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,…
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…
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…
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
My Lockdown Books: Forty Six
As many of you will know, Jean Estoril was one of Mabel Esther Allan's pseudonyms. I, however, did not know that when I came across…
My Lockdown Books: Twenty Four
I've been reading Mabel Esther Allan's books for about forty years. I've collected them more seriously recently but have limited myself to her teenage novels…
21st December
Mabel Esther Allan has already appeared in this month’s posts in the guise of Jean Estoril, one of her many pseudonyms. In her own name…
15th December
I discovered the Drina books by Jean Estoril serendipitously in Lossiemouth Library as a child. I read them in a random order as and when…
Revising and Updating Books: some thoughts occasioned by re-reading Jean Estoril
Over the last couple of weeks, I've been re-reading the Drina books by Jean Estoril (Mabel Esther Allan). I really liked these books as a…
Continue reading → Revising and Updating Books: some thoughts occasioned by re-reading Jean Estoril
Pictures and Conversations 