Forgotten Vintage Children's Lit We Want Republished! discussion

Our 2025 Author of the Year is John Gordon, author of The Giant Under the Snow, The House on the Brink and other should-be-better-known titles.

Unfortunately, John Gordon was a very common name, so I'm having a heck of a time getting GR to link to his profile (rather than a disambiguation page), so apologies for the lack of digital dexterity on my part. I've also been offline for awhile. ;)

John Gordon was born in 1925 (thank you Len for the nomination!), and sadly passed away in 2017. In his time, he allegedly wrote 16 children's fantasy novels plus short stories and a memoir. He was born in the Northeast of England, but the majority of his novels are set in the the fenlands of the Southeast, where he moved with his family as an adolescent. His genre tends towards the supernatural and horror, though I will say that's a fear-based horror rather than a gorey one. So my kind of a book - dark and spooky!

I personally have only read his first two novels, The Giant Under the Snow and The House on the Brink, both of which have been republished (the latter only in the past year or so). His others seem relatively scarce, though his last novel (ca. 2009), Fen Runners, is easily sourced secondhand.

I hope you give John Gordon's books a look over this year, and see if any appeal to you. :)

Our 2024 Author of the Year was the incomparable Joan Aiken.

Fen Runners is in print with a Kindle edition as well.

Thanks, Sem!

I was just coming back to walk back on my 'relatively scarce' comment. I found a fair few on WOB just now. ;) I managed to (hopefully) purchase The Edge of the World, which sounds suspiciously like several forgotten books on the What's the Name of that Book?! forum, and also The Quelling Eye, which has some pretty tantalizing GR reviews. I also picked up Fen Runners and hopefully a copy of The Ghost on the Hill, which looks like it had many reprints in the late 70s and early 80s. (I say hopefully, because WOB has a way of selling me books that they later have to refund. One time they did send me a mouse-nibbled copy after refunding me anyway, because it was going to get binned otherwise. And I liked that - people who don't throw away legible books are good folk, I figure. But usually I just get an 'Err, um, this is awkward - sorry. Here's your cash back'. It happened most recently with The Alpha Box, which I only managed to reorder because the site prompted me that it was one I had looked at previously. It came the second time around). ;)

There are some items about John Gordon in the Books for Keeps archive. An interesting article in issue 13, March 1982, Teenage Fiction: John Branfield, Peggy Woodford and John Gordon, by Chris Kloet. A short review of The Grasshopper included in an article by Pat Triggs, Examining Books in issue 49, March 1988. There is also a review of Fen Runners from issue 176, May 2009.

One of Gordon's short stories is included in The Young Oxford Book of Ghost Stories: The Black Pies. A brief description is given in issue 89, November 1994, an article by Jill Burridge, Beasties and Ghosties and Things that Go Bump on the Page:

A warm kitchen where two sisters pass the time of day conceals the part malice and jealousy have played in their lives.

Ah, wonderful stuff! Thanks, Len! And Happy New Year! :)

Happy New Year.

I'm so pleased that the pick is an author from my area, I really enjoy spooky fenland stuff! I had read the House on the Brink and come across some of his short stories in anthologies but looking forward to getting to know his work better. I've just finished The Edge of the World which was great, really loved the imagery and intrigued by the ending- if anyone fancies a spoilery discussion at some point I'd be up for that!

Rose wrote: "I'm so pleased that the pick is an author from my area, I really enjoy spooky fenland stuff! I had read the House on the Brink and come across some of his short stories in anthologies but looking f..."

Hi Rose,
I'm just about to begin The Edge of the Word! I'm looking forward to being able to discuss that with you soon! It got a rave review from another reader who reviewed The Quelling Eye (which I enjoyed, in spite of its many flaws), so that'll be my next book!

Edit: Treacle Walker (Alan Garner) is spooky and boggy. :) Recommended!

I also read Gordon's The Ghost on the Hill and absolutely hated it. XD I'd discuss it further here, but I've already slagged it off sufficiently in my review.

Alright, Rose - I finished The Edge of the World! What a wild ride! :O I'll send you a spoiler-rich PM! :)

I've read 5 of John Gordon's books so far (have Fen Runners to read still), and based on my GR star rating, this is my order from most favourite to least:

The Edge of the World
The House on the Brink
The Giant Under the Snow
The Quelling Eye
&
The Ghost on the Hill, which I detested. XD I liked Len's comment about it being akin to a teenage paranormal spin-off of The Archers. Agreed. Way too inter-personally dramatic for my tastes.

Of all of these, though, The Edge of the World really stands out for me as being the most complete novel of his, and by far the most bizarre. Many of his others felt either hurried or badly edited to me, especially regarding the endings. The Quelling Eye was probably the worst example of a rushed ending. And strangely, there is a shared magic of sorts between these two books - being 'dazzled' by natural light and specifically sunlight glinting off of water is the magical device in both cases. I feel like The Quelling Eye was a half-baked precursor of The Edge of the World, but it predated it by 3 years.

The Quelling Eye and The Giant Under the Snow both disappointed me in the same sort of way - such build up, such atmosphere, and then a weak ending. Perhaps I was just expecting a little too much.

Just to draw attention back to John Gordon for a moment - I'm hoping to procure a copy of The Midwinter Watch in time for holiday reading - I haven't ordered one, but I'm also looking forward to attempting to attend the York National Book Fair in a few weeks' time, and am trying to save some dosh for that.

And just to reiterate my recommendation of the completely insane The Edge of the World. That was one weird ride. :)

Just to say the excellent Book Hive has a couple of copies of the centenary edition of his short stories left- an excellent buy as people probably know old edition are scarce.

https://www.thebookhive.co.uk/product...