Two by Constance Savery

I have been reading a lot of Constance Savery for a project and her prolific body of work includes a wide variety of juvenile fiction, including a family story and historical novel featured here. While her work was informed by a strict moral code, as I observe below, sometimes her naughty characters are more fun before they are reformed!

Redhead at School (1951)

Charity loved her haphazard life in a Yorkshire rectory, doing lessons with the young men her father tutors. But when her aunt Ethne moved nearby and insisted on boarding school, Charity ran away twice. Now they have sent Charity to her uncle Hereward, who rents part of a vicarage and teaches at King Arthur’s High School in Falchester. Charity is forced to live in the crowded vicarage among the lively Cevenix family and attend day school with them, until the “headstrong spoilt monkey” becomes a wholesome schoolgirl through the influence of a large, affectionate family.

Told unusually (for this sort of book) in the first person, this is somewhat of a hybrid: not completely a school story, despite the title, but not altogether a family story either (and there were too many children to keep straight). Getting the rebellious child to shape up satisfactorily either through role models at school or affection and fairness at home is a common theme. Savery uses the latter very effectively in Enemy Brothers when the boy who has been brought up as a Nazi is suddenly reclaimed by his birth family. The only problem is that sometimes the naughty children are more entertaining! I enjoyed how Charity realizes a missing gym tunic is going to reveal some mischief she instigated:

I thought hard. Then I remembered that people who needed hymn-books, hassocks and harmoniums sometimes advertised their wishes in a Wants and Appeals column in a weekly Church periodical that Martha took in, When I suggested that we should risk the possibility that this paper might also be seen by Miss Lennox or the Staff, Ivory tearfully agreed. Hurriedly we composed our joint appeal, which ran thus:

Impecunious schoolgirl urgently requires navy gym tunic, girdle, white blouse. Orphan niece of vicar with large family in semi-slum parish. Highest references. Send kind gift to Miss M. Blake, The Rectory, Brambleton Ridge.

Charity does not anticipate receiving so many gym tunics that she cannot hide them, thus creating another problem instead of fully solving the first!

Young Elizabeth Green (1954)

Elizabeth was given the number 15 when she arrived at the orphanage and she is tired of being regimented now that she is fifteen herself, in this historical novel set in the 19th century. When offered a position of governess to Donata Deveril, she is thrilled by the idea of independence and knows she is gifted at dealing with children, only to find a spoiled and rebellious young woman. Donata persuades Elizabeth to dress in older and dowdy clothes so no one in the neighborhood will laugh at her for having a governess her own age. This wins points with her charge but won’t impress anyone else who finds out; however, Elizabeth is too inexperienced to realize this. Also, unfortunately, while Donata grows fond of her youthful governess, she rarely listens to the sensible advice Elizabeth offers and makes fun of Elizabeth’s sincere faith. When Elizabeth starts to realize the extent of Donata’s wild behavior, her conscience prompts her to resign and return to the despised orphanage. Although this is an evangelical book, Elizabeth is serious rather than overly-pious, and deserves the happy ending she eventually gets. Both the original hardcover and the paperback I own were published by Lutterworth Press, known for its religious children’s books. Lutterworth is also the publisher of Redhead at School.

Strangest name: One of Donata’s cousins is called Ughtred.  I looked it up and the name is in the Domesday Book, which I once wrote a paper about, but I’ll hazard a guess it hasn’t been used lately!

I am amused that my copy is inscribed:

First Prize
To Hilda
From The Good News Club

That's a great name for an old-time Sunday School!  Although the 1950s don't seem that far in the past.  She won a pretty decent book.

Young Elizabeth Green is my fourth book of the year for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by The Intrepid Reader.