A new exhibition opens at the British Library:

Picture This: Children's Illustrated Classics
4 October 2013 - 26 January 2014

This exhibition explores 10 classic children’s books from the 20th century.
Discover how illustrators over the years have interpreted – and reinterpreted – our favourite tales in beautiful and imaginative ways. Be reunited with much-loved characters such as Paddington Bear, Peter Pan and Willy Wonka, and classic works such as the Just So Stories, The Wind in the Willows and The Hobbit.
Free.
Folio Society Gallery.

August 2013: Rudyard Kipling's The Just So Stories for Little Children

This month we read Rudyard Kipling's collection of Just So Stories (published in 1902).  This includes the tale of "The Elephant's Child" which - perhaps above all others - recalls my own childhood and the pleasure of being read to at bedtime, and underlines the story-telling power of repetition and alliteration.  More than fifty years on I can still recall my favourite phrase - and my mother's too - and I am always looking for an opportunity to use it.  It's not easy trying to insert the comment "on the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees" into any conversation, but I can manage it occasionally.

The sounds and the rhythms of Kipling's writing are so essential to Just So Stories, as are the many new words that he creates especially to delight and to amuse and even to perplex, and so we also listened to an extract from "How the Leopard got his Spots" in an audiobook read by the unforgettable Johnny Morris.

There is so much humour and sheer playful inventiveness in this collection of stories, but there is sadness too. The "O My Best Beloved" referred to throughout the book and to whom the stories are addressed was Kipling's adored daughter, Josephine, who died of pneumonia aged 6 in 1899.  In 2010, a first edition of Kipling's The Jungle Book was discovered , complete with inscription from father to daughter "for whom it was written". http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/09/kipling-jungle-book-inscription

Kipling was and is world-famous: there is nothing to write here about him which hasn't already been written elsewhere.  His stories are an essential and familiar element of all our childhoods.  Sadly, however, his name is becoming disassociated from his most famous story.  A recent survey of schoolchildren found that they largely believed someone called Disney had written The Jungle Book.

With its powerful echoes of my own childhood, Just So Stories was a fitting book on which to end my association with Children's Classics for Adults.  It's been nearly three years since I first approached Bath Library with the idea of a book group to read classic children's books, and it's time for me to hand it over to someone else.  It's been a fantastic experience: I've been able to re-read favourite old books encompassing wonderful memories, and to experience a few books I've never read before, but best of all has been making friends with a wonderful group of  clever, knowledgeable and like-minded people and enjoying sharing the pleasure of reading.  Thanks to all.

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 2 October at 1015 am when we will be reading a selection of Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle books (1920-1952).

July 2013: Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease and our next meeting

Today we journeyed from the Cumbrian fells to the theatres on London's South Bank as we reviewed Geoffrey Trease's Tudor adventure story, Cue For Treason (1940).

Trease was a prolific author, who has been described as "a defining force in 20th century children's historical fiction, plucking the genre from the post-Henty doldrums and casting historical writing into a new shape".  (http://www.collectingbooksandmagazines.com)  Born in Nottingham in 1909, he went up to Queen's College Oxford but didn't complete his degree, becoming a journalist and a teacher while beginning his writing career.  In 1933, Trease and his wife moved to Bath before living in both Abingdon in Oxfordshire and Malvern in Worcestershire.  The Treases returned to Bath in their later years, and by the time of Geoffrey's death there in 1998 he had produced some 113 books, with other manuscripts yet to be published.  Despite this vast output, there were a number among us for whom he was a new and welcome discovery.

Trease rarely disappoints, and this beautifully told story of Peter Brownrigg -an ordinary 14 year old from the Lake District who falls in with the mysterious but pleasingly alliterative Kit Kirkstone and a band of travelling players, joins Shakespeare's theatre company and becomes a spy in Robert Cecil's secret service - was fast-paced and historically precise without being teacherly.  Cue for Treason provides us with all of Trease's hallmarks: believable characters, refreshingly strong female characters (so unusual for the time it was written), and that strong sense of social justice which is central to all of his writing.

There were so many memorable scenes for us to recall and discuss, from the battle around Peter's home, to the scene where Peter and Kit are on the point of being murdered by miners, and Peter's vertical climb up the wooden wall of a London Thames-side house using knives stuck in the planks to spy on the man in the yellow trousers.

As Jim Mackenzie writes: "The energy of the book is undeniable. If you have never read it and you have grown to adult years, it is still possible to enjoy the uncluttered plot, the marvellous pace and the brilliantly sketched scenes of countryside adventure and London squalour."

Our next book is Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories.  This will be my last meeting as convener and blogger.  After more than two years, it's time for me to sign off.