The Chalet School - Link to Radio 4 programme

The Chalet School

The crime writer Val McDermid on her love of the Chalet School boarding school novels. She credits them with inspiring her to go to Oxford and becoming a writer. So what did they have that the other boarding school books did not?

Nearly sixty Chalet School novels were published between 1925 and 1970, written by the South Shields novelist, Elinor Brent-Dyer. The school was initially located in Austria, but moved to Guernsey following the Anschluss. It relocated again after the Nazi invasion of The Channel Islands. The books centred on Madge Bettany, the founder of the school, and her young sister Joey, its first pupil. The books dealt with financial hardship, illness and politic, which Val argues, is absent from most other boarding school novels of the period.

Donating to the Seven Stories National Centre for Children's Books

As our reading group has confirmed, the UK has a wonderful heritage of writing and illustration for children and British children’s books are among the best known and most widely read in the world.  Seven Stories is the National Centre for Children's Books, based in the beautiful Ouseburn Valley in the north-east of England at Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2PQ.  It describes itself as "custodian of a unique and ever-growing national archive of modern and contemporary children’s literature".

 

One of our book group members has recently made a contribution to the national collection at Seven Stories.  She was excited to discover an incredible cache of beautiful, uncut printers' proofs of pages and book covers designed for (circa) 1930s children's painting and alphabet books in the loft of her Victorian house in Bath during building works.  The pages were being used as lining underneath a layer of very old insulation material and had been spread out over the lathe and plaster between the beams.  She contacted the Collections Director at Seven Stories, who was delighted to accept them.

Seven Stories collects original artwork, manuscripts and books by British writers and illustrators for children from the 1930s to the present day. Since its foundation in the 1990s, it has established a nationally important collection documenting the richness, diversity and innovation of modern British authors and illustrators for children. Many of the original manuscripts of the books we have been reading (including Philip Pullman, Lucy M Boston, Geoffrey Trease and Joan Aiken) are already held at Seven Stories.

 

If you would like to support the Seven Stories in building the collection and preserving our literary heritage, there are a number of ways to get involved.  They're on Twitter as @7Stories and here's a link to their website.

Seven Stories: UK National Centre for Children's Books

Allan Ahlberg : interviewed in 2008

Link to BBC Radio 4 - Allan Ahlberg interviewed on Desert Island Discs 2008

Allan Ahlberg and his poetry

Allan Alhberg reading from his poems

http://childrenspoetryarchive.org/poet/allan-ahlberg

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome (1930)

This choice of book prompted at least one member of our group to overcome her phobia of Ransome's books - prompted by her local library's editions of plain hardback editions (without their coloured slip-cases).

The large amount of specialised sailing language (tacking, painters, reefing) for anyone not born and bred on the waters of Lake Coniston can form a barrier to Ransome's books. However, our readers decided (on the whole) that it was worth perservering, and that the story and the characters - as well as Ransome's illustrations - evoked a rich child-centrered world in which imagination and reality weave in and out of one another.

The degree of freedom, independence and responsibility accorded to the children in Swallow and Amazons is remarkable by modern standards. Their father's telegram, permitting them to go on a camping trip on Wild Cat Island in the Lake District reads:

BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS WON'T DROWN

Ransome's many fans have been inspired by his books to promote exploring, camping, sailing and a more adventurous approach to life.

While he is best remembered as a children's author, Ransome also spent time as a foreign secretary in Russia over the period of the revolution and even married to Trotsky's secretary, Evgenia Shvelina.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (1936)

Born in 1895, Noel Streatfeild was the author of a great many books, the most famous of which is Ballet Shoes.

Ballet Shoes tells the story of three adopted sisters - Pauline, Petrova and Posy - and their training at The Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training.

  

The sometimes sickly-pink modern covers of more recent editions of Ballet Shoes might put off potential readers, but the Fossil girls are presented as rounded characters and the details and worries of their everyday lives are beautifully evoked by Streatfeild.

Group members enjoyed the period detail of the story, and those who had not read it before were pleased to discover that there was more to Ballet Shoes than dance lessons and stage school antics.

Crown of Acorns by Catherine Fisher (2010)

Following our group's enjoyment of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising, we decided to try another fantasy writer - this time Catherine Fisher.

Fisher, like Cooper, draws on myth and folklore. Several books are based on Welsh myth and landscape (Fisher was born in Newport), while the Oracle Trilogy blends Ancient Egyptian and Greek mythology to great effect.

Crown of Acorns was chosen by our reading group as it is set here in Bath, and centres around John Wood's beautiful eighteenth century streetscape, The Circus. Fisher splits her narrative between a troubled teenager, who has moved to Bath to start a new life, and a fictionalised account of John Wood (the elder) and the building of The Circus in the mid 1700s.



Fisher's writing is vivid and elegant and her other existence as a poet shows through in her prose.

Our group enjoyed this book, with some favouring one storyline and some another but we all agreed that it made us look at the streets and buildings of Bath anew.

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper (1973)

The Dark is Rising is the second and best known book in Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising sequence which draws on Arthurian Legend and British folklore.

Cooper studied English at the University of Oxford, one of a group of authors (including Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones and Penelope Lively) who were to make a powerful impact on children's literature in the 1960s and 1970s.

This book led to one of the most enthusiatic discussions our group has had, with die-hard Cooper fans and first-time readers all enjoying the story and Cooper's powerful, engaging writing. As with Alan Garner's writing, Cooper conjured up moments of genuine terror in her story and wove a dark, magical tale which is grounded in the English landscape as well as its folklore.

Susan Cooper is still  writing today, with her recent book Ghost Hawk being nominated for the Carnegie Award.

 

Arthur Ransome: BBC Radio 4, Great Lives

Labi Siffre on Arthur Ransome

Matthew Parris invites his guests to nominate the person who they feel is a great life. This week singer-songwriter Labi Siffre discusses the life and work of Arthur Ransome. Siffre says that the Swallows and Amazons books taught him responsibility for his own actions and also a morality that has influenced and shaped him throughout his life.

Noel Streatfeild on "Desert Island Discs", 1976.
Click here to listen to BBC Radio 4 archive recording

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.

Alf Prøysen and Mrs Pepperpot (1956)

  
Our tour of Scandinavia continued with a trip to Norway and a look at the Mrs Pepperpot books by Alf Prøysen. Mrs Pepperpot is a little old lady who is prone to unexpectedly shrinking to the size of a pepperpot (though in the original she is called Teskjekjerringa - the teaspoon lady). When she is small Mrs Pepperpot can talk to animals, which often help her to escape scrapes and adventures.

Several members of the reading group were familiar with the Mrs Pepperpot books, but none of us had realised the extent of Prøysen's celebrity in his native Norway.  In addition to writing a great many stories, Prøysen was also a folk singer and playwright; a familiar character on Norwegian radio and television.

We all enjoyed our time spent with Mrs Pepperpot and her sometimes grumpy, pancake-guzzling husband. The illustrations by Björn Berg, who also illustrated Astrid Lindgren's Emil books, were an added delight.

Finally, Isabelle drew our attention to the phenomena of  "shrinklit" - books about shrinking and tiny people.  Classics include The Borrowers by Mary Norton, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Tom Thumb and Thumbellina. More recent examples include The Carpet People by Terry Prachett and Toby Alone by Timothée de Fombelle.

Astrid Lindgren

 

Our January meeting explored the work of Astrid Lindgren, deliberately looking at books other than her well-known series about Pippi Longstocking.

Isabelle unearthed some fascinating background on Lindgren's life, in particular her startling decision in 1926 to bring up her first child as a single mother in Stockholm, rather than marrying the child's father and settling for a respectable life in Vimmerby (near where she was born). Lindgren eventually married in 1931 and had a second child. The Astrid Lindgren website has a host of information and excellent photographs, as well as an overview of Lindgren's writing.

Lingren campaigned for human rights and animal rights and her name has been given to and International prize for children's literature: the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

The book group's reading ranged across Lindgren's gentle writing for younger children, including the Emil stories and The Bullerby Children, to the more fantastical Ronia, the Robber's Daughter and The Brothers Lionheart.

 

 

The overall response was very positive, though Pat wasn't quite sure about the tone of The Brothers Lionheart - a philosophical fantasy story about what happens to two brothers after they have died.

Lisa read The Bullerby Children in its German translation. She had this to say about it:

"It’s about 6 children who live in a tiny hamlet and is told from the point of view of Lisa (good name!). She relates the little ups and downs of a secure childhood – how her parents secretly refurbished a room in their house formerly occupied by an elderly relative and presented the results as a birthday present; how she and the two sisters next door devised a messaging system via their bedroom windows; the birthday party; all 6 children playing ball in the street… It is all charmingly told with a delightful atmosphere of contentment and innocence. The children delight in everything from playing harmless tricks on each other to helping the adults harvest beets to earn a little pocket money (which Lisa uses to buy a kitten).

I would be interested to know if anyone has read this book in English and whether it has an English atmosphere about it. The gentleness of the “adventures” convey an atmosphere of German childhood that I have detected in German-authored books – and wonder if it is something that the translator has brought to the text or whether it is something Lindgren managed to convey (it could be a northern European atmosphere of childhood, for example, or be an atmosphere pertaining to a particular era, I don’t know… and I don’t read Swedish, so I can’t compare it with the original version!)"

Having read some of the Bullerby stories they don't feel at all English, so maybe it is a northern European atmosphere that is shared between German and Scandinavian stories. You can read an excellent blog post about the stories and their background here.

Other  group members read and enjoyed Ronia, the Robber's Daughter. I am biased about this book: I bought it from the Puffin Book Club when I was about 8 or 9, and it became one of my favourite books. I read it numerous times and spent ages staring at the cover image, wishing I could be Ronia and have all her adventures in the forest.

 

However, with an impartial opinion, Jenny had this to say:

"I have finished Ronia and thoroughly enjoyed it. I read and re-read the Pippi Longstocking series when I was little and have always seen her as the ultimate feminist icon. She is feisty and independent and not afraid to be herself... I was curious about Ronia but also a bit nervous as to whether she would compare to Pippi. I'm glad to say they are equals!

I found all the characters to be compelling... It was very well paced and packed a lot in... I liked the introspective moments where the characters tried to make sense of their feelings and thoughts. 

The focus on nature and the seasons reminded me of Moominland Midwinter... The way death was dealt with was interesting... Scandinavian children's fiction seems not to shy away from serious issues, even with young children. There is death and danger (the harpies, etc) and we must face them head on, rather than shy away or deny them altogether..."

There are, and have been, whole books to be written on Astrid Lindgren, her life and her works and her influence on Scandinavian society, so I will stop this post here.

Overall, the view of the book group was that Pippi is excellent, but there is more to Astrid Lindgren's work that is worth exploring.

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman (1985)

For our December book we turned to a Dickensian story in the form of The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman.

The first of a series, it tells the story of Sally Lockhart - a young woman whose father has just died and who suddenly finds herself caught up in a mystery involving a ruby and the sins of the British Empire.

Sally is as strong and as capable a female central character as you're likely to meet in a children's book.

Go here to read the opening paragraph, and see how skillfully Pullman hooks in his readers...

The first two books of the series were adapted by the BBC, with The Ruby in the Smoke airing back in 2006. Starring Billie Piper, it also featured a young Matt Smith as Jim.

This book was enjoyed by everyone in the group. Some of us re-read it with pleasure, while new readers found it gripping and moved on to the next books in the the series.  Readers compared the books to Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope and Arthur Conan Doyle, while Isabelle noted the strong reference to Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone.

Although the plot is deliberately melodramatic and Pullman's lingering teacher's habit of informing his readers about hidden truths and injustices sometimes shows through, he is such an excellent storyteller, and his characters so likable (and despicable) that you can't help being swept along by the narrative.

Perfect fireside reading.

Scandinavian Children's Literature

What the Scandinavians Know about Children's Literature

First broadcast: BBC Radio 4, 26 Mar 2012

Duration:28 minutes
 

From the super-human strength of Pippy Longstocking by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren to the strange Finnish animals dreamt up by Tove Jansson in the Moomin stories, and the anarchic Wild Baby created by Barbro Lindgren and Eva Eriksson, Scandinavian children's literature 'punches above its weight' in terms of worldwide sales.  Why is that, and why does it have a particularly unique voice?

 

It began with probably the best known storyteller for children - Hans Christian Andersen - and continued with the work of Elsa Beskow, the Swedish Beatrix Potter.  It's still alive today in the books of authors like Gro Dahle.

According to Professor Maria Nikolajeva, a senior editor for the Oxford Encyclopaedia of Children's Literature, Scandinavian books are not rooted in the world of fantasy, like other children's stories, but are often grounded in a slightly skewed reality in which the childlike characters exhibit 'magical' talents. She claims that the Scandinavian culture of respect for the child, the history of the region and those long winters have all had a profound effect on the character of its literature.

The Wool Pack by Cynthia Harnett (1951)

Cynthia Harnett is one of the most elusive authors we've encountered so far in our book group. In spite of a good deal of online digging by Isabelle, very little about Harnett's personal biography can be found.

While the personal details discovered were slight (born 1893 in London, studies at Chelsea School of Art, died 1981), there was a good deal of discussion about her work.

Harnett's early publications were collaborations with George Vernon Stokes. Focused on the subjects of dogs and the countryside (and sometimes both). Titles included "In praise of Dogs" (1936) and Junk the Puppy (1937).

Harnett is, however, best known for her six historical novels, written between 1949 and 1971.

Our group read "The Wool Pack", which won the Carnegie Medal for best children's book in 1951. Set in the fifteenth century Cotswolds, this book gives a beautifully researched and elegantly written insight into the lives of wool merchants and country people of the time (with some skullduggery, smuggling and double-crossing thrown in for entertainment).

All members of the book group thoroughly enjoyed the book, enjoying Harnett's prose and the sense of immersion in another time. Harnett's exquisite line drawings which illustrate her books are an added bonus, and were remarked on by all the readers.

The only faint reservation about the story was that it was rather slow to start, but picked up substantially in the second half, and left us wishing for more when we reached the end.

Karen, a long time fan of Harnett's writing, recommended "Ring out Bow Bells" as a pacier, more dynamic story. Having followed up her recommendation I'd agree, and would definitely suggest "Ring out Bow Bells" or "Stars of Fortune" as a starting point for Harnett's work. Both these stories hit the ground running in terms of plot, and also demonstrate Harnett's strength in exploring the dynamics that exist between a group of siblings. Each child in the family group is distinctive, and the tensions between the loyalties they owe to one another and to the world of adults are skillfully explored.

Notes at the end of each story show the links between the tale and real people and places in history. Harnett was a great researcher. Her attention to detail is lightly held, not intruding on the narrative, but you come away from reading her stories feeling as though you have visited another time and place.

The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts by Hugh Lofting (1920)

We approached our first meeting without Jacqueline with some trepidation. However, Isabelle is doing a brilliant job of running the group and researching the books and authors.

Group members had rather unclear memories of reading Doctor Dolittle as children. I remember looking through the books on the library shelves, and we had all heard Rex Harrisson singing "Talk to the Animals" from the 1967 film of the book - which used nearby Castle Combe as a location - (even if we hadn't seen the film).



None of us, though, were aware of the details of Hugh Lofting's life, in particular his experiences during WWI. Although he was living in New York when the war broke out, Lofting, as a British subject, went to fight in France and Belgium. The brutality in the trenches (to both men and animals) seems to have been key to Lofting's creation of Doctor Dolittle - a man who shuns human society to live with and tend to the needs of animals. More about Lofting's (rather tragic) biography can be found on the Puddleby website.

Our members had a mixed response to reading the books. Many of us were surprised by the length of the later books, while others found the episodic nature of the stories problematic. However, there was general approval of the cosy world Doctor Dolittle had made for himself on the edge of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. And there was unanimous praise for Lofting's artworks that illustrate the books.

Having all read different books, from different stages of Lofting's writing career, the group's recommendation to anyone new to Doctor Dolittle is to start (sensibly) with the first book The Story of Doctor Dolittle. This compact story introduces the characters, and guarantees a meeting with the most marvellous of creatures - the pushmi-pullyu.

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.