The Susan books (for Katy or anyone interested)

Which other authors do you enjoy? Discuss them here.
Moose
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The Susan books (for Katy or anyone interested)

Post by Moose »

Susan Pulls the Strings

In this first book of the Jane Shaw series we are introduced to Susan, the soon-to-be-fourteen year old heroine of the series. Susan is small and rosy with dark curls and a pronounced Glaswegian accent. Due to her father's work, her parents are to go abroad for a year and leave Susan in the care of her Southern cousins (sixteen year old Charlotte, fourteen year old Midge and ten year old Bill) and her aunt and uncle in a tiny village just outside of London.

Rather unexpectedly, as children's books go, Susan adores her cousins and is overcome with enthusiasm at the prospect of spending a year with them. The cousins themselves are pleased to have her and all settles into a routine of domestic bliss against the backdrop of a nineteen fifties style Christmas. All is not, however, as it seems and Susan finds herself embroiled in a drama involving an international smuggler, which sees her left bound and gagged in a derelict house...

All is, of course, well in the end, with Susan and the cousins triumphant and the smuggler safely locked up where she belongs. The book ends with Susan thoroughly settled into her new life and looking forward to starting boarding school with Midge and Charlotte at the beginning of the following term...
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die.




EF
Moose
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Post by Moose »

Susan at school

The second book of the series picks up just after the Christmas holidays, with an uncharacteristically subdued Susan ('I think I am going to be sick') preparing for her first term at St Ronan's, Midge and Charlotte's boarding school. After the manner of boarding school stories, she learns that the food is terrible, the prefects bullies and the mistresses ferocious. Nonetheless, she manages to enjoy her first term and leave full of enthusiasm.

The term opens badly enough when Susan, temporarily abandoned by Midge, takes a wrong turning with a fellow new girl and ends up in the prefect's room, guzzling expensive cream cakes meant for the stomachs of the pres. A terrifying encounter with the Captain of Games, cements Susan's belief that her school career is already in tatters. Nonetheless, with Tessa and Midge trailing somewhat unenthusiastically behind her, she manages to bumble through the rest of the term righting wrongs, uncovering mysteries and, one more memorable occasion, emulating a Monster from Outer Space!

This second book introduces us to a wealth of new and amusing characters - the 'Dotty' Miss Johnson, an elderly Latin teacher obsessed with her prized 'relic' of a classic car, the vague and befuddled Tessa, the scarifying Diana 'Hippo' Davies, who turns out to be not quite as bad as she seems and of course a host of other girls and mistresses. Many of these will be later encountered in the second school story of the series, 'Susan's Trying Term.'
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die.




EF
Moose
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Joined: 30 Nov 2006, 19:46
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Post by Moose »

Susan Rushes In

In this third book, possibly the most witty and amusing of the series, we are introduced to the family who are to become the arch enemies of Susan and the Carmicheals ... the Gascoignes. THe Gasgoignes move into the hitherto deserted house next door and from the very moment of their meeting, it seems that they are destined to be deadly rivals with Susan and her cousins. The adults, of course, after the manner of grown-ups everywhere are oblivious to this and try their hardest to encourage Susan and co to be friends with 'that nice family next door.'

First attempts at friendship do not go smoothly. No sooner have the family settled in than the youngest Gasgoigne, an odious little boy who rejoices in the name of Peregrine, manages to pin the blame on Susan for the fact that he has hacked off all his own hair. The friendship between the families looks in danger of being prematurely terminated at this point but unhappily for Susan and co, Mrs Gasgoigne forgives her her misdemeanour and is soon issuing dinner invitations to Dr Carmicheal! Terrified that their widowed father/uncle might be about to marry into the Gascoigne family, the cousins endure an anxious few days before they realise that their fears are unfounded.

Also in this book there is a garden fete which provides an opportunity for 'treachery and double-dealing' and a way of introducing the oldest Gasgoigne child, Adrian, to the reader. Along the way, Susan characteristically helps a little old lady who is facing eviction from her home, causes a gas explosion which costs her her eyebrows, and befriends a famous author..
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die.




EF
Moose
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Post by Moose »

Susan's Helping Hand

This is in my opinion the weakest of the Susan series. It contains none of the witty and entertaining chararcters that make the other books fun - most saliently the scheming and multi-talented Gascgoines. Moreover, it is set 'away' from the traditional settings of either Wichwood or St Ronan's and the plot suffers for it.

Sent to stay with a relative whilst recuperating from chicken pox, the cousins find themselves in the middle of a mystery surrounding a girl named Belle, who works as a home help for the second cousin they are staying with. Through a series of frankly rather improbable coincidences, the cousins manage to uncover Belle's true identity, restore her and her siblings to their inheritance ,and find them a loving guardian in the meantime. Running through the middle of this 'mystery' is another involving a very valuable antique letter which has somehow been stolen and which Susan and her cousins, naturally, manage to find ... and earn a fat reward.

Susan seems less than her normal perky self in this book - probably due to her recent bout of illness ;) - and the plot never manages to look convincing.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die.




EF
Moose
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Post by Moose »

Susan Interferes


On the strength of the 'fat reward' that they received for finding the valuable 'Folding Letter', Susan and her family are off to Switzerland for their first foreign holiday. Once again the action is transplanted to a different environment but this time the presence of the 'Ghastly Gascoignes' .. staying in a superior hotel in the same town ... enlivens the proceedings and makes sure that there are laughs a-plenty.

From the beginning of this book, Susan is determined to scent a mystery. She latches onto a pound of English tea that her aunt Lucy has been asked to take through customs to a Swiss acquaintance. Before long, the tea is unravelled and a presumably forged passport is uncovered. Mystery! Susan and the Carmicheals spend most of the rest of the book investigating the 'case of the boy in the tea', as Susan likes to put it. In the process, Susan is almost killed, several of the family discover that they have no liking for heights and the family are introduced to a beautiful girl, Lise, who is crippled by polio and to whom Adrian Gascoigne takes a strong fancy .. much to Charlotte's chargrin...
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die.




EF
Moose
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Post by Moose »

Susan Muddles Through

This book starts with a wedding .. that of the ghastly Selina. Not, as Susan and her cousins once feared, to their father/uncle but to a celebrated local artist, Sam Pilkington, whom 'nobody liked very much, except presumably Selina'. As the happy couple were about to embark on their honeymoon leaving the ghastly Gascoigne children in the care of an old Nanny of theirs, pandemonium breaks out when the nanny cancels at the last minute.

To their horror, Susan and her cousins subsequently find the Gascoignes accompanying them on their month long trip to the Isle of Arran in Scotland. Once there, Adrian mortifies the gang by dressing in a deer-stalker and cape and attemptign to speak in a Scottish accent, and PEregrine befriends a local fisherman who Susan strongly suspects of being a smuggler. Some midnight rambling, some subterfuge, some phony bird watching and of course a couple of new admirers for Charlotte later the family find themselves stranded at sea with the unmasked smugglers - and no petrol for the boat! All, of course, turns out well and the Carmichaels and Susan once more find themselves the heroes of the hour.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die.




EF
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Kitty
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Post by Kitty »

I never liked Susan, but you make her sound very, very appealing, Moosey! I must give her another go. Wish I could remember which one it was that I read which initially put me off! I can remember an odd afternoon charity shopping while at a loose end in a strange city where I seemed to collect almost nothing but Jane Shaw in each charity shop I visited, so I've got quite a few!
Moose
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Post by Moose »

Heh some of the Susan books are a much better place to start than others :) I'd recommend Susan Rushes In if you have it..
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die.




EF
Katy
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Joined: 08 Feb 2007, 13:33

Post by Katy »

Ha I've just sent a reply to you but I guess it's a bit useless now! Those are great Moose, thank you!
Moose
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Post by Moose »

You're welcome :) there are still about three I've not done yet, I'll get round to them later (there are actually three that I don't have and have never read cos till recently they were virtually unobtainable :()
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die.




EF
Katy
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Joined: 08 Feb 2007, 13:33

Post by Katy »

Moose, do you know a good place to get some good quality images from the books?
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Kitty
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Location: Malory Towers

Post by Kitty »

Moose, I've started Susan Rushes In and you're right - it is very funny. I have clearly been misjudging the books! I actually like Midge better than Susan though - I wish she wouldn't keep on "och"-ing! Oh, and I'm loving Selina's fashion sense too :)
Katy
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Post by Katy »

I'm confused! The other information I have found on the series puts the books in a different order...

Susan Pulls... 1952
Susan's Helping Hand 1955
Susan Rushes In 1956
Susan Interferes 1957
Susan at School 1958
Susan Muddles Through 1960

any ideas?!
Moose
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Post by Moose »

I think that some of my order was out :). Sorry about that - the titles and reviews are still correct. Not sure how Susan at school could have been 58 unless it was written retrospectively though? (which it could have been). It was set right after the Xmas doings in Susan Pulls the Strings and concerns Susan's first term at St Ronan's.

Kitty, I like Midge much better than Susan too ;). Shall we have a thread discussed the Susan books? that would be cool!
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die.




EF
Moose
Posts: 1756
Joined: 30 Nov 2006, 19:46
Favourite book/series: Malory Towers
Favourite character: Fatty
Location: Cumbria, UK
Contact:

Post by Moose »

Images, I am not sure where you'd get them sorry :( I'll take a look.

Re Susan at school.. I jsut don't understand how it can have been 58 .. are you sure? It is definitely about Susan being a new girl and Susan Rushes In starts with the girls getting back from their boarding school .. including Susan :). Unless it was written retrospectively then that date can't be right.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die.




EF
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