BS: Help with finding a book.

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Senoufou
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 06:16 PM

Oh I had a pair of those roller skates with steel wheels! They made a heck of a din! (very satisfying) I once skated into the sweet shop and failed to stop. I crashed into their display cabinet and cracked the glass.
I also remember getting from A to B along the tops of walls, never just on the pavement. And we all had high stilts made of bits of wood.
I used to go horse-riding and we'd get up to all sorts on those ponies. Bareback, hanging on underneath, galloping hell for leather in wild races etc.
Dare I say my favourite pony was called...er...Nigger!! (Oh dear!)

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Thompson
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 05:50 PM

Hospital! Are you joking? I raced in howling, seeing red because of all the blood gushing into my eyes, and everyone roared laughing at me and said "Serves you right! You've been told and told not to jump out of that window." I don't think the eyebrow was even stitched, though I may have just forgotten that. A couple of days later I was back jumping out the window, though I lost my enthusiasm for it quite soon. More bravado.
Ah, yeah, spuds roasted in ashes! And during a brief time in England, also eggs roasted in ashes, which were delicious and I haven't tasted since.
And I loved running along the top of a low wall which was about 15 feet above the concreted sea edge, jumping across the two-foot-wide gaps along the wall. Saw a kid doing the same a few months ago and physically felt my skin tighten on my face as I went white with horror!
And there was nothing better than perching at the top of a hill, heart in mouth, balanced on those heavy old steel roller-skates, then letting go and going hell-for-leather down, hoping to cross the road at the bottom without being hit by a bus!

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Senoufou
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 04:51 PM

Ouch, that sounds quite serious! Did you go to hospital Thompson?
We were always having accidents and injuries. I broke my leg once falling off a high fence. And once a boy got his eye poked by an 'arrow' and ended up with a false one, poor lad.
I was really good at tree-climbing, as I was very thin and agile. Just like you I enjoyed being right at the top of a tree swaying in the breeze. We also used to attach a thick rope high up in the boughs, with an old tyre on the end, and swing on it right over the small river, jumping off into the water.
We also loved lighting fires anywhere and everywhere, and roasting spuds in the ashes.
We were always so active, and never stayed indoors unless the weather was absolutely appalling.
I honestly feel that children today have a rotten time of it, stuck in front of screens and not allowed any freedom.

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Thompson
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 04:31 PM

Children now don't even know how to climb a tree. No tree in the neighbourhood was safe from me, and I liked to sit at the very top of a pine tree, in the cradle of branches swaying six feet either way. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I caused some slight brain damage when I jumped across an area from a first-floor window and my feet slipped on the concrete lip and I came down *whap* on my eyebrows, splitting one, then fell back into the concrete area. I'm half-convinced my difficulty in recognising faces started then.

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Senoufou
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 03:07 PM

It's difficult isn't it robomatic? Nowadays, the traffic is much heavier. But I do feel the Police should have notified the parents that they had their children at the Police Station. Perhaps they deliberately delayed informing them in order to give them a scare. However it probably gave the poor children more of a scare!

We played very politically incorrect games of Cowboys and Indians. I loved being an Indian, and my war whoops were legendary. I was usually called Morning Star. We'd set up camp and attack the Cowboys, who always galloped about smacking their thighs, as if urging on their horses. We even attempted to speak in 'Red Indian'! All the boys had those toy pistols with 'caps' which made a bang. We Indians made bows and arrows from sticks in the woods.
Happy times...

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: robomatic
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 02:47 PM

I'm not sure how I feel about this:

Parents find government will supervise their children if they don't

Personally I remember being let loose at a young age to play war all around my neighborhood, Tom Sawyer style.

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Senoufou
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 06:43 AM

That's a good idea Thompson.
You're quite righ;, when I was small, nearly every mum stayed at home, so every house had someone in it during the day. Also we did go about in large groups during school holidays, evenings and at weekends. I well remember going round 'auntie' Poppy's or 'auntie' Maisie's house for a snack or to use the toilet if far from home.
Our groups always had a couple of bigger boys who probably acted as guardians of a sort. And if someone did anything a bit too naughty, we would all threaten to 'tell' in a very self-righteous way, thus controlling to some extent the other children's behaviour.
But regarding letting us get on with it, my father was always quite content to let us use his shed and the tools in it to make stuff. I could use a brace and bit at the age of about five, and we were forever banging in nails and sawing wood. We made bogey carts out of fruit boxes and old wheels, and cycled miles and miles. We went often to the farm and (to my horror/shame now) tormented the bull into chasing us. And tried to ride on the pigs' backs.
Looking back, it was absolutely idyllic.

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Thompson
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 05:36 AM

The trouble is that there are also fewer adults around. When I was growing up, and when I was bringing up a small child in a working-class area, there were adults in nearly every house, and flocks of kids ganged around together, playing and having a good time, and every now and again running into the house they were nearest for a drink of water or a bite of bread and jam. Now there are giant suburbs stretching for miles with all the houses closed up, and even if you let your own kids out, they won't have the safety of a big bunch of friends who keep an eye to each other.
It's having a very bad effect on the personalities of the next generation – never having been self-reliant, they have a tendency to be judgey and controlling in a way we weren't.
My solution, or beginning of a solution: protected bicycle paths to every school, so that parents would happily let their children cycle (at first cycling with them). That would start the ball of self-reliance rolling.

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Senoufou
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 04:55 AM

Exactly Newport Boy. And nothing dreadful ever happened to you.

My father put me on the steam train at Kings Cross for Durham. The first time I was about seven, and was excited to be sitting in a carriage all the way (5hrs) 'Up North' to see my auntie. The guard was probably asked to keep an eye on me, but I never saw him. I even found my way to the toilet by myself. It was just assumed I would, so I did!
The thing is, according to statistics there are no more child murders or paedophile attacks nowadays than back then.
I'm so grateful for the freedom we were all given, as it gave me enormous confidence when I travelled alone to Canada from London Airport at 17, then on to Uni by myself.
I know older folk have always grumbled about 'youth today' but really, youngsters now cry if you look at them and seem incapable of doing anything without parental support. I feel sorry for them actually.

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Newport Boy
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 03:43 AM

@Senoufou: In the late forties early fifties, we as children did all sorts of unsupervised stuff (camping in the woods, lighting fires to roast spuds, cycling for miles, going on the train for a 5hr journey alone to visit an auntie etc, all at the age of about eleven.) Parents in those days just let children get on with it, and we were resourceful.
Nowadays, Health and Safety would have a fit!

Pre-war (which means I was 3 years old) my mother would take me down to the bus stop, put me in the charge of the conductor (remember those?) for the journey 4 miles up the valley, where my Nana would be waiting for me. I don't know how this was arranged - neither of us had phones in the house.

I still remember the bus driver & conductor's names - Fred Field & Will Jones!

Phil

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Thompson
Date: 02 Aug 16 - 02:11 PM

Yes, this is where auction houses with boxes of books, and street markets and stalls are a godsend!

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Aug 16 - 02:07 PM

Ah, sorry Thompson. It may be a reprint, but it's unlikely.

I honestly wish I'd kept all the books I ever read and enjoyed when young. I recently managed to acquire all the Famous Five series. The trouble is, modern reprints change the text and even the names to make them more 'politically correct'. 'The Faraway Tree' is an example. I saw this in a bookshop and pounced on it, but was disgusted to see they'd changed Mrs Slap to Mrs Snap (presumably slapping children is now taboo) Fanny is now Franny, Tittie is Tattie and so on. Bowdlerisation at its worst!

I was amazed however to find a new copy of 'Little Black Sambo' untouched and unchanged. It's a book I absolutely adored as a small child, and assumed it's far too racist and politically dodgy to be reprinted, but there it is in all its glory on my shelf. Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense!

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Thompson
Date: 02 Aug 16 - 01:53 PM

Thanks, Sennoufou, I'll take a look. The one I'm thinking about, though, was published from the 1900s to the 1920s or so.

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Aug 16 - 01:41 PM

Thompson, the book Mon Petit Livre Rouge is/was published by Carrefour in 1995.
The ISBN numbers are:-
ISBN 10: 2743201215 and
ISBN 13: 9782743201210

There's a copy for sale at AbeBooks.com for US$ 19-50 (£14-79)
The Dewey class is 843.0692 livres d'enfants

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Thompson
Date: 02 Aug 16 - 01:05 PM

The one I'm looking for is a schoolbook I had as a small child: Mon Petit Livre Rouge – I assume that this was a reader used universally throughout the Francophone world, and Mao Tse Tung, in some incarnation as a boy in a mission school, came across it. A very cute book with line drawing illustrations of children. A red cover (obv). Have never come across a copy as an adult. Michel Audiard seems to have used the name for a book too. Not the one I'm after, neither his nor Mao's!

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Aug 16 - 04:18 AM

Pas de quoi Mrrzy!

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 07:34 PM

It WAS Blyton, I had been through her stuff and decided it wasn't. Yay! Merci ma chère!

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 04:16 PM

She did, didn't she Helen!
In the late forties early fifties, we as children did all sorts of unsupervised stuff (camping in the woods, lighting fires to roast spuds, cycling for miles, going on the train for a 5hr journey alone to visit an auntie etc, all at the age of about eleven.) Parents in those days just let children get on with it, and we were resourceful.
Nowadays, Health and Safety would have a fit!
My classes (Primary children) loved Enid Blyton. I used to read to them at the end of the day, often from her books. They particularly liked The Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair, and The Secret Island was very popular too.

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Helen
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 03:55 PM

Well done, Senoufou! My bet would have been on Enid Blyton. She often wrote stories about resourceful, clever children in sticky situations.

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Megan L
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 01:09 PM

description of characters and plot of "The secret island"

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 11:52 AM

There are loads of copies on Amazon, both new and second-hand.

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 11:50 AM

Hello Mrrzy! The book you describe is definitely 'The Secret Island' by Enid Blyton. I know it well from my teaching days!

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 09:48 AM

Refreshing this thread because I was looking for a thread I started donkey's years ago, seeking help finding a book. Couldn't find that one, but refreshing is encouraged over starting anew, so here goes:

*British children's book in the E. Nesbitt or Enid Blyton family of types of children's books
*Set in the London Blitz years, I believe
*Children sent into the country to get them away from the War, I believe (like the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)
*But these kids get sent to live with terrible people, in their minds, so they run/swim away to an island where they live out the War, I think, or whatever was keeping them away from their family in the city
*They build themselves a treehouse kind of shelter and swim some livestock over, chickens and maybe a mammal, sheep or cow?
*They spend one chapter dodging "day trippers" which as an American child I had no idea what they were but they were grownups who'd rowed over to spend the day on the island...

Anybody? Help? I lost the book on the Orient Express in the early '70's and have not been able to recall the title or the author, but it apparently isn't either Nesbitt or Blyton as I've gone through their bibliographies...

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Oct 15 - 05:35 PM

Thanks for that. I've found the one on eBay and am bidding on it.

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 05 Oct 15 - 02:52 PM

There is currently one copy on eBay (US) and another on eBay (UK) that are reasonably priced. However, since the books are auction sales, the price may jump considerably before the end date.

Worth looking into, perhaps?


Jay

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: Jack Campin
Date: 05 Oct 15 - 02:38 PM

Two less than a tenner here:

http://used.addall.com/SuperRare/RefineRare.fcgi?id=151005113731656639

Subject: RE: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: GUEST,#
Date: 05 Oct 15 - 11:02 AM

Have you considered an e-book or pdf download that you print off? It might be one heckuva lot less expensive than 50 to 60 pounds.

Subject: BS: Help with finding a book.
From: theleveller
Date: 05 Oct 15 - 10:14 AM

Bit of a long shot, but does anyone know where I can get hold of a reasonably-priced (around a tenner) working copy of Arthur Koestler's The Ghost in the Machine? Been through all the usual second hand channels (Amazon, Abe Books, Bookfinder etc.) and everyone wants silly money or silly postage. I thought I'd found one on Abe Books but just got an e-mail to say they've sold it. Ta.