Straddling the Border
About fifteen years ago I went to Italy with a couple of friends for a winter week. We stayed first in Verona, a beautiful city,…
Guernsey Before the Chalet School
As a teenager I found Elinor Brent-Dyer's La Rochelle series quite difficult to get into. They seemed to me to be much more dense than…
To the Festival
I have always known Edinburgh. I was born here and lived my first five years here. My Mum's parents lived in Musselburgh only a few…
Travel Back in Time
I did mention that Mabel Esther Allan would feature largely in this set of posts and here she is again using her own name. Blue…
Dorita Fairlie Bruce’s Song of the Clyde
If I ever had to make the decision to keep my entire collection of only one author, my choice would be Dorita Fairlie Bruce. I…
In Priorsford with O Douglas
My first foray into books that were published for adults takes me very close to home. I've known Peebles in the Scottish Borders since I…
Dancing with Drina in Kandersteg
Jean Estoril is one of the many pseudonyms of Mabel Esther Allan and so it should come as no surprise to those following this series…
The Merry Trilogy by Clare Mallory
Just before the axe fell I was in New Zealand, endeavouring to pretend that life was normal. My plan was to have a week there…
The School at the Chalet by Elinor M Brent-Dyer
Higher and higher they climbed, now and then stopping at a tiny wayside station, till at last...before them, dark, beautiful, and clear as a mirror,…
Continue reading → The School at the Chalet by Elinor M Brent-Dyer
Black Forest Summer by Mabel Esther Allan
When Max, Asta, Thea and Van's mother dies they are devastated. Already fatherless, they feel cast adrift on a sea of despair and misery. Max,…
Continue reading → Black Forest Summer by Mabel Esther Allan
