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Marianne Dreams

207 replies

Beachtastic · 27/09/2025 19:36

Did anyone else love this book as a child?

For some reason I've been thinking about it the past couple of days and will read it again (paperback on order!).

Such a clever and interesting plot. Not to mention scary!

annabookbel.net/revisiting-childrens-classic-1958-marianne-dreams-catherine-storr/

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Lemoncanine · 01/10/2025 18:11

I know! And apparently she sewed the most amazing clothes for her children's and her children's friends' dolls...

I think Marianne Dreams shows extraordinary psychological insight - any doctor who works with seriously ill children should read it.

Do read The Chinese Egg and let me know what you think of it - it's very different to MD (intended for slightly older children) but it has the same tinge of strangeness and magic. And feeling...

Clbs · 30/09/2025 22:46

Yes so surreal

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Beachtastic · 30/09/2025 22:38

@Lemoncanine I've never heard of The Chinese Egg -- just looking it up now! (it has a very pretty book cover!)

I love being able to look things up on the internet now. Who knew (maybe some of you did!) that Catherine Storr was Lady Balogh? that she was the school's organist for St Paul's?? that she was taught music by Gustav Holst?!?!??!?!?!

Equally impressive, but maybe less surprising (given the books she wrote), she was Senior Medical Officer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the Middlesex Hospital.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Storr

Catherine Storr - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Storr

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StartupRepair · 30/09/2025 22:35

Loved and was haunted by this book so much. The convalescence.The Pencil! The backlisted episode is very satisfying.

GetToHeaven · 30/09/2025 22:32

Yes, I absolutely loved it. One of those books that’s really stayed with me.

Lemoncanine · 30/09/2025 22:31

Amazing book - so insightful on serious childhood illness, and the difficulty of getting well.

i LOVE The Chinese Egg - also Catherine Storr - anyone else?

TonstantWeader · 30/09/2025 22:28

Yes, one of my all time favourites, alongside 'Tom's Midnight Garden'. I've managed to find copies of both as an adult, alongside another favourite, 'When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit'. The rocks with eyes were horrifically scary as a child and still creepy as an adult.

Seconding the advice not to bother with 'Marianne & Mark', though. I have that too, but it's not a patch on 'Marianne Dreams'. But would thoroughly recommend Catherine Storr's other stories about 'Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf', which used to have my mum and me in stitches.

Plinketyplonks · 30/09/2025 22:27

It was a big fave in my house growing up. I still have the copy I had in the 1980s. And I named my daughter Marianne!

SwallowsandAmazonians · 30/09/2025 22:26

LOVED it. I'm going to rebuy, thanks for the reminder!

TheBookShelf · 30/09/2025 22:26

Marianne Dreams was a favourite childhood book of mine - I still love it. The sequel was very disappointing. I've also read Lucy Beware - another disappointing sequel (to Come Back Lucy).

Long before the film Paperhouse, Marianne Dreams was filmed as a six part serial in 1972, with the title Escape into Night. Available on Youtube. Filmed partly in black and white, it is hugely atmospheric and very faithful to the book; I found it genuinely scary as a child but very compelling.

AlwaysGardening · 30/09/2025 22:23

It was dramatised by the BBC in the late 1970s ( guessing the date) My sister and I were terrified by it!
Just looked it up, was actually ITV in 1972 and called Escape into Night.

thecatfromneptune · 30/09/2025 22:14

Latenightreader · 30/09/2025 19:30

There are two books linked to Charlotte Sometimes too - Emma in Winter about her younger sister, and The Summer Birds set before Charlotte goes to school. Neither as good!

I loved Charlotte Sometimes and never managed to track the others down.

I was also really bemused after buying an edition to re-read it when I was older, only to discover bits of it that I had remembered didn’t exist in the text. It was only much later on that I discovered on a vintage children’s books discussion that there were actually two published versions, one of which changes the text quite a bit! I was relieved to discover I hadn’t somehow dreamt this all up!

RebeccaDecember · 30/09/2025 21:36

Loved this book, read it when I was about 10 or 11. The film adaptation is called “Paperhouse” and freaked me out as a kid

Sunshineofyourlove · 30/09/2025 21:32

Oh wow, I adore this book and have recently read it to my 9 year old!

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 30/09/2025 21:26

I’m like you @Sheeppig hardly remember everything I’ve ever read, it was all borrowed

Sheeppig · 30/09/2025 21:15

Beachtastic · 30/09/2025 16:46

No, I didn't know that! It sounds suspiciously as though they might be older and have some sort of weird teenage romance 😖🫣

@Sheeppig I haven't read When Marnie was There but I loved the Studio Ghibli film of it 🤩

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It was thanks to Studio Ghibli that When Marnie Was There was reprinted and I could finally get hold of a copy. Nearly all my childhood books were borrowed from the library as books were expensive back then so there are several childhood favourites I have had to buy as an adult.

roseyposey · 30/09/2025 19:59

I adored this when I was 7 or 8. Read it over and over again.

PermanentTemporary · 30/09/2025 19:56

Marianne and Mark is AWFUL. A hideous snobbish disaster of a book. Probably interesting from a sociological point of view in terms of what people thought teenage/YA fiction should be back then. But not reading it is a positive choice (see also: All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard).

redblonde · 30/09/2025 19:42

Loved it and really loved Charlotte Sometimes. It was such a great illustration of wartime.

YourTruthorMine · 30/09/2025 19:37

My favourite book as a child, loved it

Latenightreader · 30/09/2025 19:30

There are two books linked to Charlotte Sometimes too - Emma in Winter about her younger sister, and The Summer Birds set before Charlotte goes to school. Neither as good!

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 30/09/2025 17:52

I LOVED this book as a child. Takes me back

MonGrainDeSel · 30/09/2025 17:43

And I LOVE Diana Wynne Jones, @CatChant

MonGrainDeSel · 30/09/2025 17:43

Marianne Dreams was one of my favourite books. I must have read it dozens of times. I also loved Tom's Midnight Garden and Charlotte Sometimes (another one that I reread endlessly). Moondial and A Wrinkle in Time were great, too.