Ragged Robin

by Katharine L. Oldmeadow, G. Fitzgerald (Illustrator)

319 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1920

About the author

Born in 1878 in Chester, British children's author Katharine Louise Oldmeadow was the daughter of police superintendent George Edward Oldmeadow, and his wife Annie Shepherd. She lived for over fifty years in the village of Highcliff, near the New Forest - a setting which featured in many of her stories. In addition to the books published under her own name, she also used the pseudonym Pamela Grant. She died in 1963.

Reviews

[Louise Culmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robina’s family are not well off (though as is the way with not well off middle class families in the 1920s, they still have several servants) and she is sent to boarding school in Yorkshire by a kind aunt. As is the way of boarding school stories, she doesn’t fit in at first, feeling embarrassed about not having smart clothes or as much pocket money as the other girls. But gradually she finds friends and interests, though she has unconventional tastes, for instance, the head girl wants her to join a working party to make flannel petticoats for poor children, but Robina, feeling her own lack of smart clothes, has another idea which she reveals to her friends:
“let’s find a protégée of our own, and spend the money not on flannel petticoats and overalls and things, but on white party dresses and pretty pinafores, and hats that will spoil in the rain. There are heaps of poor kids who have ugly warm things all right, but never anything pretty, and it will be new to have a Lace Petticoat Guild.”
As school stories go, this one is quite enjoyable with some entertaining incidents, and moments of high drama. There are some good descriptions of the Yorkshire moors, and some very interesting descriptions of Yorkshire Halloween customs. Robina is an attractive and spirited heroine.

[Pollymoore3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The little daughter of an impoverished clergyman is sent unwillingly to to boarding school in Yorkshire. Robina Dare, the eponymous heroine, though awkward and socially ill at ease, shows true pluck (they always had "pluck" or courage!) and wins through in the end. The humour and detail in Katharine Oldmeadow's books lifts many of them above the usual run of school stories.
I first got acquainted with Miss Oldmeadow's lovely stories through an old book of my mother's, the Katharine Oldmeadow omnibus, which contained Princess Charming, Princess Prunella and Princess Pat. I never cared much for school stories as such, the Malory Towers and Chalet School stuff. But these were not so much school stories as novels about girls who had all sorts of adventures: helping to run their own school "Idle Pines" in the heart of the New Forest, discovering France and French life, and getting mixed up in the Irish Troubles. Thankfully there's very little jolly hockey-sticks in most of her books (there is in "The Pimpernel Patrol", but alas that was not one of her better works).

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old-fashioned girls' stories are my bedtime reading, and this is one of the most charming I've encountered. Robin is the clever and brave daughter of an impoverished vicar, sent to a "good school" by a kind relative. However, she is also stubborn and willful, and causes trouble for herself and others. Some of her schoolmates are friendly, but others are snobbish or sanctimonious. There are amusing pranks and the girls are no more studious or ambitious than real girls of that age.

[Joan Lightning · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favourite books as a child. One thing I love about old stories like this is the glimpse they give into a very different way of life.
Robina's family aren't well off so when sent to school, she feels embarassed by her lack of nice clothes and money, but she finds her niche and eventually saves another girl's life.