decency, treating people fairly are important lessons we need to learn to keep our society holding to civilized values.

Wave me goodbye

It was just about three months ago that I was given by a kind relation who enjoys reading, a gift voucher for a well known book and stationery store and in early June, a new book by a favourite author of mine came out so I called in and used it to buy this book.

Entitled Wave My Goodbye, it is about the world of one Shirley L. Smith who lives with her Mom who works in an office and Dad who has joined the Army in the centre of London in Nineteen Thirty-nine.

It has been decided all the children need to be evacuated as the threat of war with Nazi Germany for their own well-being from bombing and it is being done on a school by school basis.

The whole of Paradise Road Junior School is called up, so Shirley has to have a suitcase packed with a change of clothes including night wear plus her favourite dolls and  books before her mommy sees her off at London Victoria railway station which after some fuss she is allowed to sit with the girls of the St Agatha's Convent School of whom it transpires seem to get the best of everything, enroute to Meadow Ridge way out in the countryside.

Arrangements for billeting the children and staff seem very rushed as nothing had been prearranged between the W.V.S. and W.I.and the children are taken around the village until someone claims  them. Unfortunately Shirley plus two east end boys, Kevin and Archie appear to stuck with nowhere to go until with some reluctance Mrs Waverley and Chubby who is her assistant at the Red House, decides to take them in although it appears they hadn't enough food in for them straightaway nor beds .

The children are bought new clothes which for Shirley includes a School Tunic and tie as she only had a pleated skirt with attached bodice and a party frock to change into plus Mrs Waverley also loves reading so they have something in common.

The story sees them attending school in extra classes of the villages local school with lessons by  who is brisk, kind in some ways but not opposed to strapping misbehaving children.

They appear to get on although life has it's ups and downs not least with one of the boys having a problem with bed wetting that creates a lot of work but following an accident  when Kevin follows Shirley who can look at Mrs Waverley's dolls house from the end of the war and to which is a kind of model of the life who had hope to have until her husband was killed in the Great War (W.W.1) and in the course of playing with it breaks the arm of the dolly of him, she gets upset and Kevin and Shirley run off back to London where she is met by her dad for a few days.

He returns them and smooths over the misunderstandings with Chubby and Mrs Waverley so they feel at home and so stay there until the war is over.

The story is one that is undeniable moving, based on what happened across much of Great Britain during the build up and shortly after World War Two, when our major city areas were deemed to unsafe for children and they travelled often more in hope that everything would work out being without their parents.

It is also true that some didn't want 'city children'  and their ways around and others only wanted them for much more for what they could bring them on say farms for labour rather than providing a safe place to live and yet for others it did bring changes for the better in their lives having access to fresh air and countryside.

As a book I found it highly enjoyable although a bit sad in places, telling an important story about the social history of being a child caught up in the storms of war having to adjust to vastly different realities.

The New Girl and Nancy

After a bit of a pause, today I have decided to write a bit about a book I have been reading this week.

The Nancy and St.Brides series of school based stories  by Dorita Fairlie Bruce is one I've been slowly making through since being presented  with one book and buying the others in a series of contemporary  high quality reprints.

We last left Nancy at Maudsley Grammar after a disastrous term at St. Brides, working on the resolving the feud between themselves and Larkistone through the Guildery movement and its ethos of moral  education and personal responsibility and the inter-school competitions.

This new term a heiress, Barbara Stephen, arrives and Nancy is involved in settling her in although the expression "two's company, three's a crowd" comes to mind as it place strains on her previous friendship with with Desda.

Things would of been so much the better if Barbara had not been so encouraged to see her role as that heiress, home taught by a Governess who very much indulged that very self centred, revolving all around her way of thinking who just wanted everything to be as it was so when she was spirited away from people who only wanted to be her parents for who she was for the Stephen's, she could not even see she had so much to be grateful for even for going to a lesser school.

An example of that defiant streak is her refusal to consider changing how she has her hair fixed as it is long and very wavy in a more grown up way while at school it would of been  a bit shorter and in pigtails or in a bob even though the signs from the other girls and even staff could not of been plainer.

Nancy takes a principal stand of not ganging up on her but carefully steering her toward the values of the other girls, seeing  past all that attitude she possesses, that there was a lot of potential good and she joins the Guildery where that hair creates problems for the unit inspection although to Nancy's surprise given the problems she had in Section 6  as "Maid of Merit" with unit discipline and even fighting, Barbara does emerge with some credit for her conduct.

That three's a crowd side rears its head when Desda decides to study for a Scholarship (what I understand to be a funded place based on ability) with an examination when Barbara decides to spit her in a battle for affections to apply too even though she really has no need to  given her financial security which indeed brings an attempted kidnapping and would crush Desda's ambitions.

During this period Barbara's relationship with school, the village she moved to and her new parents come under strain as her mind battles with the emotions her past way of life and that she now is in and expected to adjust to.

Indeed she even begs her Aunt to have her back and home schooled but the kidnapping puts that very much on hold as finding Nancy in who spent hours looking for her and her new friends tending to her injuries sustained from escaping the kidnapping,  she finds herself torn between her original aim and wanting to play for Maudsley in the inter school cricket match.

She finds even though she prepared for the scholarship exam revising, she struggles recalling information and understanding what the question is really requiring so she fails it. Pride isn't enough to get you through that.

Having recovered from her injuries, she plays excelling leading her team to victory, gaining acceptance from not just the other girls in the team but the whole school and soon she decides she really wants that school life as just a everyday girl part of a group than that exalted on display older girl as doll-child with all her refinery.

Indeed the end is quite moving that she decides to give away her fancy dresses for her plain girls wear and her uniform and lets Nancy cut her hair in a bob using a pudding bowl: she has given up the past, literally discarding it accepting being moulded anew apologizing to Nancy for how she treated her and the others.

Reading the story really made an impression on me, seeing family fortunes aside some similarities between myself and Barbara and where we were lost in self serving bubble that did us no good.