Friday Five: Children's War Literature

The sad obituary from this week is that Nina Bawden has died, aged 87. She was the author of a fantastic number of books, including Family Money and The Ice House, both of which I thought were excellent when I read them many years ago.

She is probably best known, however, for her children's novel, Carrie's War, which focuses on the plight of two young evacuees during the Second World War as they are sent to a rural world that may as well be alien - it's in Wales. We read it at school, as I think did many people my age, and it left a lasting impression. I loved war stories, and the era in which they were set: the children of the Narnia stories were evacuees and The Famous Five were obssessed with secret passages and food because they were living through the post-war rationing years.

Much is made these days of children needing stories with characters they can relate to. I think this is patronising and doesn't credit the power of childhood imagination or their ability to understand something other than their own immediate environment. Children have amazing war stories now: The Book Thief by Makus Zusak; The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne; and Michael Morpurgo's War Horse spring to mind.

I have since read children's books concerning other wars in China, America, Africa, Canada, India, South America, the Balkan states, and what was once Persia, but up until the early 80s, almost all my reading about war was Euro-centric and (with the notable exceptions of Henry Treece and Rosemary Sutcliffe who wrote thrilling historical fiction) concerned WWII. Because I have already mentioned the highly-influential Carrie's War, I am not including it in this list, although it would otherwise be right up there.

5 Children's Book About War (That I Read When I Was a Child):

1. I Am David - Anne Holme
2. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank
3. The Silver Sword - Ian Serraillier
4. Goodnight Mr Tom - Michelle Magorian
5. The Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliffe

Friday Five: Post-Olympic News

Now the hurly burly’s done and we’re back to the ‘real’ (i.e. non-Olympic) news, the papers make for fairly grim reading. Here is a selection of quotes from today’s press:

5 Trending Topics in Today’s News:

1. “I think fame became more exciting for me in the late 90s because I could actually use it as a means to an end. I could actually have it help my vocationfulness. I could offer comfort and upliftment and be a leader and take on that responsibility, rather than see it as this daunting thing.” – an interview with Alanis Morisette proves that she is still crazy after all these years (and her grammar hasn’t got any better either. No, it’s not ironic; it’s just unfortunate).
2. “Whatever views one may have about Julian Assange as a Wikileaks activist, it is clear that in legal and moral terms he cannot properly be described as a refugee.” - Alan Rusbridger (editor of the Guardian) explains his position.
3. “Despite being the epitome of middle-class (doctor’s daughter, grammar-school girl, boho provincial upbringing), being mistaken as a posho has been a lifetime affliction. Maybe it’s because I went to Oxford, maybe because I refuse to cultivate a mockney accent, maybe because all my friends are called Tarquin de’ath von Bunface-Toffo, I can somehow (inadvertently) pass and I am routinely lambasted for it.” – Hannah Betts offers rare sympathy to Benedict Cumberbatch who has complained that he misses out on a lot of roles because he is too posh for people to take seriously.”
4. “The world can always be divided into two types of people – those who like board games and those who don’t. Those who thrill to the news that a fancy dress party is in the offing and those who shrink from it like paper from a flame. Those who will listen politely to accounts of other people’s dreams and those who will beat the teller to death with the nearest stick. But none of these divides comes close to that which separates horsey people from the non-horsey.” – Lucy Mangan stands firmly on one side of the fence and refuses to jump it.
5. “When a new manager comes in it’s always a rebuilding process in certain respects. I’m always honest. I’m always realistic. It’s impossible to say it’s the title this year; people will laugh at me.” – On the eve of their first game of the 2012-13 Premiere League campaign (at West Brom), Stevie G’s pre-season remarks don’t exactly instill confidence. 

Friday Five: Flying High

 

There are a lot of things not to like about flying. But the Friday Fives are relentlessly positive, so, as I embark on a thirty-six hour plane journey around the world, here are some of the things I do like.

5 Things I Like About Aeroplane Travel:

1. The films – often really up-to-date pictures that you were planning to see on terra firma, classics that you always meant to watch someday, or sections of TV dramas that you missed out on because you were busy doing something other with your life.
2. Duty free – even if you don’t buy anything (and you know you’ll end up with a Toblerone), it’s fun to sniff all the perfume and check out the free gifts with litres of gin or whisky.
3. The little stuff – from mini packets of nuts to pocket-sized g&ts, somehow all the packaging on the aeroplane seems cute.
4. Famous people – occasionally you glimpse them as they waft through the airport in a cloud of photographers and bad disguises – sometimes you even get to share a plane, although of course they always sit up front in the big seats.
5. The warm hand towels – nowhere else do you get this luxury, apart from maybe massage therapists. The situations could not be more incongruous. You may be cramped up with your knees digging into your chin and your back unbearably jack-knifed, but your face feels fresh and your pores cleansed.

Quote for Today

This seems relevant to the current Olympic situation:

"It's not bragging if you can back it up." - Muhammad Ali

Friday Five: Goooooold!

It has not escaped my notice that as it is time to do the Friday Five, Team GB has five gold medals at the Olympic Games. Mere coincidence? Of course it is, but I'm not going to let that put me off.

5 Gold Medals:

1. Heather Stanning and Helen Glover collect British women's rowing first ever gold medal in superb style. They led from start to finish in front of a highly vocal and thrilled local crowd to become our newest golden girls.

2. Bradley Wiggins (probably soon to be sir) proves he really is King of the Road with his blistering win in the time trial. Apparently he decided to do this event when his wife couldn't get tickets for the velodrome and he wanted to do something that all the fans could watch. And watch it we did, with only a little bit of drool.

3. As the slowest qualifiers for the Canoe C2 Slalom, Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott came out first and set the time to beat. No one could. They took Britain's first ever medal in this event. The pairing of David Florence and Richard Houdslow came second, so we won silver too! That's making a pretty big splash.

4. I have to admit I know nothing about this event and have never tried it, but it looks as though it requires nerves of steel and reactions of quicksilver. Peter Wilson won gold in the double trap shooting (which I think is equivalent to clay pigeon shooting) after being trained by Sheik Ahmed Al Maktoum (a member of Dubai's royal family), who won gold in 2004. Apparently Wilson just asked him if he would train him and he said yes. When asked what he was going to next, Wilson replied, "I'm going to get very, very drunk, probably do something stupid, and have a lot of fun." I hope he did - he deserves it.



5. After the disappointment of the women's disqualification in the team sprint, home fans' spirits were lifted at the velodrome as the men's sprint team powered to a new world record and a gold medal. It's Sir Chris Hoy's fifth Olympic gold medal and he won it alongside Philip Hindes and Jason Kenny. Fabulous stuff. I got up at 3am to watch it - a small sacrifice. I would gladly do it again. Arise to victory!

All of these athletes are incredible. Congratulaions to all the athletes at the Olympic Games (of every nation) for providing such a world class spectacle of sport. And there are another two weeks to go!

Quote for Today

"To sum up: it's not worth saying; it's already been said; and it's impossible to say anything adequate in any case. This is the trouble with doing research." - Lynne Truss, Talk to the Hand

Friday Five: Picture Books

Children's author Margaret Mahy died earlier this week. Her books are beloved by millions, and many are the tributes pouring in, from adults saying how much they had loved her tales when they were young. I'm sure many of them still do. I do.

This led me to think about my favourite picture books from when I was a child. I decided not to include those by Beatrix Potter or Dr Seuss, as they should have a category in their own right. Neither am I including fairy tales. And they have to be the books that I loved then and still do, so recent favourites (such as Hairy Maclary, Jolly Tall, Six Dinner Sid, Winnie the Witch or Wombat Stew) can't count either.

I love the story of Ferdinand the Bull, but this was my brother's favourite, apparently, so to chose that would be cheating. I'm sure my mother will correct me or add any I have missed out that I used to enjoy, although maybe I don't like them so much any more? Some tastes change as we get older, but not all.

5 Favourite Picture Books:

1. A Lion in the Meadow - Margaret Mahy
2. The Tiger Who Came to Tea - Judith Kerr
3. The Story About Ping - Marjorie Flack
4. The Story of Little Black Sambo - Helen Bannerman
5. The Very Humgry Caterpillar - Eric Carle