A Stitch in Time (Collins Modern Classics)

beautifully written for younger readers

A delightful book about an only child and her adventures.

Penelope Lively has become a prize-winning adult novelist and writer. Initially she was a prize-winning children's author. My doctoral thesis in 1985 explored all of Lively's writings up to just before her Booker Prize winner "Moon Tiger". My thesis argued that there was close continuity in style and theme across Lively's children's and adult fiction. In fact an early novel "Going Back" is largely ABOUT children in World War II, but the central emotional point of the book is what happened to them as adults. Moreover, "Going Back" (like Richard Adams' "Watership Down") has been variously published as a CHILDREN'S book and also as an ADULT book. Most unusual. And a fine novel! Sometimes, for some authors, the literary genre -- children's literature, or adult novel -- blurs I titled my Lively thesis "Haunted Landscapes". Just so. Lively's first book (based on her final undergraduate Honours -- summa cum laude -- work in History) was a non-fiction discussion of the way almost the whole geographical face of Britain has been shaped by human occupation across millennia. With suitable historical training, it becomes easy to "read" the shape of the land and see the history. (How thrilled I was to visit England in 1996, and spot the tell-tale ridges of an ancient hill fort outside Blewbury, south of Oxford!) This sense of the visible past remaining within and interacting with the living present informs almost the whole of Lively's fiction. "A Stitch in Time" is one of Lively's masterpieces for children, alongside "The House in Norham Gardens". What is it about? A rather ordinary family goes to have a holiday at Lyme Regis -- famous for its cliffs and ancient fossils -- on the south coast of England. Adults will know this as the town of John Fowles' "The French Lieutenant's Woman", and the film. The family stays in a house which is usually, out of holiday season, occupied by an old lady. The daughter in the family is at the cusp between childhood and young adulthood. She is also a solitary person within the family -- an only-child -- and prone to talking to inanimate objects, such as petrol pumps, or animals, such as a cat (but a real cat, not a Cheshire cat). As the family settles into the house, the girl slowly begins to tune into the "spirit" of the house. This is NOT a ghost story. But it almost is. Maria hears a dog barking: but there is no dog. She finds that someone has been playing on the swing in the backyard: but there is no one in the backyard. Slowly Maria begins to suspect that a catastrophe occurred to someone in the house, many years earlier. Just as slowly Maria begins to suspect that a version of that catastrophe is threatening to occur. Clues. Hints. Guesses. Premonitions. This is far to good a book to spoil. But it has an uncanny-disaster-threat feeling that is similar to the classic Hollywood ghost-across-time romance "Portrait of Jenny", based on Robert Nathan's haunting novel. Another comparison is with Philippa Pearce's classic children's novel "Tom's Midnight Garden": a strange, haunting time-slip romance. It also has aspects of the surrealism of Russell Hoban's remarkable adult novel "Kleizeit", where the existentially angst-filled central character (literally, "Little Time") is able to talk with Memory, and Word, and Death -- and God! And in some ways Maria is just as much in her own jumbled Wonderland of the present natural world and the memories of the lived in landscape as was Lewis Carroll's "Alice". The almost writhing fecundity of plant-life in the vigorous heat of summer induces a psychological crisis comparable to Jean-Paul Sartre's remarkable philosophical novel "Nausea". And the title? Hanging in the old house is an old cross-stitch (needle-point) "sampler". It contains some of the first clues to the mystery of the old house and what happened to those who lived in it. This is a quiet, slow, absorbing, and profoundly rewarding book. But then, that's the kind of book Penelope Lively writes! Interestingly, Maria's growth as a character resembles that of Fern Arable, in E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web". And Joan G. Robinson, who may be best known for her delightful stories of "Teddy Robinson", also wrote comparable stories of almost-haunted children, such as "When Marnie Was There", and "The House in the Square". Lively is in fine company! John Gough -- Deakin University -- [email protected]

Bought this for my grand-daughter and she "blew it off"... Guess she doesn't share her grandmother's regard for Lively's work...

Modern middle-grade readers will enjoy slowing down and enjoying this classic.

Everything Penelope Lively writes sounds good to me

Ordered this book new, received it in the mail yesterday and discovered 3 permanent bends along spine and into the cover, plus a 1 inch tear from spine to back. Came in a thin plastic bubble mailer. Maybe a small box would have been better after all. Not what I’d expect with a new book purchase.

We enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed this book even though it is written for children. Maria is an only child and is fond of being on her own so that she can think her own thoughts. She talks to animals and to inanimate objects and is always being told off for muttering to herself. She and her parents travel to Lyme Regis for a summer holiday and stay in a house which hasn't changed much since the Victorian era. Maria can here a swing creaking in the garden even though there isn't one and she gets the feeling that people are still around who used to live in the house. Maria makes friends with Martin who is staying with his family in the guest house next door and together they explore the beach and collect fossils, pooling their knowledge. Gradually Maria relaxes and enjoys her holiday but she is still aware of noises which other people can't hear. This is a charming story with enough in it to keep an adult interested which once again goes to show that a good story is a good story for any age group. Many people who were shy as children will be able to relate to many of Maria's feelings and her sense of not really understanding adults and how they think and behave. The book has some interesting things to say about the nature of time and how past present and future are not necessarily a straight line.

Ottimo libro, sia in italiano che in inglese peccato per l'edizione con copertina non proprio affascinante, diciamo che si trovano edizioni esteticamente più valide.

Like the author but didn't realise this was a childrens book. Nevertheless I enjoyed it and will pass along to my 8 year old grand daughter.

A beautifully written book, the descriptions are full of atmosphere and the characters are believable. It is quite a slow moving book and therefore probably most suited to 11 upwards.

Great read, lovely portrayal of quiet only child on holiday with her parents and how she becomes involved with past inhabitants of the house she's staying in. Gripping, understated writing, great story to read aloud to young/ 8-10 yr olds perhaps?