I wondered if anyone else had read the school stories of Evelyn Smith, writing in the 1920s and someone Forest remembered reading though not one of her favourites? Lovely characterisation. They're republished and on kindle at the moment for £4 or so each. Seven Sisters at Queen Anne's has a few striking turns of phrase and themes which recur in ( Read more... )

Just a quick post about a book on Shakespeare's London that I was told about last night, which might be of interest to readers of the Players books. The Guardian short review:

Part of the Arden Shakespeare series, this fascinating study argues that although Shakespeare rarely wrote about London - none of his plays is set in the city of his own ( Read more... )

Badger books is having their sale: The Marlows and their Maker (£10) and Thursday Kidnapping (£8) are both featured (plus many other school stories).

http://www.badgerbooks.co.uk/books-on-special-offer-45-c.asp

run, and find out!

PS Looks like http://www.marginnotesbooks.com/ are re-issuing The Youngest Lady in Waiting (sequel to Masha this year ( Read more... )

When there was some discussion recently about other favourite authors, Mara Kay was mentioned by at least a couple of people, so thought some might like to know that Margin Notes Books have republished Kay's Masha. I spotted this on Gill Bilski's Facebook page, where she says:

Masha is a school story... but don't be put off by that description. ( Read more... )

We all love AF. But who else did you also love as a child to the extent that you reread their books many times, and still reread them occasionally as a adult. I think we could could also include on our lists books that we only discovered as adults even though they're children's books ( Read more... )

I was watching The Railway Children and the scene where they prevent a train accident by waving their scarlet underwear to stop the train. I immediately thought "Ready Made Family!" I mean the scene where the Marlows and Dodds wave Nicola's yellow jumper to stop the train, after vandals have been mucking with the line ( Read more... )

One of the pleasures of the Marlow novels for a lot of people seems to be finding that they share the characters' tastes in reading. There's only one book that I can remember that I read because I'd seen it mentioned-Brat Farrar, and I can see exactly why it's Ginty's sort of book; the situation is one she might romance about, and then there are ( Read more... )

There’s been a lot of discussion on the girlsown mailing list recently about Marie Dobson and how she is bullied, and Nicola’s character in relation to this. And it’s recently segued into a discussion of how good Antonia Forest is, compared to all authors, not just school story ones. Obviously this is a community of fans, so I’m not really ( Read more... )

I think I've asked this before and nobody came up with any suggestions, but I'm doing another edit and thought I'd try again ( Read more... )

People might be interested in Out of the Attic, a collection of essays about some 'neglected' children's authors, including, natch, a chapter on Antonia Forest, by Hilary Clare based on her talk at the Forest London Day. Other authors discussed include Kitty Barne, Cynthia Harnett and Mary Treadgold. It's published by Pied Piper Publishing and the ( Read more... )