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This book was first published in 1986.
It is the first of the Sisters of the Quantock Hills quartet
-- a series of four books about the four Purcell sisters who lived
in a large house at the foot of the Quantock Hills at the beginning
of the twentieth century. Each book follows the fortunes of one
particular sister.
The Silent Shore is the story of Sarah, the youngest. It
starts in 1910 when Sarah is just seven. Her mother has just died
leaving her an orphan. The girls have joint guardians -- the rector
Mr MacKenzie and a lawyer, who wants the family home to be sold
and the children settled in Taunton with a housekeeper. But the
eldest, Frances who is seventeen, holds out against him and insists
they should be allowed to stay in their own home. Eventually Frances
gets her way.
The rest of the book then charts Sarah growing up in this rural
environment. She is clever and she does her lessons with the rector.
Her older sisters are all artists but Sarah's talents lie in a
different direction. She is more academic.
This book gives a good picture of rural England before the First
World War but one of the main themes is the education of girls.
When Frances first asks if there is enough money for her to go
to an art college she is told by the lawyer that it is not a question
of money but of propriety. No respectably brought up girl could
attend art school. Despite this opposition the redoubtable Frances
does manage to go to the Slade.
Later Sarah does not have such problems. Mr MacKenzie encourages
her to try for Oxford -- as also does Frances. The people of the
village decide that if the rector says it is all right for Sarah
to go to Oxford then it must be. But the rector's own daughter
is kept at home helping to run the household and also kept busy
with parish work. And Sarah's village friend Jess has to leave
school as soon as possible.
The fortunes of the Purcell sisters are entwined with those of
the rector's family. Mr MacKenzie has three sons and one daughter
who are all friendly with the sisters. The book carries on over
the period of the First World War with ensuing tragedy for the
MacKenzie family.
This may be Sarah's story but Frances also emerges as an interesting
character. Unconventional, outspoken, often regarded as selfish
because she puts her painting before everything else, and often
at loggerheads with Mrs MacKenzie, it is, nevertheless, Frances
who takes full responsibilty for her younger sisters and saves
the family home for them.
An interesting picture of England in the first part of the twentieth
century with some thought provoking revelations about the attitudes
of the time regarding feminine education.
Teenage
This is the second book in the Sisters
of the Quantock Hills quartet. Here the oldest sister, Frances,
is the main character.
The most important events of the first book are all repeated here
-- but related as they affect Frances. It opens with another account
of her guardians' attempts to persuade her to sell the family
home -- and her ensuing resistance.
Then, later, there is another account of the memorable expedition
of the four Purcells and the four MacKenzies over the Quantocks
to the sea. And of course the tragedies of the First World War
are given full coverage.
But here we also get more details about Frances including descriptions
of her time at the Slade, the beginnings of her career and the
help she gets from an agent.
A large part of this book is taken up with her relationship with
Gabriel, the eldest son of the MacKenzies. Gabriel wants to marry
Frances but she is torn between her own love for Gabriel and her
fears that marriage would stop her painting. It is not until Gabriel
suffers a terrible injury that they both work out a solution.
This second book in the series continues with many of the themes
of the first.
This book was first published in 1989.
It is the third volume in the Sisters of the Quantock Hills
quartet.
The story here is told from the point of view of the second sister
Julia -- Julia the peacemaker. It is Julia who is the one who
always tries to smooth things over when the tempestuous Frances
upsets Mrs MacKenzie.
We are shown Julia growing up and going her own way. She resists
all Frances' attempts to persuade her otherwise and refuses to
go to the Slade. Instead she joins the VAD and goes to France.
Then there is her growing relationship with Geoffrey and her eventual
engagement -- which is doomed to tragedy when he is killed in
action.
Years later Julia marries a doctor but her marriage is endangered
by her feelings for the dead Geoffrey. Can Julia come to terms
with them and save her marriage?
Can Julia also come to accept that, while she does not have the
talents of her elder sister, there is still a place for her in
the artistic world?
Set against an authentic background of the first half of the twentieth
century this book throws further light on this family of remarkable
sisters.
Young adult
This is the last book in the Sisters
of the Quantock Hills quartet. It was first published in 1994.
It tells the story of Gwen, the third sister, Gwen who stayed
at home and tended the garden while her three sisters married
and scattered.
It begins with Gwen in the garden with the elderly gardener, Mr
Whitelaw, who is helping her. This is followed by another description
of the two day excursion across the Quantocks by all the Purcells
and Mackenzies. And we discover that Gwen is secretly in love
with Antony. Then the First World War and the death of Antony
- and no one realises what Gwen is feeling.
The story then jumps twenty years and the two main themes of the
book are introduced. The old gardener Mr Whitelaw is dying and
he gives his collection of orchids to Gwen because he thinks she
is the only person he knows who will be able to look after them
properly. Gwen is secretly appalled when she thinks of all the
work and expense involved in looking after so many orchids. Moreover
she does not like orchids. At the beginning of the War Mr Whitelaw
had given her a few and Antony had said that they were 'frippery.'
Shortly after this he was killed. But Gwen cannot refuse Mr Whitelaw
as he has done so much to help her. So she agrees.
Just after Gwen has been given the orchids she has a visit from
her oldest nephew, Tony the son of Frances and Gabriel. Much of
the book is taken up with Gwen's relationship with him as well
as Tony's problems in trying to work out his relationship with
his parents.
So Gwen starts to tend the orchids. And Tony helps her - for money.
This makes Gwen slightly uneasy. Why does her nephew need money?
Gwen learns more and more about orchids - about how to look after
them, how to sell them, how to breed new species and how to register
them. She finds that they are not so 'frippery' after all. In
fact they change her whole life - and the lives of many other
people as well. For a start they lead her to selling her flowers
and give her an income. They also get her to leave her comfortable
refuge of Hillcrest from time to time.
Then Gwen gets an unexpected invitation. Gabriel's old German
professor is a keen orchid grower and he invites Gwen to come
and paint his orchids. Gwen is asked to Germany -- Gwen who could
never bear to be away from home for even a few days, Gwen who
has always regarded Hillcrest as a kind of haven or refuge. But
after a scornful remark from Tony she agrees to go.
But this is the 1930s, the time of Hitler and the Nazis and the
persecution of the Jews. Gwen discovers that she is being asked
to do more than just paint orchids. With the help of these seemingly
innocent flowers she can help to save lives - although she could
be risking her own in the process.
This last book is the best of the four. It lets readers of the
series follow the four girls into adulthood. And the story of
Gwen is the most remarkable of the lot.
This book also contains much fascinating information about orchids.
Very highly recommended.
Teenage
This book was first published in 1998.
It is the story of a group of children growing up around a large house outside Liverpool in the years just before the First World War. At a time when everyone, servants and gentry alike, "knew their place." It is told by Dorothy who wrote everything down just as it happened. But some of the other children have their own chapters too because Dorothy wrote down what they told her.
Dorothy and Walter Hollins are twins. Their father is the butler at Bark House and Dorothy and Walter live in the lodge cottage. A boy of about their own age lives in the Big House. This is Master George. Despite his wealth and position George envies the twins. His mother is dead and his father is often away from home and his harsh elder sister Victoria is very strict with him. She even makes him wear a rod through the sleeves of his jacket to make him stand up straight.
Above all George is lonely. He looks out of the window and sees the children of the servants and the farm workers running and playing in the fields and wishes he could play with them too. But he is told, "No George. You're a gentleman's son. Remember that."
Then George gets a new tutor who allows him more freedom and George makes contact with the twins. And they play together. Their favourite meeting place is the large chestnut tree which they call the sailing ship tree because it looks rather like a ship. From its branches they can see the fields, the river with its ships and barges, and the hills of Wales. Later, when George is forbidden to see them, they use a hole in the trunk as a kind of post box.
There is another child in the story. This is the tweeny. When she is ill-treated by Victoria George tries to help her. Then in her turn she helps George by taking messages to the hole in the tree.
Then for all of them childhood comes to a sudden and abrupt end. George's father loses his money. He sells the Big House and goes to Australia and takes George with him. The Big House is bought by the Army -- who cut down the sailing ship tree.
The twins turn thirteen and leave school. They are going to do a typing course and become office workers.
As for the tweeny -- she has a surprise for everyone. She goes to Australia too. She disguises herself as a boy and gets a job as a cabin boy.
It is Walter who has the last word. Years later, as an old man of over ninety, he adds a chapter to Dorothy's account and tells what happened to all the members of the group.
This book is filled with little touches which bring the early years of the twentieth century to life. For example, when King Edward VII dies the children have to wear mourning clothes to school.
Dorothy and Walter have a happy, carefree childhood but the subservient position of servants and the powers of the gentry are brought out very clearly. In most cases servants are not allowed to marry. The twins are warned that if they misbehave and get into trouble their father could lose his job. And when the twins are ill with scarlet fever their father has to go up to the Big House to ask permission to send for the estate doctor.
This is a delightful book. It is a joy to read. It gives a fascinating picture of the lives of those connected with a Big House just before the First World War.
11+
This book was first published in 1997.
Twelve year old Helen lives with her mother who is the cook in a big house. Then her mother dies. What is to happen to Helen? Her mother was not married - the man she was going to marry was killed in the First World War - and Helen has no other family. It is decided to send her to an orphanage.
Then Helen goes through some papers in her mother's trunk. She finds a telegram saying that Private Davies was "missing, presumed killed in action." This gives Helen a gleam of hope. Perhaps her father is still alive. Perhaps she can find him. Helen goes over what her mother has told her about her father. He used to live on a farm below a hillfort. His train home used to take him west of Birmingham and he had to change at a town that began with H... Hemsbury, that was it. Then he had to go on to a place with a two word name. But Helen cannot remember any more. It is not much to go on but it might be enough. Helen is determined to try. She decides to run away. She will get a job as a kitchenmaid until she finds her father. She is tall for her age and she hopes she will be able to pass for fourteen.
She finds sixpence in her mother's trunk. She takes the tram into the city centre and then she finds it is not so easy getting a job as a maid as most employers ask for references. But she does manage to find a family - the Grices - who are not too particular. She has to work from six in the morning to nine thirty at night with only one half day off a week. She has to beat the rugs, do the washing, scrub the floors, carry up the coal and the water, and serve the meals. And all this for five and six a week. To make matters worse Mrs Grice does not even feed her properly.
After some time Helen runs away again. This time she is lucky. She finds a position with Mr and Mrs Petty looking after their two young children. Helen even finds out the name of her father's home town when the little girl asks why her last nursemaid had gone back to Church Sheldon. That jogs Helen's memory. Church Sheldon. That is the name she has been trying to remember.
Then Helen begins to have doubts. Perhaps her father's family will not welcome her. The Pettys are kind to her and Helen delays her search for her father. Then the little girl has a birthday. Helen observes the family celebrations and realises that she will never be any more than a servant to the Pettys. She determines to try and find a family of her own. She tells Mrs Petty who agrees to help her. She gives her a day off and Helen sets out for Church Sheldon with her father's photograph.
An interesting story of a girl's search for a family and a home - somewhere she could belong. Brings out the working conditions of servants in 1930.
10+
This book was first published in 1992. It is the first in a trilogy about the Dyer family.
Mary Dyer likes helping her father with his racing pigeons but her mother disapproves. In the1930's girls are not supposed to like pigeons. Mary's father is an unemployed miner and he goes away to look for work, leaving his pigeons in Mary's care. He means that Mary should just look after them - feed them and exercise them - but Mary intends doing more. She is determined to race them. There are problems. Weekends is the time for the pigeons' training flights but on Saturdays Mary has to help her mother and on Sundays there is church and the afternoon visit to Aunt Elsie. Even worse, the pigeon club meets in a back room at the local pub and Mary is forbidden to go there.
But Mary finds an ally in her Uncle Charley and he enters the pigeons for her. Then she is given an old bike. It has room for a basket at the front so it is now easier for Mary to take the pigeons for training flights. The basket also means that when Mary is twelve in a few weeks time she will be able to get a job as a messenger girl and earn three and six a week.
Even so relations between Mary and her mother deteriorate until matters come to a head when Mary comes home from school and finds that her mother has killed three of the pigeons and cooked them for tea. After a tearful row Mary runs away.
As well as her problems with her mother Mary has another, pigeon related problem. The best pigeon, Speedwell, has been sent to Bordeaux for a long distance race. Then there is a storm. The pigeons will be lost, disoriented, scattered by the weather. She will lose Speedwell.
What happens to Speedwell? Does Mary become reconciled with her mother?
This book gives a good picture of England in 1930. There is Mrs Dyer struggling to feed her family - often there is just soup and potatoes and even half an orange is a treat. Mrs Dyer also has to find money for shoes for the children and for the rent but she does save some money by altering some of Aunt Elsie's old dresses for Mary. But despite everything Mrs Dyer finally has to go to the Assistance. Then there is Mary's older sister Phyllis going into service as a maid in a big house in the country and Mary herself being able to get a part time job once she is twelve.
As well as the bigger issues there are also telling little touches like fetching water from a tap in the yard and cutting newspaper into squares for the toilet.
Historical background apart, descriptions of the pigeons and their training will charm any animal lover. Here are some examples. First, on going into the pigeon loft there is "a deep, soft comfortable cooing." Then the newly hatched "squeaker" is "... a tiny thing with sealed eyes and an oversized lump of a beak. Its down was still not quite dry."
Finally when the hens are out for their exercise.
"The flock was circling overhead...The sun came out from behind a cloud and caught their light undersides and they all flashed together as they cornered and swung back. They were beautiful. A team."
Pigeon Summer really evokes the spirit of 1930. It is also something of a treasure for animal lovers.
Pigeon Summer was shortlisted for the WH Smith Mind Boggling Books Award and the Smarties Book Prize.
10+
This book was first published in 1994. It is the second in the trilogy about the Dyer family.
It is the story of friendship across a divide.
Walking through the woods after school one afternoon Lennie Dyer comes across a ruined cottage. This can be his secret place, his refuge from the school bullies. He returns the next day with some of his things and finds another boy there. The boy tells him in a strange, posh voice, "This is my hide-out." Then he adds that it does not matter, as no one owns the cottage.
This is the beginning of a new friendship. They agree to share the den. They play at Red Indians in the woods and then go back to the cottage, light fires, eat their sandwiches, read comics and write messages to each other in their secret code.
Gradually Lennie finds out more about his new friend. His name is Ralph Wilding. He goes to a school in Cheltenham - a boss's school. Then he finally finds out that Ralph is the son of George Wilding. "George Wilding. The villain. Owner of Springhill, Old Hall and several other pits in the area. Union-basher, stinking rich, with a car and a big house..."
And Lennie's father is a miner who is dying of the dust. Lennie's father is the Union secretary - a smart Alec and trouble maker according to Ralph's father. Lennie's elder sister, Mary, is also an active trade unionist.
At school the other children find out that Lennie is friendly with a "posh twit" and Lennie is called "Stuck up," "Toad," "Creep," and "Scab."
Then his friendship with Ralph is put to an even greater test. Ralph gives Lennie a pair of his mother's old gloves for Mrs Dyer. Lennie is accused of having stolen the gloves and, because he is afraid of his father, Ralph denies having given Lennie the gloves.
Can a friendship ever survive against such odds? And does Lennie manage to resolve his problems at school.
This is a sequel to Pigeon Summer. Mary is now nineteen. She is still as interested in the pigeons as ever but she is now also an active trade unionist and campaigner for women's rights.
An interesting story which provides a good commentary on social conditions in the 1930's -- to say nothing of the perennial problems of just being young.
10+
This is the third in the trilogy about the Dyer family and there have been a number of changes since the second book -- No Friend of Mine. They still have the pigeons but it is now Lennie who looks after them. Dad is now dead -- and so is Uncle Charlie. Phyl is now married with a baby of her own and Mary is in the WAAF. Lennie is now fifteen and working down the mine but he hopes that when the War is over he will be able to go to Birmingham and get a job in a drawing office.
The first book in the trilogy was about Mary and the second was about Lennie. This third book is about Doreen.
Doreen now has a room to herself and Mrs Dwyer feels they can take an evacuee. Doreen has mixed feelings about the evacuee. She is enjoying having the room all to herself and does not relish sharing again. She also feels nervous. What will this strange girl be like? On the other hand having an evacuee might increase her status among her school friends.
The evacuee arrives. Her name is Rhoda Kelly and she is older than Doreen - thirteen to Doreen's eleven. She wears make-up and she says she has a boyfriend. Her mother is on the stage.
At first Doreen and Rhoda get on quite well together. And then things start to go wrong. In short Doreen becomes jealous of Rhoda. Rhoda is so good at everything. She gets on well with Doreen's intimidating Auntie Elsie. Lennie likes her because she takes an interest in the pigeons and one Saturday when he goes with his friend Martin to take the pigeons for a "toss" or training run, he invites Rhoda to go with them. Rhoda is also a good singer and she is invited to sing in a concert which is really just for adults. This is the last straw for Doreen and she taunts Rhoda cruelly about her mother never coming to visit and about having no father.
Rhoda runs away and puts herself in danger and Doreen is overcome with guilt. Is it too late for her to put things right?
There is one thing about this book which I find particularly memorable. The Dyers do not go to chapel very often but the last time they were there, there was a visiting preacher and she gave a sermon on "Careless Talk Costs Lives." But she was not talking about the government and spies. She was talking about careless talk in everyday life. She said that before you said anything you might regret you should always ask yourself three questions. "Is it True? Is it Kind? Is it Necessary?" and then you should only speak if you can answer "Yes" to two of these questions.
Doreen forgets this when she taunts Rhoda.
An interesting story about two young girls growing up with an authentic war time background.
10+
The setting for this book is Harlow,
one of the thirty-two new towns created after the Second World
War to relieve crowded living and working conditions in London.
The story follows the fortunes of one particular family. It starts
on Coronation Day with a street party. The very next day the father
of the family announces that they are all going to live in Harlow.
In due course the move takes place. Arthur, the younger boy, soon
settles down. He makes friends with the boy next door and gets
a holiday job helping in the garden of a big house.
But it is a very different story for his elder brother Fred. Fred
falls in with bad company, stealing tools and selling them in
the London markets. When he eventually tries to break with the
older boy who is leading him on he is threatened. And the threats
extend to his family as well. Young Arthur learns about this mess
and wants to help his brother. But how? Especially as he has promised
not to tell his parents or the police.
This book gives a very good impression of the times. Although
short the first part set in London brings out the following facts
-- the parents had to sleep in the lounge, there was an outdoor
toilet and no bathroom, there was only a cold water tap and hot
water had to be boiled, the television was rented only for the
showing of the Coronation.
Then the reader is shown the complete contrast with Harlow with
different kinds of houses, space and trees and the children riding
around on bicycles. The new house has plenty of room and there
is a bathroom and a kitchen with hot and cold taps, an electric
stove and an electric kettle. Mother has to get used to the latter!
The book is illustrated in black and white throughout by Gillian
Marklew. The one picture that really evokes the spirit of the
times is the one of the newsagent's window with boxes of Tide,
Dreft and Vim and advertisements for Oxo, Tizer and Woodbines.
A family story with a background which certainly brings the 1950s
to life.
Recommended.
7 - 11
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