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Dancing Peel #1
Dancing Peel
Dancing Peel
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1952
1 person is currently reading
133 people want to read
About the author
Lorna Hill
62 books50 followersHill attended school in Durham and then went to Le Manoir in Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. She obtained a BA at Durham University, and there met her husband, a clergyman. They moved to the remote parish of Matfen, Northumberland, where she played the organ in church and ran a Sunday school.
Hill's career as an author began when her daughter Vicki, then about ten years old, found a story her mother had written as a child and asked for about its characters. The result was a series of eight books about Marjorie & Co, illustrating them herself. These began to be published in London in 1948. They were followed by the Patience series and several others.
When Vicki left home to be a ballet student at Sadler's Wells in London, Hill missed her and began to write her Dream of Sadler's Wells series. She eventually wrote a total of 40 children's books, as well as La Sylphide, a commissioned biography of the dancer Marie Taglioni, and two romances for adults, published in 1978. Hill was then obliged to stop writing by ill health. She is said to have been firm with publishers and to have earned more from her books than many of her contemporaries. Translations of some titles into several other languages appeared, including less usual ones such as Finnish (by Pirkko Biström, 1991), Indonesian (1994), Czech (1995) and Slovenian (by Bernarda Petelinšek, 1996).
More information at Wikipedia.
Hill's career as an author began when her daughter Vicki, then about ten years old, found a story her mother had written as a child and asked for about its characters. The result was a series of eight books about Marjorie & Co, illustrating them herself. These began to be published in London in 1948. They were followed by the Patience series and several others.
When Vicki left home to be a ballet student at Sadler's Wells in London, Hill missed her and began to write her Dream of Sadler's Wells series. She eventually wrote a total of 40 children's books, as well as La Sylphide, a commissioned biography of the dancer Marie Taglioni, and two romances for adults, published in 1978. Hill was then obliged to stop writing by ill health. She is said to have been firm with publishers and to have earned more from her books than many of her contemporaries. Translations of some titles into several other languages appeared, including less usual ones such as Finnish (by Pirkko Biström, 1991), Indonesian (1994), Czech (1995) and Slovenian (by Bernarda Petelinšek, 1996).
More information at Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 7, 2018
There's not much I wouldn't do for one of these glorious Esme Verity covers. The daughter of Lorna Hill, Verity has a great grace to her artwork and I love it. The light. The richness. The softness. This is good, classical artwork and rather beautiful stuff. The book itself isn't, perhaps, the best thing that Lorna Hill has ever done but every now and then it absolutely sings. But that's Hill all over; sometimes she gets a little lost in the plotting and circumstance (everybody in Northumberland dances beautifully) but then sometimes, she'll deliver a page as utterly wonderful and as perfect as anything you'll find framed in a gallery. She's an interesting author and one that I think tends to be a little forgotten, and she shouldn't. Not in the slightest.
So to the specifics; this is the first of the Dancing Peel series. It is fiercely, utterly romantic with its 'Peel' tower that looks out onto the moors, dancing siblings that explore Spanish dance and ballet respectively, and the hints of romantic destiny over injured and orphaned animals. The latter is done in the way that only Lorna Hill can do, and I love it. Her writing can be very quiet on the surface but a thousand stories and images and sensations are lurking underneath, always.
One final thing to note about this edition is that it is a very beautiful thing and worth hunting out from a collector's perspective. I'm always loathe to reccommend certain books to collect, as I want them all for myself, but you should pick up a copy of this. The cover, as I've already mentioned, is divine, but the endpapers feature a map of Northumberland that is rather wonderful. And good endpapers, as any fule kno, are everything.
So to the specifics; this is the first of the Dancing Peel series. It is fiercely, utterly romantic with its 'Peel' tower that looks out onto the moors, dancing siblings that explore Spanish dance and ballet respectively, and the hints of romantic destiny over injured and orphaned animals. The latter is done in the way that only Lorna Hill can do, and I love it. Her writing can be very quiet on the surface but a thousand stories and images and sensations are lurking underneath, always.
One final thing to note about this edition is that it is a very beautiful thing and worth hunting out from a collector's perspective. I'm always loathe to reccommend certain books to collect, as I want them all for myself, but you should pick up a copy of this. The cover, as I've already mentioned, is divine, but the endpapers feature a map of Northumberland that is rather wonderful. And good endpapers, as any fule kno, are everything.
October 14, 2014
I remember this one from my youth but the only two things which stuck in my mind were (a) crashing disappointment that we didn't meet up with any characters from the other books (characters I'd already met, I mean) and (b) Annette Dancy is an incredibly irritating heroine.
30 or so years later my experience was the same. I quite like Angus (he's certainly better than Sebastian or Guy or Nigel), the scenery is nice, and Sheena is more believably bad than, for example, Fiona in the Wells books. But Annette - and her castanet-clicking brother Max - well, it's hard to feel a great deal of sympathy for either of them.
Dancing Peel itself appears to be a building just waiting for its own Grand Designs episode - fascinating, but in dire need of repair. It's a shame we don't hang around for the conversion into three flats promised at the end of the book.
30 or so years later my experience was the same. I quite like Angus (he's certainly better than Sebastian or Guy or Nigel), the scenery is nice, and Sheena is more believably bad than, for example, Fiona in the Wells books. But Annette - and her castanet-clicking brother Max - well, it's hard to feel a great deal of sympathy for either of them.
Dancing Peel itself appears to be a building just waiting for its own Grand Designs episode - fascinating, but in dire need of repair. It's a shame we don't hang around for the conversion into three flats promised at the end of the book.
May 22, 2019
An old favorite, but still a goodie. Fourteen-year-old Annette Dancy is determined to become a ballet dancer, no matter the odds. Not even living in the remote borderland of northern England can deter her. Cold weather, lack of funds, not even a flood can keep her from an all-important audition. But is determination enough?
October 13, 2025
This book is okay, but I find the main character Annette Dancy not a nice person. She's spoilt, although her family aren't rich, she's totally dedicated to her dancing, okay I get that but in other things unlike other series by Lorna Hill the Wells series etc Veronica, Jane, Caroline were all nice characters. Annette reminds me of that awful Fiona Scott character. So it makes hard reading if you don't like a character. After the vicar of the parish dies a new vicar appears and his son and niece as well. Maximilian and Annette will have to get used to sharing their open spaces. Annette finds it hard to adapt. Angus the vicar's son thinks her a maddening brat. But will he change his mind? I do!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 9, 2011
I cannot even begin to describe what this series meant for me as a kid!
August 14, 2014
Very good Dancy story.
September 26, 2011
really liked this book as a kid. have been looking everywhere for it!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews