Warne's Adventure Book For Girls - by Sue Purkiss

I was doing a bit of sorting out in the hut recently, and came across this book, gathering spiders' webs in a corner. It's called Warne's Adventure Book for Girls. It has no date, (nor is the illustrator credited) but I'm guessing it was published in the early 1930s. (Frederick Warne and Co. were the publishers of Beatrix Potter's books, and later of the Observer series of beautifully illustrated non-fiction books.) I think I may have got it from the big second-hand book shop in Dulverton, Exmoor, just down the road from Seven Fables, the jewel of a book shop which has close links with Jackie Morris and specialises in nature books.

Anyway, I decided to have a proper look at it. It has sixteen stories, and I ended up reading all of them. They're set in several different countries, including Scotland, Africa and Australia as well as England; some of them are historical - such as The Countess in a Cage, by Grace Aguilar, which tells the grim story of the Countess of Buchan, said to have placed the crown on Robert the Bruce's head, who was imprisoned by King Edward of England in a cage hung from the battlements of the castle of Berwick-on-Tweed. The language for this one is archaic and fanciful: she is described as having that beauty which is the holy emanation of the soul that lingered still with power to awe the rudest heart, to bow the proudest in voluntary respect. Would you see this kind of language in a modern children's book? I think not.

But this story is an outlier. Most of them use contemporary language, and while the attitudes of the time are clearly - inevitably - there, they are stories with girls/young women at the centre, driving the story - riding motorbikes and piloting planes, and definitely with agency. Raven Rock, by Mary Shrewbury, tells of a group of Sea Guides, who have nowhere to meet in the winter. Peterson, a retired coastguard, could have helped them, but doesn't believe in girls having a Patrol. But then they are called on to rescue a boy who has fallen over a cliff called Raven Rock. The narrator, Loot, takes her life in her hands to rescue him, and in the process, she finds a very precious memento of Nelson which old Peterson has lost. So of course, Peterson's attitude changes: he sees what girls are capable of, and he can't do enough to help them.

This story is told in a very matter-of-fact sort of way: Loot doesn't see herself as a hero, she just does what has to be done. But it's tense and exciting - especially if you're someone who's afraid of heights, as I am.

Then there's another one about hunting. Vivien, 15, has come to live with her cousins on their farm in the countryside: as nowadays, the farm is not making money. When the hunt sets off, there isn't a horse for her, so she follows on foot. By mistake, she finds herelf in the grounds of General Carew's house. The fox dashes past her into a greenhouse: horrified at the thought of it being torn apart by the hounds, she locks the door to keep it safe. The General appears as the hunters are crashing about and sees them off angrily. 

Vivien's cousins are furious with her. But she strikes up a friendship with the General, and in the end, everything comes right.

I enjoyed reading the stories. Certainly there were some aspects which felt uncomfortable - one set in Africa, for instance, was imbued with the acceptance of Empire and colonialism. But it also demonstrated respect for the culture and traditions of the Africans - that was part of the point of the story. Which was interesting, and a bit unexpected. 

And what struck me was - generalisations coming up - that we tend to assume a certain lofty superiority to past attitudes. We're critical, for instance, of it being the girls who do the washing up etc in The Famous Five books, or of Susan being ultimately interested in make-up in The Chronicles of Narnia. But in these stories, the girls are very definitely the heroes, and very active ones too. They climb mountains, they rescue prisoners from brigands, they save children from poisonous snakes - they are certainly not passive.

It's often said that we are living in a golden age of children's books. And I think that's true. But perhaps - just possibly - sometimes, our assumptions about attitudes in the past are not entirely justified.