Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner...

That I love books about London! 

Image: foyles.co.uk

Catherine Johnson's A Nest of Vipers is a thrilling adventure story set in a lawless and brutal 18th Century London. Young Cato Hopkins is being brought up by a gang of "coney catchers", confidence tricksters overseen by Mother Hopkins, who claims that she bought Cato from Newgate Gaol for a few pennies. The Hopkins "family" (Addy, who can pass as a boy and part fools from their money at cards; beautiful Bella, who has been parted from lovelorn young aristocrats at the altar- for a price; escaped slave Sam and Cato, who has been sold into slavery, but can crack any lock going, especially if there is something valuable on the other side of the lock) are famous among the London Underworld, and live at the Nest of Vipers pub east of Drury Lane, London. They pride themselves on only conning those deserving the con, especially slave traders.

But things are getting too hot for them in London, and Mother Hopkins is ageing. She has a dream to retire to Bath. Bella wants to marry Jack, who with Sam is in the Sedan chair business, and want to go straight. And surely Addy can't pass as a convincing boy much longer? In order to buy a house, Mother Hopkins plans one last con trick. But when she involves proud Quarmy, the son of a West African king, his unfamiliarity with their cons and his love-sickness for his former tutor's daughter may prove the family's undoing...

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is framed at the beginning and the end with Cato in Newgate, dictating his story to the Ordinary, the gaol's chaplain. More detail about Ordinary's accounts can be found on the Old Bailey Online website. The historical detail is rich: accounts of London pubs, coffee shops, pie shops and the houses of the wealthy is finely drawn, and never overwhelms the pot, which rushes along like an 18th Century episode of Hustle. The use of thieve's cant also enriches the story (as it does, for example, in Georgette Heyer) and since Cato is often reproved for using it, it adds to the authenticity but doesn't make the dialogue less comprehensible for young readers. Like the best sorts of historical fiction, we are able to enter the world of a young Black boy in 18th Century London, learning more about his times and also about why our world is the way it is. Highly recommended for 9+.

I reviewed Catherine Johnson's Brave New Girl here. She's a fabulous writer; make sure you read her in 2013!

Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff

Image: bookdepository.co.uk

This month's theme from Playing by the Book's "I'm looking for a book about..." carnival is disability. Of course, it is a very appropriate theme given the wonderful closing ceremony of the awe-inspiring Paralympics was yesterday. I am very proud that my city has been the host to this and the Olympics, and has welcomed athletes and visitors from all over the world with the humour and creativity our beautiful city is famous for.

When Zoe announced that this month's theme would be disability, I immediately thought of Rosemary Sutcliff's  Warrior Scarlet. It is the story of Bronze Age Drem, who is 9 at the start of the novel. He lives with his mother, brother, grandfather and his foster sister Brai in a village on the South Downs. Drem is expecting to join the Boy's House, train as a warrior and earn his Warrior Scarlet cloak by killing a wolf. However, Drem has been born with a withered right arm. Overhearing his grandfather's doubts about his ability to kill the wolf and fully become a man, Drem runs away, but meets Talore the one handed hunter who convinces him that if he use a bow and arrow, he must learn to throw a spear so well that others forget that he doesn't do so by choice:

"If the thing is worth the fight, fight for it... There are ways- ways round, and ways through, and ways over"

Drem does indeed learn to throw a spear, to ride and to fight, and he joins the boys' house. However, his path to manhood and his warrior scarlet is not straight forward or easy, and he does indeed both fight for it and find ways round, through and over.

I am a huge Rosemary Sutcliff fan. Her books lyrically and vividly evoke history, and I would certainly credit them with my love of visiting historical sites. Her research was impeccable, as The Independent noted in her obituary in 1992. She contracted a form of rheumatoid arthritis as a child and used a wheelchair for much of her adult life. She wrote sensitively about disability in several of her novels, both from the point of view of her characters and partly about the often cruel behaviour towards disability in the societies she wrote about.

Warrior Scarlet is perhaps my favourite of her novels. I love that Drem's character is influenced by his disability, but it is not informed by it. In many children's books, a period of disability is a test that characters must go through in order to become better people (such as Katy in What Katy Did or Deenie in Deenie) or disabled characters have special powers (Percy Jackson in Rick Riordan's novels who has dyslexia and ADHD but is the son of a God), but for Drem, his disability is something that he must learn to manage in order to become a functioning part of his society. The adjustments that he makes and ultimately the concessions that his tribe makes allows him to do this, and after all, isn't that what the able-bodied world should be doing with people with disabilities? Shouldn't that be our Paralympic legacy?

Life in Wartime

Last weekend I went to the fascinating Churchill War Rooms. It is a fascinating, claustrophobic place, showing the difficulties the men and women of Churchill's staff worked through (not least working with the famously irascible Churchill!) I thoroughly recommend it. It made me think about novels to support children's empathy with people living through the war.

Books such as the amazing Goodnight Mr Tom, Carrie's War and The Machine Gunners need no introduction, and Niamh's guest post on Out of Hitler's Time needs no addition. However, there are two other books I'd like to mention for teachers or parents who would like a story to help develop children's understanding of Britain during World War Two.

Image: hive.co.uk

Lenny Levy's father has gone to war. Before he leaves, he gives his son a brass badge with the lion and unicorn, symbols of Britain. Missing his dad, the badge comforts Lenny through the bombing of London. Then he is evacuated to the country, to a big house, where he is the only Jewish child and the only boy. He also wets the bed, and is teased for it. But he finds a walled garden with a unicorn statue, where a wounded soldier called Mick helps him understand that there are different kinds of bravery.

This is a beautiful picture book, a format often (erroneously, in my opinion) thought appropriate for younger children. It is best suited to 7+, and I think that the period detail in the illustrations would help children empathise with Lenny missing his parents and feeling unwelcome in a new environment. It is a book that I would definitely give to 9+ children learning about World War 2, and also those facing difficulties settling into a new environment. 

Image: hive.co.uk

In present day London, Mallie Kelly takes an after-school job in a pet shop so that she can buy her mother a present. Sarah Kelly, Mallie's mother, is an artist who no longer in love with art. The book alternates Mallie's story with that of Tony and Alice, two children who are evacuated to the Lake District during the war. Mallie and Tony's stories become intertwined as the novel progresses, coming together over a drawing of a girl with a rabbit. Adult fans of children's literature may be able to predict the twist, but I doubt child readers would. It's a great book for 8+. I think it would help children realise that people live through a number of historical eras- in this case, the story covers figures from the late nineteenth century to the present day. I loved it! It is published by the wonderful Frances Lincoln, notable for their commitment to celebrating cultural diversity. I recommend exploring their list of picture books in particular. 

The time is now

This week I have read two wonderful novels that have made me think carefully about time and history. Coincidentally Susan Cooper and Penelope Lively were recently honoured for their work, Susan Cooper with the Margaret A Edwards Award for significant and lasting contribution for young adult literature for Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series and Penelope Lively was made a Dame in the New Year's Honours list.

Image: books.simonandschuster.ca

I have written already about my love for The Dark is Rising, the second book Susan Cooper's wonderful series. I also loved The Boggart. However I haven't read any of her other books, so when I saw this review on @chaletfan's blog I made sure I got hold of King of Shadows. I found it a wonderfully affecting read. In 1999 13 year old Nathan Field from South Carolina has been recruited to join a troupe of American boy actors who travel to London to appear in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the recently-opened Globe theatre on the South Bank of the Thames. Nathan is an unhappy boy. He has recently lost his father in traumatic circumstances. In London, he is lodging with a family and enjoying himself at the theatre, when he suddenly becomes dangerously ill. He is rushed to hospital, but when he wakes up, he is in London of 1599, on loan to Shakespeare's Lord Chamberlain's Men from St Paul's school, to play Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream on request from Queen Elizabeth 1. He has switched places with an Elizabethan boy actor, also named Nathan Field. You can see his portrait at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. 

Image: dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

The atmosphere, smells, political intrigue and casual cruelty of Elizabethan London is evoked brilliantly by Cooper. I really enjoyed the theatre details, both modern and Elizabethan, and the relationship between Shakespeare and Nathan is beautifully touching. The only aspect of the novel that didn't quite work for me was the exposition at the end; I would have preferred some mystery about the time slip. 

Image: fantasticfiction.co.uk

Mair and Peter Jenkins have just moved from Wales to the Cotswold village of Charlton Underwood. The children make friends with farmer's daughter Betsy Tranter, whose family have lived at World's End farm for generations. The woods around the farm hold a secret: they used to be the location of the village of Astercote, which was wiped out by the Black Death in the fourteenth century. The Jenkins family lives on the new estate, but the village is inhabited by families who have lived there as long as the Tranters. World's End Farm has another secret: it is the hiding place of a Mediaeval gold chalice, which is guarded by Goacher, a mysterious man who may or may not have survived the Black Death. But when Goacher and the chalice disappear, Betsy is taken ill with mumps and white chalk crosses start to appear on the houses of villagers with illnesses, Mair and Peter realise that they must find Goacher and the chalice to stop the village from cutting itself off, as it did in the 14th century.

Both novels make great use of history, but in slightly different ways. In novels by Penelope Lively (who studied History at Oxford) history seems to appear in layers over the landscape; here and there the new layers are thin so that the older layers seep through; in this, her first novel, the veneer of modernity is thin even with the inhabitants of the village. Once the chalice disappears, the deeper layers of superstition are visible. Mair, who as Evadne the district nurse identifies is in the pre-adolescent stage of dreaminess and empathy with the place, is able to imagine herself into the position both of the villagers and of Goacher, and is the key to putting things to rights.

In King of Shadows the history of place is significant, but also the emotional state of Shakespeare, mourning the death of his son Hamnet, and Nathan, mourning the death of his father. While reading this novel, which makes wonderful use of Shakespeare's words, both A Midsummer Night's Dream and Sonnet 116, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds/ Admit impediments...", I also was reminded of the opening lines of L. P. Hartley's The Go-Between: "The past is foreign country; they do things differently there". In Lively's work, the past is not foreign; it co-exists with the present, and the future, and this palimpsest approach is what makes her novels so rich and fascinating. I would recommend both these novels for confident readers of 9+.

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

This week it has been Chinese New Year. Coincidentally, I have recently finished reading a novel set in 12th Century China by the wonderful Geraldine McCaughrean, who has won numerous awards and was chosen to write the official sequel of Peter Pan (the rights are owned by Great Ormond Street Hospital for sick children), Peter Pan in Scarlet.

Image: Goodreads.com

12 year old Haoyou lives in 13th century China with his mother, father and little sister Wawa. After Haoyou witnesses the death of his father in an accident at the hands of Di Chou, the brutal First Mate of a ship, he joins the Jade Circus as a kite rider to make enough money to prevent his mother from being forced into marriage with Di Chou by his greedy great uncle Bo. Haoyou and his cousin Mipeng, who is posing as a medium, travel with the circus as far as Xanadu, the summer palace of the conquering Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. 

This novel combines vivid descriptions of China and Confucian beliefs with amazing evocations of the excitement and terror of flight, and Haoyou's longing to communicate with the spirit of his father. The supporting characters are vividly drawn and I particularly enjoyed Mipeng; this is a clever use of the unreliable narrator, where the story is told from Haoyou's point of view but the (adult) reader can spot her growing feelings for the owner of the Jade Circus, The Great Miao, who is hiding a secret of his own. 

It strikes me that if I was reading this to a class of children, it would be great to explore some Chinese food and culture. 

• There is a great recipe for wrap your own spring rolls on the BBC Good Food website. 
• You could listen to some of Sa Dingding's (a Chinese pop star compared to Bjork) music. My favourite is Ha Ha Li Li. I have no idea what it means, but I like the epic feel of it.
• You could make a kite. There is a round-up of some instructions for making different types here. Maybe the children could draw a picture of Haoyou to include as a kite rider?

I recommend this book to read to children aged 8+, and for 9+ children to read for themselves. Happy New Year!

Seasonal reading 4: The Thirteen Days of Christmas

Image: LibraryThing.com

In vaguely 17th Century England, the Kitson children (Prudence, James and Christopher) live with their widower father and grown up sister Annaple. Annaple is a distressingly poor cook, but in all other ways mix of the romantic and the bossy. The children try to use her romantic nature to advise the wealthy merchant Francis Vere to woo her; however his initial romantic idea (a partridge in a pear tree) pleases her so much on Christmas Day that he doesn't stop there, and since he is used to buying in bulk the family is soon inundated with livestock and their produce, threatened by the mayor with fines for blocking traffic and are the talk of the town.

This is a fantastic short historical novel. My copy (published 1977) has lovely illustrations by the wonderful Shirley Hughes. The most recent edition is illustrated by Hilda Offen; I haven't seen it, and while her illustrations are not to my taste, the charm of the story would not deter me from buying it. The delight of this story is not just the imaginative explanation of the origin of the carol The Twelve Days of Christmas, but also the inclusion of Christmas traditions and carols such as The Dancing Day carol and Here We Come A-Wassailing. It would be a wonderful book to read to children 7+, a chapter a night from 23rd December (the first chapter is on the Feast of St Nicholas, 6th December, but then there is a gap until Christmas Eve) with the final chapter on The Feast of Three Kings, 6th January, so is a perfect Seasonal Read! If you don't know the wonderful Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band carol albums, they would be be the perfect accompaniment to reading this book. You can find them all on Spotify.

I hope you've enjoyed my seasonal reading suggestions. What are yours?

Norse Code

I love books with maps, don't you? My dad to me every night before I was 11, and I remember three map- filled readings: C.S. Lewis's Narnia books, Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons and sequels, and J.R.R. Tolkein's Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings series, with its fabulous maps of Middle Earth.

Image: fanpop.com

Just about the only thing that could improve Robin McKinley's amazing The Blue Sword would be a map of Damar, so the reader could follow Harry's journey with her.

By some kind of cultural serendipity, as the Guardian has pointed out, several Viking- inspired cultural events and book releases are happening, and I have recently read some amazing books inspired by Vikings, all of which involve journeys and have wonderful maps at the front.

Image: katherinelangrish.com

The very wonderful children of the Big Green Bookshop book club chose the final book in Katherine Langrish's Troll series (published both separately and in one volume as West Of The Moon), Troll Blood. Orphaned Peer Ulfsson has been taken in by his friend Hilde's family, after his adventures with trolls in the first two books has left him without a guardian or a home. One day a Viking ship arrives in the harbour, and the captain, Gunnar, his vain son Harald Silkenhair and Gunnar's strange wife Astrid come to Hilde's house. Hilde is desperate to accompany Astrid on the voyage, and Peer is desperate to be with Hilde, so they (and the house troll, the Nis- similar to a British Hob or Brownie) sail for Vinland. However, Gunnar is haunted by the man he has killed, Harald's temper is becoming more uncontrollable, and what is Astrid's secret?

Katherine Langrish draws on both Norse and Native American mythology to create a wonderful, exciting read. It helps to have read the first two books, but Peer and Hilde's characters develop further in this story, and the setting away from Trollsvik and Troll Fell mean that new readers and old fans of the series are on more of an even footing. It also has a glossary of Norse and Native American mythology and terms.The book club loved this book, and so did I.

Image: waterstones.com

I have recently discovered Kevin Crossley-Holland (I wrote about Arthur: The Seeing Stone here). This is the enthralling story of teenage Solveig, who in 1036 follows her father, the Viking mercenary Halfdan, who has travelled to Miklagard (Istanbul) to become one of the guards of Greek Empress Zoe. This is a time of transition for the Norse people, where the religion of the old Gods is being overtaken by Christianity, and this is one of the challenges that Solveig must face. Interestingly Kevin Crossley-Holland doesn't choose to disguise Solveig as a boy to avoid the inevitable dangers of a teenage girl travelling alone; Solveig must fend off unwelcome attentions; luckily she is protected by both the kindness of fellow travellers and her own intelligence (and as she pays her way by carving ornaments and jewellery, she has a sharp knife with her). Incidentally, The History Girls blog has a great series on crossdressing in historical fiction. I was totally involved in following Solveig's journey from Scandinavia through Russia to Istanbul, and every step of the way wondering whether she would arrive and how, when getting there, she would find her father. This is a magical book, just as good as the Arthur trilogy, and I can't wait to meet Solveig again in the sequel. Reading the story in the afterword of Kevin finding the rune Halfdan in the great church of Hagia Sophia is breathtaking as well.

Image: runemarks.co.uk

"Five hundred years after the End of the World, and the goblins had been at the cellar again..." is one of my favourite opening lines of books I have recently read. (My all-time favourites include "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day" and "I am writing this sitting in the kitchen sink"- if you know which books these come from, comment below, and add your own!) In the opening chapter of Runemarks by Joanne Harris, (best selling author of Chocolat and very entertaining tweeter) 14 year old Maddy is in a cellar. In her post- Ragnarok world (Ragnarok in Norse mythology meaning the end of the world, death of the Gods and rebirth of the world) dreaming, imagination and magic are suspect, mention of the Old Gods is forbidden and a new, puritanical religion, with knowledge confined to a select few, holds sway. Maddy has a mark in the shape of a rune on her hand; the people in her town call it a ruin-mark, a sign of being a witch. Then Maddy meets the traveller One-Eye, who teaches her to use her runemark to cast "glams", or spells. One-Eye, who is Odin much weakened by Ragnarok, involves Maddy in a quest which leads her to meet Loki and other Norse Gods, goblins and race against time to save the world from a second Ragnarok.

Where this books differs from the other in this post is that it is set in a fantasy world, albeit one that strongly resembles Yorkshire, and I enjoyed the incongruity of a Tolkeinesque fantasy without the High Fantasy "Forswear to be my foe, Magrin son of Bagrin" dialogue. Like the incomparable Terry Pratchett, Joanne Harris is able to make fantasy humorous without forgoing satisfying world-building and storytelling. Three great maps, a glossary and character list added to the enjoyment of this book for me.

 I was given AS Byatt's Ragnarok for my birthday, but unfortunately work pressure being what it is I haven't had time to finish it yet: more serendipitous Norse mythology reworking for me to enjoy.

I would recommend Troll Blood to 9+, Bracelet of Bones to 12+ and Runemarks to 11+.

It was the first anniversary of this blog on 12th November. Thanks for reading, and for all the encouragement fellow bloggers and commenters have given me.

What should Louise Mensch read?

Louise Mensch, Conservative MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire and best selling novelist of bodice ripping romance novels under her maiden name, Louise Bagshawe, tweeted her appreciation for the renowned children's/ Young Adult historical novelist Rosemary Sutcliff back in August.



I got into a Twitter conversation with Mensch back then, in which I made very briefly the points I intend to make in this post. In light of what seems to be the thrust of education policy in English and History in the English and Welsh National Curriculum review, I feel that they are still valid three months later.

When I was a child, an avid reader from the age of seven, I read pretty omnivorously, "good" and "bad" books with as I remember it little restriction apart from what was available in my class book corner and local library. Sutcliff was a favourite, as was Geoffrey Trease, Barbara Willard, Cynthia Harnett and especially Leon Garfield. These were established, although still active, writers in the 1970s, when I, and Louise Mensch, were at Primary school. I can't now remember whether an adult suggested that I read these authors (although my mum, who was a teacher, had Barbara Willard's Mantlemass series and Cynthia Harnett's The Wool-Pack on the book shelves), but I read them, and still re-read them with a great deal of enjoyment. I particularly admire Garfield's Gothic creepiness and Sutcliff's unwillingness to let her protagonists off easily in their moral and spiritual dilemmas.

Where I disagree with Mensch is in her assertion that "you don't get children's books like that anymore", which may be a throw away comment, but could also be indicative of a certain political thrust, which I will come to later. So I would like to respectfully suggest some reading to her, as I promised in August. Better late than never!

Image: readingmatters.co.uk

Kevin Crossley-Holland is an author I have shamefully only just encountered, through his wonderful new novel Bracelet of Bones. I picked up a copy of The Seeing Stone, the first in his Arthur trilogy, and I was entranced. First published in 2000, it is the story of 13 year old Arthur de Caldicot, growing up in the Marches between England and Wales in 1199. It is also, via Arthur's "seeing stone", a lump of obsidian, the story of Arthur, son of King Uther and Ygerna, wife of Gorlois of Tintagel, that Arthur de Caldicot can see played out in the stone. Their stories start to reflect each other, and it is through the example of the boy king Arthur in the stone that Arthur de Caldicot comes to terms with conflicts in his own life. The book is beautifully written in the first person, with some chapters less than a page and some longer, but all separated by mediaeval woodcuts. Wonderful.

Image: berliedoherty.com



I first encountered Berlie Doherty during my PGCE; her first novel How Green You Are! was recommended reading. Treason (2011) is the story of Will Montague. In the first harrowing scene, his brother is drowned, although Will is saved by his father. Will's guilt at surviving, knowing that Matthew was his father's favourite son, colours the whole book and explains a good deal about his motivations. Will's family has remained Catholic after Henry VIII cedes from the Catholic church to marry Anne Boleyn; however through his father's sister, Aunt Carew, they have powerful connections. Red-haired Will is offered a place at Hampton Court, as baby Prince Edward's page, but Percy Howard, relative of the powerful Duke of Norfolk, is furious that he was not offered the role and vows to bring Will and his family down. Then his father is denounced as a traitor for not renouncing his Catholic faith, and Will is in terrible danger. With the help of a poor boy called Nick, he must save his father, but who can he trust?

Again written in the first person, this is a  more conventionally structured novel; however the historical background is beautifully evoked, the characters are well drawn (in particular the bloated, ageing, quixotic Henry and ambitious Aunt Carew), and Will is a realistic child hero. I loved the unusually sympathetic portrayal of Anne of Cleves, and a very clever foreshadowing of Katherine Howard's fate.
Highly recommended.

Image: pennydolan.com

Penny Dolan is another new author to me. A Boy Called M.O.U.S.E (2011) starts when Mouse is a toddler. He is growing up in an English country house, looked after by his loving nanny, until his parents are presumed drowned after a shipwreck. Then his uncle Scrope, an unsuccessful gambler, looks jealously at the presumed heir, and Mouse, too young to know his own identity, is taken to live on a farm with the faithful Hanny. However, even here he is not safe; tracked down by the sinister Button, who has a hold over Scrope via his gambling debts, and Mouse is sent to Murkstone Hall, a cross between Dicken's Dotheboys Hall and Hodgson Burnett's Miss Minchin's Seminary. Here Mouse is in turn bullied, neglected and finally set to work in the kitchens, before he escapes and eventually makes his way to an unnamed city, where he finally learns who he is.

This wonderful story is told both in the first person and through a narrator, from a number of perspectives. As Mouse journeys from Murkstone Hall to the City, he falls in with a number of characters: a tramp, a Punch and Judy man, and in the city, two costume makers and their nieces, and Mr Nick Tick, a watch and clock maker. Even the very minor characters feel three-dimensional and they have a purpose in the story. At 449 pages, this is a big book (although not huge on the the Rowling scale), but the chapters are relatively short, and the shifting perspectives retain the reader's interest.

The reason that I thought again about Louise Mensch's tweets was firstly her appearance on UK comedy news programme Have I Got News For You, but also today this news in the Telegraph, which seems to suggest encouragement for state schools to teach more "traditional" texts. I feel that the report is a little disingenuous; after all, there are a number of texts that appear on both lists (Of Mice and Men, hated by me at school, Skellig and Great Expectations), but also the state school list to me seems more varied and interesting (maybe I'm missing the point here!) However, what I would like to point out to Louise Mensch and to the Conservative commentators urging more "classics" on school children is that in the 80s, when I was at Secondary school, A Kestrel for a Knave, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies were considered too "modern", and schools were urged to teach Austen and Dickens. Everything "classic" was "modern" once. Older texts are not necessarily always better than newer texts, and it is foolish to assume, without having read newer books, that they are. I hope that Louise Mensch enjoys these books!

All are suitable for 9-14, although 7 or 8 year olds may enjoy Treason and A Boy Called M.O.U.S.E. read aloud.