What other author are you reading at the moment?

[Crwban]

The Zork Chronicles by George Alec Effinger - a fantasy novel that ties in with the popular computer text adventure by Infocom.[/img]
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[deepeabee]

I used to love playing Retyrn to Zork with my children when they were young.

[Courtenay]

Last year I posted about an excellent new animal-fantasy story for young readers that I'd just finished — Foxcraft: The Taken by Inbali Iserles: http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... 04#p250404" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; As I discovered when I got to the end, it's the first of a trilogy, to be published at the rate of one a year — somewhat to my annoyance, as I really loved the first book (which ended at a suitably suspenseful point) and have been hanging out ever since for the next one!!

Book 2, Foxcraft: The Elders, has just been published this month, and I was delighted to find and order it on Amazon — it arrived yesterday. I'm halfway through it already; it's also very good, though quite fast-paced and I'm having to slow down a little in order to take in everything that's happening! I'm hoping it will continue to be just as exciting and well worth reading as the first, which it is so far. Only drawback is, I'll then have yet another year to wait for the final book...

[John Pickup]

I'm 100 pages in to The Bachelor by Stella Gibbons originally published in 1944. She is better known for her novel, Cold Comfort Farm.

[Courtenay]

Just finished Foxcraft book 2. It got even better as it went on (as did the first one) — and just as the adventure is getting more suspenseful than ever and I'm really liking the characters and wanting to know what happens next, it's the end of the book and the final volume isn't to be released till next year. Aurgh!! Now maybe I have some idea of what it was like for Enid's fans in the '40s or '50s to be hanging out for the next Famous Five or Adventure book... except all her books were complete stories and didn't end on cliffhangers!

[Stephen]

I've started my first Jules Verne - From The Earth To The Moon and Around The Moon (as one Kindle novel), and so far it's highly entertaining. The central idea of firing a bullet-shaped, people-carrying spacecraft out of a giant cannon is pretty ludicrous, but he goes to great effort to throw numbers, measurements and calculations at you, and apparently they've since been worked out by scientists to not be all that far off. Then on the other hand, you've got gentlemen, states and nations squabbling over silly little details connected with this journey, and it's actually quite witty and satirical. It's almost like a comedy sci-fi fairy tale for adults!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I've never read that, but from your description it sounds a bit like Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator! I wonder whether Roald Dahl was inspired by Jules Verne's book?

[Tony Summerfield]

I am reading a very interesting and quirky book called Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. It's really good so far (I'm up to Chapter 3) and it is a really compelling and imaginative read.

This is what you call a late reply and you may not be looking in so regularly now, Poppy, but I have just finished this book myself and after doing so I checked out your excellent review on your website. I agree with everything you say about the book and in due course I will read the next two books that I already have copies of.

I have also seen the film and certainly to start with it sticks fairly accurately to the book apart from altering some of the peculiarities. However as the film went on director Tim Burton strays further and further from the original book and as he has now gone so far astray I am not sure that the next book can ever be filmed.

[Katharine]

I've just finished reading The Great Book for Girls, an inscription inside has the date 1926. The stories are fairly standard/unremarkable for the time. However 2 things stood out for me. Firstly that it was edited by Mrs. Herbert Strang, I have come across her before, but for some reason this time it really seemed strange that the editor was not only referred to by her marital status, but that also she didn't even use of her first name. The other bit that really made me open my eyes was a reference to a woman who had bad rheumatism caused by her teeth. It was declared that a doctor had said she wouldn't feel well again until she'd had them replaced with false ones. I know it is only a work of fiction, but usually unless a story is a fairy tale, it is based on the facts of the time. For example, this particular story mentions Bengers Food, which a quick Google informs me was a genuine product for convalescents at that time. So I'm assuming that blaming rheumatic pain on bad teeth was a common thought at that time.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Although it sounds strange, I've come across a few articles which suggest that gum inflammation can affect the bloodstream and may possibly increase a person's risk of health problems like rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, etc:

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I've read one or two stories by "Mrs. Herbert Strang" too, Katharine, and your post prompted me to do a spot of Googling. It turns out that George Herbert Ely and Charles James L'Estrange wrote adventure stories for boys under one pseudonym formed from part of each of their names - "Herbert Strang". When they wrote for girls, they became "Mrs. Herbert Strang":

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I'm currently reading Nina Bawden's On the Run which you mentioned recently, Katharine. A gripping story which I'm thoroughly enjoying.

The "Miss Peregrine" books by Ransom Riggs sound interesting and I hope to give them a try one of these days.

[Katharine]

That's very interesting Anita. I've heard of women writing as men to get a greater chance of being published, but never the other way around.

As for the tooth ache, well I eat my words. I assumed it was an old wives tale in the days before more scientific discoveries. I shall make sure I clean my teeth extra well tonight!

I'm glad you are enjoying On the Run. I really enjoyed it, and was felt quite sad to say goodbye to the characters when the book ended.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Quite a few men have used women's names for stories aimed specifically at girls. We've mentioned Horace Boyten a number of times, who wrote for girls' comics and annuals as Enid Boyten but swapped to Hilda Boyten after a complaint from Enid Blyton! There's also Stephen Mogridge, who wrote books for girls as Jill Stevens (a few months ago Rob kindly sent me Anita and the China Figures by Jill Stevens, which he'd bought in a job lot, and I enjoyed it). And it's well-known that "Carolyn Keene", supposed author of the Nancy Drew books, was a pseudonym for the many different writers who contributed to the series - including several male ones.

By the way, Katharine, you may be interested to know that Ben Mallory from Nina Bawden's On the Run is also a main character (along with his brother and sister) in The Secret Passage - though he's four years younger in that book.

[Katharine]

I'd forgotten about the Horace Boyten. I didn't know about the other ones though. Very interesting.

Thanks for the tip about the other book with Ben Mallory in, I'll keep an eye out for it.

[Anita Bensoussane]

The Secret Passage is interesting. It's not really an adventure like On the Run but a mystery of sorts - or at least it has several mysterious elements. You see what life is like for the children living with Aunt Mabel in Henstable.

Going back to men writing as women, I've just remembered that Charles Hamilton wrote for the girls' comic Schoolfriend as Hilda Richards.

[Tony Summerfield]

Going back to men writing as women, I've just remembered that Charles Hamilton wrote for the girls' comic Schoolfriend as Hilda Richards.

Yes, he wrote Billy Bunter stories as Frank Richards and Bessie Bunter stories as Hilda Richards!