The Friend With a Secret

by Angela Bull

Thirteen-year-old Lucy Quentin is restless and inquisitive. Used to roaming the countryside freely with her twin brother, she is now constrained by a life in town, to which her family has just moved so her mother can be closer to her doctor. Her brother is absorbed in his new life at school which excludes her, and spending evenings sitting properly under the noses of her sickly Mama and upright Papa lacks charm. She especially doesn't like the uninspiring classes at the Misses Turner's Select Establishment for Young Ladies. But then, at school Lucy is befriended by Olivia Land, a very romantic and mysterious girl who tells Lucy marvelous tales of the life she led with her actor-parents before their untimely deaths. And Olivia claims that her grandmother, with whom she now lives, is a witch and that she has a friend who is a wizard! When Lucy is finally taken to see the wizard and learns some of the truth behind Olivia's mysterious ways, her faith in her friend is shaken. Will exposing the secrets she promised never to reveal be the best way to help Olivia?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Childrens, Fiction

255 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Angela Bull (Mary, née Leach) was born at Halifax, Yorkshire, England on September 28, 1936.
She was educated at Badminton School and at Edinburgh University where she graduated with honours in English 1959.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have such a fondness for stories like these, period pieces for children from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, set in Victorian or Edwardian times, by authors like Gillian Avery and Geraldine Symons (or, for American examples, E.C. Spykman and Alberta Wilson Constant). Nowadays these books have mostly fallen into obscurity, and I am extremely grateful that the librarians of Rhode Island have not weeded their catalogs as brutally as those elsewhere, and that many 50 year-old children's books still circulate, including this one, which my sister borrowed on my behalf when I went to visit her.

This particular story has a more gothic flavor than most novels set in Victorian times, and the slightly bizarre plot sometimes stretches credulity a bit, but I still enjoyed it immensely. The main character, Lucy, has an aunt who is a novelist very much along the lines of Charlotte Mary Yonge, and enlists the children's help in starting up a monthly magazine, a part of the story which I found fun. Bull is also good at characterization, and the relationships between Lucy and her different family members are well done. Lucy's parents could easily have been mere stereotypes of a vague, reclining mother, and a stern newspaper-reading father, focused on nothing but propriety, but it's clear that despite their upper middle class Victorian conventions, Lucy's parents actually do care about their children and take a real interest in them. Lucy's estrangement from her formerly close twin brother, as they grow older, and their worlds separate, was also resolved in a way that was believable and satisfying.

[Barbarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in the 4th grade and have been searching for it for over 10 years so I could pass it along to my own daughter.
Unfortunately due to the girl in the story being named Olivia, it was nearly impossible to come up with anything in searches other than the pig books.
Finally got a hit using the Stump the Book Seller service at http://w1.loganberrybooks.com/stumpth...
I cannot wait to read this book again!
It was dark and mysterious and was THE book that turned me into a life long reader.

[CLM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Michele Blake for giving me her copy.