Thornton W. Burgess' 'The Adventures of Reddy Fox' 1913 & Beatrix Potter's 'Mr. Tod' 1912

 

John Lane The Bodley Head first edition - 1931

Thornton Waldo Burgess (1874-1965) was a prolific American author who had written over 170 books and 15,000 stories for his daily newspaper column. He was born in Sandwich, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod and, after school and college, accepted a job as an editorial assistant at the Phelps Publishing Company. He began writing bedtime stories for his young son after his wife died had died in childbirth. Burgess used his outdoor observations of nature when plotting his story books. His first book, Old Mother West Wind (1910), introduced many of the characters found in his later books and stories: Peter Rabbit, Jerry Muskrat, Billy Mink, Jimmy Skunk, Bobby Raccoon, Sammy Jay, Joe Otter and Grandfather Frog. Four of these later Bedtime Story-Books - 1913: The Adventures of Reddy Fox; 1920: Old Granny Fox; 1940: Reddy Fox's Sudden Engagement; and 1953: Reddy Fox takes a Bath - featured Reddy who lived with Granny Fox, who was the wisest, slyest, smartest fox in all the country round.

As for The Adventures of Reddy Fox, it is clearly aimed at the pre-teen reader and is certainly not for the 'young adult'. A more apt title would have been The Adventures of Granny Fox, as she is the undoubted heroine of the book, rather than her wilful jackanapes and increasingly arrogant grandson Reddy. She has to teach him caution, humility and, above all, common sense. His main enemies are Farmer Brown's boy and his Bowser the Hound. Granny is more than a match for the latter, leading him over hill and vale away from her and her grandson's foxhole. Reddy has retreated there having been wounded by Farmer Brown's boy. It is only thanks to his Granny subsequently removing them both to her old den that saves him, as the boy digs out the one they have speedily left in the night.

This story makes no apology for being anthropomorphic; the illustrations have all the animals portrayed in human clothes and their thought processes mirror mankind's.  However, that probably endears Reddy, his Grandmother and all the others to the under-twelve juvenile reader.

I decided to read Beatrix Potter's story of Mr. Tod straightaway afterwards, as this was also aimed at a similar age group.

Frederick Warne later edition

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) is too well-known to need any comments about her life and art from me. Suffice it to say that, although she was a respected amateur natural scientist and conservationist (the National Trust and the Lake District benefitted hugely from her legacies; and a recent book by Matthew Kelly in 2022, The Woman Who Saved the British Countryside, is not too far off the mark), she is best known for her children's tales featuring the likes of Peter Rabbit (published in 1902) and others.

Strangely for me, The Tale of Mr. Tod  (first published in 1912) is like Thornton Burgess' The Adventures of Reddy Fox, not the most apt title. I would have called it The Tale of Tommy Brock and Mr. Tod; however, that's probably too much of a mouthful. Although, Potter more or less agrees with me in her first two sentences! I have made many books about well-behaved people. Now, for a change, I am going to make a story about two disagreeable people, called Tommy Brock and Mr. Tod. I am sure youngsters reading, or being read to, the story would love the descriptions of the two scoundrels.

Nobody could call Mr. Tod "nice". The rabbits could not bear him; they could smell him half a mile off. He was of a wandering habit and he had foxy whiskers; they never knew where he would be next... Tommy Brock was a short bristly fat waddling person with a grin; he grinned all over his face. He was not nice in his habits. He ate wasp nests and frog and worms; and he waddled about by moonlight, digging things up. To the urban child, these simple sentences gave them a wealth of knowledge about animals they would probably never meet in real life.

The story is a simple one. Mr. Tod has several dens which Tommy Brock, without a by-your-leave, uses as if they are his own. On this occasion, he has whisked a group of young rabbits away for imbibing, under the nose of their baby sitter old Mr. Bouncer. He carts them off in a sack to one of Mr. Tod's homes. Not only this, he prepares the breakfast table and then goes fast to sleep in Mr. Tod's bed. Tod returns, attempts to rig up a bucket of water above the bed; is bested by Brock, who Tod finds subsequently having breakfast at his own dining table; they fight - then the snarling and worrying went on outside; and they rolled over the bank, and down hill, bumping over the rocks. There will never be any love lost between Tommy Brock and Mr. Tod. Meanwhile, two other Potter favourites, Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny rescue the baby rabbits. Putting oneself in the minds of youngsters at the primary age, the story would strike several chords: it is good fun, the characters are well depicted and the moral that good defeats bad is clear. What elevates the story (in fact, all of Potter's tales) are the delightful illustrations - there are fifteen in colour and numerous black and white ones - which are admittedly anthropomorphic, but compelling all the same. My two favourites are copied below. 

One assumes that the gentleman with sandy whiskers in The Tale of Jemima Puddle-duck (written four years earlier, in 1908) was the same Mr. Tod, although he had no name.

Clarence Hawkes' 'Redcoat. The Phantom Fox' 1929

 

Milton Bradley first edition - 1929

I had not got far into this novel, when I realised I had been 'spoiled' by Charles Roberts' book on Red Fox (see my previous Blog). Clarence Hawkes' tale has many similarities, but not quite the same intense sympathy with his animal hero, or the same poetic narrative. His Note to the Reader points out what all the other books subscribe to: nearly all animal biographies are composite - that is, the life of the particular animal represented, is made up from facts drawn from many sources. The naturalist very carefully collects all his own experiences with the special species and all those of his friends, as well as those of other writers in whom he has confidence. And that is what, possibly, downgrades this novel from the heights of Red Fox. Perhaps it smacks a little of 'scissors and paste', almost of journalese? I am probably being unfair, as Hawkes' Redcoat is still very much a believable animal.

His parents are simply called Mr/Father Fox and Mother Fox. Redcoat is one of four small fuzzy balls of foxhood, born early in June. He is the largest and perfectly marked...dark red above and lighter red on the belly, where it approached yellow. His siblings were Cross Fox, Little Brother and, the single female, Fuzzy! Although the parents gradually train their brood in hunting and what was dangerous, both are killed early on - the boy on the nearby farm, Bud Holcombe shoots Mr Fox, silhouetted against a dark bush; and the mother is killed by one of the local Fox Club. Little Brother was also shot by the Club; Fuzzy succumbed to a trap set in the woods; and Cross Fox was killed by a greyhound. By Chapter Four, Redcoat is alone. But not for long!  By his own wits he must live or die, and Redcoat decided that he would live, and live well...the mountain, the fields and the woods belonged to him...not only that, but he would take from his enemy, the man, as often as the chance permitted. He meets up with a vixen - Fluffy ! - mates and is soon the proud father of four.

The story then follows similar lines to Roberts' tale. Hen houses are raided; muskrats are stalked and killed, an owl is caught trying to grab one of the cubs and is also killed; wild ducks are snatched from the backwater; a fat old woodchuck is outmanoeuvred; he taunts and maddens a bull; and Redcoat outwits Bud Holcombe and his father on several occasions. By using a very narrow path on the side of a mountain to his advantage, the pursuing greyhound, Racer, hurtles to his death onto rocks sixty feet below. Twice he is saved by a tender-hearted Kitty Mason, Bud's sweetheart, on one occasion by being whisked away hidden at the back of her trap. Even Bud Holcombe rescues him from the railway line, where Redcoat's tongue has frozen to a rail! There is also a forest fire (I can't believe Hawkes had not read Charles Roberts' book), where Kitty actually looks after one of the fleeing young foxes.

The local farmers, by now, are nicknaming Redcoat 'The Phantom Fox', as the tales of his sightings and escapes grow, some true someembroidered. It becomes almost a matter of honour that the local Meadowdale Fox Club should hunt him down. To no avail. Redcoat cleverly uses an oncoming train to see off the pursuing pack of hounds; more than once hides in a culvert for hours as the dogs fruitlessly search for him; whilst his most miraculous escape is by log-riding down the rapids of the local river. Eventually he is trapped - by Bud Holcombe no less - incautiously entering a henhouse due to the enticing daubings of a 'fox charm'. However, he is not to meet his Maker, but to be transported to the Sheerfield Silver Fox Farm, forty miles up the river. Bud will get $500 from the owner Mr. Jennings, who wants to cross his blue foxes with a fine male specimen of the red fox. So off go Bud and Redcoat to the Farm and Bud pockets the cash whilst Redcoat settled down, corralled by secure wire netting, galvanised, six feet high and bent over at a right angle at the top, extending about a foot and a half over the pen. The netting also extends underground for about twenty inches. The only good news is that Redcoat is handed a stranger as company - a beautiful, friendly blue Fox from the Behring Sea, Blue Lady. Galvanised fencing notwithstanding, Redcoat had not been born to see out his days in captivity. So, rather like in the Great Escape, both foxes dig their way out and head for the nearest woods. Finally after four months of leisurely travelling, Redcoat and his companion came to a lonely land just on the border between the New England states and the Dominion of Canada. With six fox cubs to look after, as well as his mate, Redcoat has at last found the refuge from his many enemies and is happy, after his kind. No more is heard the diabolical shriek of the Thunderer, the honking of automobile horns, or the baying of fox hounds. Instead, there is a bird song and the low music of the singing brook, and a deep peace over all the land.* Amen.

* not, of course, if you are a wood mouse, duck, poultry or any other foxy prey!

Charles G.D. Roberts 'Red Fox' 1905

 

Duckworth first edition - 1905

This is, quite simply, one of the most compelling and realistic novels I have read on a wildlife character. Charles Roberts, like all writers of this genre, has to steer a tightrope between authenticity and anthropomorphism. I believe he achieved this difficult task. The story of Red Ruff is set in the backwoods districts of Eastern Canada and the author takes us through from birth to the fox's final triumph over his main, and most dangerous, enemy, man. Roberts states in his Prefatory Note: Red Ruff simply represents the best, in physical and mental development, of which the tribe of foxes has shown itself capable...the incidents in the career of this particular fox are not only consistent with the known characteristics and capacities of the fox family, but there is authentic record of them all in the accounts of careful observers....as for any emotions which Red Fox may once in a great while seem to display, these may safely be accepted by the most cautious as fox emotions, not as human emotions....any full presentation of an individual animal of one of the more highly developed species must depict certain emotions not altogether unlike those which a human being might experience under like conditions. This well crafted, even exciting story, is so realistic that one must agree that the author has achieved his purpose.

The frontispiece

As if the reader's imagination is not enough, there are a profuse amount (I counted 49 of them) of atmospheric and skilfully drawn illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull, which relate directly to the text. The author - who had already published works such as The Kindred of the Wild, The Watchers of the Trails and The Heart of the Ancient Wood - is seeped (drenched?) in the ways of the animals and countryside he so lovingly describes. It is no surprise to see that he had already also published a book of Poems, as his narrative is regularly infused with poetry. I looked him up on Wikipedia (yes!) and read: Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts KCMG FRCS was a Canadian poet and prose writer. He was one of the first Canadian authors to be internationally known. He published various works on Canadian exploration and natural history, verse travel books and fiction.

Charles G.D. Roberts (1860-1943)

As an aside, I also read that Margaret Attwood has written about Canadian literature's approach to animal stories: the stories are told from the point of view of the animal. That's the key: English animal stories are about the 'social relations', American ones are about people killing animals; Canadian ones are about animals being killed, as felt emotionally from inside the fur and feathers. Roberts personifies this. As we follow Red Fox through the trials and tribulations, the mistakes and successes, of his life, we are drawn in to a certain sympathy (it can't be empathy, of course) with not only the hero but also his family and the other creatures, friend and foe.  We meet shell-shocked hens - Brahma, Cochin, Plymouth Rock - when they are joined in their chicken-house by a hungry Red Fox; we are with the fox when he battles woodchucks, snakes, skunks, muskrats and owls; and when (lonely after the deaths of his parents and all his siblings) he first encounters a diffident stranger, who leads him on a catch-me-if-you-can romp until finally succumbing to his charms.

The chapters where Red Ruff is pursued by the two local dogs (one ends up being swept away over a weir, due to the cleverness of the fox in leading him on); the terrifying experiences on first encountering guns (sticks with flames), traps and snares; the even more frightening conflagration caused by a forest fire; all carry the reader along, breathlessly, until he/she reaches the triumphant finale on page 340: Wild underbrush was all about him, and ancient trees; and soon he was climbing rocks more harsh and hugely tumbled than those of his native Ringwaak. Once only he stopped - having heard some tiny squeaks among the tree-roots - long enough to catch a woodmouse, which eased his long hunger. Then he pressed on, ever climbing; till, in the first gray-saffron transparency of dawn, he came out upon a jutting cape of rock, and found himself in a wilderness to his heart's desire, a rugged turbulence of hills and ravines where the pack and the scarlet hunters could not come.

On 3rd June 1935, Roberts was one of three Canadians on King George V's honour list to receive a knighthood; he was declared a 'Person of National Historic Significance' in 1945 and a monument to him was erected by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada in Westcock in 2005. The University of Ottawa hosted a Roberts Symposium in 1984.  Thoroughly deserved, say I.

Thomas Smith's 'The Life of a Fox written by Himself ' 1843

 

Whittaker and Co. first edition - 1843

I quite enjoyed this unusual book, made up of reminiscences from several foxes! The meeting of the dozen reynards was convened by the 'author' of the tale, one Wily. 

There is nothing I should like better than to invite to supper all the foxes that have escaped from packs by which they have been respectively hunted to-day, and then persuade them to declare to what cause they owed their escape...I invited all of my friends who had at any time beaten some pack of repute...ten of my guests, besides an interloper, arrived at the place appointed, beneath an old oak tree in the New Forest. Some must have travelled for several hundred miles: there were, as well as Wyly from Hampshire/Sussex; Cocktail from Harborough in Leicestershire; Craven from Savernake Forest in Wiltshire (my own home ground!); Pytchly from Northants; Dorset from Cranborne Chase; Warwick from the Atherstone area in  Warwickshire; Chester from Nantwich in Cheshire; The Bold Dragoon from Devonshire; Berkshire from the Windsor Forest surrounds; Sandy, who must have travelled the furthest, from the borderlands of Berwickshire and Northumberland. One more friend was about to begin his story. Whether he was from York, Lincoln, Nottingham, or Bedfordshire, was not ascertained, for on a sudden we were startled by the cawing of an old crow and the screams of a jay, which, added to the chatterings of a couple of magpies, warned us that daylight was appearing...therefore, hastily bidding adieu until we should meet again, we all returned to our favourite coverts. 

Inevitably there was a fair amount of repetition - there are only so many tales of drains and culverts, copses, rivers, and racing through sheep flocks - but Wyly clearly had gathered genuine information about his fellow foxes' escapades and clever manoeuvres. It was also interesting to read of the different approaches of the various Masters of the Hounds and their Whippers-in. One of the most noteworthy stories was that of Craven, who had crawled up the side of a large oak tree whilst being pursued by a pack. Eventually spotted by a keeper, who started to climb the tree, he sprang from my lofty nest, broke his fall by landing on some branches and got clean away. The drop was some 27 feet.

I found the Dedication To the Right Hon. Charles Earl of Hardwicke, written from Main Earth on June 6th, 1843 quite amusing. Wyly admits that the love I bear your Lordship is much the same as that borne to myself by the most venerable hen now cackling in your farm-yard, whose half-fledged brood I have often thinned. However, Wyly had always found in your Lordship a fair and open enemy, hence worthy of the dedication.

Novels on the Fox

 I have always had a soft spot for the Fox - ever since I found a deceased one on a teenage ramble through the fields surrounding our home at Holcombe in the wilds of the Mendips, Somerset. I carried it home, slung across my back and deposited it outside the back door of our house, much to the dismay of our Mother. Although I was told to take it back from whence it came, I did chop its tail off before doing so. I kept it for many weeks until the smell forced me to put it in our dustbin. I grew up in the West Indies on tales of Br'er Fox and Br'er Rabbit and always had a sneaking regard for the former.  Mr. Tod was also one of my favourite characters in the Beatrix Potter stories. On a trip to London, our family visited the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. I recall being far more interested in the cases containing a badger, a weasel, a stoat and a fox, rather than the more exotic animals of the world. I still have the four card leaflets I bought then

The Natural History leaflet

Then I bought David Stephen's excellent story of String Lug the Fox - published by the Lutterworth Press in 1950. My copy was the Fontana paperback edition of 1957. I still have it, with my childish writing on the fore title: Kenneth Hillier. 1957. Winter Term. Not long ago, I tracked down a copy of the first edition, in its dust wrapper. I now have half a dozen novels relating to foxes, dating from 1843 to 1950. Their front covers appear below. I shall read them all (most again) before Christmas.

 

                                           1843                                               1905

 

 

      

                                               1929                                            1931

 

 

                                             1937                                              1938

 

                                                                        1950

Reynard the Fox was once one of the most popular and beloved characters in European folk tales, as familiar as King Arthur or Robin Hood. He was a subversive, dashing, anarchic, witty and wily fox from the watery lowlands of East Flanders. He is in big trouble. He has been summoned to the court of King Noble the Lion, charged with a multiplicity of misdemeanours and crimes. How he pitted his wits against his accusers - greedy Bruin the Bear, dark and dangerous Isengrim the Wolf - to escape the gallows makes a compelling story.

Reynard the Fox

So - T. Smith's The Life of the Fox - here I come.

Cynthia Harnett's 'The Great House' 1949

 

Methuen first edition - 1949

That's my concentrated reading of Cynthia Harnett's historical novels done; that is, until I can track down a first edition, dust wrappered copy of Stars of Fortune (Methuen, 1956) - at a sensible price.

The story, set in 1690 in the reign of William III and Mary II, concerns the prospective building of a new house by the Thames at Ladybourne near Henley. Barbara and the two-years'-older Geoffrey are the children of an architect employed by Sir Humphrey Ainsley to tear down an old mansion and build a new 'modern' one on the same site. Geoffrey has set his heart on going to Oxford University as Sir Christopher Wren had done. The latter was a friend of their father's and Geoffrey's hero. So, off they set - first by boat up the Thames to Isleworth. The author describes the buildings and scenery on either side of the river such as Wren's recent Chelsea Hospital, showing considerable and accurate research. From Isleworth they go on horseback, crossing the dreaded Hounslow Heath, to the Wheatsheaf Inn at Ladybourne. Again, the description of the stop at a blacksmith's to re-shoe a horse, the contents - furniture, fireplace and utensils - of the Inn and the character of the female innkeeper, Mrs Jarvis, are well drawn. I particularly liked the chapter in which her Grace of Cleveland (the late Charles II's most famous paramour, Barbara Villiers) and her real-life companion, a highwayman, actor and adventurer, Cardonell Goodman, who dances with young Barbara in high-topped riding boots, turned up at the Inn.

The father returns to London, as Sir Humphrey is delayed in Rome due to an illness. Both youngsters, now based at the Wheatsheaf, make the most of their freedom, Geoffrey's tutoring by the local clergyman, Parson Hayward, notwithstanding. Although the plan of Sir Humphrey and their father is to demolish the old house, Sir Humphrey's mother, old Lady Ainsley lives there with his daughter, Elizabeth. Neither want to leave the old home. 

The crux of the story comes when Barbara and Geoffrey go wandering in the park of the old mansion. A picnic near the river with Mrs Jarvis leaves Geoffrey spellbound. The ground sloped gently downhill, a sunny expanse of grass broken by great trees, oak and ash and beech. They left the track and plunged suddenly over the hill-side. It became much steeper and between the trees they could see the glint of water. But after a few moments the ground flattened out again, and they found themselves on a broad natural terrace, sunny and sheltered, with a glimpse of the river curving away through the valley below.

It soon becomes clear that it was an ideal site for the new house. The rest of the tale depicts Geoffrey's designs on paper, building on his father's original drawings, and then both youngsters actually laying out the ground-plan of the house on the terrace.

When Geoffrey saves Elizabeth from drowning in the Thames, both children are invited to stay at the old mansion by Lady Ainsley. Here they find out who the lady in black at the window was (they had glimpsed her on their first visit there with their father). She is Mad Margot, a 'disturbed' French companion of Elizabeth's dead mother. Abnormally devoted to the latter, she goes crazy when she catches Elizabeth trying on her late mother's dress. Soon after, the same room catches fire and - once again - Geoffrey is the hero in saving any conflagration. Mad Margo  had set the room alight by piling up material, including the dress, and setting fire to it. Had Cynthia Harnett read Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1938)? as the similarity to Mrs Danvers in that novel is  striking.

All's well that ends well. Sir Humphrey returns from Italy and travels down to Ladybourne with the youngsters' father (he is never named). Both are convinced by Geoffrey's idea to use a totally different site, so old Lady Ainsley and Elizabeth can breathe a sigh of relief! Moreover, the hero Geoffrey, a very brave boy, can look forward to going to Oxford.

As with all the other novels to come, the author has a Postscript. Here she suggests the reader goes back for another peep at the pictures...all the things in them are real - the actual articles that were generally used at that time. She then points out particular scenes, buildings and objects for closer study. Apart from the final novel, The Writing on the Hearth, the author drew all the illustrations. This is a major reason not only for the books' charm but also as a stimulus to find out more about the lives and objects of the times she wrote about.

One thought struck me, after reading all five novels. Where are the mothers of the main characters? In The Great House (1949), Barbara and Geoffrey's mother has died of the smallpox in the previous year, as has Elizabeth's mother. In Ring Out Bow Bells (1953), both parents are dead and grandfather is in charge. In The Load of Unicorn (1959), Benedict's mother is dead; and in The Writing on the Hearth (1971), again both parents are dead and only an unpleasant stepfather looks after Stephen and Lys. Just Nicholas in The Wool-Pack  (1951) has a mother, and she is not described in such a positive light as his father. Did the author have a problem with mothers?! Certainly the fathers, if still alive, are painted in admiring colours. 

Cynthia Harnett's 'The Wool-Pack' 1951

 

Methuen first edition - 1951

Cynthia Harnett's novel about sheep farming, the wool and cloth trades in fifteenth-century (1493)  England gained her the Carnegie Medal and it was thoroughly deserved. As with the other three historical novels of hers I have read so far, the author projects an almost instinctive 'feel' for the period in question. This time, we join Nicholas Fetterlock, the son of a rich wool trading merchant, Master Thomas Fetterlock of the Fellowship of the Staple, based at the lovely small town of Burford (it still is, apart from the interminable traffic). Nicholas is friends with Hal, the son of Giles his father's shepherd, who has a plain good-tempered face. The story starts with both boys enjoying a rest above Burford, minding the flock, when they are disturbed by a tall gazehound attacking first a hare and then the grazing flock. It belongs to Master Antonio Bari of Florence, an agent of the noble banking house of the Medici. His humble round-backed secretary, is a nasty piece of work. His face was sallow and pock-marked, with little eyes that peered under heavy lids, and a large flabby mouth. He is nick-named toad-face by Nicholas. Clearly a 'baddie' from the first, then. More pertinently, Master Leach, Fetterlock's factor - or wool-packer - is clearly up to no good either. He was a cold, sour man. Cynthia Harnett's wrong-uns' are always painted in black. The two Lombards are scheming with Leach behind Thomas Fetterlock's back, to siphon off good wool (hidden in Leach's newly-built barn) and send it by pack-horse to a little used port, Lepe, rather than the official embarkation point of Southampton. Moreover, the wool is then taken across the Isle of Wight, picked up by the Lombards' galleys and sold, quite illegally in France rather than Italy.

A Sheep Street House today

Nicholas is to meet the Lombards again at his family home in Sheep Street, Burford, but not before his mother - a woman dissatisfied with being a mere merchant's spouse who would rather be linked to the nobility - has forced him to undergo a thorough wash and change of clothes. The father is much more sympathetically described, as is his mother's brother, John Stern a Bristol sea-captain, full of rich salty fun, and thrilling stories. All these characters, with other more minor ones, are effectively melded into a true-to-life story of skullduggery. In addition to the main tale of wool theft and the mal effect on Thomas Fetterlock's reputation (he even ends up in gaol at Calais) amongst his peers in the Staple, is that of the decision by Thomas to betroth Nicholas to a Newbury cloth-dealer's daughter Cecily. The Fetterlocks travel to the Berkshire town (home of the famous Jack O'Newbury) to meet Cecily's parents, Master and Mistress Bradshaw. Nicholas, worried about meeting a prim young mistress, is delighted to find a tom-boy eleven year-old instead. This sub-plot is handled very well and must have helped the author gain her Carnegie prize. The large Fair at Newbury, and the smaller one back in Burford, are well described; as is the confrontation with the bogus mendicant touting for alms at Radcot Bridge. By the time one gets to the denouement - which, in true Harnett fashion, sees the Lombards and Leach get their just deserts - the reader is fully immersed in the social life of the first years of Henry Tudor's reign.

Kirkus Reviews (whoever they are) wrote a fulsome report on the first American edition, and it is worth quoting in full:

An attractively bound and accurately illustrated novel of a young wool merchant's life in fifteenth century England. Nicholas Fetterlock's days are filled with the inns and outs of his father's Cotswold sheep business and its ally - the weaving industry, as well as a threatening mystery to solve. In the midst of plenty - his father's increasing output and reputable position, his betrothal to friendly Cecily Bradshaw that portends a good married life, Nicholas' world is disrupted by the arrival of two Lombard Italians who in nearly successful swindles, bring on Master Fetterlock's ruin. Nicholas, Cecily and a best friend catch them in the nick of time. I couldn't have summed up the story better myself!

The Wool-Pack was adapted by the BBC as a 90-minute film entitled A Stranger on the Hills, televised in 1970 as a three-part series for children. Those were the days!

The Carnegie Medal was set up in 1936 (the centenary of Andrew Carnegie's birth) by the British Library Association as a literary award for English-language books for children or young adults. Until 1969, the award was limited to books by British authors first published in England. The original rules prohibited winning authors from future consideration. Perhaps inevitably, a diversity review in 2018 led to changes in the nomination and judges process to promote better representation of ethnic minority authors and books. One can only hope that quality remains the criterion. Cynthia Harnett not only won the award in 1951 for The Wool-Pack, but was Commended in 1958 for The Load of Unicorn.

Cynthia Harnett's 'The Load of Unicorn' 1959

 

Methuen first edition - 1959

Three down, two to go! November is very much Cynthia Harnett month - and I am enjoying being transported back to my Prep School Days. Every afternoon, after lunch, we had 'Quiet Time', which meant resting on our beds for an hour. Imagine asking a 10 to 13 year-old to do that these days. What it did do was to impregnate me with a love of reading; the small school library was an Aladdin's Cave of adventure. Imagination ran riot, as one lost oneself in the doings of Stanley Weyman, John Buchan or G.A. Henty heroes. Above all (which was also thanks to an inspiring History teacher), I adored roaming over the past, particularly the English past. Buchan's  The Blanket of the Dark is still one of my favourite historical novels. Geoffrey Trease, Rosemary Sutcliff, Alfred Duggan, Rhoda Power all held me spellbound. Amongst them was Cynthia Harnett; only her first four historical novels were available then, but I think I lapped them all up. So now, after many many years, I am engrossed in her works again. 

The Load Of Unicorn is possibly a first-time read for me. It is set mainly in London, in June 1482 and the months thereafter.  Young Benedict is a schoolboy at St. Paul's Grammar School by the great cathedral. His father, John Goodrich, a scrivener, works at the west end of the nave, transcribing almost anything, usually for those unable to write. He has handed over his  business to Matthew and Cornelius, Benedict's much older half-brothers, who we are told - very early on in the novel - are up to no good. The brothers run a scriveners' works at the sign of the Crowing Cock, just north of St. Paul's.  The great danger to their trade is the oncoming of printing, in the person of William Caxton.  

A scruffy pedlar, named Tom Twist, is clearly engaged with the brothers in hijacking paper bound for Caxton's works by Westminster Abbey (the Red Pale), and hiding it in a barn further down the Thames. This main plot is well told, involving subterfuge on the river and the eventual release of the 'Unicorn' paper to Caxton. Benedict's father has made a friend of Caxton and the boy is apprenticed to the printer, much to the anger of his half-brother Matthew. He moves from the Crowing Cock, to Caxton's home at Westminster. He takes with him a precious few 'sheets' of sheepskin, which he has won at dice. On showing it to Caxton, the latter excitedly sees it as a subject for his next book. In fact, it is part of Sir Thomas Malory's famous stories Morte d'Arthur. The reader follows Benedict when he goes north to Stratford-on-Avon, then to Newbold Revel, just south-east of Coventry, to find Malory's grandson Nicholas. The latter gives Nicholas the rolled up manuscript and, although it is stolen by thugs of Tom Twist (who has been sent by Matthew to forestall Caxton from getting his hands on it), eventually Matthew and Cornelius succumb to the pressure exerted by their father and Caxton and hand over not only the Malory manuscript but the Unicorn hoard of paper. As with her other books, the author makes sure good wins over evil.

Cynthia Harnett's detailed research shines throughout. She captures the sights and sounds of the late 15th century, particularly the areas around St Paul's and Westminster Abbey and the Thames, and she peoples the story with believable characters. The future lies with Caxton and his printing press, rather than with the scriveners. Benedict's father is perceptive enough to realise this and his son is set to be involved in a new age rather than with the past. The author's drawings are a fundamental part of the enjoyment gained from reading the novel.

This Blog is a land mark - my 400th to date! I wonder how many thousands of words have been used to reach this.

Cynthia Harnett's 'The Writing on the Hearth' 1971

 

Methuen first edition - 1971

Cynthia Harnett clearly did her historical homework - as she did with all her novels set in the fifteenth century. In one of them - The Load of Unicorn (which I shall be reading next) - she set forth her method.

Writing a book of this sort is rather like a detective story in reverse. There are clues all the way through it but they are not put there by the author to help the reader to unravel the plot. The clues in this sort of book are bits of history, and facts about people and about places that really existed. It is the author's job to find them all out, and then knit them together so that a story comes to life.

Ewelme Church, Almshouse and School

The Writing on the Hearth is set in the period 1439-1441 and concerns young Stephen who lives in the village of Ewelme in Oxfordshire with his sister Lys. Both parents are dead, the father - a soldier servant to William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, having been killed a decade earlier after the siege of Orleans. Their guardian is a surly stepfather Odo, a ploughman. One friend of Stephen's is Doggett, an old soldier, who had been a friend of his father and had fought at Agincourt in 1415. Doggett's stories of the war were never ending. Other fictitious figures are Master Simon Brayles, the Duke's Chaplain at Ewelme Hall and Sir John Saynesbury, the local parson.

Closely intertwined with these figures from the author's imagination are real life historical characters, actual places and events. The Duke of Suffolk and his wife Alice, daughter of Thomas Chaucer, Speaker of the House of Commons, and granddaughter of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, established the school (which Stephen attends) and the cloistered almshouses from their profits from the East Anglian wool trade in 1437, and endowed them with estates in four counties. Ewelme School is said to be the oldest school building in the UK still in use as a local authority school. Alice was buried in the church and her alabaster tomb, almost undamaged, consists of a canopy of panelled stone, beneath which is her recumbent effigy. The space beneath the tomb chest encloses her sculpted cadaver.

The story encompasses the real historical faction fighting that was going on at the time. Humphrey duke of Gloucester had returned in triumph from his Calais expedition in 1436. He and his second duchess, Eleanor Cobham, stood high in royal favour. However, the harmony between Henry VI and his uncle and heir apparent did not last for long. In 1440, Gloucester opposed the release of the duke of Orleans (captured by Henry V at Agincourt) from captivity so he could negotiate peace with France. The Gloucesters became an object of the king's displeasure. The duchess laid herself open to a possible charge of treason and sorcery - imagining Henry's death so that her husband could inherit the throne. She had to endure several days of humiliating public penance, walking through London's main streets as if she was a common prostitute. Among others arrested as accomplices in the black arts, was  the fashionable astrologer and necromancer and member of Gloucester's household, Master Roger Bolinbroke, also Master of St. Andrew's Hall, Oxford University.. He was hanged, drawn and quartered for his share in the plot. In opposition to Gloucester was the duke of Suffolk and his party and, for the period covered by the novel, he comes out successful.

All the above are skilfully woven into Harnett's story, with young Stephen often getting first-hand experience of the ebb and flow of political events. In addition, the author continues to portray, as accurately as possible, life for the ordinary person in mid 15th century England. Lys becomes a kitchen wench at the nearby Goring nunnery, later progressing to the status of a lay sister. Stephen, thanks to the patronage of the Suffolks, is bound for Oxford - first to St. Edmund's Hall and later to St. Mary's College (Oriel College). As with Ring Out Bow Bells! - the novel I read prior to this one - the author's didacticism is very much in evidence. As she writes in her Postscript, but if Stephen and his story are fiction, his problem is a basic one, as valid today as ever it was - the problem of sifting good from evil. To him it came in the guise of witchcraft. The author ensures that the bad do not go unpunished, whilst the good get their reward. If only this was as straightforward today, in our increasingly dystopian world.

Interestingly, this was the first of the novels not to be illustrated by the author. On this occasion, Gareth Floyd did the honours. Cynthia Harnett can be excused, as by now she was 77/78 years-old.

Cynthia Harnett's 'Ring Out Bow Bells' 1953

 

Methuen first edition - 1953

At last, I have got around to reading Cynthia Harnett. Years ago, when I was collecting early Puffin paperbacks, I bought three of her historical stories: The Wool-Pack (PS153, 1961); The Load of Unicorn (PS257, 1966); and Ring Out Bow Bells! (1973). Then, over the last few years, I have searched for first edition dust-wrappered copies, and purchased six of the seven that she wrote between 1949 and 1971. There is just her Stars of Fortune (1956) to collect; but I am not paying over £70 for the one presently available on the Internet! So now, typically, I am embarking on the task of reading all the ones I own, but not in the order in which they were published, but in their 'historical' sequence, viz.:  Ring Out Bow Bells! (1415); The Writing on the Hearth (1430s); The Load of Unicorn (1482); The Wool-Pack (1493); and The Great House (1690).

Cynthia Harnett

During her lifetime, Harnett was extremely popular with libraries and schools; and many second-hand copies now for sale bear the library stickers, pockets and stamps on them. Along with Geoffrey Trease, Ronald Welch, Henry Treece and Rosemary Sutcliff, her books reflected the resurgence in popularity after the Second World War of historical fiction for youngsters. Harnett partly harks back to the tradition of the late 19th century writers Emily Sarah Holt and Evelyn Everett-Green, as there is certainly a didactic feel to her work. Both in her text and with her accompanying line drawings, she loses no opportunity to explain and portray aspects of 15th century life.  The postscripts to each volume point out which characters were real historical figures and which were the product of her mind. Similarly, buildings and events are marked and the end-paper maps, again drawn by the author, often superimpose modern roads etc. onto the 15th century cartography. The author was most drawn to social history and the daily lives, usually of ordinary people, of the period. Her illustrations are often copied from objects in museums or from old manuscripts; her narratives are closely aligned with her source material, such as Stow's description of medieval London.  The audience is the young adult or juvenile, but that isn't stopping this antique adult from enjoying her stories!     

Ring Out Bow Bells! is set in the City of London in Henry V's reign in the time leading up to, and including, the Battle of Agincourt. It concerns a well-to-do family, led by grandfather John Sherwood, a master grocer, warden of the Grocers' Company, and Alderman of the City. His niece, Aunt Isabel, helps him to look after the orphaned Adam,  a steady, studious boy who wanted to be an apothecary, or, better still, a doctor of some sort - either a physician or a chirurgeon; Dickon, still at school, he was gay and careless, always getting into scrapes; and Nan, seemingly the most sensible of the trio, even if the youngest.  A big bonus for the family is that Sherwood's best mate is none other than Richard Whittington - a smallish man, approaching sixty, unassuming in manner and in dress - already thrice Mayor of London and a regular visitor to Grantham's Inn, the Sherwood homestead.  Nan is his god-daughter. 

The tale is a pretty straightforward one. Adam gets caught up with a rather mysterious and sinister Master Gross, an alchemist., who wants him to get some potent earth, Silver Steel. Adam thinks it is for healing; in fact, it is deadly poison, to be used to kill the king. Gross is based in insalubrious Southwark, south of the river, at the sign of the Green Falcon. Here Benedict Wolman is a greasy, corpulent mine Host. It soon becomes clear, to the reader at least, that the latter are caught up in a Lollard plot to kill the king. Their dastardly scheming is found out whilst Henry V is laying siege to Harfleur, but they apparently escape. Dickon, although wanting to to be a grocer's apprentice, is indented to the Mercers' Company and has to leave home to start his apprenticeship. There are some well-told scenes of his time outside Cripplegate and the old City wall, in Grub Street near Moor Fields; of his fight with a larger Mercer apprentice; of his attempt to steal a head from one of the poles above the Drawbridge Gate on London Bridge; his subsequent incarceration in the Compter gaol in Bread Street; and his inadvertent involvement in treacherous Lollard notices. All's well that ends well, however. Dickon is reunited with his family; the Lollards are beaten; Adam is doing well, healing soldiers on Henry's campaign; the Battle of Agincourt is fought and won; the King crosses London Bridge in triumph; and Nan is able to tell two little children the story of Dick Whittington and his cat Madam Eglantine.

Ethan Bale's ' The Knight's Redemption' 2024

 

Canelo first paperback edition - 2024

This is the third volume in Ethan Bale's trilogy on the adventures  of the fictitious Sir John Hawker and it certainly lives up to the standard of the first. The first and third stories can be likened to quality granary bread in a sandwich, whereas the central spam/corned beef of the second did not quite live up to its coverings. Whilst I rather plodded through The Lost Prince, I thoroughly enjoyed reliving with Hawker and his little band the forlorn attempt to unseat Henry Tudor in 1487.

The reader is back in Venice, but not before we are reminded of the specific 'cross' Hawker has to bear. Ever since 1471, when he was of the party deputed to wrest the Lancastrians from their sanctuary in Tewkesbury Abbey, his conscience has bedevilled him. Now, though, he has to concentrate on rescuing his lover Chiara from her despicable husband Don Contanto (she is pregnant, but her husband has beaten her more than once). From the first, the author has us hooked. The description of the raid on the Venetian's house, the death of Contanto by the hand of Hawker  himself and the subsequent flight north to Flanders is on a par with the account of the escape from Bosworth two years earlier. Moreover, the reader can again delve into the characters of Hawker knight without lord; Jacob de Grood, his last remaining man-at arms; Jack Perry, a boy on the cusp of manhood; Sir Giles Ellingham, the blond youth bastard son of Richard Plantagenet; and Gaston Dieudonné, the Burgundian (or was he French?), a secretive character whose loyalty has never been above suspicion.

We then move on eleven months to Malines (Mechelen) in Flanders. It is February 1487; Chiara, now Dame Hawker, has a seven month-old baby, Nicholas - Hawker's longed-for son. Both want to settle down, he to forsake his mercenary past and start up in trade with his wife, her to link up with trading opportunities with Italy. No chance. Rumours abound of another attempt to unseat Tudor. At the centre of this web is Edward IV and Richard III's sister, the widowed Margaret of Burgundy. Sir Oliver de la Marche, knight of the Golden Fleece and tutor to nine year-old Philip, Duke of Burgundy, has other plans for Hawker.

Here fictitious people meet real historical figures. Viscount [Francis] Lovell - a man with nine lives: he had survived Bosworth, led an uprising in the north that failed, gone on the run, escaped, and then, finally, made it across the sea to safety; the boyish earl, John de la Pole, the Earl of Lincoln, who seemed to have chosen his side rather late in the game, perhaps when all other options were closed off. But he knew his claim to the throne was far better than Henry Tudor's was. Moreover, there is a succinct introduction of Duchess Margaret herself: her high forehead accentuated her large grey eyes, fine nose and alabaster complexion...in widowhood, she still stood proud and commanding, a daughter of the House of York and regal in her own right. Between them all, they force Hawker once more to join in the fight against Tudor, which means he has to cross the Channel with his trusty band and spy out the position in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire for a potential landing by the main force. Hawker does not take long to realise this is a ruse, possibly even to get them captured and made to give the lie to a follow-up invasion - rather than just the main one from Ireland (shades of the D-Day landing rumours?)

The author cleverly brings in another real life figure - the bastard son of Richard III, John of Gloucester, onetime Captain of Calais. Unfortunately, John knows which side his bread is buttered on and he serves at the king's pleasure. And he has seen fit to give me twenty marks a year. He spurns Ellingham's attempt to attach himself to the rebels: I do not know you. And I reject you. You bring only trouble with you.

Sensibly, for the plot's purpose, the author has Jack break away from Hawker and join Martin Swartz's mercenaries (landsknechts). This means Jack (and the novel) can follow Lincoln and Lovell to Dublin, where 'Edward V' is crowned; cross the Irish Sea to Lancashire; tramp over the Pennines to Yorkshire; and move down to the denouement at Stoke Field. Bale is excellent at conveying life amongst the mercenary force; the hardships of a disorganised army (they have been joined by unruly Irish contingents) on the march; the forceful disagreements amongst the rebel commanders; and a realistic account of the Battle of Stoke. We have been prepared for the demise of Hawker (his widow and son will be well cared for back in Malines) and de Groot. Both Ellingham and Jack may live for another day, but not so the devious Gaston Dieudonné, who changes sides yet again and meets a timely end at Stoke by the hand of Ellingham.

In his Historical Note, at the end of the novel, the author rightly draws attention - the most definite historical assessments in print - to Michael Bennett's Lambert Simnel and the Battle of Stoke (1987) and David Baldwin's Stoke Field (2006). It is clear he has used both sources to good effect, as his account of the battle is very realistic, even if the 'facts' are still in dispute. Ethan Bale has thoroughly redeemed himself in my view! This third novel can rightly join the first as an example of a well-researched, vibrant piece of work.

Another Self - Turkish Series: July 2022 and July 2024

 I must admit that I turned to this second Netflix Turkish Series Anotherself (Zeytin Aǧaci)  because Tuba Büyüküstün was in it. I had enjoyed her performance - and beauty! - in Black Money Love so much, that it was what they call a no brainer. Ably supported by Seda Bakan as Leyla - a rather scatty, over-exuberant mother of one, with a rafish husband teetering on, and then in, gaol; and Boncuk Yilmaz as Sevgi, suffering from perhaps terminal cancer - Ada (Tuba), is first seen as a successful doctor about to get a prestigious secondment only to botch an important operation on a politician. This was due to tremors in her hand. In fact, she is suspended and later dismissed.  The three young women, all in their late thirties, set off for Ayvalik, a small seaside town to recuperate and, even, 'find themselves'.

The main theme, to trace the ancestral roots to problems that each and everyone faces, is developed over the sixteen episodes which make up the two series. The rather sad Ada has to face up to a divorce, an estranged relationship with her mother (who dies early on in the story), the fleeting romances which both lead to break-ups and the loss of her job. Leyla needs to deal with her unsteady, criminal husband and estrangement from her parents. Sevgi, suffering from cancer, has traumas relating to the early death of her father and an ongoing fraught relationship with her mother, who lives with her.

A Zaman 'workshop'

Apparently, the series is an interesting mix of Family Constellation therapy and the use of the book 'It didn't start with You' by Mark Wolynn. Using supporting flashbacks to previous generations, the episodes show how resolving past repetitive family traumas are passed down generation after generation. They encounter the teachings and 'workshops' of Zaman Bey (Firat Taniş) who, ironically it later transpires, has his own estrangement with his son Diyar (Aytaç Şaşmaz). 

Toprak                                                     Diyar

Along the way, we meet Ada's husband Selim (Serkan Altunorak) who cheats on her, leading her to divorce him; her first love Toprak (Murat Boz), who reappears after some years, but now with a wife and young daughter; and Diyar, much younger than herself. Ada has 'flings' with both of them. Sevgi falls in love with a local restauranteur, Tevfik Fikret (Riza Kocaoǧlu), who can't seem to run a business successfully, but is the ideal long-suffering partner for the despondent cancer sufferer. All these characters are well sketched in, but the real focus is on the three women

Tevfik (Fiko)

Towards the end of Series 2, Ada (as a voice over) reflects on what she has learnt - both from Zaman and from reading (Transgenerational Intelligence - repairing the wounds of the past).

• Maybe there's only one reason why we choose to relive the past over and over again. Love. The deep admiration and the subliminal love we feel for the souls who came before us.
• The age-old question we've been trying to answer in 1,001 ways, how do you heal? Perhaps we start to heal when we realize that the past doesn't only give us pain, but that it can also bring us  gifts.
• Maybe love actually has a healing effect. When you choose to love and be loved, you start to heal. Or maybe just committing yourself to others can heal you. Even at the cost of hiding your own wounds. Or maybe you start to heal when you accept the responsibilities for the consequences of your choices.
• Maybe some of us get closer to healing when we make peace with our past. And once we start healing our relationships heal with us.

Thus, Ada now sees her dead father as part of her soul. His battered photograph, which she finds in her deceased mother's shabby suitcase, forces her to address both his weaknesses and strengths.

Perhaps, there are too many platitudes from Zaman; Fikret's hair transplant (?) in Series 2 is a bit too obvious; the alternative therapeutic practices, contrasted with traditional methods, may not convince every viewer; Ada is guilty of hypocrisy over her husband's one infidelity when she quickly cavorts with her old love Toprak; but the scenery - both in the olive groves, the beach and the cobbled, narrow lanes of the town is splendid and the acting of a high standard. I found the ending rather contrived. Ada gets a new post, but won't tell anyone where it is. Notwithstanding this, she persuades her two girlfriends, one just reunited with her husband and the other not out of the woods with her cancer, to jump in her car and set off into the sunset. But, of course, a Series 3 is planned for 2025.

Tuba Büyüküstün (Ada)

A final thought: I wonder how many of the actresses and actors really believed in what they were saying in regards to the Constellation therapy?!