So Much To Tell – Valerie Grove

I’m very glad Kaye Webb existed, but I think I’d be terrified of her in real life.  She was a very successful journalist and editor in mid 20th century Britain, who moved to work for Penguin by setting up Puffin books.

You might not know the name of the imprint, but you will certainly know many of the books: she published paperbacks of Paddington, 101 Dalmations, Watership Down, Mary Poppins, the Borrowers, Charlotte’s Web, and Tom’s Midnight Garden, to name just a few.  Possibly her greatest triumph, and certainly her most commercially successful, was publishing Roald Dahl (who used to get his very own best seller list).

And then, because this was a more innocent era, where it didn’t matter if such things weren’t cool, she set up the Puffin Club, which basically sounds like everyone went out and re-enacted Swallows and Amazons; cheerily waving goodbye to their parents and going off to camp and count puffins and sing songs.

It all was very spiffing and jolly, until words like spiffing and jolly went out of fashion and the grim 1970′s became the even grimmer 1980′s.  That’s the problem with being in the right place at the right time: the times change around you.  Kaye couldn’t see the point of writers like Judy Blume; and the last few chapters are very sad as she finds herself increasingly irrelevant.

Apparently, anyone who is anyone in literature or publishing or journalism of a certain age was in the Puffin Club, (including the author) and it’s clear this book was written for them.  And not really for me.  I’m the wrong generation for this book: though I did have a celebratory Puffin box set – I think it must have been to celebrate 50 years of Puffins.  I certainly read them to death, and I can picture them now: Ballet Shoes, The Silver Sword, Stig of the Dump.  This just proves Kaye’s point, really, that great children’s literature is great children’s literature.  But some of the cultural references in this book passed me by: I was obviously expected to know about, and be impressed by, her friendship with James Mason and her marriage to Ronald Searle (who drew, but came to despise, the St Trinian’s girls).

Also, maybe this is just me, and it sounds weird now I write it down, but I don’t read biographies just to know about the person: I read them to find out more about the time and place in which they lived.  A lot of huge issues were skipped over in this book.  For example, Kaye was married three times by the times she was in her early 30s.  This might raise an eyebrow even now, but surely in the 1950s it must have been a huge deal?  What was it really like to be a woman in the cigar-chomping, drunken-lunches world in the 1930s?  There are a lot of facts, and not much context in this book.  I don’t very often wish a book was longer, but I could have done with more explanations and nuggets.

All in all, this was well written and reasonably interesting, but rather middle of the road for me.  On the other hand, if you are a child of the 1960′s but had books in your hand rather than flowers in your hair, you might just love it.