Tag Archives: Girls Gone By Publishers

Christmas Term at Vernley by Margaret Biggs

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Christmas Term at Vernley by Margaret Biggs was first published by Blackie in 1951, but I read a 2012 reprint by Girls Gone By Publishers. It has a few black and white illustrations by W. Spence.

I enjoyed this one despite it not really having anything to do with Christmas, it’s just mentioned in passing close to the end of the book.

It begins at the home of Judy and Philippa (Phil) Fraser right at the end of the school holidays. Their two brothers are also at home and they’re preparing to go back to their boarding school too.

Vernley, in common with most schools has been split up into two ‘houses’ called Raleigh and Drake. Both Judy and Phil are in Drake which is regarded as the rather useless house, they’re the duffers. They never get enough points to win the end of year cup and they’re getting a bit despondent about it. Everyone in Drake is pessimistic about the situation which is half of the problem. They just don’t have the confidence that they can do as well as Raleigh at anything, and Raleigh in turn have a sense of entitlement and superiority.

In the past Phil has been a big part of the problem as she is a bit of a harum scarum and her exploits have led to Drake having points deducted. She’s constantly ‘turning over a new leaf’, but she just can’t help herself so gets into trouble again and again. Her eldest brother John thinks that Drake’s dire record is a bit of a slur on the family name and has a bet with Judy that Phil can sort herself out this time and help Drake to win the cup. She just needs to be encouraged.

This is the first book I’ve read by Margaret Biggs and I was particularly impressed with her dialogue between the schoolgirls. It all seems very authentic to me, with plenty of cheeky banter going on between the girls.  There were a couple of hockey matches which seemed long to me,  I was never keen on hockey, but no doubt if you were an enthusiastic hockey player in your schooldays then that would be a plus for you.

 

Henrietta’s House by Elizabeth Goudge

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Henrietta’s House by Elizabeth Goudge is another reprint from Girls Gone By Publishers. I enjoyed this one more than her book Smoky-House which I read fairly recently. The book was originally published in 1942 and it’s a sort of fantasy. At the beginning of the book the ten year old Henrietta is excitedly waiting at a railway station for the arrival of a train carrying her adopted brother Hugh Anthony. He’s a bit of a handful, older than Henrietta and has been sent to boarding school in an attempt to make him more civilised. The setting is Torminster, a cathedral city which was apparently based on Wells.

Most of the tale takes place over one afternoon. It’s Hugh Anthony’s birthday and he’s having a birthday picnic with some relatives and adult friends. The setting is the forest and the various guests are making their way there in separate vehicles, mainly horse drawn carriages – a victoria, a landau, a governess cart and one car which has shocked the country folk and would terrify the horses. They split up and everyone gets lost on the way to the forest, some even ending up underground. During the journeys the characters of them all are improved as they realise what the important things in life really are. This book was just a bit too churchy for my liking, I suspect that that will be the same with all Goudge’s books, but it definitely has its charming moments.

For me this one was very much of its time with heavy emphasis on the food being prepared for the picnic. Well if food is strictly rationed as it was in the UK during World War 2 and right into the 1950s, people fantasised about what they couldn’t have, and feasts featured heavily in books of that era, especially children’s books such as C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series.

Smoky-House by Elizabeth Goudge

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Smoky-House by Elizabeth Goudge was first published in 1940 but my copy is a 2020 reprint by Girls Gone By Publishers. This book involves smuggling along the Devon coast in the early 19th century and it has elements of a fairy tale/fantasy.

The tale begins in the village of Faraway where the five Treguddick children live with their father in Smoky-House, an old tavern. Father is the landlord. Faraway is apparently the happiest of places, it’s in England’s West Country which is a part of the world so beautiful that the people who live in it are always happy. The Treguddick’s mother is dead, but as they feel so close to heaven even that isn’t so sad as she feels close to them. However, aged 17, Jessamine the eldest girl has taken over the motherly duties.

When a stranger arrives at the tavern he brings with him an oppressive atmosphere and has a strange twist to his lips. The dogs bark at him, but the stranger is a wonderful fiddler and everyone loves his music. But still those dogs aren’t happy!

There’s smuggling involved which is a popular theme I think, but the most enjoyable part of this book is the animal characters who speak to each other and are much more sensible than the humans.

I was slightly perturbed by the ending which I think is in some ways quite a dangerous idea for children to read because the author seemed to be implying that if you are kind to a nasty person then they will give up their evil ways – which is of course rarely if ever true. In that respect this tale is the opposite of a traditional fairy tale as most of them were designed to be a warning to children.

These Girls Gone By Publishers reprint paperbacks are really lovely editions with lots of additional information about the book’s publishing history as well as Elizabeth Goudge’s life.