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It is 1947. Elsie Hollis is a scholarship girl in a girls' grammar school. The story starts on the last day of term before the summer holidays and ends shortly after the autumn term has begun. For Elsie it is an eventful holiday. First of all she has to cope with the problem of Marjorie Bush and her gang who lie in wait for her and attack her. Elsie finds a temporary escape from Marjorie. Elsie's brother is an assistant stage manager at a local theatre. Elsie gets a part in a play and finds that she can really act. Almost as important is the fact that she is escorted home and therefore protected from Marjorie and her gang. When the play is finished it is time for Elsie to go with her mother and cousin to the hop fields of Kent.
Michelle Magorian skilfully invokes the atmosphere of the early post war days - the housing shortage, rationing, "new look" skirts and dresses, and, of course, the beginning of the baby boom. There is another reminder of the war when they go down to Kent and find that Hermann, a prisoner of war, is still at the farm. Michelle Marjoram also shows just how much social attitudes have changed. Marjorie comes top in the eleven plus examination but her family want her earning as soon as possible and do not let her go to the grammar school. For her part, Elsie at her grammar school, is always having to consider whether things are "suitable" or not.
But for me the part of the book which made the most impression was when Elsie went "hopping."
This section is described in detail and we share the lives of the pickers down from London on a working holiday in the Kent hop fields. There is the special train for hoppers which leaves at three o'clock in the morning, the journey past bomb sites, the arrival at the station where they collect their hopping box. This is a trunk on wheels which they usually pull the two miles to the farm but on this occasion they get a lift in a cart. Then follows descriptions of the huts they live in. They are just made of dull, grey corrugated iron. Cooking is done outside and water is collected from a tap but inside all the women try to make their huts pretty and homely. Elsie's gran's hut is like a palace. Her dresser with her best china is against one wall. Pictures and lace hang on the walls and a large tea chest is covered by a fancy tablecloth. The actual hop picking is hard work and the women have to be there by seven o'clock. As well as picking the hops the women have to look after their younger children. But they still manage to enjoy themselves. They sing in the fields and at night in the huts. The women say they are having a holiday from their men but they are still glad to see their menfolk when they come down at the weekends. At the end of the season there is a party when they are all thrown into the hopping "bins." For me the part about the "hopping" was the best part of the book.
A warm and sympathetic story which brings post war Britain to life.
12+
Thomas Bentley has a burning ambition. It is to edit his own newsletter. But it is 1947 and eleven year old secondary modern schoolboys are not encouraged to do such things - in contrast to the situation at the present day. Even worse, this is in the days before computers, word processors and printers. Thomas even has difficulty getting paper because of the post war shortage and because he has no money.
But Thomas is determined, resourceful and resilient. He gets the paper from a printer in return for going an errand. He copies out the first editions by hand - and gets his friend Whipple to help. Then he finds out about carbon paper. Finally he is given an old typewriter and an old Gestetner. 'Bentley's Chronicle' also gains a girl reporter who agrees to contribute a column 'Girl Talk.' Beverley James, for that is her name, only agrees to this on the condition that she can also have the crime column.
Despite all this Thomas's problems are not all over. He has to find a never ending supply of copy for his paper. To this end he starts to investigate a petty crook he calls Mr Trilby. This results in danger for himself and Beverley.
'Bentley's Chronicle' shows just how much our country has changed in the space of fifty years. It is packed with touches which bring the 1940's to life:- the secondary modern school with its cane-wielding headmaster, the radio instead of television, bread and jam for tea, sweet rationing, the shortages - and the danger from unexploded bombs. Above all the very core of the story belongs to the post war period and the descriptions of the Gestetner and the stencils are fascinating. We are also reminded that the 1940's were a time when children still had their innocence and crooks sold smuggled watches instead of drugs. This book certainly has a very 'fortyish' feel about it.
This book should hold the interest of primary school pupils - girls as well as boys - and also provide useful source material for their teachers for school projects.
I do, however, have a few quibbles. I feel that the scene where Thomas confronts Mrs Slade lacks conviction and I am doubtful about such colloquialisms as into, magic and girlie. Are they not 1970's onwards?
But these niggles apart, this is a well crafted story which is interesting and gripping for children, useful for teachers and something of a nostalgia trip for adults who can remember the 1940's.
Illustrated by the author.
8 - 12
This is another book in the Historical House series –– about a house in London and the girls who lived in at various times.
Twelve-year-old Andrea, or Andie, is staying in a luxurious flat with her parents and older sister. The flat has been lent to them while they look for a flat of their own. Andie makes friends with Kris who lives on the ground-floor flat and Ravi who lives in the first-floor flat.
Andie explores the swinging London of the 1960s with her sixteen-year-old sister Prudence, whom she calls Prune. Prune wants to be a model and takes Andie into a series of fashion boutiques. Later Kris takes Andie to a concert in Hyde Park given by the Rolling Stones –– something which horrifies her parents when they find out.
Unlike her sister Andie is not interested in fashion. She wants to be an artist and go to art college when she is older but her parents do not understand about art and encourage her to find a more secure career.
It is 1969 and just before the first moon landing. Andie discovers that Ravi is sneaking up onto the roof at night. He has a telescope which was given to him by his uncle and Andie joins him studying the stars. This inspires Andie and she paints an imaginative series of moonscapes. Kris’ father is a real artist –– a graphic designer. Krias tells her father about Andie’s paintings and he says he would like to see them. But Andie is afraid to show them in case he will condemn them as rubbish. Does she pluck up her courage to show them to him?
Towards the end there are detailed descriptions of the TV coverage of the moon landing.
Really evokes the atmosphere of London of the 1960s.
8-12.
It is 1948. Sam Bradshaw lives in a small
fishing village and is a member of the sea scouts.
One day everything seems to go wrong. Sam is sent to collect the
eggs but he lets the hens escape and, in trying to catch them
his father's tomato plants are squashed and the eggs smashed.
Then he loses the money his mother gives him when she sends him
to collect his shoes which have just been repaired. After that
he has to leave for the sea scouts and for a time all seems to
go well.
They use two old rubber dinghies. After the practice session the
Army are supposed to come to pick them up but the soldiers are
delayed and Sam and his friend Eric say that they will wait with
the boats. Later the temptation is too much for them and they
take one of the dinghies out to sea. The wind rises, the tide
turns and the boys lose their paddles. However they manage to
reach the old pier. But it is not to prove a safe haven as they
see an old mine drifting towards them. Then some rough looking
men climb aboard the pier. The boys are sure they are a gang of
black marketeers.
Are the men really members of a ruthless gang? Does the mine blow
up the pier, or does it drift towards the crowded harbour, or
is it exploded safely? Does Sam's bad day become even worse or
does everything come all right in the end?
An exciting little story which holds the interest and certainly
evokes the spirit and atmosphere of post War Britain.
7-- 11
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