Forgotten Vintage Children's Lit We Want Republished! discussion

(GR is glitching - this discussion is meant for all works by Norman Dale, not just The Casket and the Sword)

I hope Christine doesn't mind me reposting this here:
"I talked to Norman Dale's publisher The Bodley Head in London and asked them to get me in touch with one of their older employees over 60 (this was more than 10 years ago), but even though: nobody remembered Norman Dale aka Norman Denny at The Bodley Head. His adventure books were as good as Enid Blyton's, but while Blyton is still in print, Dale is forgotten."

Christine also wrote:
One of the things I liked especially about his books: they have a map in the frontispiece (sp?).

Dale wrote two series:

1. The Exciting Journey (German title: Ein Zelt, ein Rad und ein Kamerad)
2. Mystery Christmas
3. Skeleton Island (which is VERY HARD to find and his master piece)

1. Secret Service
2. The Best Adventure
3. Dangerous Treasure
4. The Secret Motorcar (his weakest book)

Dale also wrote a very good stand-alone book called "Clockwork Castle" (German title: Das Schloss des Erfinders). So in case you enjoy Enid Blyton, you'll also enjoy reading Norman Dale. this from her review on The Best Adventure

I invited her to join the group. :)

Again, from The Glass Ball (Mayne), an "Antelope Book" listed on the back was for Norman Dale's "Johnnie-by-the-River"

Of course that's not listed here, and I can't find much about it other than a cursory WorldCat listing, but some of his other books seemed attractive to me.

I'll leave the discussion open here, as I think Christine and others could certainly contribute more than I could ever hope to. :) But I'm keen to hear the thoughts of others -

GR's page for Dale is pathetic. So many books missing, including the Medenham series, his translations, and links to his various pseudonyms. I have my work cut out for me.

I found one blog on Norman Dale, here:
https://normandalebooks.blogspot.com/...

It looks as if there's only the one post, but, hey, some titles and dates. ;)

Norman Denny's page (not linked, as Sem said) has:
Arrival in Wycherly
Skeleton Island
The Bayeux Tapestry: The Story of the Norman Conquest, 1066, etc.

I've spiffied up his page a bit. More titles, more covers, some series... Decent covers are quite elusive for some of the books.

Sem, you're like a Goodreads Fairy Godmother. :) Thank you so much!

It would be useful if I could wave a wand and have his many pseudonyms sorted out and tied in with each other. Some of the books are very obscure. *sparkles*

I have taken the liberty to prowl through the British Library online catalogue and, despite all its faults, I have come up with the following list of Norman George Denny's (Norman Dale's) books, either as author or translator. On the web I could only find one other pseudonym for Denny which was Bruce Norman – and that is not a brilliant name to track down on an online catalogue, unless you have a lot of time and far more patience than I have left after a lifetime of searching for the obscure – not books, I'm going back to my earlier careers of painstaking investigative banality.... there, I'm calm again. It's amazing what one glass of Chardonnay can do to an harassed soul. Anyway, here's the list – and I apologise for any duplication of what has already appeared on this thread and I also apologise for not adding links where appropriate – but don't push me.

Norman Denny

The Yellow Book: a Selection, Bodley Head 1949

Norman Denny (as translator)

Hedda Adlon, Hotel Adlon: The Life and Death of a Great Hotel, Barrie Books 1958
Marcel Aymé, Across Paris and other stories, Bodley Head 1957
Marcel Aymé, Clérambard. A Play in Four Acts, Bodley Head 1952
Marcel Aymé, The Conscience of Love (Les Tiroirs de l'inconnu), Bodley Head 1962
Marcel Aymé, Fanfare in Blémont (Uranus), Bodley Head 1950
Marcel Aymé, The Grand Seduction, Sphere Books 1969
Marcel Aymé, The Green Mare (La jument verte), Bodley Head 1955
Marcel Aymé, The House of Men (Maison basse), Bodley Head 1952
Marcel Aymé, The Magic Pictures, Harper & Brothers 1954
Marcel Aymé, The Proverb and other stories, Bodley Head 1961
Marcel Aymé, Return to the Wonderful Farm, Bodley Head 1954
Marcel Aymé, The Second Face (La Belle image), Bodley Head 1951
Marcel Aymé, The Secret Stream (Le Moulin de la sourdine), Bodley Head 1953
Marcel Aymé, The Walker-through-walls and other stories, Bodley Head 1972
Marcel Aymé, The Wonderful Farm, Bodley Head 1952
Jacques Borel, The Bond (L'Adoration), Collins 1968
Christine de Rivoyre, The Tangerine (La Mandarine), Rupert Hart-Davies 1958
Petru Dumitriu, Incognito, Collins 1964
Kurt Frischler, Ayesha (Aischa-Mohammed's Lieblingsfrau), Barrie & Rockliff 1961
Jean Gamo, Héresmédan, Bodley Head 1958
Andre Gorz, Socialism and Revolution, Allen Lane (UK) 1975; Anchor Books (US) 1973
Michael Horbach, The Reckoning (Gestern war der jüngste Tag), Bodley Head 1961
Victor Hugo, The Battle of Waterloo, Penguin Classics 2016
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, Folio Society 1976
Pierre Joffroy, A Spy for God: the Ordeal of Kurt Gerstein, Collins 1971
Andre Maurois, Fattypuffs and Thinifers, John Lane 1941
Andre Maurois, Prometheus: the Life of Balzac (Prométhée), Bodley Head 1965
Andre Maurois, Women of Paris (Femmes de Paris), Bodley Head 1954
Charles Perrault, The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, Bodley Head 1950
Gustav Regler, The Owl of Minerva, Rupert Hart-Davies 1959
Jean Renoir, My Life and My Films (Ma vie et mes films), Collins 1974
Jean Renoir, The Notebooks of Captain Georges, Collins 1966
Edzard Schaper, The Dancing Bear (Das Tier), Bodley Head 1960
Heinrich Schirmbeck, The Blinding Light (Ärgert dich dein rechtes Auge), Collins 1960
Georges Simenon, Danger Ahead (Feux rouges), Hamish Hamilton 1955
Georges Simenon, Red Lights, White Lion 1975
Georges Simenon, The Watchmaker of Everton, White Lion 1975
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Man, Collins 1964
Michel Tournier, Friday, or the Other Island (Vendredi, ou les Limbes du Pacifique), Collins 1969
Gabriel Veraldi, Spies of Good Intent (Les espions de bonne volonté), Andre Deutsch 1969
Alma Stephanie Wittlin, Abdul Hamid the Shadow of God, John Lane 1940
Herbert Zand, The Well of Hope (Der Weg nach Hassi el Emel), Collins 1957

Norman Denny & Noel Lindsay (as translators)

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Building the Earth, Geoffrey Chapman 1965

Norman Dale (as translator)

Georges Arnaud, Journey Past Repentance (Le Voyage du mauvais larron), Bodley Head 1953
Georges Arnaud, The Wages of Fear (Le Salaire de la peur), Bodley Head UK) 1952; Viking Press (US) 1956
Rene Guillot, The Sea Rover (Shrimp le Corsaire), Oxford University Press, 1966
Rene Guillot, The Wind of Chance, Oxford University Press, 1963
Mira Lobe, The Zoo Breaks Out (Der Tiergarten reisst aus!), Bodley Head, 1958
Colette Richard, Climbing Blind (Des Cimes aux cavernes), Hodder & Stoughton 1966
Francis Ryck, Loaded Gun (Drôle de pistolet), Collins 1971

Norman George Denny

Arrival in Wycherly, Bodley Head 1951
(with Josephine Filmer Sankey), The Bayeaux Tapestry: the Story of the Norman Conquest, Collins 1966
The Serpent and the Dove, John Lane 1938
Story in Half-Light, Cresset Press 1954
Sweet Confusion, John Lane 1947
Story in Half-Light, Cresset Press 1954

Norman Dale

All Change for Medenham, Hamish Hamilton 1959
The Best Adventure, John Lane 1945
The Casket and the Sword, James Barrie 1955
The Clock that struck Fifteen, Hamish Hamilton 1956
Clockwork Castle, Bodley Head 1952
Dangerous Treasure, John Lane 1944
The Exciting Journey, Bodley Head 1947
The Game That Really Happened, Hamish Hamilton 1959
The House in Cobble Lane, Hamish Hamilton 1964
The House Where Nobody Lived, Hamish Hamilton 1958
Johnnie-by-the-River, Hamish Hamilton 1957
Look at Farms, Hamish Hamilton 1960
The Medenham Carnival, Hamish Hamilton 1957
A Medenham Secret, Hamish Hamilton 1962
Mystery Christmas, Bodley Head 1948
The Pied Piper of Medenham, Hamish Hamilton 1959
The Secret Motor Car, Bodley Head 1954
Secret Service!, John Lane 1943
Skeleton Island, Bodley Head 1949
The Valley of the Snake, Bodley Head 1953

Bruce Norman

The Black Pawn, Arrowsmith (UK) 1927; The Dial Press (US)1927
Late of London Wall, Arrowsmith 1931
The Luck of Jocelyn Pinner RN, Arrowsmith 1931
The Thousand Hands, Arrowsmith (UK) 1926; The Dial Press (US) 1927

An article about Norman Denny on www.tomfolio.com states that Norman Dale was also used as a pseudonym by the science fiction writer E. C. Tubb although, after a very short look I admit, I was unable to verify it.

Holy...! :O

This is incredible, Len! :O I think you deserve another glass (or two!) of wine for all this digging!!!

Thank you VERY MUCH - this info will be so much more accessible to everyone now, thanks to you efforts!!!

I appreciate the list of translations. When I have time I'll check to see if he's credited here for all of those.

Best of luck Sem. I'm sure that the Library of Congress catalogue would have another batch of editions but I am not really familiar with using the online version.

The LoC has some but not many. I'm not sure that I'll bother adding US editions.