Girls Gone By

 

 

Readers of this blog will know that my reading tastes are wide but when the chips are down – and, boy, have they been down this year – it’s to children’s books I return for comfort reading, those I read first as a child and some terrific ones published more recently of which this is my favourite.

 

I know I’m not the only one – the BBC adaptation of the Malory Towers series brightened many an early lockdown experience according to social media posts from girls’ school story fans of all ages, lots of whom declared their intention of rereading the originals. And there are Facebook pages dedicated to the Chalet School series and, more generally, Girls’ Own books.

 

I’m lucky in that, despite many house moves in my childhood and into my twenties, I have held on to all my books. If that’s not the case for you and you feel the urge for a nostalgic reading binge can I point you in the direction of  Girls Gone By Publishing? They republish such stalwarts of mid-20th-century bookshelves as:

 

Mabel Esther Allan

Elinor Brent-Dyer

Gwendoline Courtney

Monica Edwards

Josephine Elder

Antonia Forest

Elizabeth Goudge

Lorna Hill

Malcolm Saville

Jane Shaw

 

Their most recent non-fiction publication is a three-volume Encyclopaedia of Girls’ School Stories. Having signed up to get the GGBP newsletter I was aware the project was forthcoming. The publisher asked if anyone had copies of various girls’ annuals (which had school stories in them) as cover images of them were wanted to illustrate a particular section. 

 

I told in this post of my large collection of annuals so I was delighted to be able to help with several of the wanted titles and to subsequently see them in Volume Two eg:

 

 

I had NO idea there were so many girls’ school stories – an absolutely staggering amount were published from the late 1800s with their heyday probably being in the 20s and 30s. There’s no way I could ever acquire or read even a fraction of them so it’s great to be able to read about them in the almost 700 pages of the Encyclopaedia which is a huge slice of social history and highly recommended.

Six in February

I finished only six books in February, partly because I've started a very long one which will appear in March’s list.

 Janie Steps In by Elinor Brent-Dyer

I needed some respite from large book mentioned above so grabbed this which I hadn’t read in years. It’s a kind of precursor to the Chalet School books – here the future Chalet School pupils are very young. It’s not very good (no plot to speak of, far too many characters and some very irritating baby-speak) but it’s interesting if you’re a CS fan, which I am, to see the lucky little girls who will one day have wonderful adventures in the Tiern See washed down with lots of Kaffee und Kuchen. 

E B-D must have written her books with an A-Z of names by her side, to christen all the babies her heroines produce so effortlessly and so regularly. By the end of this book Janie has five children, the oldest aged eight. If remember rightly, Joey, young sister of the Chalet School founder, went on to have eleven including triplets and two sets of twins. She also found time to write novels. Hah!

The Cleaner of Chartres by Salley Vickers

Read for book group.  A large cast of characters centred around Agnes, one of whose jobs is to clean Chartes Cathedral. A fairly gripping read which fizzled out – the ends tied up in a thirteen-line Afterword as if the author had run out of ink/paper/steam.

Churchill’s Angels by Ruby Jackson

The first in a series of novels about the experiences of four young women in the Second World War. This one concentrates on grocer’s daughter Daisy and her dream of being a pilot. Look forward to reading the other titles and finding out what happened to Daisy’s twin Rose and their friends Grace and Sally. A page-turner.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

The second-last of my Christian Aid books from last year's sale. Brilliant – took ages to read because it takes concentration. The story of the five fascinating Lisbon sisters – as you can tell from the title none of them reach the last page alive but the journey there is evocative, dramatic and surprisingly funny. Very interesting from a writerly perspective: the way it is told is unusual, maybe unique, in that it is first person plural, from the viewpoint of a group of unnamed teenage boys recollecting the sisters twenty years after the last death.

I haven’t seen the film Sofia Coppola made of it but am keen to do so now.

Also loved his The Marriage Plot which I read last year.

The Setons by O. Douglas

Yes, I know I’ve read it forty-four times before, but I’d had a bad day, I’d just finished The Virgin Suicides and I didn’t want to start something new late at night. I thought I’d read just a few pages of O. Douglas’ pre-First World War novel – based very much on her own family (her brother was John Buchan) but ended up reading it the next few nights too.

Longbourn by Jo Baker

Book group read. Below stairs in the Bennett family household. Terrific homage to Pride & Prejudice – it could stand alone but knowing what was happening ‘upstairs’ gave an extra layer of enjoyment. Great characters with their own stories, and very vivid writing. Loved it.

I’ve really enjoyed the dramatisation of P&P on Radio 4 the last three Sunday afternoons and have come to the conclusion – notwithstanding Colin Firth, in a wet shirt (see picture below) – that I prefer to read or listen to all things Austen rather than see someone else’s visual interpretation.