REVIEW: Netherdale For Ever
Just watched the Queen's semi-finals. Murray was scarily sharp in the first set and upped a gear when he needed to in the second. I was expecting the tie-breaks to decide it in the second semi-final, with a final of Andys going to the Scot, but no-one coud have wanted the result to be decided in this way.
Netherdale For Ever: Theodora Wilson Wilson. The Swarthmore Press Ltd.
Five minutes Googling tells me that Wilson Wilson (yes, really) was a radical, pacifist Quakeress. All her books were published in the twentieth century, She lived from c1865 to 1941, and Netherdale For Ever was published in 1919. There's a reason I looked that last fact up. (I'm not sure whether my copy is that old, and that's not the reason).
I think I may be beginning to give the impression that I have a Cupernol approach to titles, that is, I want stories to do what it says on the tine what they say in the title, and this doesn't. I keep wanting to call it Netherfield For Ever. Netherdale is the name of the north England area, with a stately a manor containing an old Abbey and delightful woods, but the focus of the story is the children of the village of Netherfield, and one family in particular. The children of widower Doctor Waters, Morris and Betty are somewhat at war, despite the best efforts of their disabled and orphaned cousin David. There is something of a battle of the sexes going on, because the boys of the village, under their inspired leader Jack, have set up a Guild - the Oak Tree Guild Assembly, with lofty ideals. It's so-called democratic make-up is immediately challenged by the fact that only boys aged 12 and over need apply. The girls quickly learn of it, and under their leader, Phyllis, Betty's chum, make their indignation known.
That's why I checked the publication date of the book, because I couldn't pinpoint when it was set - early twentieth-century, certainly - but it was published a year after single women over 30 gained the franchise in Britain, so suffragism and women's equality were hot topics. Wilson Wilson doesn't refine too much upon it, because the children have a common enemy to fight, and so the girls are soon allowed into the Guild, where, working in partnership with the boys, they prove their worth.
Newly minted and self-made man, Sir Percy Baker Baker, who amusingly shares the writer's double surname, has just purchased the local big house and surrounding lands, which have always been open to the locals to cut through and go nutting. Trying to build up stocks of game for the house parties by which he intends to impress posh friends, the 'off-comer' puts up boards turning the locals into trespassers, thus turning on custom immemorial and getting the Guild's goat.
His widowed daughter-in-law, an American who married his son, who left money-making to become a missionary of sorts, sees the children's point of view and is worried about Sir Percy's largesse towards her own son (main attribute, an inability to say his 'r's, turning them into 'l's continually and far less adorable to me than everyone in the book found him). She particularly attracts Betty (and her lonesome father) but doesn't take sides too pointedly, smoothing things over, until Teds gets a silly idea into his head, is lost until members of the Guild find him in such a way as to make the Mammon-worshipper mend his ways, while Teds' family extends hugely and Morris and Betty's quarrels will now be sorted out by a 'Momma'.
I've read one other book by TWW, Cousins in Camp, which inhabits a similar world, north Country middle classes, when people sent each other letters instead of phoning to cancel and make arrangements and had plenty of time to play in tennis tournaments. That book suffered from a lack of focus that this one doesn't, and I feel that this is more of a children's book, while the latter felt like a book a family might read out loud together with something for kids and adults. Betty and Morris and co. are lively characters, and David isn't quite too good for this earth, although the references to the dead parents (dear little mother?) were rather sentimental. It's got a moral lesson and a religious outlook, but the kids get into mixed scrapes and are likeable. I chuckled like I was meant to and enjoyed it on the whole.
Edited for typos and to close tags(!) 29/5/10.
Netherdale For Ever: Theodora Wilson Wilson. The Swarthmore Press Ltd.
Five minutes Googling tells me that Wilson Wilson (yes, really) was a radical, pacifist Quakeress. All her books were published in the twentieth century, She lived from c1865 to 1941, and Netherdale For Ever was published in 1919. There's a reason I looked that last fact up. (I'm not sure whether my copy is that old, and that's not the reason).
I think I may be beginning to give the impression that I have a Cupernol approach to titles, that is, I want stories to do what it says on the tine what they say in the title, and this doesn't. I keep wanting to call it Netherfield For Ever. Netherdale is the name of the north England area, with a stately a manor containing an old Abbey and delightful woods, but the focus of the story is the children of the village of Netherfield, and one family in particular. The children of widower Doctor Waters, Morris and Betty are somewhat at war, despite the best efforts of their disabled and orphaned cousin David. There is something of a battle of the sexes going on, because the boys of the village, under their inspired leader Jack, have set up a Guild - the Oak Tree Guild Assembly, with lofty ideals. It's so-called democratic make-up is immediately challenged by the fact that only boys aged 12 and over need apply. The girls quickly learn of it, and under their leader, Phyllis, Betty's chum, make their indignation known.
That's why I checked the publication date of the book, because I couldn't pinpoint when it was set - early twentieth-century, certainly - but it was published a year after single women over 30 gained the franchise in Britain, so suffragism and women's equality were hot topics. Wilson Wilson doesn't refine too much upon it, because the children have a common enemy to fight, and so the girls are soon allowed into the Guild, where, working in partnership with the boys, they prove their worth.
Newly minted and self-made man, Sir Percy Baker Baker, who amusingly shares the writer's double surname, has just purchased the local big house and surrounding lands, which have always been open to the locals to cut through and go nutting. Trying to build up stocks of game for the house parties by which he intends to impress posh friends, the 'off-comer' puts up boards turning the locals into trespassers, thus turning on custom immemorial and getting the Guild's goat.
His widowed daughter-in-law, an American who married his son, who left money-making to become a missionary of sorts, sees the children's point of view and is worried about Sir Percy's largesse towards her own son (main attribute, an inability to say his 'r's, turning them into 'l's continually and far less adorable to me than everyone in the book found him). She particularly attracts Betty (and her lonesome father) but doesn't take sides too pointedly, smoothing things over, until Teds gets a silly idea into his head, is lost until members of the Guild find him in such a way as to make the Mammon-worshipper mend his ways, while Teds' family extends hugely and Morris and Betty's quarrels will now be sorted out by a 'Momma'.
I've read one other book by TWW, Cousins in Camp, which inhabits a similar world, north Country middle classes, when people sent each other letters instead of phoning to cancel and make arrangements and had plenty of time to play in tennis tournaments. That book suffered from a lack of focus that this one doesn't, and I feel that this is more of a children's book, while the latter felt like a book a family might read out loud together with something for kids and adults. Betty and Morris and co. are lively characters, and David isn't quite too good for this earth, although the references to the dead parents (dear little mother?) were rather sentimental. It's got a moral lesson and a religious outlook, but the kids get into mixed scrapes and are likeable. I chuckled like I was meant to and enjoyed it on the whole.
Edited for typos and to close tags(!) 29/5/10.