2014 has been a significant year for Bernard Ashley.
It was 40 years ago that his first novel, The Trouble With Donovan Croft, was published.
And Orchard Books celebrated the 15th anniversary of Little Soldier by reissuing it with a new cover design, at the same time as publishing a brand new novel, set during WW1, Shadow Of The Zeppelin.
How About: Two Reissues? Flambards + The Edge of the Cloud
Flambards and The Edge of the Cloud by K. M. Peyton were both reissued and rejacketed by Oxford Children’s Books this year.
First published in the late 1960s and set around the period of WW1, this pair of novels will appeal to readers who fancy a change of tempo and mood from brash contemporary teen fiction. They can also be appreciated by adults who enjoy reading Edwardian period fiction filled with horse riding and plane flying. Peyton’s writing is immaculate. The second book was awarded the Carnegie Medal.
A third Flambards novel appeared soon after, and a fourth title a few years later.
In an excellent recent Guardian feature, it was said: “There are shades of Downton Abbey in Peyton’s sweep from the top of the social scale to the bottom…”
Here is a chronological list of her titles:
- Sabre, the Horse from the Sea – 1947
- The Mandrake, A Pony – 1949
- Crab the Roan – 1953
- North to Adventure – 1959
- Stormcock Meets Trouble – 1961
- The Hard Way Home – 1962
- Windfall – 1963
- Brownsea Silver – 1964
- The Maplin Bird – 1964
- The Plan for Birdsmarsh – 1965
- Thunder in the Sky – 1966
- Flambards – 1968
- The Edge of the Cloud – 1969
- Flambards in Summer – 1969
- Pennington’s Seventeenth Summer – 1970
- Fly-by-Night – 1971
- The Beethoven Medal – 1972
- A Pattern of Roses – 1972
- Pennington’s Heir – 1974
- The Team – 1975
- The Right-Hand Man – 1977
- Prove Yourself A Hero – 1978
- A Midsummer Night’s Death – 1978
- Marion’s Angels – 1979
- The Flambards Trilogy – 1980
- Flambards Divided – 1981
- Dear Fred – 1982
- Going Home – 1982
- Who, Sir? Me, Sir ? – 1983
- The Last Ditch – 1983
- Pennington– A Trilogy – 1984
- Frogett’s Revenge – 1985
- The Sound of Distant Cheering – 1986
- Downhill All the Way – 1988
- Plain Jack – 1988
- Who Sir, Me Sir ? – 1988
- Skylark – 1989
- Darkling – 1990
- No Roses Round The Door – 1990
- Late To Smile – 1992
- Poor Badger – 1992
- The Boy Who Wasn’t There – 1992
- The Wild Boy and Queen Moon – 1993
- Mr. Brown – 1995
- The Swallow Tale – 1995
- Snowfall – 1996
- The Pony That Went to Sea – 1997
- Windy Webley – 1997
- Unquiet Spirits – 1997
- Danger Offshore – 1998
- Firehead – 1998
- Swallow Summer – 1998
- Swallow the Star – 1998
- Blind Beauty – 1999
- Pony Stories – 1999
- The Paradise Pony – 1999
- The Pied Piper – 1999
- The Scruffy Pony – 1999
- Horses – 2000
- Pony In The Dark– 2001
- Stealaway – 2001
- Small Gains – 2003
- Greater Gains – 2005
- Blue Skies And Gunfire – 2006
- Minna’s Quest – 2007
- No Turning Back – 2008
- Far From Home – 2008
Guardian Review
Stay Where You Are & Then Leave by John Boyne, reviewed by Tony Bradman
Bradman has a number of quibbles and reservations about John Boyne’s new First World War novel, but ends on a positive note.
Early on, we are told that Alfie had often heard Prime Minister Asquith’s name "on the wireless", which would have been difficult in 1914 as the BBC only started broadcasting in 1922. Some of the dialogue feels anachronistic: I don’t think anyone in 1918 would have said "a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do". That cliche – both the phrase and the hackneyed, John Wayne ideal of masculine courage it aims to encapsulate – came out of Hollywood in the 1950s.
And yet my final verdict is positive. Stay Where You Are and Then Leave has its faults, but ultimately it is a good, solid, engaging read that manages to avoid too much sentimentality. That won’t be true of many of the first world war books heading our way next year.
via Stay Where You Are & Then Leave – review | Books | The Guardian.