| French
Translations and Children's Fiction by Jan Shirley |
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 Children's
Fiction Krenn and the Great Ring of Berren From Withypool to Stonehenge by Jan Shirley Published March 2003 by the Randall Press, ISBN 0-9542902-0-8. Available at £3.00 in the UK from J.Barlow, Ash Lea, Ravenstonedale, Kirkby Stephen, CA17 4NG. Postage £1.00 per parcel in the U.K. Cheques made out to J.Barlow please. Four copies at £10. This is a story for readers aged eight upwards, and tells of two worlds, an old and a new, rubbing uncomfortably up against each other. It is set around five thousand years ago in the south and west of the country we now call England. This was long, long before any 'English' people had got up out of their muddy homes in mainland Europe and sailed across the sea and up the rivers to settle here, before Julius Caesar and his Romans invaded, and even before the people before them. It is an invented story, of course, but all the detail about how people lived is as accurate as I can get it. Here I have to thank Aubrey Burl, who very kindly read an early version of the story for me and saved me from some horrendous mistakes. I knew there were no rabbits here then, but I did not know about the horses. Even the grandest people had to use their own feet, no galloping into battle, no rounding up wild ponies. I did not even realise that the huge stone mauls, used to shape the standing stones, were not made of granite but of sandstone. Thank you, Dr Burl! In the story Krenn finds she has to travel between these two worlds, and it is not easy. She starts at what is now Withypool on Exmoor and goes from there along the Brendon Hills, the Quantocks and the Somerset Levels. She splashes across the Levels, much wetter then than they are now, to Glastonbury, where the red brook still runs, then to Stonehenge, and after that to Avebury. Where she goes next is up to her. Comments on Krenn A nine-year old reader writes: ‘I read Krenn and the Great Ring of Berren with excitement and fascination. It is a great book to read because as soon as you start reading it you can’t stop. It is all about Krenn going away and Jinsy wants to go with her. Krenn simply wants to find her real family. It is a hard journey but a big adventure.’ Michael Morpurgo the former Children’s Laureate has also been kind and describes Krenn as ‘a powerful book that holds the attention and entertains. The reader is swept along, lost in it all’. My
next book for children is set in the present day and deals with
the reaction of a brother and sister to their parents' divorce.
They discover to their horror that their dear large dog is to be
put down, and are determined to save her. This they do contrive
to do - well, of course! - but it is not all plain sailing, and
both they and their mother and father do a lot of uncomfortable
learning in the process. Most of the book is set in beautiful Cumbrian
countryside, although plagued with low-flying jets and other troubles.
The book is splendidly illustrated by Barbara Godden. Its title
keeps changing - at present it is called Why Don't We Just Go? |
