The lost books of my childhood
Dec. 3rd, 2006 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustI've been thinking about the books we read as children. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sovay started it, posting a list of books that had influenced her, personally: I don't really know which books influenced me, they all compost down to a rich mulch of bookish goodness. I read everything I could get my hands on, I've forgotten much of it, and when I haven't it may be because a book was particularly good, or because I read and re-read it, or for the opposite reason, that I've wanted to re-read it and haven't been able to find a copy.
These aren't necessarily the best books: I passionately wanted a copy of E. Nesbit's Wet Magic, and when I finally found one, realised it was far from my favourite of her books. I think I'd been hooked by the water theme, however perfunctorily handled, and by the use of Sabrina fair... as an invocation to the mermaid. And there are other books - maybe we'll get to those later - which don't come into this category because they are not lost, and because how ever obscure they may be, I do still have copies of them.
But, for what it's worth, some hazy memories of lost books, in decreasing order of haziness. Which means, I suppose, starting with something whose title I can't remember, nor even whether it was one book or two. Something about white horses (in the sense of sea foam, but which turned into actual horses) and a green door in the wall, through which you go to Somewhere Else...
The Dawn Shops is about a row of shops which are only sometimes there. I don't have great expectations of it: it's by Joyce Lankester Brisley, best know for the Milly Molly Mandy books, about a little girl in a striped frock (her full name was Millicent Margaret Amanda - and the fact that I can tell you this from memory suggests that, however anodyne, these stories had something going for them). She also wrote Marigold in Godmother's House, (good grief! it's been reissued by the admirable Jane Nissen): Marigold stays with her godmother and has magical adventures involving - oh, I remember Godmother making a doll out of a poppy... remains unattainable.
Elinor Lyon wrote a number of books in which families of children had adventures in secret, hidden locations: they would go boating and find a house on an island, say, or there would be a village buried in the sand. I never read the Secret Seven and Famous Five, or the Malcolm Saville books - but there was something about Elinor Lyon. One in particular, Dragon Castle, with a hidden castle (how do you hide a castle?), and a family history to be unravelled, a lost ring and - but the internet tells me that Fidra Books may even reissue it, so I won't spoiler it.
Finally, a book which in some ways is clearest in my mind, because I know chunks of it by heart. It was a gift from an Australian friend of my parents, called Sing a Song of Bushland, and was a large format illustrated book of poems about Australian flora and fauna. Many of them were humorous:
All these books have in common is that I read and loved them as a child, and I remember them now with affection; it's their absence which makes them special. Or perhaps not, perhaps they really are special. I hope some day to find out.
ETA: (3.12.2008) Kapil Thadari identifies the "white hoses / green door" books as part of a series by Ursula Horsley-Smith: White Horses (Guilford Press, London, 1954), Door That Wasn't There (Guilford Press, London, 1956) The Land of No Time (Guilford Press, London, 1957) and Sunset Cottage (Guilford Press, London, 1960) - that sounds plausible, titles and author faintly familiar and the dates about right. Alas, they appear to be pretty much unobtainable.
More recent post.
While I'm here I should also add that Marigold in Godmother's House, while charming, is not the book with the poppy doll, and that Dragon Castle is as good as I remembered: read the first chapter and see for yourself.
sovay started it, posting a list of books that had influenced her, personally: I don't really know which books influenced me, they all compost down to a rich mulch of bookish goodness. I read everything I could get my hands on, I've forgotten much of it, and when I haven't it may be because a book was particularly good, or because I read and re-read it, or for the opposite reason, that I've wanted to re-read it and haven't been able to find a copy. These aren't necessarily the best books: I passionately wanted a copy of E. Nesbit's Wet Magic, and when I finally found one, realised it was far from my favourite of her books. I think I'd been hooked by the water theme, however perfunctorily handled, and by the use of Sabrina fair... as an invocation to the mermaid. And there are other books - maybe we'll get to those later - which don't come into this category because they are not lost, and because how ever obscure they may be, I do still have copies of them.
But, for what it's worth, some hazy memories of lost books, in decreasing order of haziness. Which means, I suppose, starting with something whose title I can't remember, nor even whether it was one book or two. Something about white horses (in the sense of sea foam, but which turned into actual horses) and a green door in the wall, through which you go to Somewhere Else...
The Dawn Shops is about a row of shops which are only sometimes there. I don't have great expectations of it: it's by Joyce Lankester Brisley, best know for the Milly Molly Mandy books, about a little girl in a striped frock (her full name was Millicent Margaret Amanda - and the fact that I can tell you this from memory suggests that, however anodyne, these stories had something going for them). She also wrote Marigold in Godmother's House, (good grief! it's been reissued by the admirable Jane Nissen): Marigold stays with her godmother and has magical adventures involving - oh, I remember Godmother making a doll out of a poppy... remains unattainable.
Elinor Lyon wrote a number of books in which families of children had adventures in secret, hidden locations: they would go boating and find a house on an island, say, or there would be a village buried in the sand. I never read the Secret Seven and Famous Five, or the Malcolm Saville books - but there was something about Elinor Lyon. One in particular, Dragon Castle, with a hidden castle (how do you hide a castle?), and a family history to be unravelled, a lost ring and - but the internet tells me that Fidra Books may even reissue it, so I won't spoiler it.
Finally, a book which in some ways is clearest in my mind, because I know chunks of it by heart. It was a gift from an Australian friend of my parents, called Sing a Song of Bushland, and was a large format illustrated book of poems about Australian flora and fauna. Many of them were humorous:
A rabbit who lived at Menangle(names reconstituted from memory) became the family's traditional commentary on bad hair days. Others were lyrical, like the poem about the black swans, which ended with the sheer wonder of having seen a white swan (a reversal which enchanted me). In one (the last poem in the book?) the speaker asks the ironbark for - for what? Something to build or furnish a doll's house.
Said "Really, my fur's in a tangle.
Should I have a close shave
Or a permanent wave?
Or plait it? Or just let it dangle?"
All these books have in common is that I read and loved them as a child, and I remember them now with affection; it's their absence which makes them special. Or perhaps not, perhaps they really are special. I hope some day to find out.
ETA: (3.12.2008) Kapil Thadari identifies the "white hoses / green door" books as part of a series by Ursula Horsley-Smith: White Horses (Guilford Press, London, 1954), Door That Wasn't There (Guilford Press, London, 1956) The Land of No Time (Guilford Press, London, 1957) and Sunset Cottage (Guilford Press, London, 1960) - that sounds plausible, titles and author faintly familiar and the dates about right. Alas, they appear to be pretty much unobtainable.
More recent post.
While I'm here I should also add that Marigold in Godmother's House, while charming, is not the book with the poppy doll, and that Dragon Castle is as good as I remembered: read the first chapter and see for yourself.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-12-04 01:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-24 10:50 am (UTC)Ursula Horsley-Smith Sunset Cottage and White Horses
Date: 2013-09-30 12:23 pm (UTC)I have a copy of White Horses by Ursula Horsely-Smith that I am looking to sell but preferably trade with someone who has a copy of Sunset Cottage. I am trying to track it down for my mum who mentioned she read it as a child but has been unable to find it in bookstores. During my quest to find it for her I realised how rare it was a 4 years later I have finally obtained my own copy of White Horses that I am hoping I can use to get Sunset Cottage for her. If you have this book and are interested in White Horses please get in touch with me at madalene.giannotta@gmail.com
Thanks!
Mady