Thanks for your review Judith, it’s interesting to hear your thoughts about the book, I absolutely loved it! I remember reading Magnolia Buildings by Elizabeth Stucley as a child, it was in the school library, I can’t remember much about it now but I enjoyed it at the time. I also read a pony book b...

I’m reading Thrush Green by Miss Read, the first of a dozen novels about this fictional Cotswold village. (Thirteen if you count the final novel but that was written by someone else). In the same way that Enid’s books are an escape for me from this crazy world so too are Miss Read’s novels. The stor...

I haven’t seen this mentioned elsewhere on the forums, apologies if it has. Tony has added the jacket illustrations (love the pictures on the jacket flaps) and plates from the first four Holiday Books, they are absolutely gorgeous, I have all the Holiday Books but none have a dj and I think I’m miss...

Just a guess, I haven’t checked. Is it ‘Before I Go To Sleep’?

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.

I’ve got a copy of The Mysteries of Udolpho on my bookshelves but to my shame I’ve never read it. I had thing about 18th century novels at one time and I read The Old English Baron (1778) and Sarah Fielding’s The Governess, or the Little Female Academy (1749) which is brilliant, the first girls’ sch...

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/2020/04/new-authors-childrens-writers-1-of-2.html?m=1 Also there are reviews on Goodread...

Welcome to the forums, Wezzo. Many omnibus editions don’t appear the Cave including the Parragon/Mulberry ones. The sad thing is I believe all the titles in these 2 in 1 editions are out of print in any edition now except for The Secret Island. I’ve got the three Secrets books and they seem to have ...

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

Actually it’s 52, Robert Houghton gave me a copy of Journal 32. Arithmetic was never my strong subject.

I’ve read all of Journal 83 and enjoyed every article, my thanks to all the contributors and to Tony for editing it. I can add very little to what’s been said above but I will say thank you to Judith Crabb for her excellent article and for bringing back memories of an extremely worn copy of the Spar...

This edition of the Journal contains articles on several of my favourite books. Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm has long been a favourite and Anita’s review has reminded me that I must re-read it. I look forward to what she has to say about Six Cousins Again. I’ve loved The Treasure Hunters since I wa...

Pete you’re incorrigible. I love it though!

It being a Bank Holiday and there’s nothing much to do, apart from the ironing, I’ve been pondering the phrase; ‘the truest text to the original 1939 publication’. I think they must have gone back to the Newnes text rather than the Dean which had a number of small cuts. The gollies must have been re...

Like Judith I would love facsimiles of the Newnes editions with the original text and Dorothy Wheeler illustrations but the Folio Society always commission new illustrations by modern artists for their editions. I would be interested to know Tony’s opinion on this book, did he advise in any way? Doe...