When I was in junior school my mother joined my brother and me to ‘The Children’s Book Club’ (an imprint of Foyle’s Book Shop in Charing Cross Road) and we would get monthly cheaply printed but hardback books. Thus I read most of the Malcolm Saville books based in Shropshire around the age of 10 and I was in love with the character of Peta (Petronella) charging around The Long Mynd and The Stipperstones solving mysteries and righting wrongs. (Peta like Georgie in Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books, was the ubiquitous tomboyish and capable girl of much childhood fiction – in an older incarnation to become John Betjmann’s Miss Joan Hunter Dunn ? – She of the warm-handled tennis racquet).
One of the great attractions of the Malcolm Saville series was the inclusion of Maps showing the exotic locations of the children’s adventures in rural Shropshire [advice to all writers – include annotated maps whenever possible – children love them].
The map in Malcom Savilles book ‘The Neglected Mountain’
One of the great attractions of the Malcolm Saville series was the inclusion of Maps showing the exotic locations of the children’s adventures in rural Shropshire [advice to all writers – include annotated maps whenever possible – children love them].
The map in Malcom Savilles book ‘The Neglected Mountain’