Top Ten non-Blyton series

[Anita Bensoussane]

I've never read Philip Pullman's The Tin Princess, Dsr, but it's an interesting example of a fairly modern book (1994) dealing with the theme.

Other novels I've read which have "Ruritanian" elements are The House in Cornwall by Noel Streatfeild (1939), The Grenville Garrison by Gwendoline Courtney (1940) and The Mystery of the Silver Spider by Robert Arthur (1967).

I'm also aware of The Raiders' Road by Elizabeth Leitch (1937) and Adventure Royal by Mabel Esther Allan (1954), though I haven't read them.

The best boys' school writer was Talbot Baines Reed. (Other than PG Wodehouse, of course, who was only an occasional school story writer, but the ones he did write were crackers.)

I discovered The Fifth Form at St. Dominic's by Talbot Baines Reed some years ago and found it very interesting, though life at St. Dominic's is turbulent and disquieting compared to life at Enid Blyton's boarding schools. I love Talbot Baines Reed's The Adventures of a Three-Guinea Watch, which isn't a school story but features a school at some point. It's delightfully quirky and could be described as a masterpiece about a timepiece!

[timv]

The Narnia fancfic sounds interesting; I'll investigate further.

I've read some Nancy Breary, but only as an adult when I come across her books in second-hand collecting; she's certainly the most amusing and quirky of the 1940s-50s girls boarding school genre writers and has interesting characters and fast-paced plots. It's noticeable that, possibly derived from the way that stories were focussed in the mid-C20th children's magazines, the lead characters almost always seem to be 'Fourth Formers' (ie 13 to 15 year olds) and older and younger forms hardly get a look-in, unlike in Enid's books. Presumably this was reflecting the target age-group of most of their readers, as worked out by the publishers.

Gwendoline Courtney has interesting parallels with Enid's 'Adventure' series in that some of her 1940s books feature teenagers interacting with adults in crime and spy/ kidnap situations, involving the frequent use of guns and serious threat to life. I'm thinking of the 'overseas royal hiding in UK and at risk of kidnap' plot of 'The Grenville Garrison' here, published in 1940 - presumably wartime realities 'ramped up' the exposure to violence in the storylines. The way that historical fiction for teenagers based on the English Civil War usually had the Royalists as the goodies used to annoy me as a teenager; I think that Captain Marryat's 'The Children of the New Forest' in the 1840s, the genre 's first major commercial success, was to blame here - following on from the romantic Royalism/ Jacobitism of Sir Walter Scott's novels? But a few writers did have Parliamentarian heroes and heroines - Elsie Jeanette 'Oxenham' (Dunkerley) in particular.

[Courtenay]

The way that historical fiction for teenagers based on the English Civil War usually had the Royalists as the goodies used to annoy me as a teenager; I think that Captain Marryat's 'The Children of the New Forest' in the 1840s, the genre 's first major commercial success, was to blame here - following on from the romantic Royalism/ Jacobitism of Sir Walter Scott's novels? But a few writers did have Parliamentarian heroes and heroines - Elsie Jeanette 'Oxenham' (Dunkerley) in particular.

I'm guessing it's also that the Royalists were the underdogs in the Civil War but they essentially won in the end, once Cromwell died and the monarchy was restored — so it's a case of having one's heroes on the "right" side.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Although children's books normally support the Royalists, I have come across a couple of positive references to Oliver Cromwell.

Sally, one of the main child characters in Noel Streatfeild's The Children of Primrose Lane (1941), quotes Oliver Cromwell to boost her friends' morale at a difficult time during the war. She says she was taught the quotation in school:

"Oliver Cromwell once said when things were bad: 'Well, your danger is as you have seen. And truly I am sorry it is so great. But I would have it cause no despondency, as truly I think it will not, for we are Englishmen.'"

The Ladybird book Oliver Cromwell (1963) by L. Du Garde Peach is startlingly pro-Cromwell, introducing him as "a brave and deeply-religious man who was a friend of all honest men - and who fought for many years against what he believed to be tyranny and injustice." L. Du Garde Peach makes Cromwell sound more like Old King Cole when he writes, "Oliver Cromwell was a Puritan, but he liked music and dancing and was fond of going to horse races." Rather different from what I've read about Cromwell elsewhere! The illustrations by John Kenney are super - beautifully detailed and full of colour and movement.

These are the opening paragraphs of the book:

Oliver Cromwell is one of the most important figures in English history. In the time in which he lived, a great man was needed to lead the people of England in their fight for freedom, and to-day we still enjoy freedoms which he won for us.

Cromwell was born at Huntingdon in the year 1599, and it was on a large farm that he grew up. One story tells of an adventure which happened to him whilst he was staying at the house of his grandfather, Sir Henry Cromwell.

Sir Henry had a pet monkey which was allowed to climb all over the house, and one day it seized hold of Oliver, who was only a few months old, and carried him up on to the roof.

We can imagine the horror with which his grandfather must have seen the monkey climbing about the roof with the baby in its arms. But it is impossible to imagine what England might have been like to-day if the monkey had dropped him.

I almost included a Ladybird series among my Top Ten non-Blyton series, but there are so many I like that I couldn't pick out just one. In particular, I love the series dealing with fairy-tales, animal stories, rhyming animal stories, history and nature. The text is immensely readable yet entertaining and informative, and the illustrations are exquisite. Some of my favourite illustrators are Eric Winter, P. B. Hickling, Peter Wingfield, Charles Tunnicliffe, John Kenney, Martin Aitchison, Frank Hampson, John Berry and A. J. MacGregor.

[timv]

I remember that Ladybird book on Cromwell very well, and must have read it about 1966 . It started off my lifelong fascination with Cromwell - who I did my university PhD thesis on as a postgraduate, so in a way I've got the author of that book a lot to thank for! It's fascinating to learn who actually wrote it. (I then published a book about Cromwell's foreign wars in the 1650s as Lord Protector with Macmillans, one of Enid's publishers, in 1995.) For political balance, I also read and enjoyed the Ladybird book about Charles II, the 'Merry Monarch' , at the same time - and remember the pictures, eg of Charles having to do his own cooking in exile in the 1650s, his arrival in Kent when he returned to England in 1660, him fighting the Great Fire of London, and him walking through a marketplace.
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I remember a picture in the Cromwell book of the small boy Oliver Cromwell (who would have been four at the time) fighting the equally small Prince Charles, son of the new king James I, in April 1603 as the Stuart royal family made its way from Edinburgh to London after James became king, when the Stuarts stopped for the night at Cromwell's grandfather's house in the Fens. As Cromwell and Charles ended up fighting a war as adults this was a vivid foretaste of what was to come , but it's doubted as to whether it actually happened and if so when- the boy Charles (aged three at the time) was too poorly to accompany his father to London in reality and came down from Scotland later, in August 1604. The pictures in these Ladybird history books were memorable as I can still recall a lot of them, eg from those on Alexander the Great, Robert the Bruce, Richard the Lionheart, and the Roman invasion of Britain; and the text was memorable in the same 'short but informative' way as a modern internet 'tweet'! It was certainly an art to do these books and tell a gripping story in a few sentences per page.

I also remember the Ladybird book of astronomy which started me off on my enthusiasm for astronomy. There was one for the spring constellations with a night sky behind a view of a fox in the countryside, and from that time on I've been able to find my way at night when it's clear by the stars. Shortly after reading the book we had a holiday in Sidmouth , NE Devon, near a real observatory (and close to Enid's mid-1930s holiday destination of Budleigh Salterton and the 'Beer/ Seaton Holes' smugglers' caves which I think may have given her an idea for the type of name used for the smuggling location in 'Spiggy Holes'). My father, a university science lecturer, got me permission to look through the telescope which was the highlight of my holiday!

[dsr]

"1066 and all that" says that the Cavaliers were "Wrong but Wromantic" and the roundheads were "Right but Repulsive". Which is why the Cavaliers get all the heroine's roles.

Cromwell abolishing Christmas wouldn't help his reputation, of course. Not to be topical in any way!

[Judith Crabb]

Mention of historical novels for children cannot be complete without mention of Rosemary Sutcliff's Roman trilogy. Her 'Simon' and 'The Rider of the White Horse' were two of my favourites, giving a positive view of the Parliamentary side of the conflict, almost as dear to me as 'Knight's Fee' and 'Dawn Wind'.

[Aussie Sue]

I adored 'Children of the New Forest' as a child and read it over and over. It added 'The New Forest' to all the EB UK places and items I desperately wanted to see (like a Bluebell Wood).
And when I got to visit UK much later as an adult, they all lived up to my high childhood expectations.

[Katharine]

I love Oliver Cromwell, I've often stood on station platforms to watch him chuffing past.

[John Pickup]

I like him too, Katharine. I last saw him steaming through Retford station many years ago, No 70013.

[Boatbuilder]

I love Oliver Cromwell, I've often stood on station platforms to watch him chuffing past.

I posted his picture in the forum a couple of years ago, Katharine.

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[Katharine]

He gets about a bit John.

He was quite a regular on our local line for a few years. A year or two back we had the Flying Scotsman come tearing through which was brief but exciting. The Tornado has been through as well.

Sadly nothing to watch recently - the last steam train I saw was on 1st January of this year when I went to the Mid Suffolk 'Middy'. If I don't get to visit a heritage railway soon I shall start getting withdrawal symptoms.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Your story shows just how influential Ladybird books could be, Tim. They were short enough to be read in a sitting but chock-full of interesting facts and anecdotes, and the eye-catching artwork ensured that children returned to them again and again. That gave the books a good chance of planting seeds in young minds, some of which would take root. When we were little, my sister and I renewed the Ladybird version of Beauty and the Beast at the library so many times that the librarian suggested that our mum buy us a copy of our own - which she did!

L. Du Garde Peach may have praised Oliver Cromwell in the Ladybird book devoted to him, but he also wrote The Story of Charles II for Ladybird and that paints rather a different picture! Maybe Ladybird asked writers to avoid being too dark or negative overall - although the book about Charles II does give quite a detailed account of the Plague of London and the Great Fire. Anyway, here's L. Du Garde Peach talking about Oliver Cromwell in The Story of Charles II:

Meanwhile the country was being governed by Cromwell, and the joy and happiness of merry England came to a sudden end. Theatres were closed, and singing and dancing were forbidden. They maypoles, which used to be on every village green in the country, were cut down, and life became sad, dull, and monotonous.

One of the greatest Englishmen of all time has written: "To the mass of the nation the rule of Cromwell manifested itself in the form of numberless and miserable petty tyrannies, and thus became hated as no Government has ever been hated in England before or since."

L. Du Garde Peach goes on to say that there was "rejoicing" and "cheering" when Charles returned to England from abroad and became King Charles II. The king was interested in many things, including science and sport (especially horse-racing), and he enjoyed strolling among the people:

King Charles was dark and good-looking. What was much more important, he was a very friendly man. He liked to stroll about London or Newmarket without ceremony, and to talk to people rich and poor alike. As he was quick-witted and amusing, as well as clever, those with whom he talked never forgot their conversation with the King.

But what perhaps made him most popular was that he was gay. The people of England were so weary of the joyless life they had been forced to live under Cromwell, that a king who loved music and singing and dancing, and all gay and happy things, was certain to be liked.

That is why Charles II was known as the Merry Monarch.

Like Oliver Cromwell, The Story of Charles II is illustrated by John Kenney and his detailed pictures, full of action and significant moments, bring the period to life for the reader.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I decided to re-read Enid Blyton's account of Oliver Cromwell in the latest Society booklet, Life Stories From History (number 2) and thought it was worth quoting some of what she writes. She begins by describing Oliver Cromwell as "one of the greatest of all Englishmen, a chief among men" and relates how he sought out "men of spirit and honour" and "trained a fine army, so strong, so resolute, that the nephew of the King, Prince Rupert, found it impossible to break their lines, and called them Ironsides. Cromwell led them himself, and was careful to set them an example of piety, courage and mercy. His men admired him as a fine leader, and thought him the greatest man of the day, as indeed he was." He and his Ironsides wanted to "save the country from a King who thought he could govern as he pleased without a Parliament."

However, once he became Protector of the Realm he "found it just as difficult to deal with his Parliaments as Charles I had done! He grumbled at them, dissolved them, reformed them, disagreed with them, and discovered that, though it might be impossible to rule without a Parliament, it was almost as difficult to rule with one. Cromwell found, as many a dictator had found before him, that what is won by force, has to be kept by force. But the English people would not for long consent to be ruled by the sword." Cromwell dealt with uprisings sternly, "ruling like a tyrannical king."

After Oliver Cromwell died, Charles II was crowned king "and it seemed as if all Cromwell's work was swept away...But Cromwell's greatness and strength, and the deeds he did became part of the life of the nation and helped to shape it in the right way. He was a great man, and made his country richer by his greatness."

[John Pickup]

The Cherrys by Will Scott. These are really hard to find in hardback but I believe that GGB are thinking of publishing them.

Really? That would be great, I've only ever managed to find two and one of those was passed down to me by my mum!

I've received an e-mail from Clarissa Credland at GGB to say they aren't going to publish The Cherrys series of books as there isn't enough interest to justify it. It's a pity because they are extremely hard to find, especially in wrappers. The few I've seen are also extremely expensive.