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A Parcel of Trees
'I can stand you all being a lot worse now, because I can always go there. It's when I haven't got anywhere to go that I get mad straight away. But if I go there for half an hour it's beautiful to come back.'
Fourteen-year-old Susan is talking about her Parcel of Trees, the secret place she found and nearly lost. This is the story of how she managed to keep it, by clever detective work. a legal battle with the Railway Company, and sheer determination. But a book by William Mayne is more than just a series of interesting events. It's like being given a pair of magic spectacles and stepping right into a picture. So when Susan is helping her mother in the shop you actually smell the fresh baked bread, and when she discovers the mysterious graves you seem to feel the damp moss on the tombstones.
Fourteen-year-old Susan is talking about her Parcel of Trees, the secret place she found and nearly lost. This is the story of how she managed to keep it, by clever detective work. a legal battle with the Railway Company, and sheer determination. But a book by William Mayne is more than just a series of interesting events. It's like being given a pair of magic spectacles and stepping right into a picture. So when Susan is helping her mother in the shop you actually smell the fresh baked bread, and when she discovers the mysterious graves you seem to feel the damp moss on the tombstones.
- GenresChildrens
Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
29 people want to read
About the author
William Mayne
135 books16 followersWilliam Mayne was a British writer of children's fiction. Born in Hull, he was educated at the choir school attached to Canterbury Cathedral and his memories of that time contributed to his early books. He lived most of his life in North Yorkshire.
He was described as one of the outstanding children's authors of the 20th Century by the Oxford Companion to Children's Literature, and won the Carnegie Medal in 1957 for A Grass Rope and the Guardian Award in 1993 for Low Tide. He has written more than a hundred books, and is best known for his Choir School quartet comprising A Swarm in May, Choristers' Cake, Cathedral Wednesday and Words and Music, and his Earthfasts trilogy comprising Earthfasts, Cradlefasts and Candlefasts, an unusual evocation of the King Arthur legend.
A Swarm in May was filmed by the Children's Film Unit in 1983 and a five-part television series of Earthfasts was broadcast by the BBC in 1994.
William Mayne was imprisoned for two and a half years in 2004 after admitting to charges of child sexual abuse and was placed on the British sex offenders' register. His books were largely removed from shelves, and he died in disgrace in 2010.
He was described as one of the outstanding children's authors of the 20th Century by the Oxford Companion to Children's Literature, and won the Carnegie Medal in 1957 for A Grass Rope and the Guardian Award in 1993 for Low Tide. He has written more than a hundred books, and is best known for his Choir School quartet comprising A Swarm in May, Choristers' Cake, Cathedral Wednesday and Words and Music, and his Earthfasts trilogy comprising Earthfasts, Cradlefasts and Candlefasts, an unusual evocation of the King Arthur legend.
A Swarm in May was filmed by the Children's Film Unit in 1983 and a five-part television series of Earthfasts was broadcast by the BBC in 1994.
William Mayne was imprisoned for two and a half years in 2004 after admitting to charges of child sexual abuse and was placed on the British sex offenders' register. His books were largely removed from shelves, and he died in disgrace in 2010.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 7, 2018
A strange little book, about not very much, but haunting and perfect.
September 6, 2022
Want to hear about mistreated pets and livestock and their grizzly ends? Or hard to follow* dialogue between mother and daughter? How about the old men that populate the local pub and the village green? What the boys down the road used to get up to in an empty lot (it's not as interesting as you might think, though admittedly reading about their attempts to start a space program of sorts via jet propulsion engineering experiments was probably the highlight for me). *maybe a British reader of a certain age would get more out of this, but I honestly struggled to parse any nuance out of their repartee.
It reminded me of an unholy fusion of a Miss Read, Dandelion Wine (the dull bits), and the parts of the show Heartbeat that have nothing to do with the plot (bar polishing, unthematic chit-chat during tank fills, etc.). Only, truth be told, the latter two are already more enjoyable. Almost nothing happens, and while that's compensated for by rich, daydream imaginings and absolutely lyrical sentences in Dandelion Wine, there just wasn't much else to carry this book along.
Susan discovers a title deed in the attic, showing that her house once had a small orchard and an outbuilding, 'the Lodge', at the end of her garden, since segmented by a large railway embankment. Could this become her own secret little hideaway spot? The attic is off-limits as per her father, in spite of the potential there, and she's fed up having to share her room with her (weird, averbal) younger sister. After seeking the advice of Mr. Ferriman (the only character in the story I liked), a bachelor lawyer who plays with trainsets, and who racks and bottles his own wine in the cellar where he hides from his housemate (his sister), Susan seeks out the history of the forgotten 'parcel of trees' as it pertains to several villagers in a bid to demonstrate usage and possession. (I think that already sounds more interesting than it was, to give you an indication of how sedate the story is).
The only redeeming quality here, apart from nostalgic content (description of a bread-slicing machine at Susan's parent's bakery, and a hand-drawn wooden bread delivery cart) and some adequate writing, were the illustrations by Margery Gill, which are noteworthy. Just simple black-and-white pen sketches, typical of the era and genre, but on another level of sophistication and beauty. Stellar - keeping the book almost solely for these.
Not a book for animal lovers, especially dog owners. The rememberances of Mr. Monsy's five dead and buried dogs (and a starved parrot, taken from the Amazon) are upsetting. Dog deaths in brief: killed by Mr. Monsy with sledgehammer to the skull for alleged involvement with a sheep slaying; insides painfully shredded by eating rabbit bones in a baked pies (euthansia via vet); death by broken heart (dog never stopped trying to run home to its former owner, from which it was snatched - refused to eat, eventually curled up and died); rabies - euthanasia by shotgun, on three counts (one dog picked up in Naples brought the disease home to the other two). Then there were the stolen horses, one of which was an old mare who died alone, stashed out of sight in the property in question (presumably from natural causes, but it wasn't a happy story anyway). Oh yeah - and a young bullock bites it after a homemade rocket crashes to earth on its head.
Why does a kid's book have so many tragic dog deaths? Was it meant to be darkly humourous? I'm not sure.
Anyway, skip this one, unless you are a devout Margery Gill fan and want to see the illustrations.
I think I'm done with William Mayne for the moment. Earthfasts was imaginative and interesting, but I didn't absolutely love it. The Glass Ball I enjoyed for the vintage illustrations and Greek village depictions. Normally a story about trees, a garden, a railway, and a little British girl would greatly appeal to me - this one fell flat.
It reminded me of an unholy fusion of a Miss Read, Dandelion Wine (the dull bits), and the parts of the show Heartbeat that have nothing to do with the plot (bar polishing, unthematic chit-chat during tank fills, etc.). Only, truth be told, the latter two are already more enjoyable. Almost nothing happens, and while that's compensated for by rich, daydream imaginings and absolutely lyrical sentences in Dandelion Wine, there just wasn't much else to carry this book along.
Susan discovers a title deed in the attic, showing that her house once had a small orchard and an outbuilding, 'the Lodge', at the end of her garden, since segmented by a large railway embankment. Could this become her own secret little hideaway spot? The attic is off-limits as per her father, in spite of the potential there, and she's fed up having to share her room with her (weird, averbal) younger sister. After seeking the advice of Mr. Ferriman (the only character in the story I liked), a bachelor lawyer who plays with trainsets, and who racks and bottles his own wine in the cellar where he hides from his housemate (his sister), Susan seeks out the history of the forgotten 'parcel of trees' as it pertains to several villagers in a bid to demonstrate usage and possession. (I think that already sounds more interesting than it was, to give you an indication of how sedate the story is).
The only redeeming quality here, apart from nostalgic content (description of a bread-slicing machine at Susan's parent's bakery, and a hand-drawn wooden bread delivery cart) and some adequate writing, were the illustrations by Margery Gill, which are noteworthy. Just simple black-and-white pen sketches, typical of the era and genre, but on another level of sophistication and beauty. Stellar - keeping the book almost solely for these.
Not a book for animal lovers, especially dog owners. The rememberances of Mr. Monsy's five dead and buried dogs (and a starved parrot, taken from the Amazon) are upsetting. Dog deaths in brief: killed by Mr. Monsy with sledgehammer to the skull for alleged involvement with a sheep slaying; insides painfully shredded by eating rabbit bones in a baked pies (euthansia via vet); death by broken heart (dog never stopped trying to run home to its former owner, from which it was snatched - refused to eat, eventually curled up and died); rabies - euthanasia by shotgun, on three counts (one dog picked up in Naples brought the disease home to the other two). Then there were the stolen horses, one of which was an old mare who died alone, stashed out of sight in the property in question (presumably from natural causes, but it wasn't a happy story anyway). Oh yeah - and a young bullock bites it after a homemade rocket crashes to earth on its head.
Why does a kid's book have so many tragic dog deaths? Was it meant to be darkly humourous? I'm not sure.
Anyway, skip this one, unless you are a devout Margery Gill fan and want to see the illustrations.
I think I'm done with William Mayne for the moment. Earthfasts was imaginative and interesting, but I didn't absolutely love it. The Glass Ball I enjoyed for the vintage illustrations and Greek village depictions. Normally a story about trees, a garden, a railway, and a little British girl would greatly appeal to me - this one fell flat.
March 9, 2015
The fourth Puffin Story book I have read in quick succession, and this book, PS195, completely makes up for the disappointment of The Young Detectives, PS47. It is beautifully written, with a realistic attractive family and a gently interesting plot. I can highly recommend it.
August 4, 2016
Interesting little book. William Mayne might be problematic but his writing and storytelling are great, and Margery Gill's illustrations are fantastic.
May 21, 2015
Little girl trying to find a place to be alone. I can totally relate. I loved the Margery Gill illustrations.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews