Path Through the Woods

by Barbara Ker Wilson, B.K. Wilson, Charles Stewart (Illustrator)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Barbara Ker Wilson was born on 24 September 1929 in Sunderland, in the north of England. In 1964 she immigrated to Australia, living first in Adelaide, then Melbourne, then Sydney. She settled in Leura, in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.

As a child she used to accompany her father to a large publishing office in London, to deliver corrected proofs of his latest engineering textbook, and she knew then that she wanted to work in the world of writing and publishing.
Her first 'successful' work, written when she was eight, was a play based on the coronation of King George VI; it was performed at her primary school in England.

The Second World War influenced her greatly, particularly the experience of living through air raids in London. With the end of the war came her first experience of travelling abroad; afterwards, she traveled extensively in Europe and Asia.

Winner of the Dromkeen Medal (1999).

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

In present day England (circa 1958), a nurse named Margaret engages a depressed patient by showing her a patchwork quilt made by her great great great aunt one hundred years previously, which the patient then restores, her new interest sparking her return to health.

Every patch of fabric in the quilt has its own story. In the subsequent chapters we go back in time and are told episodes from Margaret's family history, each one focusing on a child in the family from 1850-1857, and each opening with a description of the pattern of their dress (or sailor suit), scraps of which will end up in the quilt.

Along the way, Barbara Ker Wilson inserts a lot of potted history lessons on the Victorian era. The oldest child, Sophie wishes to become a doctor, and we learn about the first accredited female doctor Elizabeth Blackwell (this was interesting to me because not too long ago I read The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine ). In other chapters we learn, not too subtly, about the Crystal Palace, the painter Edward Landseer, the Crimean War and so on.

The framework of the making of the quilt (the title comes from the name of its pattern) is a pleasant conceit, and the full page woodcut illustrations that open each chapter add to the appeal. That said, I didn't love the book quite as much as I wanted to, mostly because the characters came just short of feeling fully alive to me.

[Amy Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Family story with a quilt as a unifying symbol. I didn't identify as much with the characters as in Wilson's other books.