Books you thought no one else has read

[tweetysylvester]

It's so fun to find rare books to read, or just look up or hear about less known books, so thought I'd start a thread about this. Nostalgic novels, YA books, current titles you discovered very randomly...

Pennington is KM Peyton - Pennington’s Seventeenth Summer, The Beethoven Medal, Pennington’s Heir & Marian’s Angels.

GuineaHyggaeReturnsWheeking; There's a sequel to the Kingscote books, by Sally Hayward, called Spring Term. It's written very much in her style.
The Pennington books are by K. M. Peyton, who wrote the Flambards books. There are also a couple of books about Ruth when she's younger and horse-mad; Fly-By-Night, and The Team.

Jonathan in the Team is from Prove Yourself a Hero/A Midsummer Night's Death, too. A lot of her books had interlinked characters.

Gosh there are so many of these titles I remember, though I don’t remember all the books. We must all be a similar era! None of my kids are big readers which makes me sad, the imaginary worlds these books created were such a big part of my childhood.

Oh, the non-Kingscote Marlow books are brilliant, and illuminate the school novels no end — you get to see more of the brothers and Mrs Marlow, plus a few brief appearances from the seagoing Commander Marlow, Patrick the next door neighbour (who is essentially Jacob Rees-Mogg), how they end up living at Trennels etc etc. Plus two books about a Marlow ancestor acting in Shakespeare’s company. And yes, they’re terribly expensive. Try inter-library loan?

Thanks so much @EBearhug @Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies @NotSoFar @sueelleker

Just been reading the Catherine Cookson thread in A IBU and someone has mentioned Jacqueline Wilson. This prompted me to ask on here, did anyone read the older YA books by Jacqueline Wilson, mostly from the 1980s, such as Deep Blue, Falling Apart, The Dream Palace, Amber?

@GuineaHyggaeReturnsWheeking - I have read and reread Thursday's Children by Rumer Godden, and have just reread In This House of Brede. I remember reading the Diddakoi too, though that did make me sad.

I love Elfrida Vipont's books too - I used to be a trained singer so The Lark in the Morn and The Lark on the Wing were favourites, but I love Linnets and Valerians too.

I'm also a huge fan of Elizabeth Goudge's books - especially The Dean's Watch and the other books in that series, and the Damerosehay set.

Me too. I'm also a former classical mezzo, (health made me give it up). Did you ever read Willa Cather's Song of the Lark? It's a beautiful read for any singer.

I haven't read that - thank you for the recommendation, @GuineaHyggaeReturnsWheeking!

You're very welcome. Enjoy!

Plus two books about a Marlow ancestor acting in Shakespeare’s company. And yes, they’re terribly expensive.

I got the two in the '80s when they were discarded stock from my local lending library. Probably paid something like 40p each.

(I did pay rather more for the Marlowe books I didn't have during lockdown.)

I set my heart on owning all the Antonia Forests and I now do, but it was indeed an expensive business!

I loved Linnets and Valerians and my mum did too (that’s Elizabeth Goudge though, @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius?)

You are right, @Terpsichore - I am a numpty!

I didn't really rate the historical Marlow books - they were OK but I'm glad I didn't spend a fortune on mine (GGB reprints). I too have library discards amongst my complete set of Antonia Forests.

@GuineaHyggaeReturnsWheeking and @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius, as singers, have either of you ever read Kate O’Brien’s As Music and Splendour )1958)? Set during the 1880s and 90s in Paris and Italy, about two girls taken from provincial Ireland to train as opera singers, so you follow them from their days in a convent in Paris through training, falling in and out of love with their fellow students, and through their first seasons as very different fledgling divas.

It’s one of my favourite novels. It was out of print for many years, but I think currently available in paperback. Thoroughly recommended if you haven’t (as are KOB’s other novels.

My The Players Boy is a nice hardback that was a present many years back, but my The Players and the Rebels (and my copies of Falconer’s Lure, The Marlows and the Traitor and Run Away Home) are GGB.

I love the Shakespearean novel/s, even as I admit the rather Mary Sue character of Nicholas, who is brave, beautiful, deeply-feeling, academically brilliant, has a photographic memory, a memorably beautiful voice, and as capable of playing Juliet brilliantly while standing on an Oxford bridge in his own male clothes at the drop of a hat as he is at turning his hand to sailing to the New World etc etc. And that Forest’s Shakespeare is basically a male Tudor Rowan Marlow.

I love the Shakespearean novel/s, even as I admit the rather Mary Sue character of Nicholas....

He's basically Nicola in boys' clothes, isn't he.

My Falconer's Lure and Marlows and the Traitor are ex-library. Never seen my hand move so fast as it did when it shot out to grab Falconer's Lure off the shelf.

You really need to read the non-school titles, starting with Falconer's Lure, to understand the Nicola-Patrick-Ginty triangle.

Oooh no I haven't but now I will be searching for it! I love threads like this, they just keep on giving ! Thanks so much .

Re: antonia forest, I'm loving the idea of a Tudor Rowan Marlowe!

I think loads of the 20thc AF characters have counterparts in the Shakespearean novels — Nicholas is Nicola, Will is Rowan, Edmund is Tim Keith, Humfrey is Lawrie etc. Even Queen Elizabeth is a bit of a combination of Ellen Holroyd, Miss Cromwelland Miss Keith.😀

I have a complete set of Antonia Forest including the non- Marlow one, The Thursday Kidnapping. The only GGB reprint is Falconer’s Lure, which was pretty much unobtainable for years. However, none of them will be worth anything because they’ve all been read to bits!

Ginty's a pain. I so hope Nicola ended up with Patrick.

In the 'cutting room floor' excerpts from Run Away Home, Nicola and Patrick have a snog in the village hall, which is a hopeful sign.

Ginty is a total pain, but I’d hope Nicola ended up with someone better than Yellow-Eyed Young Fogey Patrick! Or that she ends up sailing solo around the world indefinitely, having recovered from her debilitating sea sickness, and that Patrick ends up marrying Claudie, who is chronically unfaithful to him…

We refuse to take official notice of these, as they mean Mr Buster is also dead!

ETA. I love that AF decided it was too bleak to kill lovely Buster the pony, but happily subjected Peter and Giles to near-drowning in a quite harrowing way in the same novel.