callmemadam | Entries tagged with jane shaw

I love Jane Shaw. When I was a child, I had the Susan books which were published by The Children’s Press and read them over and over again, always finding them funny. Susan Pulls the Strings is still on my comfort reading list. Even as a child, I longed to live in the Carmichael’s house, opposite the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Alas, such a house would cost millions today, or I’d move there like a shot. I also had Bernese Adventure and Breton Adventure. Little did I know back then that there were more Susan books, that the ‘Adventures’ had previously been published as ‘Holidays’ nor that there was a third, extremely rare book about Sara and Caroline: Highland Holiday. Plus, a lot more books as well as the short stories which appeared in annuals. So, my collection was made as an adult and a number of the books I have were bought from Australia, which seemed then to be the home of many books it was hard to find here (oh, happy days).
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The weather is foul: day after day of rain, wind and darkness that mean lights on all day. My thoughts turn to bright, frosty days and skating.

I’ve always loved this painting by Raeburn. It’s usually known as ‘The Skating Minister’ but it’s proper title is The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch. The image was used on a British postage stamp in 1973.

Jane Shaw’s Susan was less proficient. This is a late reprint and quite different from the first editions but it is a great sixties image.

( more pics & a poem )

1952

1969

I’ve been re-reading some of her non-series books.
House of the Glimmering Light is a wartime spy story set in Scotland, enlivened by Jane Shaw’s humour.
Crooks Tour - very slight story about a school holiday in Europe with Ricky seeing crooks everywhere.
The Crew of the Belinda, about three sisters forced by circumstances to spend summer in a houseboat on Loch Lomond with no money. I can’t help being amused by the bus from Glasgow to Luss. If you know Pimpernel Petroleum you’ll understand why. Jane Shaw could have thought up a better reason for the girls being in their difficult situation, but as usual the book is redeemed by her humour and of course by the tracking of crooks. Interesting to see JS described as ‘this young Scottish author’. It was 1945 and before she found greater fame with Susan.

Now I’m moving on to comfort reading of the kind I’d recommend to anyone else needing it. My first choice is Summertime, by Raffaella Barker.

The Caroline and Sara books
Breton Holiday, later reissued as Breton Adventure
Bernese Adventure, previously published as Bernese Holiday
Highland Holiday, never reprinted after the early editions.

Clear?
It’s so long since I read these books that I’d forgotten what fun they are. If you wonder how I managed a picture with one hand, I didn’t; I already had it on file.

I’ve also read Queen Lucia and Miss Mapp by E F Benson. This is a time for old favourites only.

List
Quite a short list but one of the books was 700 pages long!
The Warden, Anthony Trollope
The Lantern Bearers, Rosemary Sutcliff
The Far Cry, Emma Smith
House of Silence, Linda Gillard
High Wages
Pardonable Lies (Maisie Dobbs), Jacqueline Winspear
A Place of Secrets, Rachel Hore
The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
Peter and Paul, Susan Scarlett (Noel Streatfeild)
A Red Herring without Mustard (Flavia de Luce), Alan Bradley
Barchester Towers, Anthony Trollope
Crooks Tour, Jane Shaw
( thoughts )

List
The Charming Quirks of Others, Alexander McCall Smith
The Affair of the Thirty-Nine Cufflinks, James Anderson
The Shuttle, Frances Hodgson Burnett, read on Kindle
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, read on Kindle
Out of Love, Victoria Clayton
At Sea, Laurie Graham
Old Christmas, Washington Irving, read on Kindle
Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body, M C Beaton
The Christmas Angel, Abbie Farwell Brown, read on Kindle
Christmas at Nettleford, Malcolm Saville
The Black Ship, Carola Dunn
The Dragonfly Pool, Eva Ibbotson
Jane Shaw re-reads
Susan Pulls the Strings
No Trouble for Susan
A Job for Susan
My Father’s Fortune, Michael Frayn
( thoughts, long )

I've started taking photos of my books so I know what I've got and where they're to go. I can hardly stand the thought of them all in boxes. I took about twenty pics this morning and there's still a long way to go. ( Book Pr0n )

Current Mood: distraught

Those magic words appeared in my in box: ABE has found the book you want. It was Crooked Sixpence by Jane Shaw, the last Penny book and incredibly hard to find. An affordable copy, in a dustwrapper, from Rose's Books. Only another Jane Shaw collector can know what this means. It arrived today, better nick than I expected and all that mars my joy is that, curses, it won't fit on the shelf with the other five! It's a first edition (probably not reprinted, as it's so scarce) and is taller than the others, which must all be reprints.

Current Mood: quite pleased

This morning’s post brought a letter from friends in the Gulf and a book for me from Australia. The book is Breton Holiday (1939) by Jane Shaw. Hurrah! I had to seek this out after learning that the Children’s Press edition (retitled Breton Adventure) is quite heavily cut. Now I shall have to read the two books in tandem, to see where the butchery took place. I am very pleased with the book, which is a lovely fat one with nice white pages. Why is it that so many of the scarcer Jane Shaw titles seem to be available in Australia but not here?

This book came from a dealer via ABE. During our correspondence I asked if he would be kind enough to have real postage stamps put on the packet, rather than a computerised label, and he did! So I have some nice Australian stamps to add to the collection, plus some more from UAE. Not everyone would be bothered, so I am grateful to him. Australia Post, like our own dear Royal Mail, issues more and more stamps while fewer are used all the time. I will save my rant on this subject for another day.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Set Me Free, the Kinks

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Life must be filled up

Entries tagged with jane shaw

A Year of re-reading 3: the Penny books by Jane Shaw

Skating in books

How things change

Enough Jane Shaw for now

More Jane Shaw

April Books

December Books

Library Daze

Something to be pleased about

Hands across the sea

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