The Pelagius Book
Ms Love says this book is small but perfectly formed. She says it’s about a philosopher, Pelagius, who lived at the end of the Roman Empire and had interesting views about God and man. She says the author makes the Empire and the people living in it come startlingly alive. She said she lay very still for a long time thinking about it when she finished the last page, and then she read it all again immediately.
Three Wise Women
Ms Love says this is a nifty story because it imagines that three wise women were following in the footsteps of the Magi when they went to visit Jesus – a young girl, a woman and a grandmother. When they arrive at the stable they feel bad because they don’t have rich gifts – like gold, frankincense and myrrh – all they have are the things they’re good at – baking bread, being a mother and storytelling.
But, these turn out to be just right. Ms Love says she really likes stories that give a new spin on the old.
The Electric Telepath
Ms Love says that even though Jan Mark has died she still has books being published because she was so prolific (dictionary meaning: she produced a lot) and had a backlog of stories. This is one of her recent books and is about a boy who belongs to a strict Christian community in 19 th century England but who is mad about science and longs to discover whether a machine can communicate feelings between people. Ms Love says she especially loves the way Jan Mark writes about people's neighbourhoods, the way she takes you through suburban streets and shows you the curious detail of peoples' houses
and habits.
The Lark and the Laurel
Ms Love says her Christmas present to herself every year is re-reading one of her favourite children's book series: The Mantlemass series...and this is the first title. She says it's about two aristocratic teenagers who are the victims of a battle between two royal families that went on for a hundred years during the Middle Ages in England. She says the thing she likes the most about this book is how the girl, Cecily, goes from being a spoilt little rich city girl to a capable tough young country woman as the result of being taken to live with her aunt in the depths of the forest. Byron and Adele want to read this next because apparently there is a lot of good food in it.
The Word Museum
This is one of Ms Love’s best books – because it has such weird and wonderful words in it – most of them forgotten now, she says. Occasionally she writes some of her favourites on the board (my favourite so far is ogerhunch which means any kind of frightful or loathsome creature…under certain circumstances it could be applied to youknowwho). Last week Ms Love told Bethany she was being a trifle dansey-headed which means giddy and thoughtless. Ms Love has two copies of this book – one for Room 7 and one for beside her bed.
Ridley Walker
Ms Love says she loves Russell Hoban because he can write for any age and he is always wise and funny. Ridley Walker is set in the future which is something she also likes.
Useful Idiots Jan Mark is Ms Love’s second favourite writer ever (after Russell Hoban). She said she read all her books when she was a teenager and doesn’t see why she should stop now that she’s moderately old – and anyway, she reckons they’re better than ever. This is what Ms Love says about Useful Idiots: ‘It is eerie and disturbing. It’s about England at some time in the future when much of the world has been submerged by rising oceans. Everything has changed – history and archaeology are frowned on…a young archaeologist travels north and discovers a new/old tribe with unusual burial practices. He becomes obsessed with finding out what makes some buried bodies the target of grave-robbers.’ Ms Love says Jan Mark is expert at creating new worlds and at writing about the English landscape and English cities.
Dreamhunter
(Ms Love’s second-favourite author)
Ms Love says Elizabeth Knox’s writing makes her mouth water - and
furthermore she spins a damn good story. This one
is
a fantasy set in a version of New Zealand’s past…(these are Ms
Love’s exact words) and she’s making
it last because it’s so good.
The Highest Tide
Ms Love says this is a very beautiful and gently funny book about a 13 year old boy who’s in love with his baby-sitter and also obsessed with marine life and discovers a giant squid on his beach one summer…the story is about the way things change in his life after that. (Apparently, giant squids have the largest eyes in the world – nine inches across!)…imagine coming across that in the dark. Ms Love says the boy in the story reminds her of her brother, Jimmy, who is a marine biologist and loves sea creatures…
Rumpelstiltskin and other Grimm Tales
Ms Love says these are the best because they’re the proper Grimm stories – not like old Walt Disney’s versions. She says they’re strange and creepy and wonderful and the writing is like poetry. She wants to use one of them as a play for Room 7, probably Hansel and Gretel. I want to be the narrator so I can say, It was no more than once upon a time when…
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