Arthur Calder-Marshall (1908–1992)

A very strange children's fantasy. It has sort of a surreal vibe to it, similar to Roald Dahl or Lewis Carroll. I liked it, and immediately started re-reading it to try to pick up on things that I missed the first time through. It left me wondering what my reaction would have been if I had read it as a child. I think I would have loved it.

The story is about some children and staff from a school/home for orphans with disabilities. They are each changed in some way by their visit to the fair. The book is a mishmash of good and evil, humour and horror, religion and science, morality, miracles, friendship, healing, and, most prominently, acceptance. It is so full of wordplay that I was constantly looking for hidden meanings. I know that I missed a lot.

Something that intrigued me was a deadly game of cricket that was going on in the background. One of the players was (for quite obvious reasons) called Mr. De Ath. I had to wonder whether this was also a subtle nod to Dorothy L. Sayers, as it made me think of a scene in Murder Must Advertise. This suspicion was reinforced by a passing mention of Lord Peter Wimsey later in the book.… (mehr)

The subject matter here is fairly interesting, but this is a case where the author got a bit in the way of actually enjoying the book. While Georgiana Devonshire and Elizabeth Foster (later Devonshire) were both women of unusual character living in very interesting times, Calder-Marshall keeps the reader and himself at a respectful distance even while trying to delve into the minds and motives of these ladies, which means the book never quite gripped me. Calder-Marshall's choice of being present in the telling (there are many asides and comments in which he specifies he is speculating or that various documents aren't available to him) is jarring, and his bias toward the Second Duchess Elizabeth is apparent. Also, the book's distance means people and events flowed by at breakneck speed and often I was lost amid piles of lengthy names and untranslated phrases in French.

The final effect is that of hardly any effect. Yes, there's scandal, sexual intrigue, adultery and unusual situations here, but rather than relish them, decry them, or even attempt to understand them, Calder-Marshall seems a bit put off by it all. He's wearing latex gloves as he writes so that he can poke and prod without getting any on his hands, so to speak. It's all quite interesting, but not as interesting as it could be, which made a very short book a bit of a slog. I suspect there are better versions of this story around.… (mehr)

Sir Percy left all his money to found Winterbottome Schools for chidden who had no parents and were suffering from some disability, and they must be co-educational. Boys and girls would be far happier together than he had been as a child.

My first re-read of the month is a book I read as child, always vaguely remembered and managed to get identified in the Live Journal whatwasthatbook community a few years ago. This is what I remembered when I was asking for help in identifying it:
"This is an older children's or young adult's book that I probably read in the mid to late 1970s. There are some children with various disabilities and I think they may all live in a children's home, or else go to the same special school. There is some kind of portal that they go through, but I don't remember what they do on the other side.
There is one girl who was colour-blind (not red-green colour-blindness as she could only see black, white and shades of grey), and when she comes back through the portal she can see colours for the first time in her life. One of the first things she sees in colour is an emerald ring that her psychiatrist/doctor/guardian? (definitely not her mother) is wearing and when she says how beautiful it is, she accuses her of having faked her colour-blindness. At the time I thought how ridiculous the accusation was - how could a child have faked it her whole life?
The other children were helped by going through the portal, but I don't remember any of details about them."

Having re-read it, I see that what I remembered was fairly accurate. The children live in a combined children's home and school while the lady with the green brooch (and I had remembered the correct colour) is a patron of the school, who paid for the children to attend Middling Fair. It isn't just the children who are changed by their visit, as some of their teachers also have strange experiences there. and there isn't exactly a portal at the fair, just a realisation when walking round a corner or between two tents, that the sounds of the fair have faded and you are somewhere else.

The Fair to Middling is still a good read. It is a lot darker than I remembered, as some of the entities offering help are not as altruistic as others, so while Emma Smith pays two bob to the General or her colour vision, Mr Scratch asks Lawrie to sell his soul.

I probably remembered the parts about Emma because she is the one who was changed in the most obvious way by her experiences at the fair, but it could also be because she is a girl or because she had red hair and I always wanted to be a redhead. Some Other changes were more subtle, including choosing to accept yourself as you are, and deciding to work towards finding a scientific rather than a magical cure.… (mehr)