Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875)

Our tour of Scandinavian authors finished its current round in Denmark with the Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875).

The library staff put special effort into finding full translations of his stories for children, rather than heavily edited versions.

Most of us chose a lightly edited version because it had illustrations by Edward Ardizzone, though the general consensus was that the Penguin/ Puffin Classics editions contained the best translation.

Reading these stories prompted a lot of childhood memories of reading the Ladybird versions of his stories, with their short text and bright illustrations (proving that the narrative pull of his tales was as strong as his elegant turn of phrase). While some readers were defeated by his longer stories, other counted The Snow Queen and the Wild Swans as childhood favourites.

Some of the books were illustrated with Andersen's own beautiful paper-cut art - a talent with which he would entertain people at cosmopolitan literary gatherings, as he never fully mastered the English language.

Andersen's retelling of traditional tales and his own original stories have captivated and inspired people for many generations. It's worth getting your hands on a good translation to read his original descriptive, evocative texts.

Mary Poppins by P L Travers (1934)

Most people probably know about Mary Poppins from the 1964 Disney film starring Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke. A more recent film, Saving Mr Banks starring Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson highlighted the gulf between the "Disney version" and author PL Travers' vision of the story.

Poet, actress, journalist and author, PL Travers (born Helen Lyndon Goff: 9th August 1899 - 23rd April 1996) had an eventful, often complicated, life.  Born in Australia she emigrated to England in 1924, leaving behind a far-from-idyllic childhood.

Members of the book group all noted the difference between the saccharin Mary Poppins of the Disney movie and the sterner, much vainer Mary Poppins in Travers' books (Mary is for ever admiring her reflection in shop windows), where the children are often reprimanded for mentioning their nanny's magical abilities, and are constantly found wanting in their appearance and behaviour.

Still, there are compensations for her sharp tongue. The children have magical (and sometimes mystical experiences) not normally encountered while walking in the park or visiting friends for afternoon tea.

The episodic nature of the book also appealed to members of the group. Each chapter is almost a self-contained short story ( a structure which influenced Neil Gaiman in writing the Graveyard Book).

If you've only ever seen the film and felt it could do without that extra "spoonful of sugar", it's time to give the original stories a try.

Once and Future Arthurs - Arthurian Literature for Children

Anna Caughey gives a lecture at the Bodleian Library looking at the varying spectrum of literature about King Arthur written for children.