----- Original Message ----- From: "Valerie Wood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I'm curious - I've only read the first 3 Bannermere books by him - > did he come across as leftish earlier on?
Trease was considered very radical in his youth, and his first books were very left wing, but he came to think of them as rather crude, and later he intended to present a more balanced picture. But his sympathies were still obvious (for instance in the historical ones set in the seventeenth century, his heroes are always on the side of Parliament / Puritans, rather than King / Cavaliers, but with sympathetic characters from both sides, usually). I think, though, that he was partly overtaken by the political movements of the twentieth century, in that his views remained broadly similar throughout his life, I'd say, but social and political changes meant that they were no longer radical as they had been early on. The same is true to some extent of the way he approached his writing; for instance, when he began, his fairly subtle and very ungushing romances between some of his older characters were quite unusual earlier in children's books, but towards the end of his career he was commenting how difficult it was for an author to write those sort of scenes without mentioning sex. Sally -- ________________________________________ Girlsown mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] For self-administration and access to archives see http://home.it.net.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/girlsown For FAQs see http://www.club-web.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/girlsown/faq-0.htm
