At my age I’m expected to know and be a fan of K M Peyton. I didn’t and therefore I wasn’t, but I think I can safely say that it’s looking likely that I will be. If you’re with me this far?
The serendipitous thing about wanting to read something by K M Peyton was finding I had one of her books already. How it ended up on my shelf, I don’t know. It’s not ex-school library. I must have once bought it in a charity shop and forgotten all about it.
I felt totally at home from the first page of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (is it representative of K M’s writing?), in that way when you arrive somewhere and find it’s where you always wanted to be. In this case a boys’ boarding school in the 1970s where a murder has just been committed…
It could almost be a traditional whodunnit, what with the by now old-fashioned setting of the privileged, where a corpse turns up one morning. But the story of the dead teacher is more than that. It’s also about teenage angst and hero worship, and very much about the gorgeous setting of this green and leafy school.
Jonathan Meredith is in the lower sixth, and an unwilling prefect, and he happens to have knowledge that the teacher might not have committed suicide as was first thought. But if it was murder, then the murderer has to be the person he least of all wants to be guilty.
And what if this knowledge might put him in danger?
I had two solutions in mind, and one of them turned out to be right. Satisfying, except you don’t want it to be like that.
There is also a bit of teen romance, as the school has a dozen token girls in the sixth form. It’s a real period piece, and I loved it and I want to read more. ‘Everyone’ else has already read everything by K M Peyton, or so it seems. I clearly grew up in the wrong country, but oh how I would have adored these at the right age!
When I was at school Flambards was my favourite book in the school library. I almost had it out on permanent loan. I recently got a copy for my own daughter (she was about 12 then), but it didn’t work for her at all. I must check out this one though, it sounds great!
Well, that’s the thing. Are books somehow geared towards the people who were around when the book was new (even 30 years on when we are older) and works less well with a new generation? I didn’t do well with Daddy Longlegs for Daughter, at what I felt was the right age.
Gosh, Bookwitch, I’d forgotten all about this book! YOU MUST READ some more KMP. I know you would love her. Flambards, Pennington’s 17th Summer etc. She is wonderful.
Umm…. it was ME that bought the book!! I don’t remember from where though. I could have sworn it was from the school library sale. :s
Jonathan Meredith was my first love (I was 12). Didn’t matter that he was fictional. I also quite fancied his best friend Peter McNair (didn’t even have to look up the name!). The Jonathan/Peter/Ruth books were my favourite: Prove Yourself a Hero, The Team, The Last Ditch… The Pennington trilogy obviously hugely influenced A Note of Madness. I must have written KM Peyton over 15 fan letters. She answered each and every one by hand – often several pages long – I still have them all in a thick folder. She read my first attempt at a novel when I was 17 and said ‘As sure as I can be of anything in this life, I am sure you’ll become a writer.’ Those words stayed with me for the next ten years and were what fuelled me to keep sending ANOM out to publishers and agents, rejection after rejection. There is no doubt in my mind that if she hadn’t given me so much time and encouragement, I’d have given up at the first hurdle and wouldn’t be published today. Not just an astounding writer, but a very special lady who dramatically influenced the course of my life.
I’m sure Midsummer Night’s Death is an excellent book, as everything by Kathy Peyton is excellent. But honestly, witch. Flambards, or as Tabitha suggests, the Team and Fly By Night (which I only discovered recently and adored) if you have the slightest tolerance for ponies. Flambards though, what an amazing series that was. Is. And of course do check out this:http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/oct/28/my-hero-km-peyton
Yes, yes! Fly-by-Night which is also in the Jonathan/Peter/Ruth series (not officially a series – just feature the same amazing characters – and btw Ruth Hollis reappears in Pennington). Flambards absolutely blew me away – I dreamed of being Christina and so loved William!
Lovely article Meg!
Just started Fly by Night. Are you saying Jonathan’s in that as well? Wow. Yes yes, Flambards will come. How much time do you think I have? Will need to beg for some free copies, if I can manage it.
No, Fly-By-Night just features Ruth Hollis, but it’s where she also makes friends with Peter McNair (Jonathan’s best friend). The Team is a really good one as it features all three of them: Ruth, Jonathan and Peter!
Just been through my bookshelves and found not one – but THREE copies of Prove Yourself a Hero (all different editions) + all four Flambards Books including two hardcovers of the first! And my siblings and I got most of our books from the library – I don’t even remember going to a bookshop when I was young…