Victorian visions take a sinister turn in the progressive 1970s “She swished the curtain as she spoke in order to see better, and for the peering Lucy the light was suddenly changed so that instead of the dark garden she saw only a reflection of the room behind her and her own face. It had … Continue reading Come Back, Lucy: Pamela Sykes’ forgotten classic
“His memory he had about him like a scarf; his thoughts a flight of starlings.” Lucy Boston quotes Rabelais on the title page of Memory in a House (1973) “…already I had realized and accepted my destiny, which was to be the temporary vessel of the consciousness of the long, unremembered life of the house.” … Continue reading A door to Green Knowe: Lucy Boston, Mrs Oldknow and the past in the present
Why we look to classics of midwinter literature in the dark months One genre of children’s literature is master of ceremonies at this time of year: those books we turn to in the hope they will throw wintry sunlight and lazy candle-flame on the mind. Christmas is traditionally a time for ghost stories, but these … Continue reading A Mind for Magick
WHISTLES IN THE WIND 