Hi there
I like your site and am interested by the amount of attention it's
getting (and the growth of the Malcolm Saville Society). Superficially it could
be suggested that this reflects a nostalgia for our childhood and teenage years,
in the same way as music takes us back and jerks the emotions of the past.
Yet it's more than that. Young people read (still read?) and thrilled to these stories.
I think I got more from them at the time than the T S Eliot and Dryden I was studying! The Lone Pine novels must
have sensitised so many young people to the diversity and value of our landscape,
and drawn them to places they had never heard of ( I certainly hadn't, and well remember
the thrill of first cycling into Rye in 1966, Barcombe in 1965, or walking the Mynd in 1968, a thrill which I
experienced again as recently as last week in Clun!). I can recall rationing my own reading of the Lone Pine
library copies I borrowed, to one chapter a night, because otherwise the buzz would finish too soon.
So what's it all about? Let me indulge in the benefit of hindsight.
Somehow Malcolm Saville succeeded in "enchanting" these parts of the
country with the personalities and passions of his characters, their
lives and adventures. We the readers engage with this enchantment, are
almost a part of it, members of the club. So we thrill at the understated eroticism
of their evolving relationships, perhaps ourselves falling a little in love, unscripted
competitors to David or Peter for their friend's attention? As we shift emotionally between fiction and
childhood or teenage realities, we maybe long to meet our own Peter or David? Why not?
A lifelong engagement with literary and poetic imagination has begun.
And yet, as the author took pains to point out, whilst the places are real, the characters are not.
I think a priceless kind of magic is being worked here. Whilst the characters are imaginary, their
personalities, beliefs and passions are "real": they reflect life as it can be lived,
and invite us to do so. Hence the Lone Piners are calling for us to live engaged, passionate, human
and warm lives. In practice, as we live our lives, we can "write" our own Lone Pine stories, existing
in both the objective world and the world of imagination, as all great art must (and, surely, if life is
not art it is nothing?) Lone Pine stories are taking place everywhere, in the adventure of life. I could
say the same about Hardy, Victor Hugo, Dickens, Conrad. That's how it should be.
I hope Malcolm Saville would have agreed with me. It's good to see people reaching beyond black-and-white
and petty criticisms, to explore and try to understand the underlying depth and value of his work.
With best wishes from:-
Adrian Barritt
Warden, Worthing Quaker Meeting House
Thanks for your work on the Malcolm Saville website.
I was hesitant to put a reply on as its link started a new
email service up.
I hope copying it to my usual one works and is acceptable.
I came across Malcolm Savilles work due to friends telling
me of him, after I bought a holiday home a few miles from
the Stiperstones. Having borrowed and bought a number of the
Lone Pine series plus Janes country year, I have really
enjoyed them. I found this site a while ago but came back to
get Mark O'Hanlon's address to obtain the Complete Lone
Pine.
I look forward to exploring more of this beautiful area,
having walked and cycled the Stiperstones and parts of Long
Mynd.
Thanks again for your work on the site,
Best Wishes
Michael Clarke
For some obscure reason this afternoon, Sunny Stories flashed into my mind and I remembered my weekly
dose of what was then a two colour publication in the mid-to late 40s.
I checked it out on the internet, not expecting anything to be there and up popped the name Malcolm
Saville which was a real connection to childhood.
I felt quite odd when I saw the title Mystery at Witchend, which I remember borrowing from the Exeter
public library at age about 10 and well remember listening to the Gay Dolphin Adventure as a play on Childrens Hour.
Jill Burgess,
Editor,
Coastal Times,
Mandurah,
WA 6210.
Hello John
Just happened across your site, and was thrilled to see I get a mention .... Anne A, who has a couple of entries,
mentions visiting me here in Church Stretton and going to the special Lone Pine sites.
We used to both read Lone Pine books at school and I actually moved here some 20 years ago and live on the slopes of the Mynd.
If any MS fans are visiting singly (not the big groups, they already have leaders!) and want to email me or meet in the pub or something,
I'd make every effort. email: pollock*pat@hotmail.com (remove the * before using)
Best wishes and thanks for all the work you've put into your site
Pat
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/The-SECRET-Of-The-AMBERMERE-TREASURE-Malcolm-Saville_
W0QQitemZ170335213684QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAntiquarian_Collectible?hash=item27a8c51874&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177
Open Air Scrap-Book for Boys and Girls
I found this book today at our Village Fete. It was serendipidous to find such a quintesentially English book
in such a quintesentially English setting. With no date to be found any where I looked for
clues through out the book and decided it must have been published at the end of, or just after the Second World War.
I hoped Google could help clarify things and was so pleased to find your website.
I must admit to not having heard
of Malcolm Saville before but having read only a portion of this little book I am enchanted by his prose and love the line drawings.
I am sad that the book was alas minus the dust jacket but it is still a little treasure evoking a time sadly lost forever.
Penny Graham-Jones
From: Allan & Fiona Napier (Australia)
Posted on: Saturday, 20 June, 2009 6:46 AM
Just come across your very useful site.
I’ve been collecting Malcolm Saville for several years now and your site was very useful
in helping me identify which editions I’ve got. I had all the books as a child, but they
disappeared over the years so I am now on a bit of a mission to replace them.
Tracking them all down again is fun – the thrill of discovering a Lone Pine story
at a church fete stall or tucked away in a second hand book store makes it all worthwhile!
I’ve got all the Lone Pine stories now in softcover (mostly the Armada editions) and am now looking to get hold of the original unabridged stories. I’m searching for the Buckingham stories now – interestingly the “holy grail” of Malcolm Saville stories is proving to be “Diamond in the Sky.” Very hard to come by.
Thanks again for an informative and useful site.
Allan & Fiona
From: Anthony Ivers-Read
Posted on: Saturday, 11 June, 2009
Thanks for a great site. I am an Englishman living in America. I loved the Lone Pine books as a child and now would love to re read them. It is not easy getting hold of any of them especially here in America. I do have an old copy of Not Scarlet but Gold that I won at school 40 years ago. Hmm I am getting old. I was wondering if you think anyone is ever going to publish the books as ebooks. I have a kindle and would love to be able to use it to read some of Malcolm Savilles works. any thought at all, I am surpirsed that no one has decided to reissue them as ebooks.
Anthony Ivers-Read, I may be 52 years old but still love his books.
Sorry about this, Anthony - I missed adding it last month !!
From: Ray Ham-Longman-Read
Posted on: Wednesday, 15 July, 2009
Dear John,
Firstly I must apologise for never reading your web site in great detail, but I'm sitting here at 1.40
in the morning Acksherley loving it. I think its great. Perhaps being a M.S. committee member I should
pay more attention.
I also enjoy the Wise Owl, when's the next one coming out?
Hope to see you soon
Ray
P.S. I have a Diamond in the Sky in stock if Allan & Fiona want it?
Wise Owl 3 Imminent !
Ray runs the Booksearch facility for the Malcolm Saville Society and also sells books. He
can be found via the Society page link on the (you've guessed it) 'Links' page above. Once there -
select 'His Books' and then 'Booksearch'
Hello John
45 years ago I read my first ever Saville book, Strangers At Snowfell when I was 10 years old.
It was an Armada paperback and I've still got it. Since then I've been hooked and collected most of his work
including a few 1st edition hardbacks. However, it is only since I've acquired a computer that I've found how
popular Malcolm Saville remains.
Your website is everything one wants it to be, totally brilliant. In fact I only discovered that Two Fair Plaits
and The Secret Of Grey Walls had been reprinted in hardcover with new dustwrappers since I've visited your site.
Something else to save up for now.
I'm also collecting the Girls Gone By editions as they are published which are excellent copies.
Hope your site keeps expanding.
Best Wishes
John Pickup
Many thanks, John, and glad you found the site. It was discovering the two dustwrappers for SOGW which triggered me off, in the early 1990s,
collecting more amd more . . . So beware !
I'm particularly glad that you like the GGBP editions - it is, after all, an
event which none of us ever thought would happen - all the Lone Pine books becoming available again to the general public to buy in shops,
at an affordable price. It was certainly something I never thought would happen. And then there's the extras in the books as well - I'm
surprised they are not more widely celebrated. Even Society members have turned up who aren't aware they are being published with full text and
illustrations !
This page is part of the Malcolm Saville Centenary Website. To enter this site by the front door, click here.