Blood and snow

Just finished Blood Red Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick. It's a fictionalised biography of Arthur Ransome, author of Swallows and Amazons. I'd forgotten that Ransome had also written Old Peter's Russian Tales. Sedgwick's book starts with a information about Old Peter, and we learn about Ransome's fascination with all things Russian. As a newspaper journalist he is based in Russia at the start of the Russian Revolution, and soon finds himself embroiled in dangerous events.

He is in contact with British officials, and with the Bolsheviks, not to mention in love with a young Russian who is Trotksy's secretary. It is fascinating to think that a man known for wholesome and now rather old-fashioned children's books was at one point deciding which side to spy for in the midst of terrifying times

I must admit that I didn't find it an easy read, though like Marcus Sedgwick's other books, it is a book for young people. A review in the Sunday Times says that it "will reward readers of any age". I have my doubts. Interesting, and very well written it may be, but I can't see if gripping too many of my teenage readers at school.

A bit of holiday reading

Well, I have now read my way though my Oxenham collection, as explained in my previous post. I'm sure they're very much an aquired taste (a bit like Marmite perhaps... love 'em or loathe 'em) as they are definitely of their era. You have to be willing to suspend disbelief to put up with coincidental meetings, many life-threatening illnesses and accidents, not to mention ludicrously named children and far too many sets of twins, but I've thoroughly enjoyed my self indulgent read through!

I've just had a week off work and had brought a small pile of books home. My first one was My So-Called Life by Joanna Nadin, as recommended to me by a couple of girls at school. I made a start on it and to be honest haven't really got very far. That's not because the book is awful, but the subtitle is "the tragically normal diary of Rachel Riley" and it does exactly what it says on the tin. It is a diary, our heroine is 13 and the couple of sections that I've read are pretty funny. I can see why my Year 9s identify with it, but I do things that in comparison to other stuff I could be reading it's just a little derivative (think Adrian Mole, Georgia Nicholson etc).

On the other hand I've also been reading The Amethyst Child by Sarah Singleton and am loving it so far. I've always meant to read some books by this author and have somehow never quite got round to it. I'd recommend this already even on the strength of the first quarter of the book. Amber is lonely and bored during the summer holidays, feels out of things among her peers at school, and misunderstood by her parents. When she meets a mysterious girl with a lifestyle quite unlike her own she is quickly swept up into life with 'the Community'. I can foresee that this is some kind of cult, and that it is all going to go horribly wrong but quite how I'm not yet sure!