The Tiger Who Went to the Moon, by Nancy Spain
Although some of my earliest memories are of being scared by space travel, after seeing an early US attempt to launch a sattelite blowing up on the pad on TV in late 1957, some time in the next couple of years I got interested in the subject, and I remember reading a book at school called The Tiger Who Went to the Moon by Nancy Spain. I think this was when I was still in the infants, so it would have been no later than 1960.
Nancy Spain is an odd enough name that I remembered, but she was also something of a TV personality at the time, so when I saw a news report in 1964 that she had died in a plane crash, I turned to my parents and said, "I've read a book by her." I think my mother looked at me not quite believing it. It was only later I heard that Spain was an out lesbian so maybe that was what worried my mother.
For years, I did wonder if it was the same person. Then, about fifteen years ago, a biography of Spain was published and I saw a copy in a bookshop. So, I had a look in the index, and there was an entry for The Tiger Who Went to the Moon, one of two children's books she wrote in the fifties.
And today, I was going out for a walk and I passed an Oxfam shop. There in the window was a copy of the book, a very tatty first edition, £35. As I was heading up on to the Downs, I didn't want to carry anything with me, but I got back into town before shop shut and bought it. The woman in the shop seemed surprised that I was prepared to pay so much for such a tatty old children's book, but they are a charity, so she wasn't going to refuse to take my money. And the book is sitting next to me now.
Nancy Spain is an odd enough name that I remembered, but she was also something of a TV personality at the time, so when I saw a news report in 1964 that she had died in a plane crash, I turned to my parents and said, "I've read a book by her." I think my mother looked at me not quite believing it. It was only later I heard that Spain was an out lesbian so maybe that was what worried my mother.
For years, I did wonder if it was the same person. Then, about fifteen years ago, a biography of Spain was published and I saw a copy in a bookshop. So, I had a look in the index, and there was an entry for The Tiger Who Went to the Moon, one of two children's books she wrote in the fifties.
And today, I was going out for a walk and I passed an Oxfam shop. There in the window was a copy of the book, a very tatty first edition, £35. As I was heading up on to the Downs, I didn't want to carry anything with me, but I got back into town before shop shut and bought it. The woman in the shop seemed surprised that I was prepared to pay so much for such a tatty old children's book, but they are a charity, so she wasn't going to refuse to take my money. And the book is sitting next to me now.