REVIEW: The Far Distant Oxus

[feather_ghyll]

The Far Distant Oxus: Katharine Hull and Pamela Whitlock. Jonathan Cape, 1937 (fourth edition)

I’ve been keeping a look out for this book since hearing the story of two teenage girls who were inspired to write a story by Arthur Ransome’s 'Swallows and Amazons' series, and who not only succeeded but got it published.

Comments

[callmemadam]

It's interesting to read your take on this book, coming to it for the first time. I've read the first three books in the series and like the first best.

Pamela Whitlock was at one time editor of Young Elizabethan magazine, which JourneyLeaf unsurprisingly didn't find out. Try Googling and you'd see why.

[feather_ghyll]

I imagine I'd have had a different response if I'd come across the book at the same time that I did the Swallows and Amazons series and was revisiting it.

I thought until I Googled that you were hinting at a scandal. What I did find was that her stint as editor was mentioned as an aside.

[callmemadam]

Oops, sorry. I just meant it was a little known fact and quite hard to find out.