Pamela Whitlock (1920–1982)

As a kid, this was one of my very favorite books. I read and re-read it. I don't think I was aware how old it was at the time. It was published in 1937. It was written by two girls, ages 14 and 15, who submitted their manuscript to their favorite author, Arthur Ransome.

I've just finished reading his 'Swallows and Amazons,' which made me think of this book. Having now read both, it's very very clear how blatantly influenced by that book Hull and Whitlock were. This story is an homage to show more Ransome: a version of his story with their own ideal vacation, drawing on their own summer experiences.

Here, the young people are spending their holiday on the moors - with ponies for them to ride and explore. Inspired by the poetry they're read, they transpose an exotic imaginary landscape onto the English countryside, imbuing everything they see with magic.

Unlike in Ransome's book, there's a hint of innocent romance here (involving a tall, dark stranger, of course) - which, yes, I appreciated as a girl. But mostly it's memorable for its perfect description of how the love of reading can add richness to everything one experiences on a daily basis. And of course, there're the ponies.

There are two sequels to this book, which I've never had the opportunity to read. I'll give interlibrary loan a shot... show less

Four cousins playing hide and seek at a Christmas party find themselves transported to a storybook kingdom where they are kings and queens. Siblings Rob and Eliza follow fairly conventional routes, he taking on the responsibilities and gravitas of a king, while she prefers more feminine pursuits, eventually discovering talents for nurturing and nursing care. The other children's trajectories are quite extraordinary, the bossy, dominant Charlotte emerging as an intrepid hunter, explorer and show more wartime leader, while introspective Andrew explores the wilderness as a hermit. When the game ends, the dream ends, forcing the children to return to comfortable and privileged but also stuffy and overprotected lives, having gained a measure of self-knowledge and hope for a future in which each will have the freedom to chart a course in life. The desperation of the two outsiders is well-expressed and the authors do not hold back from describing the dangers and losses experienced by those who would break away from the known path. Disturbing portraits of cannibals, with heavy emphasis on ethnic stereotypes date an otherwise engaging story. show less

"Don't be disturbed by The Times review [of this, her first adult novel]. Even the very best of reviewers don't really like packets of seeds they have once upon a time labelled Virginia Stock to turn out something else, particularly if the 'something else' is new and not in the seedsman's catalogue at all.

... I have so far read your book twice and liked it very much and still more the signs of bursting chrysalis. You have again aimed at something all but impossible. But that is just what it show more is so well worth while to do. And although the book is not likely (it seems to me) to gather a huge crowd of readers at once you will find, as times goes on, that more and more people thank you for it, believing that it must have been written for themselves in particular, for their most secret selves. And, as always, there you go spilling fine images in all directions, like a greedy child who has gathered more flowers than she can carry. Lovely images some of them are too, and I am more than ever sure that there are miracles ahead. It is a 'tip-toe' book, like no other, and standing on tip-toe prevents movement and compels your book to be static rather than dynamic. Whe you say the next is 'all story', I wonder if it means that you feel just this and for a change want to be bustled along. Anyhow every book you will write will gain by your having written this one.

Some things puzzled me, chiefly the lack of reading aloud at Pound. Between Queen Victoria's first and second Jubilees, reading aloud by my Mother was the peak of every day. The other difference between your childhood and mine of forty years earlier is that in the nineteen thirties the little victims grew up with some sort of consciousness of the darkling sky, whereas the 1914 war came on us, most suddenly, out of a blue one. (The Boer war, of course, was different altogether and in this comparison does not count. It was one with the Zulus and Fuzzywuzzies and the good untroubled Mr. Henty.)

Let me know more about your new book (unless you think it better to keep it wrapped up and secret) and thank you very much for giving me so much pleasure with this one."

Letter from Arthur Ransome to Pamela Whitlock, 30 March 1952, reproduced in Signalling from Mars : the letters of Arthur Ransome (1997), pp. 335-336. show less

I only just this year discovered that one of my favorite childhood books, 'The Far-Distant Oxus,' had two sequels. Of course, I immediately requested both of them through interlibrary loan.

In this, the third book featuring the Hunterly siblings and their enigmatic friend Maurice (the Clevertons only make an appearance at the very end) we find the children still riding ponies and getting into imaginative adventures on the Exmoor moors.

The events are almost episodic, and include rescuing a show more wild foal, entering a sheep-herding contest, attending an estate auction, participating (well, sort-of) in a scavenger hunt, and more. The writing is vivid and engaging.

However, I'm rating this one lower than the other two, because: a. We never find out anything about Maurice! At all! And b. The book ends in medias res. I mean, it just stops. Just as all the kids are about to do something. I wondered if I was actually missing pages, but after checking carefully, I don't think so. I'm guessing the authors wanted to give an impression of continuing action after the book stops, a kind of 'endless summer'... but it was just too abrupt and disconcerting. show less