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Discuss this first article in a new feature, an interview with @David Flin here
It's interesting to compare Sarah Jane Adventures, Dr Who, and Torchwood, purely with regard to plotting, characterisation, and background.
Terry Deary did some historical fiction for children/young adults. I had the first book in a series which was okay bit couldn't be bothered with the second. This was late 90s? It was set in the Tudor period, but my brain keeps shouting 'IT WAS CALLED WOLF HALL' at me, making it impossible to find.
Tudor Terror about the Marsden family. Was the first fiction I ever read set in towns nearby like chester-le-street.
Is this a Newgrounds review from 2009?That was it. It lacked the humour of Horrible Histories, the plot was weak, the historical accuracy not great and the central characters not entirely likeable. 10/10.
It's interesting to compare Sarah Jane Adventures, Dr Who, and Torchwood, purely with regard to plotting, characterisation, and background.
The first has a much more equitable distribution of the spotlight; Sarah Jane was clearly the central character, but the others had a key part to play in the "team". With Dr Who, one rarely gets the feeling that the companion is there simply to make the Doctor look good, and it usually felt as though you could swap the companions around, and it would make very little difference to the story. As for Torchwood, well, that existed in order to have adult themes, and plot, characterisation, common sense, continuity and everything else could go hang provided it had its adult theme.
I admit that I learnt a good deal more history from these sort of authors than from textbooks, and the lack of equivalents today to inspire young people is a shame - though they do have video games on(cliched) versions of historical periods.
I tend to associate that kind of historical fiction (and just kids' history books in general) with the 1970s, there were a fair few books of that type left over in my school in the 80s and early 90s - though their distinctive illustrated art style made them look 'old-fashioned' to the neophiliacs.The secondary school libraries were full of good historical fiction - that is to say, plausible stories with realistic events and people you cared about - when I was at school in the mid-Seventies. (The library at my school was set up c. 1958-60 and most of the hardbacks seemed to have been kept since then; the authors featured were mostly writing in the 1950s and 1960s but had finished by c. 1970.) I agree that Rosemary Sutcliff was brilliant; I was brought up on her books, especially 'The Eagle of the Ninth' and its successors. (My 'Alternative History of Rome' blog article on the revolt of Carausius and Allectus in Britain against the Empire in 287-96 relied heavily on my memories of RS's book on the episode, 'The Silver Branch', a sequel to Eagle of the Ninth.) RS also wrote 'The Lantern Bearers' on the end of Roman rule in Britain and 'Sword At Sunset' on a plausible Romano-British warlord as 'King Arthur', calling on old Welsh literature and legends - and my knowledge of the latter (and of Irish legends)mainly came from a 1960s Puffin Books retelling of them , Barbara Leonie Picard's 'Hero Tales From the British Isles'.
Also a lot of good books were written in the 1930s to 1960s by Geoffrey Trease, a radical (by 1930s standards) left-wing self-made journalist who caused a major fuss with sniffy critics in the mid-1930s by subverting the usual 'patriotic' and socially conservative pro-aristocracy tone of historical novels by writing a children's thriller about Robin Hood , 'Bows Against the Barons', with RH as a sort of communist people's hero and the barons as evil and greedy oppressors. GT is best known today for his only children's thriller still in print, 'Cue For Treason' (an Elizabethan spy mystery featuring Shakespeare), but wrote dozens of books covering from Ancient Greece ('Crown of Violet', another favourite that I read aged about 12) to the Second World War, and was still writing in the 1980s - and created a rare State school children's adventure series about a mixed group of boys and girls at school in the Lake District in the late 1940s, the 'Bannermere' books. GT has dropped out of sight and his books are rarely seen today, but could do with a revival and he was very non-sexist and anti-public school for his time, with a semi-disabled girl as co-hero in the Bannermere series and people from all sorts of countries and social origins in his stories. Another good writer, but with fewer books, was Hilda Lewis, eg her 'Harold Was My King' on 1066 - another favourite of mine. I admit that I learnt a good deal more history from these sort of authors than from textbooks, and the lack of equivalents today to inspire young people is a shame - though they do have video games on(cliched) versions of historical periods.
Came across this on NPR today which made me think of this thread.
On the topic of 9/11 and children's literature:Article: "September 11 is now a remote historical event for the target demographic fit for fictionalising"
Me, Aging: "ARG ARG ARG"
Article: "September 11 is now a remote historical event for the target demographic fit for fictionalising"
Me, Aging: "ARG ARG ARG"
Now I know what it was like for the parents watching Quantum Leap when Sam visits the Watts Riot and stuff.