Francis wrote:I have only just started reading the Malcolm Saville books! Starting with 'The Gay Dolphin Adventure'.
That was my first "LPA". I enjoyed it so much, I paid a visit to Rye in the 70s just to take a look at the Mermaid - although it seems that might not be the GD!
Good to see you posting, Francis, I seem to remember you went AWOL for some time!
As for the Jillies books, I am forever grateful to Tony for lending me MS's complete works so that I could read his books. GGB editions are quite expensiv, I would rather but s/h editions.
One of the best reads at this time of year is Malcolm Saville's "Christmas at Nettleford". Set in a small country town in a snowy landscape it is the second novel about the Owlers who in this book are raising funds for the church Christmas market, helping at the Nativity play and rescuing an old lady who had fallen in the snow. But also there is excitement in the form of the chicken thief stealing people's Christmas dinners, the mystery of the missing musical box and the battle of the corner field with a rival gang the League of the Red Hand. I've read this book umpteen times over the years and my sister did before me, her name is written on the fly leaf. A perfect Christmas read.
"I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines." Oliver Goldsmith
I always liked the Malcolm Saville 'Nettleford' series, which in fact I read before coming to most of the more famous Lone Pine books. He gives a good and realistic picture of life in a quiet Surrey town in the 1950s, and characters who are from a normal background - unlike a lot of his contemporaries not many of his main characters go to boarding school; Sally and Paul's bookshop-owning family and the vicar's daughter Elizabeth are not especially well-off and Jimmy is working-class, and few people own cars. In a subversion of the usual set-up, it is tomboy Sally not her brother Paul who is the strong and determined one of the Richardson family. The 'Wise Owl' bookshop was probably based on Thorp's second-hand bookshop, now closed, in Guildford which I used to visit; MS lived in Guildford for some years. The portrayal of the Surrey countryside is very well done, and the villains in this series are never 'over the top'.
Another Christmas MS book is the more conventional crime thriller 'Wings Over Witchend', number 9 in the Lone Pine series, where a gang of Christmas tree thieves are raiding the State Forest on the Long Mynd hill ridge near the Mortons' cottage at Witchend in Shropshire to steal hundreds of trees ahead of the December sales-boom. But I found this less realistic, as the villains go to great trouble (kidnapping a forest warden and the twins, and also hiring a glider pilot for spying purposes) and expense (trying to rent Witchend to get the Mortons out of the way) for a plan that cannot be that lucrative overall!
Francis wrote:I have only just started reading the Malcolm Saville books! Starting with 'The Gay Dolphin Adventure'.
That was my first "LPA". I enjoyed it so much, I paid a visit to Rye in the 70s just to take a look at the Mermaid - although it seems that might not be the GD!
Good to see you posting, Francis, I seem to remember you went AWOL for some time!
As for the Jillies books, I am forever grateful to Tony for lending me MS's complete works so that I could read his books. GGB editions are quite expensiv, I would rather but s/h editions.
Dear Nigel
Yes I was kidnapped by Alien Authors but have returned a better and a wiser person. (Some hope!). I think the Mermaid inspired the description of the GD but the location in the books is moved to the end of Watchbell Street which is a more secluded location with a view over the marshes and towards Winchelsea where of course MS moved to in later life. He had so many ties to Rye and wrote an excellent guide well worth getting for any future visit. I thought I knew most things about Rye until I read his guide.
Francis wrote:
Dear Nigel
Yes I was kidnapped by Alien Authors but have returned a better and a wiser person. (Some hope!).
I am delighted that someone paid the ransom so that you could return, Francis. I must say I don't post anything like as much as I used to - in fact I haven't read an EB book for some time now. I still look in from time to time.
BoT, I must say I am rather disappointed by my current-re-reading of C@N - I find it rather thin and the plot doesn't really hold me. I don't recall being disappointed in earlier reads, so maybe it's me!
I like the Nettleford books - at least the first two, and although they are not hugely adventurous I do like the gentle village feel and the way the children cope with the unpleasant things that do happen.
'Tis loving and giving that makes life worth living.
I like the Nettleford books, but they are much more gentle than most of his other books, so if you're expecting adventures you'll be disappointed. Wings over Witchend is a good Christmas read, I always read it on Christmas Eve.
Another Christmas time pair are the Jilly's "Two Fair Plaits" and "Strangers at Snowfell". The second happens straight after the first, but has much more of a Christmassy feel, probably because of the snow setting.
Francis wrote:
Dear Nigel
Yes I was kidnapped by Alien Authors but have returned a better and a wiser person. (Some hope!).
I am delighted that someone paid the ransom so that you could return, Francis. I must say I don't post anything like as much as I used to - in fact I haven't read an EB book for some time now. I still look in from time to time.
BoT, I must say I am rather disappointed by my current-re-reading of C@N - I find it rather thin and the plot doesn't really hold me. I don't recall being disappointed in earlier reads, so maybe it's me!
Yes it was good that somebody paid the tuppenny ha'penny ransom but I was disappointed at the total as i always thought I was worth a few bob.
Horrible thought that only Nigel and I would understand the old currency!
Don't worry, Francis, I'm sure there are others here who remember pre-decimal currency — and even I know a bob is a shilling, which was 12d in the old money! (We had the same system in Australia until 1966 and my parents used to explain it to me when we read unedited Blytons and other older books that mentioned money.)
Society Member
It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
Don't worry Francis... I remember the old money very well! I'm sorry you don't find Christmas at Nettleford so good this time around, Nigel, but I do find there are times when I feel keen to read a book from a series, and other times don't feel like it at all! Maybe it has something to do with the mood we happen to be in. I do agree, the plot as such is not particularly gripping but for me in that way it is more believable, as I feel Malcolm Saville's often are. I must admit I enjoy the gentle homelike stories such as Nettleford quite a lot. Great escapism too!
'Tis loving and giving that makes life worth living.
Francis wrote:Yes I was kidnapped by Alien Authors but have returned a better and a wiser person. (Some hope!). I think the Mermaid inspired the description of the GD but the location in the books is moved to the end of Watchbell Street which is a more secluded location with a view over the marshes and towards Winchelsea where of course MS moved to in later life. He had so many ties to Rye and wrote an excellent guide well worth getting for any future visit. I thought I knew most things about Rye until I read his guide.
Francis, I'm delighted to see you are back on EBS!!!
Chrissie
Society Member
"For me, the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake."
Alfred Hitchcock
Thank you Chrissie. Hope you are planning another foray in the UK soon!
I enjoyed the 'Gay Dolphin' especially the secret passage although the castle (Camber Castle) was not up to Enid's standard. You must visit Rye, Chrissie and perhaps stay at the Mermaid Inn.
That's definitely our plan, Francis. I printed out the Wiki page of the Mermaid Inn and on our next trip (not this year though as André will play golf in Scotland with three golf friends in May) we'll include Rye and stay for a night at the Mermaid Inn, hoping for the ghost to show up.
I'm not fortunate with ghosts though. In 1998 I stayed for 2 or 3 nights at a B & B on top of a hill in Asheville, North Carolina. Even though the owners claimed that in the room where I was sleeping a ghost had appeared to previous guests, it didn't show up when I was there.
Chrissie
Society Member
"For me, the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake."
Alfred Hitchcock
You won't be disappointed in Rye or the Mermaid Inn. As for ghosts, about 20 years ago a group of us on a course stayed in a very old inn in Peterborough and a young New Zealand lady reported the next morning that she had seen the ghost of a young woman. The owners of the Inn then told her that her room was on top of a very old graveyard and that others who stayed there had also done so!
You can ask at the Mermaid to stay in a haunted room and if one is free the owners will oblige. I am not sure if the ghost will oblige too!
(We had the same system in Australia until 1966 and my parents used to explain it to me when we read unedited Blytons and other older books that mentioned money.)
