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).
