Review feature article on the Historical House series from Usborne
by Mary Hoffman
[Armadillo 6.4 Winter 2004]
No 6, Chelsea Walk is a real house but that's not it on the covers of The Historical House trilogy; it's in Cheyne Walk and it was Ann Turnbull's husband who drew the plans of all the floors and the flats that they eventually turned into.
øI didn't feel able to start work until I had this plan," says Ann, who wrote the last of the three titles, Josie Under Fire, about a girl in 1941. The first one, Lizzie's Wish, is by Adele Geras and is set in 1857; Linda Newbery's Polly's March is the middle book, whose events take place in 1914.
At first the house was going to be in Kew and then Spitalfields but they eventually settled on Chelsea.
It was an inspired idea of Megan Larkin's, when she started the new fiction list at Usborne, to get these three writers together; they were friends already. And they are all members of that redoubtable group, the øother SAS" (Scattered Authors' Society). Ann remembers their all sitting on a bed at a conference, discussing the project.
And now the three books have been released, to general acclaim. It's really a case of history made easy: a deceptively simple idea. Three girls, living in the house at different times, star in their own stories, which reflect the ethos of their respective times.
Lizzie wants a career of her own as a botanist and gardener and her cousin Clara wants to work as a nurse ¨ both of these ambitions seem extraordinary in the mid 19th century. Polly gets involved with a pair of suffragettes and wants passionately to join their protest march but has to battle with her family's prejudices. Josie has a brother who is a conscientious objector in the Second World War and this makes her vulnerable to bullying.
A few threads link the books: the walnut planted by Lizzie, has become a mature tree by the later books; Polly's suffragette friend, Edwina Rutherford, crops up again as a middle-aged woman in the World War Two story.
It was part of the original Usborne brief to make the main characters three girls but from then on it was over to the authors. Coincidentally, both Adele and Linda chose to give their heroines baby brothers in the course of their books. Linda says, øI wanted Polly to be aware of the assumption that expectant fathers hope for baby sons ¨ and to resent the freedoms her brother will have, which will be denied to her."
Although they all discussed their ideas and read each other's synopses at the beginning of the project, they didn't read the other two's stories until they were finished. It was obviously a happy project: all three answered my question about whether they'd like to collaborate again with an enthusiastic yes.
But equally they were appalled by the suggestion that they might work together on a single book, whether with this group or another. Each one mentioned that they simply couldn't øgive up control" in that way and couldn't conceive of how anyone could! øWriting novels is a supremely selfish sort of process, I'd have thought," says Adele.
She is perhaps in the best position to know, having written more than eighty books for children and having recently finished her second adult novel for Orion, Hester's Story, out next year. I asked the other two if they were tempted to follow Adele into the adult market.
øTempted, yes," says Ann, øbut nothing in the pipeline as yet." Linda's plans are a little more definite: øIt is something I intend to do, maybe within the next five years or so."
All three authors are very busy. Linda's At the Firefly Gate (reviewed in this issue) has recently come out and her Sisterland (David Fickling Books) was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, as was The Shell House. Adele was also shortlisted for her Troy, from the same publisher (and for the Whitbread) and has recently written the sequel Ithaka, as well as her two adult novels. Ann's No Shame, No Fear (Walker Books) is currently shortlisted for the Whitbread and was also on the Guardian shortlist. I was delighted to discover that she is working on a sequel to that fine novel.
With so much on their literary plates, dare we hope for more Historical House titles? ¨ after all, there are a lot of years left to fill in. A resounding affirmative from all three, though Linda says, øAnn and I both have our eye on the same period so will have to fight each other for it!" (Well, they are both in the SAS). Adele says, øI fancy the 1890s myself," so let's hope that's not the decade the others are after too.
Ann points out that, since the house was built in the 18th century, they could go back further in time. Linda thinks that they could go beyond the 1940s. And who lives there in 2004? No-one knows; the house is boarded up and possibly being renovated. But as Adele says, øLots of ghosts, that's for sure." Now, there's an idea ...