20.1.25

Judy B's Books

A few years ago my mum's friend Judy gave me a box of her childhood books from the 1950s, some gorgeous Girls' Own annuals as well as school stories and assorted other novels. I gobbled up the annuals immediately but I only got around to reading some of the novels recently, and what a trip back in time they proved to be. None of the above volumes are real 'classics,' just ordinary stock shelf-fillers and Sunday School prizes, but they were a lot of fun to read.

White Holiday by Viola Bayley sees a young brother and sister invited on a snowy holiday in Switzerland befriend a young skiing champion who happens to be the great-grandson of a countess who has a couple of crooks on the trail of her lost emeralds... There are abductions, moonlight chases, attempted assassination, disguises and secrets galore for our young protagonists. Will and Otto get plenty of action but Rosamund, though plucky, faints several times and is described as 'modest' as well as 'extremely pretty' and doesn't have a lot of personality. Which doesn't prevent dashing Otto from falling in love with her... in a couple of years time, naturally.

Myrtle's Guest lulled me into a false sense of security by describing how Myrtle, from a humble family on Jersey, gets a summer job in a guesthouse. Then suddenly, boom, at the end of the third chapter, Jane Rogers springs a new character on us: God! 

Mrs Moisin would train her to be a good and tidy maid, but could she help the real Myrtle -- the Myrtle who was an immortal soul -- to be the best that she could be, the best that her Creator intended her to be?

Luckily for Myrtle's immortal soul, a lovely kind and generous Christian (English) family arrive at the guesthouse and bring her to Jesus. Phew!

The Highland School by Marjorie Taylor seems to have been written as Girl Guide propaganda, as the common thread through an eventful novel, as well as outrageous coincidences, is pride in the principles of Guidedom. Christine writes and acts in a play in front of a major London producer, faces down her fear of fire when the cottage she's staying in suddenly goes up in flames, and manages to find her missing amnesiac brother among some gypsies at a local fair in the middle of France -- oh, and did I mention that her best friend is the daughter of the famous scientist that her brother most wants to work for? The Highland School also introduced me to the concept of the 'Post Guide,' which I can't find any more information about, but seems to be something like a guide-by-correspondence for disabled girls? Christine's troop invite a disabled girl from the slums of Glasgow to join them on their camp, and of course Elspeth teaches Christine valuable lessons of courage and patience which stand her in good stead later on. And the burglar who breaks into Christine's house turns out to be Elspeth's father, who instantly repents and is able to get his old job back with Christine's family's help. Again, phew.

Nothing deep or literary here, but I got some good laughs and a bit of history from these books from yesteryear.

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