I’m a snob, I’m afraid. Spent years at the school library seeing Saffy’s Angel and the other Hilary McKay books on the shelves. Assumed they were fluffy, pinkish books, much the same as everything else. OK, but not for mature readers.
I was wrong, wrong, wrong, and I have to offer my thanks to Sally Nicholls for persuading me they are must-reads. They are. I have spent the day in tears, mainly the laugh kind of tears, but there were some of the soppy kind as well. I’m a restrained person. I may find a book very funny, but I don’t have to sit there and laugh out loud, just because of it. The story about Saffy and her angel changed all that.
The Casson family is quite mad, and the children have been named after paint colours. The Dad is an idiot, which is more than made up for by a lovely, if ineffective, hippy Mum. Caddy is kind and caring, Indigo is clever and resourceful and Rose is an innocent little madam. And in this book Saffy is the main character, and she has an angel to find.
The plot is impossible to describe, or at least, it would ruin your enjoyment if I told you. Get hold of a copy and prepare to laugh and cry.
As I began on chapter one, I knew I could read the book quickly and then I’d know what all the books were like and I wouldn’t have to read the other ones. Pah. Of course I’ll have to read the rest. How could I not want to know what happens to the Cassons, or to laugh a little more?
I think some of my early, but wrong, impressions of the books were due to the covers. Nice, but not my style. I gather they are about to be re-vamped, so we’ll see what I think. I don’t normally mention the publishers who have been persuaded to send me a book, but I was impressed this time. Usually if I approach someone who doesn’t know me, asking for a book that is ‘old’ and doing well, I tend to be turned down or ignored. So grateful thanks for Saffy’s Angel!
I’m also glad to hear this. Will get Saffy’s Angel for reluctant reader child and see what happens.
I plead guilty too! I thought the same of Saffy’s Angel until I read it because it was on the Booked Up list and I wanted to be able to talk to the year 7s about all the books. It’s a fantastic read. Pink should be banned on good books :0)
The question is whether more non-readers will buy/read because it’s pink, than ‘snobs’ abstaining on grounds of pinkness?
I only realised after I read it that it also won the Whitbread a few years ago, which is an un-pink kind of thing to happen.
Saffy beat me and Philip Reeve and Celia Rees to win the Whitbread. So I should hate her. But I love this book.
Yes, I did think she was up against some good people!
Pink – my daughters never chose it from the library because of the pink cover. But they did borrow the audio book which didn’t have a pink cover (or if it did, it was completely covered by the library sticker) and loved it. It is a fabulous book, but the pink does it no favours.
Maybe they should bring it out in two editions, pink and anti-pink, in the same way that cross-over titles come out in child and anti-child covers.
The Casson books are wonderful, aren’t they? I wouldn’t have picked them up judging by the covers, but a friend recommended them – and I’m SO glad she did.
Where would we be without friends to recommend things?
Anne – very good suggestion; one pink cover, one non-pink. Let’s see what the new ones are like when they come.
Hi Ann, thank you for your message, and for your lovely comments too. Very glad to hear that Saffy made you laugh and completely agree with your point of view about the covers. I have been saying exactly the same for years- I cannot bear that pink! My moaning has been continuous and ungracious in the extreme- hence the new covers.
Your website is fascinating, I have enjoyed reading.
Proofs of latest pot boiler are with me today. Would you like a copy? Hilary
Just shows what other writers say, too. No one cares about their opinions on covers.
Hey, if you get a proof copy of the next Hilary McKay as a result of me recommending them to you, can I borrow it after you???
I knew you would love them. I just knew it!
Jealous, are you, Sally?
Yes, I sort of suspected you might be right. Nobody in their right mind would spend so long enthusing over something that’s merely OK.
I even looked in a bookshop for the next one, but needless to say they had every book but that one.
Pingback: A Sequel Princess « Bookwitch