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This is the first book in a trilogy about a large country house in Kent. The three books are set in the 1890s, and the times of the First World War and the Second World War. The period snapshot given in each book shows how times, and especially the social structure of society, changes.
In this first book fourteen-year-old Olive Perkins –– who is usually known as Polly –– goes to become an under housemaid at Swallowcliffe Hall. We share her bewilderment as she sees the house for the first time and experience with her the long hours of exhausting work. But as well as cleaning, bedmaking and laying fires Polly also has to learn about the rigid code of behaviour expected from her. In the servants’ hall she soon discovers that she is not allowed to talk during meals. And later she finds that she can be dismissed if she speaks to one of the family without being spoken to first.
But despite this Polly does make some friends –– Iris the still room maid and William a footman. She even is befriended, in a kind of a way, by Miss Harriet, a daughter of the house who is only a few months younger than Polly herself.
The character of Harriet is also used to make another point about the era. Harriet would like to study science and become a doctor but her mother disapproves strongly.
The very different situations of the servants and the members of the rich family are clearly contrasted. The servants have to work from dawn to dusk while the family members have their glittering balls, their hunts, their seasons in London and their visits to Scotland for the grouse shooting.
There is this strict division between the servants and family members with dreadful dangers for any housemaid who dares to cross it. Polly learns of the frightful consequences for a fellow maid who formed a liaison with a male family member and became pregnant by him. For a time Polly becomes disillusioned and then she thinks of how people had lived at Swallowcliffe Hall for years before she arrived and would be there long after she has gone.
This book really evokes the spirit of the 1890s.
There is a very useful web site which enhances the book.
Young adult.
This is one of the Forget-me-Not teenage romance series.
When Owen Price is killed in an accident in the mine his widow is left with a family of young children to support. Feeling the need of another man to help with the expenses she marries again. Too late she realises that her new husband is an idle, drunken scrounger. Sixteen year old Megan sees her mother worn out and her younger brothers and sisters starving. Desperate to help she borrows the rail fare and goes to London to find the one person who can help - her grandmother.
It is not until she arrives in London that Megan realises just how difficult it is going to be to find her grandmother. Frightened and bewildered she is befriended by a girl called Sally. Megan then finds work in an inn. She is not paid. She gets only her keep but at least she is off the streets. She makes friends with Tom, the son of the local baker, and together they try to find her grandmother.
This story is played out against the backdrop of the London of 1860 - the London of the poor, not the wealthy - starving, scantily dressed children, people sleeping in doorways, the dreaded Workhouse, and characters like the evil Peg, a Fagin-like criminal who ensnares Megan in her clutches.
The winter of 1860-61 was one of the worst winters known with blizzards and coal barges frozen on the canals. There are bread riots and Tom's father's bakery is besieged. But, true to the tradition of the romance genre, Megan and Tom weather the storm. The grandmother is found and she promptly does a fairy godmother act and all problems are resolved.
This may be a romance but the background of poverty and misery is vividly brought to life. Very thought provoking.
Teenage
This book is from Scholastic's My Story series in which an important historical event is shown from the point of view of a teenage girl writing in her diary.
Lily Hicks is a housemaid of Mr and Mrs Joseph Paxton -- the Joseph Paxton who designed the Crystal Palace. Joseph Paxton is gardener to the Duke of Devonshire and his house is on the Duke's estate at Chatsworth in Derbyshire but he hires a house in London for his cousin, Mrs Judith McKenzie, and her family who have returned to England from India. Lily goes to work in the London house.
Lily's year is given something of a structural framework by the exploits of Edgar, the ten-year-old son of the McKenzie family. Mr E, as Lily refers to him, is a spoiled brat who is always trying to cause trouble. He breaks an ornament and tries to get the parlour maid blamed for it. Lily can read and write so the butler tells her to keep an account of everything Edgar does. He hopes Lily's record will form some protection for the servants. Lily privately decides that she will extend her journal to include everything.
Edgar continues to cause trouble. He deliberately upsets the dustpan, trips up the parlour maid and makes her drop her tray and … Finally he tries to get Lily accused of theft. He steals a brooch and hides it among Lily's things. Lily is cleared but this is to rebound on Edgar later when he himself is accused of theft. And although only ten he could still be hanged.
Edgar apart, this story is about the building of the Crystal Palace and the opening of the Great Exhibition. Interspersed with these national events are accounts of the everyday happenings of a servant's life and the reader learns much about conditions in Victorian England. Such as, the servants had to get up as early as half past three, £8 a year was considered a good wage, and the servants' tea was made from the family's dried up tea leaves.
The life of the wealthy is also contrasted with conditions in the slums when Lily goes to visit her mother and younger brothers and sisters.
Lily writes as she speaks and all these mundane affairs are eminently readable. But there is one problem. Lily can read and write but she is certainly not educated and she does know much about grammar. I wonder how teachers will feel about a book filled with phrases like, "as was wounded bad fighting in India," "when I am trained proper," "we was all listening," and "new tall hat as cost 19 shillings." Given the format of the book it is difficult to see what else could have been done, but it could still cause problems for teachers struggling to instil the principals of grammar into their pupils.
Comes with a historical note and a timeline.
Should appeal to teenage girls.
11+
This is another of Scholastic's fictional diary series. Here the diary describes a year in the life of fourteen-year-old Flora Bonnington, the daughter of a wealthy London merchant. It is a rather special year -- the very last one of the nineteenth century. Flora is determined to have a career. This brings her into conflict with her widowed father. She has, however, the support of her grandmother and they have many long and solemn discussions about the rights of women -- and even attend a suffragette meeting. As well as the suffrage her grandmother is also concerned about the poverty of the working classes and she has reservations about the Boer War. She also tries to help Flora in her choice of career -- a rather unusual one. She wants to learn how to make moving pictures or learn the art of cinematography.
Such important figure of the time as Winston Churchill, Millicent Fawcett and Mary Kingsley make fleeting appearances. Fashionable society is shown through the experiences of Henrietta, Flora's elder sister.
There is one aspect of this book which is contrary to the spirit of the age. The book begins with a description of Christmas but there is no mention of carols or of a church service. Why? In Victorian times a wealthy middle class family would almost certainly have attended a church service on Christmas Day. Then near the end of the book there is a reference to the 'spring holidays.' But surely any Victorian girl would have written 'Easter holidays.' Religion was very important to the Victorians and the lack of references to Christianity weakens the book's authenticity.
I would put this book for the 10+ age range but parents and teachers should be warned that it contains a description of a girl's first period.
Comes with historical notes and many
contemporary illustrations.
11+
Paperback £5.99 ISBN 0-19-271774
Puffin £4.99 ISBN 0 14 030893 8
Puffin Modern Classics £5.99 ISBN 0 14.036454 4
This book was first published in 1958. It won the Carnegie Medal.
Tom Long's brother has measles so Tom is sent to spend part of the summer holidays with his aunt and uncle. At first it is very boring for him. They live in a large old house which has been converted into flats and there is no garden for Tom to play in. Moreover he cannot go anywhere interesting because he is in quarantine. (Remember this book was written in 1958). Then he makes a startling discovery.
There is a grandfather clock in the hall. It has been there since before the house was made into flats. When it strikes it always strikes the wrong time. Lying awake at night Tom finds that at midnight it strikes thirteen. Tom slips downstairs, opens the back door and finds himself in a huge garden with carefully tended flower beds, large yew trees, an orchard, a kitchen garden and a greenhouse. There are children in the garden - three boys who always run away from a little girl called Hatty. The boys cannot see Tom but Hatty can. He finds that out when she sticks her tongue out at him.
Hatty is lonely. She is an orphan and her cousins and aunt make it quite plain that she is only in the house on sufferance. Tom is lonely too. So Tom and Hatty play together in the garden. Hatty shows Tom all her hiding places and Tom shows her how to climb the most difficult tree in the garden - Old Tricksy. Gradually Tom learns Hatty's story and he sees for himself how unkind her aunt is to her.
Tom goes back to the garden every night but for Hatty there is a gap of several years between each of his visits. On one of his last visits he finds that Hatty is now a young woman and her aunt has reluctantly agreed that she should be introduced into society. The last few visits are all in the middle of the severe winter of 1895 when the whole country froze up for months. Hatty and Tom skate down the River Ouse and through the fens to Ely where they then climb up to the top of the Cathedral tower. I love East Anglia and I know Ely Cathedral and this is the part of the book I like best.
This is Tom's last visit to the garden but there is one compensation. Hatty is still alive in his own time and he meets her.
Interspersed with some weighty discussions between Tom and his Uncle Alan about the nature of Time this book gives a delightful cameo picture of the life style of the wealthy classes in the 1880's and 1890's. Philippa Pearce used the village where she grew up and the Cambridgeshire countryside for the background and her love and knowledge of this part of the country shows in her writing.
A worthy winner of the Carnegie Medal.
10+
At school Charlotte Enright (Charlie) is told that her class is doing a project on the Victorians. Charlie thinks this is boring but she starts to write the diary of a Victorian nursemaid - a nursemaid called Lottie. Gradually Charlie becomes interested in Lottie's story. Charlie makes her Victorian diary mirror her own life at the present time. For example, the first chapter describes Charlie at school. It is followed by a short description by Lottie of her last days at school. Similarly a description of Charlie's home is followed by a description of Lottie's home. This format works very well indeed.
The book is told in the first person by both Charlie and Lottie. The style is colloquial. I liked the way in which the Victorian chapters are in a different typeface. I also liked the little black and white sketches, childish because they are supposed to have been drawn by Charlie.
Life is not easy for either Charlie or Lottie. Charlie lives with her mother (a single parent) in a small flat. Her mother loses her job and there are worries about the mortgage. Even worse, Charlie is afraid that her mother might be thinking about marrying again.
But Charlie is naturally resourceful and resilient and does not let her problems get her down. In the end all is resolved happily.
This book is informative as well as entertaining. After finishing it the reader will find that he or she has absorbed a lot of information about the Victorians almost without realising it.
10+
This is one of the Flashbacks series for children aged 7 to 11.
The story is set in the 1850's. Jamie, Ten Tons and Davie are mudlarks. That is, at low tide they tread the mudflats of the Thames looking for the coal that falls out when the brigs are being unloaded. It is not just coal. They pick up anything they can find - old rope, pieces of iron or, best of all, pieces of copper. Copper is used to line the hulls of ships to keep out the worms in the south seas and the boys are paid well for even small pieces of copper.
But these three boys are not only mudlarks. They are also thieves. When the story starts they are aboard a moored ship looking for what they can find. There is a large roll of copper plating. This is a veritable treasure for the boys but there is nothing they can do about it. Then the ship slips her moorings and collides with a tug. The bands around the copper break and the roll falls overboard into the Thames.
For the boys that copper is the way to an escape from poverty to a better life. If they could recover it they could sell it and get enough money to buy a berth aboard a ship and be trained to become seamen. Jamie and Davie are sure it is impossible but Ten Tons has a plan to raise the copper from the river bed. But his plan is difficult and hazardous. Nevertheless the boys try it and there is danger and tragedy before the dream can be partially realised.
This book vividly brings to life the life of the Thames mudlarks. They work in their bare feet in all weathers. In the winter they have to crack the ice to get at the coal. Davie and Ten Tons live in an old barge half sunk in the mud while Jamie lives with his mother and father and brothers and sisters in two rooms.
The reader is also given a picture of the Thames alive with busy ships:- tugs, tall ships which cross the oceans, ferry boats, barges, ketches and schooners.
The life of these young mudlarks is hard but they are determined to survive. They even turn the tragedy of the drowning of Ten Tons to good advantage when his body floats to the surface and marks the spot where the copper is submerged.
The story is told in the first person by Jamie.
The Copper Treasure has much to commend it. It gives a good picture of the plight of those living on the fringes of society in Victorian London. The Thames background is authentic and the characters lifelike.
But this book is intended for very young children and personally I have reservations about the style and some of the concepts for the intended age range. I would place it for an older age range. So I shall just say that parents and teachers should read it first and decide for themselves whether or not it is suitable for their own children.
This book was first published in 1983. Before that the three stories in it were published separately as three different books.
Fanny is the eldest of eight children. Her parents are comfortably off and she lives in a large house and is looked after by a Nurse and taught her lessons by a governess. In the first story - Fanny's Sister - a new little sister is born. Fanny resents her. In church eight year old Fanny prays for cherry tart for dinner. She also wishes that God would take the new baby back again. Back home Fanny finds that there is cherry tart for dinner. She is horrified because this means that the baby will be taken back too.
In the last of the three stories - Fanny and the battle of Potter Piece - a new family comes to live next door. The children of the two families at first fight and then make friends.
The middle story is the one which I like best. It is called Fanny and the Monsters.
For her tenth birthday Fanny is given presents like a doll, a needle case and an embroidery frame when she had been hoping for a microscope, a geological hammer and a book about fossils. But in 1866 little girls are not encouraged to be scientists. Fanny is disgusted with her presents but she has to smile and try to look pleased. However she brightens up when she hears that her aunt is going to take her out for the day as a birthday treat.
Fanny is taken to the Crystal Palace. She sees a notice saying To the Prehistoric Monsters. Fanny wants to see them but her aunt says that would give little girls nightmares and hurries her on. Later the determined Fanny gives her aunt the slip and finds the statues of the dinosaurs. She also speaks to a young man from the British Museum. The young man tells her all about the dinosaurs and he gives her his card.
Later, when she is back home again, Fanny finds the fossil of an iguanadon. She still has the card of the young man from the British Museum and she writes to him.
This book paints a vivid picture of a well-off, middle class family in Victorian times. It shows how that age was difficult for an intelligent little girl with an enquiring mind. Fanny is bored with needlework and French verbs and she is not encouraged to pursue the subjects which would really interest her.
Fanny and the Monsters is written simply for young children but I think it has a lot to say to older people too.
7+
This is one of the Flashbacks series for children aged 7-11.
Matty is a doctor's daughter. She lives in a little village in Norfolk. She faces major changes in her life. Her parents feel that she cannot get the suitable education to prepare her for her station in life in the village. She needs to be with girls of her own class in society. They plan to send her away to a small school for girls in London. At first Matty is upset about this, but after she has met Miss Carter who runs the school, she comes to terms with the arrangement and begins to realise that she is on the threshold of a great adventure. Just before she is due to leave something terrible happens. The baby sister of her friend Eliza, a village girl, is stolen but Matty and Miss Carter find the baby and restore her to her family.
This little book makes little girls think deeply about the position of women in society. At this time traditional ideas about a woman's place were being challenged. Little Matty hears conflicting ideas and has to puzzle out for herself what is right. Eliza's brother Arthur is a railway clerk and it is right for him to try and get an education but when Matty asks to be allowed to teach Eliza to read and write her mother grumbles, "It is not as if she will ever need it ... not like Arthur." And why is Mrs Porter disappointed that her new baby is a girl? "Another mouth to feed."
And then, although Matty's parents respect Miss Carter and have chosen to entrust her with the education of their daughter, their ideas are not so advanced as hers.
Matty's mother says, "We have our part to play as women, which God has sent us here to do."
And her father says, "Miss Carter thinks women will one day do all the things men do. She thinks they will be doctors, and lawyers, and members of parliament ... it is my view that it won't happen and it wouldn't be right, but I like a woman of sense and spirit and I like Miss Carter."
Poor Matty has a lot to ponder over. Why are some things men's work - like Arthur learning to be an engine driver - and other things women's work? Why is it right for a woman to work from dawn to dusk as a kitchen maid and yet wrong for her to be a doctor?
Matty does at least understand that she is lucky to be given the opportunity to study under Miss Carter. It is going to be a great adventure.
This book is written in a simple style suitable for little girls but it faces them with some deep ideas. But it is never too early for girls to learn to appreciate the opportunities which they now enjoy.
This is a book for enlightened mothers to read and discuss with their daughters. That way both will get the most out of it.
7-11
This book is about 10,000 words long. It is for children of seven to eleven.
The story is about two families who both live in the town of Coleybridge in Lancashire in the 1860's. Mr Bradshaw is a carter and lives, with his family, in a small, dingy back-to-back mill worker's house. His wife and children work in the mill. Sir John Taylor is the mill owner and he lives, with his family, in a large house on the outskirts of the town. The link between the two families is Polly Bradshaw, the middle daughter in the Bradshaw family.
Sir John has set up a schoolroom for his millworkers' children and Polly attends every afternoon. One afternoon Sir John delivers some books to the classroom and discovers that Polly is the best reader in the class. He sends a note asking Mr Bradshaw to take her up to the Hall. Polly wonders why but soon finds out. Sir John thinks she will be a friend for his lonely little daughter Florence. Florence has a bad foot and can only limp a short distance. But she is sometimes pushed around in a special chair. The two girls soon become firm friends.
The American Civil War begins and brings with it the Blockade. The cotton mills are soon on short time. The Bradshaws, along with all their neighbours, are forced to sell their furniture to survive. Polly stops visiting Florence because Mrs Bradshaw is ashamed of the fact that she now has no shoes. Meanwhile, up at the Hall Florence is seriously ill and her mother is convinced that the only thing which will give her anything to live for would be a visit from Florence.
Does Florence recover and what happens to the Bradshaw family?
This book shows the plight of the millworkers in the 19th century. Even with a good owner like Sir John they still have to work long hours and live in unsanitary hovels. The contrast with a wealthy household is clearly brought out.
This is a simple little story which nevertheless holds the attention.
7-11