What other author are you reading at the moment?

Which other authors do you enjoy? Discuss them here.
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by Rob Houghton »

Chrissie777 wrote:Did you go to boarding school?
Thankfully, I didn't! But then it wasn't very common to send children to boarding school when I was a child in the 70's. Mind you - I was always very scared about it - having read about characters at boarding school in EB's books! I used to imagine my parents threatening me with boarding school, and thinking how unloved I would feel if they sent me away, and thinking how false it seemed that Enid's characters always took the attitude of 'ooh! Goody! Boarding school! I shall love it!' - because I knew I would hate it.
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Chrissie777
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by Chrissie777 »

Rob Houghton wrote:Boarding school! I shall love it!' - because I knew I would hate it.
But you enjoyed reading EB's boarding school stories nevertheless? :wink:
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by Rob Houghton »

yes - but I only ever read 'The Naughtiest Girl In The School' books as a child, and Whyteleafe didn't seem too bad! :-D
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Eddie Muir
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by Eddie Muir »

I have just finished reading The Travelling Bag and other Ghostly Stories by Susan Hill. It is an excellent collection of short stories, first published in 2016.
'Go down to the side-shows by the river this afternoon. I'll meet you somewhere in disguise. Bet you won't know me!' wrote Fatty.

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Chrissie777
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by Chrissie777 »

Eddie, if I'm not mistaken then Susan Hill wrote a long time ago the very first Rebecca continuation.
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KEVP
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by KEVP »

A very snowy day here where I am, so I finally got around to reading "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs.
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Kate Mary
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by Kate Mary »

I'm reading Christmas at Nettleford by Malcolm Saville, one of his best books (in my opinion) and a favourite Christmas read for me. The adventure is more cosy and domestic than the Lone Pine books but there is rivalry between (our heroes) the Owlers and another gang the League of the Red Hand to spice things up a bit. A lovely Christmas story.
"I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines." Oliver Goldsmith

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Eddie Muir
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by Eddie Muir »

Chrissie777 wrote:Eddie, if I'm not mistaken then Susan Hill wrote a long time ago the very first Rebecca continuation.
She did indeed, Chrissie. Its title was Mrs de Winter, published in 1993. She also wrote The Woman in Black .
'Go down to the side-shows by the river this afternoon. I'll meet you somewhere in disguise. Bet you won't know me!' wrote Fatty.

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Daisy
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by Daisy »

Kate Mary wrote:I'm reading Christmas at Nettleford by Malcolm Saville, one of his best books (in my opinion) and a favourite Christmas read for me. The adventure is more cosy and domestic than the Lone Pine books but there is rivalry between (our heroes) the Owlers and another gang the League of the Red Hand to spice things up a bit. A lovely Christmas story.
It's one of my favourite Saville books too. I wish the series had been longer, but having said that, the last one - "Buzzard Scar" was a bit of a disappointment in that it didn't include all the characters.
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Chrissie777
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by Chrissie777 »

Eddie Muir wrote:She did indeed, Chrissie. Its title was Mrs de Winter, published in 1993. She also wrote The Woman in Black .
I remember having read both books, Eddie. 8)
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by timv »

The 'Nettleford' series is probably my favourite group of books by Malcolm Saville: I read them first when I was about eleven, before any of the better-known 'Lone Pine' series came my way. The family dynamics and the small group of socially diverse friends plus the country setting made it special; the not all that well-off post-War 'austerity' situation also comes across well. Nobody has much money; Sally and Paul's father runs a fulfilling but not that successful bookshop, Elizabeth's father is a struggling vicar who can only afford a holiday when he 'swops parishes' for a school holiday break with a vicar from a different area (as with Tamzin Grey's 1950s vicar father in Monica Edwards' Romney Marsh, Sussex series) ; and Jimmy Brand's family are working class. All the children get along without any class tensions - and unlike the Famous Five and Mannerings/ Trents most go to state school. MS could be quite subversive on usual 1950s 'gender roles' - in 'Easter at Nettleford',a book on bird conservation set on the North Downs in Surrey, it's tomboy Sally who swims across a lake to tackle and chase off a group of yobs who the 'baddie' rare bird egg-stealer has sent to vandalise the children's caravan as her brother is a poor swimmer.

For those who know Surrey, this series was set around Guildford (where MS lived at the time of writing) and Dorking; the 'Wise Owl' bookshop seems to have been based on the real-life Thorp's Bookshop in Guildford which Saville knew in the 1950s and which I used in the 1980s. Now sadly closed.
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Daisy
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by Daisy »

I agree with your observations, timv. I wondered for a moment if I had missed one of the Nettleford books - "Easter at Nettleford" but it's "Spring Come to Nettleford" isn't it? I have the Romney Marsh books too, by Monica Edwards and have now stayed twice in the vicarage in "Westling" where she grew up. It is now a very good B&B place.
I liked the way Saville used to place his stories in real places and encourage his readers to explore those areas.
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by floragord »

I'd just finished Wilbur Smith's excellent PHARAOH yesterday and wondered, what next?, when I spotted the brand new Barbara Taylor Bradford SECRET OF CAVENDON in St David's Library yesterday and hastened to take it - an excellent read. I've just ordered the discussion book for the next local group meeting in January, Lady Audley's Secret, apparently a whodunit written in Victorian times :?
"Its a magic wood!" said Fanny suddenly.
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by timv »

It must have been really inspiring to stay at Monica Edwards' own house, Daisy; I hope I can do so myself sometime. I used to spend the weekends in Rye in summer when I was reading the ME Romney Marsh series as a child, and enjoyed working out where the various events in the books had been set - and guessing where Rissa lived in Rye ('Dunsford') and where Meryon lived in Winchelsea. We used to have picnics on the beach at Jury's Gut beyond Camber ('Dunsmere') where the pony-smuggling animal slaughterers' ship was intercepted in 'Cargo Of Horses'.
For Malcolm Saville fans, I'm reasonably certain there are some - brief - film shots of one of his main 'Lone Pine' series sites, Ludlow, in the BBC 1 'Nigella's Christmas Table' episode on Monday 11 December which is now on IPlayer. The location of the anonymous market town through which Nigella Lawson nonchalantly strolls isn't mentioned, but the shot of it from a nearby hill is identical with that of Ludlow from the top of the Whitcliffe woods W of the castle over the River Teme; you can see the Clee Hills behind the church tower so the shot looks E. I filmed the site myself when doing the Saville site photos for my 'Literary Landscape 'book and the castle for this and for a history book on the Welsh Marches.
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Daisy
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Re: What other author are you reading at the moment?

Post by Daisy »

Yes, I really enjoyed being in the same house - having breakfast in what we think was Mr Grey's study. There are several of Monica's books on display. We have also had a couple of meals in the "William the Conqueror" which has photos of how it looked many years ago, displayed on the walls. The martello tower is close by - but I guess it never was really inhabitable and nowadays it is not accessible to the public. A large caravan park now occupies the land which back in the day would have been open country, and there is also a nature reserve which attracts both birds and visitors!
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