Stephen Mogridge

[George@Kirrin]

Has anyone tried him?

I bought a few of his standalone books, similar era to Blyton, and really enjoyed them.

So very different from today - these are children's books and in one a goodie gets shot in the chest and killed.

[Anita Bensoussane]

The only Stephen Mogridge book I've read is Anita and the China Figures, which he wrote under the pseudonym Jill Stevens. An enjoyable story, though it could do with a touch more suspense.

[timv]

I've read quite a few Stephen Mogridge books, but frustratingly have been able to find out very little about him - he wrote a number of Blyton-style mystery adventures featuring a group of young 'detectives' in the New Forest in the 1950s and 1960s, entitled - New Forest...' (eg Smugglers, Mystery, Adventure etc). There seems to be an influence from the Five Find Outers in this series, with a lead boy character, Bill, who wants to be a detective when he grows up, and the characters keep on investigating strange behaviour by locals who may or may not be criminals (and often get it wrong) - but the girls get rather more of the 'action' and also there's more of a 'pony book' feel. Probably also an influence from Malcolm Saville, as the rural-based adventures and the sort of criminals are similar to the Lone Pine series and teenage science fan Freddy is like MS's Jon Warrender.

The pony elements (eg rescuing ponies from being stolen and sold off by crooks) plus one of the determined 'moral' animal-rescuing tomboy heroines (Patricia) seem to have been aimed at the Monica Edwards fan market as she's like ME's Tamzin Grey. There's a link to the world of the 1978-9 TV Famous Five series, as most of the stories are set in and around Burley (the TV 'Smugglers Top') and Lymington, and there are traces of other real life places too eg Keyhaven (site of Hurst Castle as 'Demons Rocks lighthouse).

I find the series , whose books were printed in hardback and do not seem to have made it to paperback (one reason it has been forgotten), derivative but fascinating from the local detail - which as I grew up in the Forest in the 1960s-70s I can see is genuine and taken from life. The picture given of the Lymington River yachting 'scene' and the ponies coming down from the Forest to graze on the green by the river is accurate - the ponies used to get into our garden just down the road if we left the gate open! But the books are very hard to find, and at the time the final ones were written I did not see or read any of them so they did not appear to get into most bookshops; a few crop up in second hand shops occasionally. I'm keeping my eyes open for more.

[John Pickup]

I've read Piracy by him but can't remember a thing about it. I have a copy of The Stolen Painting by his pseudonym Jill Stevens which I haven't read.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Enid Blyton recommended Stephen Mogridge's New Forest Smugglers when listing 'Books for Holiday Reading' in Enid Blyton's Magazine in 1958 (scroll down to the last page but one):

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/mag ... ?magid=942

[George@Kirrin]

Thanks Anita, that is brilliant. I am slowly collecting that series and nice to know Enid approved. I will enjoy reading them this winter