Violet Needham

[Kate Mary]

One of my Christmas presents was a bundle of half-a-dozen Girls Gone By books, two of which were by Violet Needham; "The Horn of Merlyns" and "The Bell of the Four Evangelists". The only book by this author I had read previously was "The Woods of Windri" a stunning historical adventure, which had, I thought, a slight flavour of Joan Aiken. Both of the Girls Gone By titles have a contemporary setting (they were written in the 1940s).

I have just read "The Horn of Merlyns", a story about orphaned twins Jack and Gill Alvington who go to live with their uncle and aunt in their ancestral home. Here they learn that the house and family are cursed due to the loss of an ivory horn, but there is an old prophecy that on Midsummer Eve 'twain shall the magic Horn retrieve'. The book has a lovely setting in an ancient house with mysterious woods edging the gardens. Violet Needham is best known for her 'Stormy Petrel' series, but I have never come across any of those, if you find any of her books they are certainly worth a look.

Kate

[pete9012S]

Violet Needham's Books

http://violetneedhamsociety.org.uk/book ... tails.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I didn't realise Violet didn't publish her first book until she was in her sixties.

[Courtenay]

Those sound really interesting, Kate Mary — especially The Horn of Merlyns. I think I'll have to look out for that one — it sounds right up my street, so to speak! I hadn't heard of Violet Needham at all, so thanks for letting us know. Actually, a lot of her stories sound very exciting and intriguing (thanks to Pete too for the link). Have all of them been reprinted by Girls Gone By, does anyone know?

[Kate Mary]

Girls Gone By published 15 of Violet Needham's 19 books but they are all out of print now. They did all eight of the Empire/Stormy Petrel series.

[John Pickup]

I've got three of Violet Needham's books in Girls Gone By editions, Kate Mary. The two you mentioned in your original post and The Red Rose Of Ruvina. However, I haven't read any of them yet. Girls Gone By make exceptional editions of old children's books, I must have over 40 by them including all the Lone Pine series by Malcolm Saville and the five Bannerdale series by Geoffrey Trease. Sadly, they seem to concentrate on the Chalet series by Elinor Brent Dyer nowadays at the expense of other authors.

[timv]

I've read various Violet Needham books occasionally down the years, but have found them rather difficult to get hold of - until the GGBP editions I don't think they'd been reprinted for many years. The 'Stormy Petrel' series is particularly unusual and fascinating - a series of children's thrillers set pre-1914 in a group of middle European states that are part of or neighbours of 'The Empire' and seem to be a romanticised version of the Austro-Hungarian empire , where the young Violet had been on holidays in her childhood and had relatives. The mixture of intrigue, youthful boy (and later girl) adventurers combating enigmatic plotting aristocrats, strange goings-on in crumbling old castles, and mysterious travellers and spies who could be 'goodies' or 'baddies' seems to be influenced by a mixture of Anthony Hope's 'Ruritania' series (best known of which is 'The Prisoner of Zenda') and 1920s-30s books by John Buchan and others. Like with Hope and Buchan, there's a lot of romantic royalism about lost 'true heirs' and coups.

I suspect that there was some influence from VN's late 1930s central European thrillers on Enid's 'Circus of Adventure' , whose tone is similar, with Jack Trent's adventures at Borken having an echo of the VN adventures of the (local not English) boy adventurer Dick Fauconbois in the 'Empire' and 'Flavonia' - or at least VN's success gave Enid or her publisher the idea of trying out a 'Ruritania' thriller. The parallels with the earlier 'Baronia' in the Secret series are fewer.
I remember reading the sequel to 'The Woods of Windri', 'The Changeling of Monte Lucio', when I was at school in the 1970s. These two are historical adventures, set respectively in the late medieval and the Tudor periods, not more modern; Monte Lucio is supposed to be a small Italian-speaking principality in northern Italy. But VN later relocated this setting to Provence in her one modern novel on ML, 'The Great House of Estraville'. Like Geoffrey Trease, VN is an under-rated writer of historical thrillers who has dropped out of the public memory as her books are now relatively rare; I think even her fan club is now inactive.

[Judith Crabb]

As a child I could never decide whether Enid Blyton or Violet Needham was my favourite author. Of the Needham books I managed to get hold of in the 1950s I could never decide whether .'The Emerald Crown ' or 'The Horn of Merlyns' was in my 'top ten' - I loved thinking about books.
Violet Needham never released her hold on me. In 1992 I self-published a monograph 'The Password is Fortitude: An evaluation of some children's books by Violet Needham' as an act of gratitude to someone I could never thank in person for her contribution to the enrichment of my imaginative life.
Maybe she, as well as Blyton, shaped the course of my life because I became a self-employed second-hand bookdealer ( a trade from which I retired in 2017 in my seventieth year). I specialized in children's books - of course.

[Kate Mary]

Welcome to the Enid Blyton Society forums Judith, there is lots to explore on this website, have you ventured into the Cave yet? Try the periodicals section, especially the Teachers' World there are lots of treasures hidden there.

I haven't read many Violet Needham titles but I very much enjoyed the ones that I did, especially The Woods of Windri which is a superb novel. I have been buying books on the internet for years so it is quite likely that I bought some from you. I hope you enjoy the website.

[Judith Crabb]

Thank you Kate Mary for your welcome. Yes I have visited the Cave and was pleased to see all those beautiful original dust-jackets. I believe we must give credit to Enid Blyton herself who demanded such quality work from the illustrators of her books. One of my fantasy volumes (the ones I dream about and then wake up) is a coffee table book devoted to her illustrators.

[Katharine]

I've just read House of the Paladin.

A really gripping story, I couldn't put it down!

[Judith Crabb]

Pleased to see a new reader for Violet Needham, Katharine. You've met Dick Fauconbois in mid-career. They are not easy to come by, but try to get to read the earlier ones - 'The Black Riders' and 'The Stormy Petrel' and the later ones - 'The Betrayer' and 'Richard and the Golden Horseshoe', covering the hero's career from an eleven-year-old to wedding bells. I must admit though that "The House of the Paladin' is my favourite in the series.

[Judith Crabb]

I looked on the internet and found to my surprise that Violet Needham's books are far easier to get than they were last century when I was trying to put a collection together. (Three cheers for the world-wide-web.) I was also puzzled by the fact that various other novels are described as being part of the 'Stormy Petrel' series. Then I recalled that Violet Needham has the (to me) delightful tendency of introducing main characters from earlier titles as bit players in later novels. I think I remember that Hugh from 'The House of the Paladin' makes his first appearance in 'The Emerald Crown', one of my favourites. When I first read it I understood that 'magic' may have nothing to do with spells and goblins and wizards but be linked to the intensity of feeling that comes when you enter into a world newly created by reading. It helped that the first chapter is called 'Great-grandmother', it is set in a castle and the opening sentence 'It was Christmastide and the snow was falling heavily on the mountains around Trollsgarde' was a bit of a contrast to inner-city Adelaide.

[Katharine]

Thanks for the info Judith.

I first started to read The Betrayer, but after the first few pages found it quite hard going as there were many references to previous events/characters. There was a comment at the front about it being another 'Stormy Petrel' book, so I checked my shelves and found I had The House of the Paladin so thought I'd give that a try first. Although there are also some references later on in the book which gave the impression there may have been previous books, I didn't feel that not having read them hindered the general story line for me.

I will keep an eye out for others in the series now.

[Katharine]

Further to my previous post, I read The House of the Paladin and as far as I can remember (shocking memory these days), I enjoyed it.

So the other day I thought I'd have another go at The Betrayer. I think there must have been another book or two in between these two books, as there were loads of references to people and events that I don't recall from the first book I'd read.

The story itself was thrilling, and I probably read almost half of it yesterday - I just couldn't put it down, but I did find it a little confusing at times. Having not read all the other books (and forgotten half of the one that I had) was a slight disadvantage, but for me the biggest problem was the fact that most of the characters were known by several different names, so it got a bit confusing, as to begin with I thought there were a lot more characters in the story that then really were. Also, there was a young man called Carol, which I found a bit confusing as I kept thinking he was a girl at first.

I shall definitely keep an eye out for other books by Violet Needham, and hopefully one day will have all the 'Stormy Petrel' books and read them in the correct order.

[Judith Crabb]

I'm so pleased that you're enjoying reading Violet Needham's books, Katharine. I'm working on a Journal article at the moment based on a rare publication by Enid Blyton. Imagine my astonishment when, first on list of contemporary (1950s I think) writers for children Violet Needham is her first recommendation. (Not that there's any suggestion that they are in order of preference, but it does show that Enid too must have enjoyed her books.)