Malcolm Saville - Lone Pine Club, etc.

[timv]

I have a first edition of Redshanks Warning, published in 1948 - with 206 pages. The text starts on p. 13; the Introduction is two pages long and the previous , opening pages are mainly contents and illustrations lists plus the publishers details. There is also a frontispiece 'colour plate' illustration on the page before the main title and a page with the dedication. I am not clear if the text in the Armada versions of the Jillies series starting with RS is abridged or not, as I do not have more than one copy of each book.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks, Kate and Tim. I may have the chance to compare the original text with my Armada paperback at some point.

[John Pickup]

I've got all six Jillies books in hardback and in Armada paperback. According to my copy of Malcolm Saville's illustrated bibliography, which was published by the Malcolm Saville Society in 2014, none of the Armada Jillies were abridged and having read the books in both versions I believe that to be correct.
The new editions by Girls Gone By are well worth having as the original hardbacks can be quite expensive to collect.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks, John! I'm relieved that I don't need to buy the books again!

[Francis]

I have only just started reading the Malcolm Saville books! Starting with 'The Gay Dolphin Adventure'. Having live near Rye and visiting whenever I can I am most impressed in how accurate a description of Rye this book contains. Mind you I have only read a few pages yet as I am limiting my reading to a few pages every night.

I am also impressed by Penny and Jon who come across as real teenagers with plenty of character.

By the way this is a hardback book so I am assuming it is not abridged?

[Daisy]

I don't believe it will be abridged. It's a jolly good story, I think. I hope you enjoy it, Francis.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Enjoy reading the books, Francis! The Gay Dolphin Adventure is great, though my favourite Lone Pine adventure is The Neglected Mountain. Like you, I didn't discover the Lone Pine books until I was an adult. I've only read each title once but I intend to return to the series at some stage.

[John Pickup]

Francis, some of the Lone Pine hardbacks were abridged. Not the Newnes originals but Collins republished the series in budget editions, some of which had laminated boards instead of wrappers, and these were cut significantly.

[Francis]

Thank you Daisy, Anita and John - sorry for delayed replies. Glad this hardback is complete - I am really savouring reading it. Somehow a slow reading just before sleep is very rewarding (exactly the same as Enid''s books). Anita, I will have to look for hardback versions of these books to be assured of reading a complete account. That Neglected Mountain must be very good if it is better than 'The Gay Dolphin'. I am reassured that Anita discovered these books as an adult. Although I was a child in the 1950s and the early 1960s I was completely ignorant of Malcolm Saville. Thank you for warning me of the later laminated versions, John - how awful that they were cut probably losing some of the essential personal detail. As I said Jon and Penny are excellent almost real teenagers - I especially like Penny.

[Fiona1986]

Oh dear. I'm sure I have some editions with laminated boards as those were all I could find without exorbitant price tags!

[Francis]

They do seem very expensive, Fiona - some are very hard to find. It is always the same if there is something I want it is very difficult and expensive. It really is awful that the cheaper editions are so heavily edited - Malcolm Saville would be very upset. Of course dear Enid would be horrified at what has been done to her books.

[GloomyGraham]

Oh dear. I'm sure I have some editions with laminated boards as those were all I could find without exorbitant price tags!

Not all of them are edited. When I bought them, many years ago, I always used to check on the copyright page to see if it said 'this abridged edition published in 1972' (etc) and also in Malcolm's introductory piece where - even if the copyright page said nothing - he would sometimes write 'this edition is a little shorter than the original'.

If I remember rightly, the Gay Dolphin Adventure wasn't abridged.

[Fiona1986]

Phew - I think I'm safe then. It turns out it's just Sea Witch Comes Home I have in laminated boards and it doesn't say anything about being abridged or 'a little shorter'.

[Chrissie777]

I have only just started reading the Malcolm Saville books! Starting with 'The Gay Dolphin Adventure'. Having live near Rye and visiting whenever I can I am most impressed in how accurate a description of Rye this book contains. Mind you I have only read a few pages yet as I am limiting my reading to a few pages every night.

Sounds like a great book, Francis!

[Chrissie777]

Although I was a child in the 1950s and the early 1960s I was completely ignorant of Malcolm Saville. Thank you for warning me of the later laminated versions, John - how awful that they were cut probably losing some of the essential personal detail. As I said Jon and Penny are excellent almost real teenagers - I especially like Penny.

Malcolm Saville's books were unfortunately not translated into German (only EB, Elinor Lyon, Viola Bailey (who's not very suspenseful), Mabel Esther Allen, the Milly Molly Mandy books and some of the very suspenseful books by Norman Dale were available in German translations).