A Skinful of Shadows

    I was interested to read what CILIP Carnegie Medal-winner Geraldine McCaughrean said recently about the current world of children's and young adult books, specifically publishers' wish to limit vocabulary,* and exclude "unacceptable" content if a book is to be sold into schools - as this article (if you can access it) explains, C.S. Lewis wouldn't get a look-in these days.

    I've just finished A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge, the first of her books I've read, and it appears she hasn't been subject to the limitations under which other authors are labouring. This is a highly imaginative, intelligent, pacy read based on a very clever construct, and has made a great introduction to a talented writer.

    It's set during the English Civil War and features Makepeace, a young girl brought up a Puritan in London's Poplar, who discovers that through her Royalist father's family she has a unique gift, and not a welcome one. Trained by her mother to defend herself from ghosts who try to possess her, Makepeace is taken to the dour and distant Grizehayes, her father's ancestral home, where her ability to 'house' souls other than her own makes her an indispensable addition to the Fellmotte family. 

    With the war being waged around them, Makepeace discovers that as a repository for the knowledge and abilities of previous generations of Fellmottes who can infiltrate the younger members of the family in a most sinister process which goes by the ostensibly benign name of "Inheritance", she is of great value to the Elders and is hunted when she flees. But ever quick-witted and resourceful, she puts her gift to good use in the Royalist stronghold of Oxford when she encounters Dr. Benjamin Quick (an excellent character), female spies or "she-intelligencers", and a deceased Roundhead soldier.

    Will Makepeace and her bizarre coterie win the day, and break the cursed chain of the Inheritance? Suffice to say that Frances Hardinge's historical novel with a magical twist is a blackly comic drama that is rich in vivid detail and very neatly plotted. It reminded me of Joan Aiken and Philip Pullman, and that really says it all.

 

*Edited to add: you can hear Geraldine McCaughrean talk about this on Front Row (from 15.03).

Comments

[Dark Puss]

Sadly I couldn't read the article and I have not had time to hear McCaughrean. There really are no sensible definitions of "children" once you reach an age which is probably around puberty. I read some of Colette and I certainly read Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex before I was 14. Were they "unacceptable", was their vocabulary too extreme? No of course not. Guide people (of all ages) towards things they might like to read but also show them things that might excite, stretch, and upset because that's how we grow up and become adults.

Apologies If I got totally the wrong end of the stick (cats are not good with sticks) here.

[Cornflower]

The stick is the right way round!
I'm all for rich, enriching reading, which is more or less what Geraldine McCaughrean was saying.

[D]

callmemadam writes:

I can recommend The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge. My daughter lent it to me, showing that if a children's books is good, all ages can enjoy it. Didn't C S Lewis say that a children's book which could not be enjoyed by adults was not a good book?

Thanks for the tip about A Skinful of Shadows. I'll put it on my list.

[Cornflower]

The Lie Tree sounds very good indeed - here's Nick Higham interviewing Frances Hardinge when it won the Costa Children's award: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-35362092/costa-book-of-the-year-children-s-prize
I agree with Lewis!

[Paola]

I absolutely second the recommendation, in particular for the lovely edition illsutrated by Chris Riddell.

[Cornflower]

Oh, I didn't know about that edition! Thank you, Paola.