Forgotten Vintage Children's Lit We Want Republished! discussion

Kathleen Fidler was a prolific children's author (over 80 books?!), many of which were set in Scotland. FantasticFiction has a large list of her books, most of which are not yet represented on Goodreads:

Series
Brydons
1. The Borrowed Garden (1944)
The Brydon's At Smugglers' Creek(1945)
St Jonathan's in the Country (1945)
More Adventures Of The Brydons (1947)
The Brydons Go Camping (1948)
The Brydons Do Battle (1949)
The Brydons In Summer (1949)
The Brydon's Look for Trouble (1950)
The Brydons in a Pickle (1950)
Suprises for the Brydons (1950)
The Brydons Get Things Going (1951)
The Brydons Hunt for Treasure (1951)
The Brydons Catch Queer Fish (1952)
The Brydons Stick At Nothing (1952)
The Brydon's Abroad (1953)
The Brydons On The Broads (1955)
Challenge to the Brydons (1956)
The Brydons At Blackpool (1960)
The Brydons Go Canoeing (1963)

Mr. Simister
The Mysterious Mr. Simister (1947)
Mr. Simister Appears Again (1948)
Mr Simister is Unlucky (1949)

Deans
The Deans Move in (1953)
The Deans Follow a Clue (1954)
The Deans Solve A Mystery (1954)
The Deans Defy Danger (1955)
The Deans Dive for Treasure (1956)
The Deans to the Rescue (1957)
The Dean’s Lighthouse Adventure (1959)
The Deans and Mr. Popple (1960)
The Deans' Dutch Adventure (1962)

McGills (with Jack Gillespie)
1. The McGills At Mystery Farm (1958)
2. More Adventures of the McGills (1959)

When and Why
Flodden Field (1971)
Forty-five and Culloden (1973)

Novels
Fingal's Ghost (1942)
Guest Castle (1949)
I Rode With The Covenanters (1950)
The White-starred Hare, and Other Stories (1951)
Fedora the Donkey (1952)
The Stallion from the Sea (1953)
Pete, Pam and Jim, the Investigators (1954)
The Bank House Twins (1955)
The Droving Lad (1955)
Mr. Punch's Cap (1956)
Lanterns Over the Lune (1958)
Tales Of The Islands (1959)
Tales of Pirates and Castaways (1960)
Escape In Darkness (1961)
The Little Ship Dog (1963)
The Desperate Journey (1964)
Flash The Sheep Dog (1965)
Police Dog (1966)
True Tales of Mystery (1967)
The Boy with the Bronze Axe (1968)
Haki the Shetland Pony (1968)
Treasure of Ebba (1968)
Mountain Rescue Dog (1969)
The Gold of Fast Castle (1970)
School at Sea (1970)
The Thames in Story (1971)
Diggers Of Lost Treasure (1972)
Stories Of Old Inns (1973)
The Railway Runaways (1975)
The Railway Runaways (1977)
Wrecks, Wreckers, And Rescuers (1977)
The Lost Cave (1978)
Seal Story (1979)
Pablos and the Bull (1979)
Ghosts of Sandeel Bay(1981)

(there's more: non-fiction, omnibus, collections. See FantasticFiction's page: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/ka... )

I've added three series (Mr Simister, The Deans, The Brydons) to her profile and will add the missing books in dribs and drabs.

Oh wow - thank you very much, Sem! It's a lot of titles!

I've had to stop for now. The site isn't working properly. Or perhaps it's just glacially slow. I had trouble last week getting porn removed from the profile of a children's author.

Sem wrote: "I've had to stop for now. The site isn't working properly. Or perhaps it's just glacially slow. I had trouble last week getting porn removed from the profile of a children's author."

Oh that's not fun. :S I have also noticed some strange glitches recently.

Thank you for always working towards the common good! :)

I remember reading a couple of the Brydon stories, which were OK but nothing out of the ordinary for family adventures. Mr Simister Appears Again I recall as something of a children's film noir and not at all bad. But my favourites have to be The Boy with the Bronze Axe, which is the book she may become remembered for even though its premise is that the Bronze Age was brought to the Orkney civilization by the accidental arrival of an adolescent, and Lanterns Over the Lune. I don't know why I enjoyed that one so much. I'm not even sure now if it was set in the 1715 Old Pretender rising or Bonnie Prince Charlie's 1745 jaunt. It was probably the latter. Anyway, just from memory, I would recommend it.

I've added The Boy with the Bronze Axe to my to-read list, but can't directly add Lanterns Over the Lune. Will just add it to my Abebooks basket.. :) Thank you, Len. :)

Capn wrote: "I've added The Boy with the Bronze Axe to my to-read list, but can't directly add Lanterns Over the Lune. Will just add it to my Abebooks basket.. :) Thank you, Len. :)"

Oops, scratch that idea - not on Abe, not on Bookfinder, and not on OpenLibrary! :S Exceedingly rare, hang on to any copy you find! :D

What I did yesterday is now in the database so I'll resume. I've been adding books to the Northern Isles of Scotland list as well.

I noticed that Lanterns of Lune was adapted for the BBC's Children's Hour in 1958. How quickly books slip out of sight. From the Beeb to oblivion.

Thanks ever so much, Sem. :) It's not a trivial amount of volunteer work that you do here. <3

Curious about the Children's Hour - you'd think that might raise its profile.. I can't find it anywhere.

I finished adding the Brydons, tiresome little blighters. I'll do the Deans some other time.

The National Library of Scotland has a large collection of her manuscripts. The list is here: https://digital.nls.uk/catalogues/gui...

Whether any of her radio work survives is another matter.

Capn wrote: "Capn wrote: "I've added The Boy with the Bronze Axe to my to-read list, but can't directly add Lanterns Over the Lune. Will just add it to my Abebooks basket.. :) Thank you, Len. :)"..."

From what I can find on the Internet the last copy that was available was sold on Abebooks but I can't tell how long ago. The seller got 40 GBP for a copy in reasonable condition without a dustjacket. The last time I recall buying one I would have thought 50p was extravagant for an out of print kids' book.

There definitely seems to be a 'sweet spot' for used books, where they reach their nadir. Then it's all upwards again! :(

I have found with both The Boy with the Bronze Axe and The Desperate Journey that Kathleen Fidler is great at settings but not so much with regard to storytelling.

Manybooks wrote: "I have found with both The Boy with the Bronze Axe and The Desperate Journey that Kathleen Fidler is great at settings but not so much with regard to storytelling."

Interesting. Setting is really important to me - I wonder how I'll find the storytelling. :) Thanks for this insight.

Capn wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "I have found with both The Boy with the Bronze Axe and The Desperate Journey that Kathleen Fidler is great at settings but not so much with regard to..."

I find I need both a decent setting and good storytelling and with Kathleen Fidler, the storytelling almost seems secondary (for me at least).

I just read the first Brydon book, The Borrowed Garden, and it was very pleasant. I look forward to reading the others.