Anne Barrett - Caterpillar Hall, etc.

[Kate Mary]

Hi John, no I didn't, I'm sure Clarissa wouldn't be interested. GGB are publishing fewer books now and seem to be concentrating on highly collectable authors like Elinor Brent-Dyer, Malcolm Saville and Antonia Forest. Sadly, Anne Barrett is just too obscure I think.

[John Pickup]

Yes, I see they have announced the third book in the Marston Baines series by Saville. Most of their output seems to be Brent-Dyer nowadays. I suppose they can't afford to take a chance on a more obscure author, they wouldn't recoup their printing costs.

[Kate Mary]

I apologise in advance for going on about another very scarce Anne Barrett book but I've been reading The Journey of Johnny Rew, and it is a superb book.

It is a picaresque novel of a boy who runs away from his foster home to find his family in the West Country, his mother was killed in the blitz, his father was a sailor and Johnny determines to find him and his family. Johnny is helped by many characters on the way, the girl Rose, Abel the cowman's son, Sam Bridle the hedger, old Miss Merrament living alone in her ancient manor house and on his journey he is pursued by a man with a beard whom he thinks is coming to take him back. Johnny does eventually gets his heart's desire but in a most unexpected way.

The story stretches credibility by relying on coincidence a bit too often but it has a lovely dream-like quality and is a book I shall return to again and again.

[Tony Summerfield]

I learn something new every day, and I have just had to go to my dictionary for a 'picaresque novel'! Now I know the answer, but I don't think it applies to many Enid Blyton books.

You make Johnny Rew's travels sound good, Kate, so I have just bought a copy. I look forward to reading it.

[Kate Mary]

I was possibly stretching a point by calling it a picaresque novel, Johnny isn't a rogue although unlike Enid's characters he isn't above telling a few lies on the way. I hope you enjoy the book Tony, I still have one more Anne Barrett title to find,The Dark Island but that is rarer than hen's teeth.

If you do enjoy it, try the stunning Songberd's Grove.

[Tony Summerfield]

Since buying an Anne Barrett book I have been trying to put together a bibliography of Anne Barrett and it isn't all that easy to find out anything about her at all, and just to make life more difficult there are more authors with the name Anne Barrett! At present I haven't found anything earlier than Caterpillar Hall in 1950 and I have only found a total of seven books, surely there must be more - can you help, Kate?

Caterpillar Hall (1950), Stolen Summer (1951), The Dark Island (1952), The Journey of Johnny Rew (1954) and Songberd's Grove (1957). There is also Sheila Burke: Dental Assistant (1956) and Midway (1967), but these last two look to be different types of book to the other five. I am also missing my reference books for 1953 and 1955!!

[Kate Mary]

As far as I can tell, Anne Barrett published just seven novels, six for Collins and one in The Bodley Head career novels series. I've also traced one short story (Beware of Uncles) published in a Collins Girls' Annual, and she also adapted Mary Cathcart Borer's screenplay for a Children's Film Foundation film 'Treasure in Malta' in 1963.

Midway seems to be considered her best work and although I enjoyed it, I prefer Songberd's Grove. Stolen Summer remains my favourite which is the only one of her books I read as a child.

As you say Tony, there other authors with a similar name, but I'm fairly sure that she wrote only seven novels but there must be other short stories waiting to be discovered.

[Tony Summerfield]

One thing is for sure, what few books are available are very expensive. I think I struck lucky with Johnny Rew as the price wasn't too bad at under £20 for a 1st edition in a wrapper (Shirley Hughes!). I checked out my Puffins as I knew I had a 50-50 chance of having Songberd's Grove as I have about half of the first 400 and indeed I do have a copy.

[sixret]

I have Songberd's Grove Puffin edition, Midway Puffin edition and Johnny Rew in a very good dust jacket.

[Kate Mary]

Have you read them sixret? I'd be interested to read your thoughts on them.

I'm deeply impressed by Tony's collection of early Puffin books, I've got about a dozen.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I'm back on my Anne Barrett hobby horse and reading Midway, the last book that she wrote. An interesting read but I think it lacks the charm of Stolen Summer or Caterpillar Hall or the brilliance of Songberd's Grove.

Mark is the middle child in a remarkable family, two clever ones older than him and the twins below also showing great promise. His father is engaged in writing a academic work on the human mind and Mark longs to get some attention from him and to impress him like Seb and Evie his older siblings have done. Mark, an imaginative and dreamy child also longs for a friend and into his life and imagination comes Midway the tiger and with his help he feels like the interesting, independent sort of person he has always longed to be, and in the end does something braver and more wonderful than Seb has ever done.

I was reminded of other books about imaginary companion animals, Philippa Pearce's A Dog So Small and Mary Schroeder's My Horse Says. Pearce's book is regarded as a modern classic but Midway is largely forgotten although it was well thought of at the time (1967) and was translated into German with the title Mein Tiger Mitty. This book is definitely a keeper, I shall read it again.

Yesterday I took down a couple of books from a shelf upstairs as they'd been tucked in on top of the rows of books and I wanted to see what I had. To my surprise, one was a Puffin paperback copy of Midway by Anne Barrett! I must have picked it up in a charity shop a few years ago as it's marked "40p" inside the front cover - though the original price, which is printed on the back, was 25p in the 1970s. I'm sure I hadn't heard of Anne Barrett at the time I bought it but I would have been attracted by the fact that it was a vintage Puffin with illustrations by Margery Gill. I've only had time to read a few pages so far but the style of writing is lovely and certain elements of the story are reminding me of Apple Bough by Noel Streatfeild.

[Kate Mary]

How wonderful Anita, I hope you enjoy it.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Midway turned out to be a gentle, thoughtful book. I enjoyed reading it for the beauty of the writing and the little observations, e.g. Mark's musings on his name:

Mark Munday! Something that made you think of marking ink and form marks and straight upright lines, not to mention the dreariest day of the week. In the temporary darkness made by pulling his jersey over his head Mark brooded about the unfairness of his lot.

I also liked the atmospheric description of waking in the night:

At least it wasn't quite dark because there was a feeble little night light flickering away beside him, but it was darker than dark all round it and the curtains were drawn. His room had a stealthy, secret sort of look, as though he shouldn't really be seeing it in such an off moment as this. It seemed to be busy living its own life, and he guessed that it must be a time that he had never been awake before.

The action moves slowly until the final few chapters, when everything boils up. There are shades of Noel Streatfeild's Apple Bough and one of Enid Blyton's Famous Five books (to say which one would be something of a spoiler) but the story is told in a reflective, poetic style.

The internal drawings by Margery Gill are evocative and take me back to my childhood, as she illustrated many Puffin paperbacks in the 1970s. I also like the cover design by Peter Whiteman, which carries on across the spine and onto the back of the book, though it perhaps gives away a little too much.

An unusual book and I'd like to try some more Anne Barrett titles if I get the chance.

[Kate Mary]

I'm so glad you enjoyed "Midway", Anita. Anne Barrett's other book that was published by Puffin, "Songberd's Grove", is relatively easy to come by and usually not expensive. Try reading the reviews of it on Amazon, it is an absolute gem.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks, Kate. I hope to be able to give Songberd's Grove a try at some point.