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To a launch party this evening to commemorate Anthony Horowitz's latest Alex Rider book, Crocodile Tears. A lively party held in Anthony's beautiful home, with lots of old friends from the children's books world... Really fun...An advance copy of Crocodile Tears is being avidly read at this moment and a review will appear in our Book of the Week slot on November 30th.
Meantime if you want to hear Anthony talking about the new book, Walker (his publishers) and the Hay Festival have organised an event at London's Apollo Theatre this Saturday - you'll find booking details in the flier on the left. Should be a great event!
Delighted to see that the winners of the 2009 Roald Dahl Funny Prize were announced this afternoon. The two very deserving (very funny) winning books are Sam Lloyd's Mr Pusskins: Best in Show in the picture-book / early-reader category; and Philip Ardagh's Stinking Rich and Just Plain Stinky, the first in the Grubtown Tales series, in the seven-plus category.
I was lucky enough to interview The Great Bearded One Himself a couple of weeks ago, and my piece will appear in the Independent on Sunday this weekend - keep an eye out for it.And Susan will be writing about Grubtown in our Book of the Week slot the week after next (no.39) so be sure to check back here then...
It was at Bosworth field that the red rose of Lancaster finally trod the white rose of York into the blood-sodden English earth. Civil war, one that had lasted for decades, was finally at an end. The repercussions were to last for many years more, not least for those who had changed sides, seeing self-advancement as more important than any loyalty. Cecily's father is one such man, and in the chaotic weeks after Bosworth he flees England, seeking safety in France, but leaving his cosseted daughter behind, given to his sister for safekeeping. Cecily has been kept safe from the world; dressed in rich clothes, veiled, guarded day and night with her every whim catered for until she is nothing but a spoilt, self-centred girl.The day she is abandoned by her father, all that changes. At first she screams and rails against the unfairness of life, but slowly the rhythm of country life takes hold, and her hands turn from lily-white and smooth to nut-brown and skilled. And, as her body comes to learn this new life, her mind breaks free from the chains that held her as the obedient, meek, babyish girl who obeyed her father's every whim and she becomes a young woman who thinks for herself, who understands and relishes her new freedom - and who seizes love when it is offered.This is a wonderful story. History, a sense of place, truly three-dimensional characters and a slow-building love story all combine into an enthralling read. There's adventure too, and a chase on horseback that'll have you biting your nails, breathless for the outcome. But it is the twist in the story's tail that lifts this Mantlemass book above other historical romps. A twist that you really don't see coming...This isn't a new book. Originally published in 1970 it is the first in a series of seven, and it has just been published anew and for a new generation to enjoy. I've fallen in love, and am going to hunt down all the others - hopefully Jane Nissen Books will be re-releasing them soon. Jane Nissen Books' self-advertising reads: "Bringing Classic Children's Books Back into Print". Well, if all her classics are as fresh and readable as this one, then we should all be reading them - every one.Recommended by Leonie Flynn
Next?- Try more from Jane Nissen - the Noel Streatfields are probably the closest to Mantlemass, so (if you haven't already) try the delight of Theatre Shoes. Or if you want more history, try Alison Uttley's A Traveller in Time.
- The closest books in terms feel to the Mantlemass stories (a fabulous sense of place, a deeply affecting love story etc) are K. M. Peyton's Flambards series.
- Or maybe a more recent take on the historical novel? Try something like Mary Hoffman's The Falconer's Knot or Troubadour.
I want to divide this review into two questions: is it a good read and is the book Wrong? Some things are just Wrong. The pub food staple Lasagne-with-chips is a good example. It’s very enjoyable, but clearly as a gastronomic combination it is Wrong. Similarly, having somebody other than the late Douglas Adams writing a Hitchhiker book is Wrong. It is not quite as Wrong as the new Winnie the Pooh book, but nevertheless it is Wrong.If you can come to terms with its Wrongness, it is a jolly enjoyable book. Colfer slips effortlessly into the Hitchhiker style, and is at ease writing that Ford spoke “in a voice so superior it would have caused single-cell life forms to accelerate their evolution so that they could use their fab new opposable thumbs to pick up a rock and beat him to death”.It is not as good as the best of the previous five books in the trilogy (the first one, obviously) but it is certainly better than the worst. The one part of the style he cannot match is Adams’s extraordinary ideas. He has nothing in the same league as the infinite improbability drive, the restaurant at the end of the universe or even the Somebody Else’s Problem invisibility device. The quality of the writing will come as no surprise to anybody who has read Artemis Fowl, so the question I am left with is whether I would have enjoyed a new volume from Colfer aimed at slightly older audiences featuring new characters any more than I enjoyed this book. At least it wouldn’t have been Wrong.Recommended by Anthony Reuben
It’s tough to re-imagine a classic. Even tougher when that classic has images already firmly established in the popular imagination. Artists as diverse as Aubrey Beardsley, Édouard Manet, Gustave Doré and John Tenniel have illustrated versions of the Gothic and grim stories. Filmmakers too have tried to put Poe’s words into images – the British Hammer Horror series being particularly fond of filming them (often starring Vincent Price). The Alan Parsons Project made a concept album based on them, The Simpsons TV show has referred to Edgar Allan Poe at least four times in different episodes and more books than there’s room for here have referenced either Poe or one of his stories. So how do you approach such a well-worn subject and make it fresh? The answer, according to Gris Grimly, is to turn up the gruesome button and re-create the stories as half-text half-graphic novel.Having wondered whether a name such as ‘Gris Grimly’ could in fact be real (hmm...), and then subsequently pondered if, having been born with (or created) such a name, illustrating Poe was a foregone conclusion (and working with Neil Gaiman – they collaborated on The Dangerous Alphabet) I checked out his website – well worth doing, though quite adult (bet that put you off...) – and found that maybe it was. Though whether sent by fate or accident it has to be admitted that this is a match made in Heaven (or possibly Hell, of course).Gore, blood, dismembered limbs, misery, corpses, coffins and madness – they’re all here; in the words of Poe and in Grimly's gloriously anarchic and bloody illustrations. If you have a taste for the macabre, love being scared, and think Darren Shan is ideal bedtime reading, go and find a copy of this – you’ll relish every page.Recommended by Leonie FlynnNext? - More Poe – the complete Tales of Mystery and Imagination are fabulously chilling reading. Look out for the ones illustrated by other authors too – the one by Arthur Rackham is brilliant.
- Or some Darren Shan? The closest to this in terms of splatter is undoubtedly The Demonata, starting with Lord Loss.
- Or more classic illustrated horror? Try The Tomb of Dracula by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Gene Colan.
Like everyone else I know, I was secretly wanting not to like this book. Self-righteous indignation is so much fun, after all. How could they have allowed such a thing?! A sequel to Winnie the Pooh? Outrageous! And yes, having read it I am still slightly outraged at the very idea of the thing (who do these people think they are?... Winnie the Pooh is MINE and I haven't authorised this...) But I have to confess, grudgingly, that Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is lovely.Christopher Robin is back home from school for the summer, just a little bit more grown-up than last time we saw him. But the friends he is reunited with in the Hundred Acre Wood have not, fortunately, grown up at all. Everyone we remember and love is there - Kanga and Roo, bouncy Tigger, Rabbit and Owl (WOL), Eeyore, Piglet, and, of course, the "silly old bear" himself, Winnie the Pooh. Over the summer they learn to play cricket, Owl tries to write a book, Rabbit tries to organise a census, and together they manage to find a solution to the drought that has left them all hot and uncomfortable, especially their new friend Lottie, an otter, the latest addition to the group.Return... has some good and very AAMilneish jokes, it has very sweet, tender moments too, and much of the tone feels just right and wonderfully familiar. The pictures too, with just an occasional quibble, are very much of a piece with Shepard's originals, and they help to make us feel at home in this book too.Inevitably not everything about it is perfect, not every word is on target, and however sweet it lacks the imaginative originality of Milne's books; but though it invites comparisons to the Milnes, that's hardly a fair measure of success (yes, it may be found wanting when seen against the Milnes, but really, what wouldn't?). A brave endeavour, and a delightfully successful one on the whole. There can't be many who would not be charmed by this book. (Yes, Eeyore, even you...)
Recommended by Daniel Hahn
Meg Rosoff’s first novel, How I Live Now, burst onto the scene to a shower of praise, winning a multitude of awards and establishing Rosoff as a major voice in the teen literature market. Her new book, The Bride’s Farewell is written in the same assured hand and with the same attention to detail, but instead of taking place in the present or near future, as in her previous novels, it takes the reader back in time to join a Victorian spirited heroine on a journey that will change the course of her life.Pell used to think that she'd like to marry Birdie, the boy next door, with whom she shared many childhood hours at both work and play. But when the time comes, Pell realises that all that Birdie can offer her is a miserable future as a housebound mother and wife, and so she steals away on the morning of her wedding, accompanied by her loyal horse Jack and, to her displeasure, her mute younger brother Bean. She leaves behind a drunken fundamentalist father, a broken mother and a handful of sisters who she assures herself will get by without her.Pell's bid for freedom takes her on a treacherous path. She loses both her companions early on due to a swindling horse trader, and is reduced to near starvation as she scavenges on her way to reclaim all that was lost to her. Enter Dogman, a dark and brooding poacher, with whom she develops a relationship of sorts until she is ready to face the road, and the consequences of her actions, again. As I read the book I was constantly reminded of both Thomas Hardy, the late-19th century novelist, famous for his vivid descriptions of rural England and the doomed characters inhabiting it; and, in the character of Dogman especially, D.H Lawrence’s Oliver Mellors, better known as Lady Chatterley’s Lover. The Bride’s Farewell captures the Victorian countryside beautifully, in all its glory and misery.
Pell’s affinity with, and deep understanding of horses is convincingly described, and although I am not a horse person myself, I could see the attraction when looking through Pell’s eyes. Pell herself is a great proto-feminist character, and I found myself rooting for her all the way. My only disappointment was the matter-of-factness in which Rosoff treated Pell and Dogman’s relationship. While it was a bond between two none-too-communicative outsiders, I expected Pell’s emancipation to also have a sexual or emotional aspect to it which I felt was underexplored in the novel. Nevertheless, The Bride’s Farewell is a compelling historical novel, obviously written through modern-day eyes, but without compromising on the period details which lend it depth and integrity. Fans will not be disappointed.
Recommended by Noga Applebaum
Next?- If you haven't read all of Meg Rosoff's other books, try her first, How I Live Now; and then go on to Just in Case and What I Was.
- I mentioned Thomas Hardy and D.H Lawrence, and therefore I recommend checking out their novels, many of which belong to the cannon of great European literature. My favourites are Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd, and Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, though Lady Chatterley’s Lover is also a good racy read which I very much enjoyed in my late teens.
Delighted to see that the winners of the 2009 Roald Dahl Funny Prize were announced this afternoon. The two very deserving (very funny) winning books are Sam Lloyd's Mr Pusskins: Best in Show in the picture-book / early-reader category; and Philip Ardagh's Stinking Rich and Just Plain Stinky, the first in the Grubtown Tales series, in the seven-plus category.
I was lucky enough to interview The Great Bearded One Himself a couple of weeks ago, and my piece will appear in the Independent on Sunday this weekend - keep an eye out for it.
It was at Bosworth field that the red rose of Lancaster finally trod the white rose of York into the blood-sodden English earth. Civil war, one that had lasted for decades, was finally at an end. The repercussions were to last for many years more, not least for those who had changed sides, seeing self-advancement as more important than any loyalty. Cecily's father is one such man, and in the chaotic weeks after Bosworth he flees England, seeking safety in France, but leaving his cosseted daughter behind, given to his sister for safekeeping. Cecily has been kept safe from the world; dressed in rich clothes, veiled, guarded day and night with her every whim catered for until she is nothing but a spoilt, self-centred girl.
I want to divide this review into two questions: is it a good read and is the book Wrong? Some things are just Wrong. The pub food staple Lasagne-with-chips is a good example. It’s very enjoyable, but clearly as a gastronomic combination it is Wrong. Similarly, having somebody other than the late Douglas Adams writing a Hitchhiker book is Wrong. It is not quite as Wrong as the new Winnie the Pooh book, but nevertheless it is Wrong.
It’s tough to re-imagine a classic. Even tougher when that classic has images already firmly established in the popular imagination. Artists as diverse as Aubrey Beardsley, Édouard Manet, Gustave Doré and John Tenniel have illustrated versions of the Gothic and grim stories. Filmmakers too have tried to put Poe’s words into images – the British Hammer Horror series being particularly fond of filming them (often starring Vincent Price). The Alan Parsons Project made a concept album based on them, The Simpsons TV show has referred to Edgar Allan Poe at least four times in different episodes and more books than there’s room for here have referenced either Poe or one of his stories. So how do you approach such a well-worn subject and make it fresh? The answer, according to Gris Grimly, is to turn up the gruesome button and re-create the stories as half-text half-graphic novel.
Like everyone else I know, I was secretly wanting not to like this book. Self-righteous indignation is so much fun, after all. How could they have allowed such a thing?! A sequel to Winnie the Pooh? Outrageous! And yes, having read it I am still slightly outraged at the very idea of the thing (who do these people think they are?... Winnie the Pooh is MINE and I haven't authorised this...) But I have to confess, grudgingly, that Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is lovely.
Meg Rosoff’s first novel, How I Live Now, burst onto the scene to a shower of praise, winning a multitude of awards and establishing Rosoff as a major voice in the teen literature market. Her new book, The Bride’s Farewell is written in the same assured hand and with the same attention to detail, but instead of taking place in the present or near future, as in her previous novels, it takes the reader back in time to join a Victorian spirited heroine on a journey that will change the course of her life.
