Would Lucy Mangan and I get on if we met, I wonder? We have a lot in common, but we are also very different. For someone so young, Lucy’s Book corner in the Guardian on Saturdays, contains a less predictable selection of much loved books than I’d have thought.
Though the more I read of Lucy’s musings, I can see she is really trying to be me. Hmm. A duel, perhaps?
Why Lucy’s corner has to appear in the Family section is beyond me. No, it isn’t. We must be grateful for anything on books, anywhere. And why should we expect children’s books to be considered literature?
A while back Lucy enthused about Astrid Lindgren’s The Six Bullerby Children, and she appears to have picked the same memories that I would have. The day Lisa moves into her new room has always stuck in my mind. I always wished it could have happened to me.
And every Christmas as I slave away over something or other, I think back to the Bullerby Christmas preparations.
With my background I have also, obviously, seen the Bullerby film, which managed to translate pretty well. My main source for feeling superior, was that the child actors were so ‘soft’ that you could tell how much they winced when walking barefoot home from school. Modern children!
It’s a wonderful piece of nostalgia, and it explains Swedes perfectly; our summers, our Christmasses and our in-betweens. And I did want the grandfather so much.
If Olle really is called Olaf in English, I wonder what the others are called? Can we cope with Lasse and Bosse, or not?
it is your musings on and mentions of the guardian (as well as the lack of enough interesting reading material in the independent to last all of a slow saturday morning) that have encouraged me to read it on a regular basis while at work.
However, even though i thought i’d scoured the family section, i don’t ever remember seeing lucy’s feature on childrens books. i will go hunt again now.
On a related note, do you know what happened to the comic pullout this morning? i rather liked the bunnies.
oh, of course its on the back with BOOK CORNER in bright orange text, and a picture of a book in it. No wonder i missed it.
Yes, obvious when you know to look.
Missing bunnies. Never read the comic, but would suspect they are saving money?
Speaking of money, I will have to ask for commission if I get them new readers.
One feels so sorry for English readers who can´t have Yngve and Inger Johanne, and now, apparently, not even Olle!
Well, let´s face it, they couldn´t pronounce him anyway. My husband Ole still laughs at the ways the good people of Reading tried to cope with his alien name
Olé?
No, more like ol´ (good ol´ England) or the Danish word ugle
That was my favourite chapter of The Bullerby Children too. All four of my kids would rate it as one of their top reads in their younger years. From Olaf’s tooth-pulling, to scrubbing boot polish off Kerstin when the girls babysit. Fabulous childhood stories. But a great shame it’s virtually impossible to get hold of a new copy.
We tried the tooth-pulling when Offspring were desperate. Never worked.
Dorte – Yngve and Inger Johanne must be Danish inventions. I don’t know them.
Yngve and Inger Johanne are Anne Holt´s protagonists: Adam Stubo and Johanne Vik.