Black Forest Summer

From Wikipedia: Mabel Esther Allan (11 February 1915 - 14 May 1998) was a British author of about 130 children's books. ~~~ Mabel Esther Allan was born at Wallasey on the Wirral Peninsula. She decided to be an author at the age of eight; her father bought her a writing desk and taught her how to type.[1] When the family moved, Allan was given a study in which to write. ~~~ Her eyesight was poor, which her parents 'took...very badly and wrongly'.[2] Indeed, it was such a taboo subject that she never discussed it with anyone until she was almost thirty, when it spontaneously improved.[2] Her eyesight was the reason she disliked school. ~~~ She published a few short stories in the 1930s, and had longer submissions accepted, but her activities were interrupted by the Second World War.[3] Allan served in the Women's Land Army and taught at a crowded school in Liverpool.[3] However, in 1948 she sent the manuscript of The Glen Castle Mystery to her publisher, which began a hugely prolific career. Like L.M. Montgomery's characters, she began her writing her books with a 'Flash': a sense of possessing a landscape for a story. 'It was the basis of all my writing', she commented in a 2006 foreword to Chiltern Adventure.[4] ~~~ Allan's books are fascinating for a number of reasons. Although like many authors of the era she often used the school book genre, she was a proponent of A.S. Neill, founder of an educational philosophy which promotes freedom and self-discipline in childhood.[5] Her schools, significantly, are co-educational. ~~~ Her books include school stories and ballet stories - especially those about Drina Adams, written under the name of Jean Estoril. She also wrote under the pen-names Priscilla Hagon and Anne Pilgrim.


Genre: Children's Fiction