Anne Barrett - Caterpillar Hall, etc.

[sixret]

No, I haven't read them, Kate Mary.

I bought Midway and Songberd's Grove not because of the author. Like Anita, I bought them simply because they are published by Puffin. I had this urge to collect Puffin children books in 2016. One of the seller that I had dealt with frequently had quite a few titles (40 plus, I think. Can't remember the exact figure. I need to check and count to know the exact figure). So I bought them. Then, I bought 100 plus Puffin children books sold as job lot on ebay in 2017. I was very lucky because the total cost was very affordable. Duplicates titles are bound to happen, of course. I bought Johnny Rew from other seller that I had often dealt with. There was a time in my life that I simply purchased any children books that had caught my eyes especially from the sellers that I often dealt with. Some even gave me the list of the children books in their shops! I am glad that I stopped buying books simply because they were children books or vintage mystery books!

So when I see the Anne Barrett's thread, I simply search my book catalogue (Excel spreadsheet) and lo and behold, I have three titles already!

[Anita Bensoussane]

There's a little antiques shop about half a mile from me which is hardly ever open when I pass, but I happened to catch it open the other day and wandered into it for only the second time. It mainly sells ornaments and small pieces of furniture, but a shelf of books caught my eye and I thought of this thread immediately when I saw that one of them was Caterpillar Hall by Anne Barrett. It's a 1950 Collins hardback with illustrations by Catherine Cummins but it has no dustwrapper. It was marked £60 inside in pencil so I was going to have a careful look through it before putting it back, but then I noticed a sign above the shelf which said, 'Hardbacks £2' - so I held on to it! I then discovered one of Will Scott's 'Cherrys' books, The Cherrys' Mystery Holiday (also dustwrapperless), so I took that for £2 too. I've got a few other books on the go at the moment, but I was delighted with my finds and I'll enjoy reading them in due course.

Incidentally, some months ago I saw a 2022 film on TV called The Tiger Rising. It's based on a book by Kate DiCamillo, apparently, but certain aspects reminded me strongly of Anne Barrett's Midway.

[Kate Mary]

Wow! That was an incredible find, my copy of Caterpillar Hall came from Australia and cost considerably more. It’s a delightful story and I hope you enjoy it, Anita. You were lucky to find a Cherry’s book as well. I love it when I find interesting books in unexpected places.

And I must watch out for The Tiger Rising on TV.

[Jon_Appleton]

Hello! I'm a children's books editor (I was Hodder's Blyton 'editor' for 5 years) and am searching for responses to/information on Anne Barrett. Would anyone please steer me towards the article 'Charlotte' wrote about the early books, or to any other sources of information? Many thanks!

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's great to see you on the forums, Jon! Here's a link to Charlotte's blog:

https://charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com/ ... t-for.html

[Kate Mary]

Coincidentally, I’m re-reading Caterpillar Hall at the moment and I love it just as much as the first time I read it.

[Kate Mary]

Information on Anne Barrett is hard to find but on the Furrowed Middlebrow website I found images of the dust jackets and the blurbs for Caterpillar Hall and Stolen Summer.

http://furrowedmiddlebrow.blogspot.com/ ... 2.html?m=1

Also there are reviews on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/43395112

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/11958499

[Jon_Appleton]

It's great to see you on the forums, Jon! Here's a link to Charlotte's blog:

https://charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com/ ... t-for.html

Thank you so much, Anita! It's lovely to be here. Hope you're very well ... Jon

[Judith Crabb]

How delightful, a worthy writer for children I'd barely heard of. Sure enough I found 'Songbird's Grove' and 'Midway' among my Puffins.
My next children's book read is decided!

[Kate Mary]

You are in for a treat Judith, I would be interested to read what you think of them. I had the luck recently to come across another Anne Barrett short story, Portrait of Julietta. It was in a collection called A Book of Girls’ Stories published by Hamlyn in 1964.

[Anita Bensoussane]

That's interesting, Kate. I still have my childhood copy of Hamlyn's A Book of Girls' Stories. I read all the stories several times over, and 'Portrait of Julietta' rings a bell. I'll have to look it up later!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I've just read 'A Portrait of Julietta' for the first time in over forty years and it's a lightly enjoyable story, if predictable. What appeals to me is the way Anne Barrett takes us inside the head of the main character right from the beginning, immersing us in her thoughts and giving us an immediate understanding of her somewhat unusual situation:

Juliet pulled up the laces with a jerk. She was lucky, yes of course she was, she told herself fiercely, to have a mother who had been an actress and to go home every evening to a house full of her well-known and glamorous friends. To see them close to, listen to them talking about their books, pictures, plays; to go to the premieres of their films and be able to do all the while a lively business with their autographs oh yes, it was lovely, but...Juliet sighed again.

The trouble was that you never quite knew what you were going back to. The trouble was - and Juliet felt ashamed of thinking it - that everyone, her mother included, was always having new ideas and always got so very enthusiastic about them. Going back from school every day was like going out of a sheltered alley into the full force of a gale and you never knew which way you were going to be blown next.

Not that she would have changed it, she told herself with fierce loyalty, as she tied up the bows, of course she wouldn't. Her mother was the most wonderful, the most exciting person in the world. It was just that sometimes, instead of all the fizz and froth, she would have liked to go home to a good old wodge of stodgy peace. She wanted to be like the others.

When I was young, my favourite tale from A Book of Girls' Stories was 'With Love From Jenny' by Kathleen O'Farrell. It's a lovely family story written in a very natural, readable style, about a girl who feels that her dreams have been shattered...but gradually realises that it's not the end of the world.

Hope you enjoy Midway and Songberd's Grove, Judith!

[Judith Crabb]

I'll let you know what think, Kate Mary and Anita.

[Judith Crabb]

Just finished 'Songberd's Grove', so here goes. For a start I hadn't noticed the spelling (and nor had the hero, Martin, who was expecting something far more bucolic of his new home, which turned out to be suburban flat in an old re-purposed 'block of seven blackish-grey houses' ... like 'a collection of grimy old black-clothed women all huddled together; their toothless mouths the uncurtained windows; the sagging, uneven roofs their battered hats'.). The spelling hides a crucial secret which is important to the unfolding narrative. Martin is a likeable hero and has as an ally a little Spanish girl, daughter of a dancer who has fallen on hard times. The villain is a would-be teddy boy who, Fagan-like, has organised the local children into a mob of delinquents. The story is 'gritty' in a way that Blyton never is (except perhaps for Six Bad Boys which I haven't yet read), and the style requires an amount of sophistication, ditto. For example a very young advanced reader could get a lot out of a Blyton written for older children, whereas this is less approachable. I enjoyed it very much, so I suggest that you get out your old Puffin and start reading.
As a child I'm not sure what I would have thought of it. Read to me by a sympathetic teacher may have had me racing to the library shelves for more Barretts. I did enjoy 'Springfield Home' by Elizabeth Stucley, though I didn't read her minor classic 'Magnolia Street', for perhaps the reason I left 'Songberd's Grove' on the school library shelves. Living in an inner suburb was 'gritty' enough, I suppose. Why read about it?

[Anita Bensoussane]

A thoughtful review, Judith. I haven't read Songberd's Grove, though I have a copy somewhere, but I enjoyed reading Midway some time ago. It dealt with some tough issues but in a poetic, gentle style.