It's Teachers' Day - the day when every teacher goes home with a mountain of cards. As a writer and teacher, how can I not celebrate all the fictional teachers I love?When I started writing this post, I thought, first, of all the teachers I've created in my stories. The Story-Catcher has very few; offhand, I can think of just the nameless coach in "The Nationals".Dragonflies, Jigsaws, and Seashells has three; perhaps because I started teaching a lot more ...? Mr Kaushik Natraj from "Treasure-Hunt", Miss Philips from "A Drawing Lesson" and Miss Kala Ramdev from "A Retired Teacher": I like Mr Kaushik most!Edited to add: My latest book Sisters at New Dawn is a school story, so it's full of teachers. I would love to know who your favourites are!Naturally, I then went on to think about all the fictional teachers I love, particularly in children's fiction. Here … [Read more...]
Dead Man’s Cove
The cover of Dead Man's Cove, the first of the Laura Marlin Mysteries, has a snippet from a review, proclaiming that the book will delight Enid Blyton fans. And so, even though I read the second book, Kidnap in the Caribbean, some time ago, I began this one with different expectations. The most wonderful part was that those expectations were met.As a child, I was convinced that smugglers were exciting. Anyone who has read Five Go to Smuggler's Top and The Secret of Spiggy Holes will, I think, have similar responses. Ooh! Smugglers! What fun! Smugglers, for me, were equated with adventure. Even when people spoke to me of binoculars and cameras being smuggled into India, I had the same kind of starry-eyed reaction.As a child who lived vicariously through books, Enid Blyton's stories came with a sense of security. … [Read more...]