AUTHORS' CHOICE: An Anthology of Stories Chosen By Seventeen Distinguished Writers

by Gillian et al. -- Chosen by Avery ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 21, 1971

Promisingly offbeat, the idea of 17 leading British juvenile authors choosing variously exemplary short stories by other writers for a collection -- but the consequent editorial anarchy fosters the application of 17 often incompatible sets of criteria. Gillian Avery touts Katherine Mansfield's ""The Doll's House"" for its formal mastery and because ""I could see aspects of myself in three sets of the characters"" on first reading; Janet McNeill offers ""The Emperor's New Clothes"" because ""it's a good plot, it makes you laugh, and though it's an old story it is as fresh as a coat of wet paint. . . . (Also), like wet paint, it sticks""; James Reeves distinguishes ""the most magical and the most poetic"" of Arthur Ransome's Old Peter's Russian Tales -- ""I am in a way repaying a debt contracted long ago, by passing on to younger readers what I was given when a child""; both Rosemary Sutcliff and Barbara Willard cite Kipling, commending ""The Miracle of Purun Bhagat"" and ""The Maltese Cat"" respectively; Elfrida Vipont likes Mrs. Ewing's ""Our Field"" and rhapsodizes about ""the smell of hawthorn blossom"" -- ""for me, every word is drenched in it, recalling another field. . . where other children played, and heard the larks singing as they mounted up into the sky. . . ."" Among choosers and chosen alike, the more provincially British are remote if not hopelessly alien (see Kenneth Grahame's ""Its Walls Were as of Jasper,"" contributed by Ursula Moray Williams); in some cases, however, the appeal is universal regardless of origin and despite the occasional handicap of locale or dialect -- Ian Serraillier's favorite Bill Naughton story, ""Spit Nolan,"" or Mary Treadgold's choice, ""The Glass Peacock"" by Eleanor Farjeon. Hester Burton selects Ray Bradbury (""The Fog Horn""), Pauline Clarke Saki's ""The Lull,"" Eilis Dillon Frank O'Connor's ""First Confession""; William Mayne proffers ""The Fillyjonk Who Believed in Disasters"" by Tore Jansson, having ""just moved house"" himself; Leon Garfield disinters Jane Austen's ""History of England,"" a ""piece of comedy"" (for those who know their Tudors) written precociously at fourteen; Geoffrey Trease likes his short stories ""gossamer-light"" and provides ""All You've Ever Wanted"" to represent the Joan Aiken brand of fantasy; and because ""I don't like it when Americans are misunderstood"" Noel Streatfield introduces Elizabeth Enright's ""A Christmas Tree for Lydia."" The contents en masse don't address themselves to any definable age or taste and the separate selections and prefaces don't always travel very well; idiosyncratic, erratic, even eccentric, they won't all be anyone's, but each could be someone's.

Pub Date: May 21, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: T. Y. Crowell

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1971

Categories: NONFICTION