Today i begin #TheGreyKing. First time I've read a kids' book where a kid (albeit an Old One kid) gets Hepatitisi think. - ThreadSky

louiestowell.bsky.social • 62 days ago

Today i begin #TheGreyKing. First time I've read a kids' book where a kid (albeit an Old One kid) gets Hepatitisi think.

Reposted from Louie Stowell

Now it's time for #Greenwitch... where will this take me i wonder? The sea, according to the rhyme at least. Lost beneath the sea... oh and a British museum heist...

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debbiemoon.bsky.social•61 days ago

My personal favourite. And one of the reasons I moved to Wales as an adult…

louiestowell.bsky.social•61 days ago

I swear I'll speak welsh fluently by the end of this.... or I will be able to delude myself into thinking I can anyway

fluoronaut.bsky.social•61 days ago

I remember when I was 12 getting a Welsh language guide out of the library as a result of reading Susan Cooper. And then finally went on to study Dark Age history and Medieval Welsh.

Diana Wynne Jones' Fire and Hemlock and Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave (plus sequels) were similarly inspiring.

lydiamassiah.bsky.social•61 days ago

The Crystal Cave series... 🤩😍 Another Arthurian myth wonder!

fluoronaut.bsky.social•61 days ago

(I lived in Suffolk)

rachaelking70.bsky.social•57 days ago

Oo love F&H! Same moral ambiguity.

lucyfishwife.bsky.social•61 days ago

OH MY GOD LOUIE is this your maiden voyage into the rest of the series??!! Did you love Greenwitch?? LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU GET TO SILVER ON THE TREE

louiestowell.bsky.social•61 days ago

It is and i did!!!!

louiestowell.bsky.social•61 days ago

Ps and i will!!

lucyfishwife.bsky.social•61 days ago

*emits excited shriek only audible to bats*

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louiestowell.bsky.social•62 days ago

A recurring aspect of these books: children taking an immediate dislike to certain adults (and there turns out to be a mystical explanation). So will this man they meet while fixing a tyre turn out to be an agent of the Dark? Or is this Small Boy Will not Old One Will ascendant? #TheGreyKing

louiestowell.bsky.social•62 days ago

"Will felt he was in a part of Britain like none he had ever known before. A secret enclosed place with powers hidden in its shrouded centuries." #TheGreyKing

louiestowell.bsky.social•62 days ago

That quote sums up so many places I've been in the uk #TheGreyKing

louiestowell.bsky.social•62 days ago

"It's just one of the old stories," says a woman of a cloud named for the Grey King. I would bet cash money she is wrong or lying...

louiestowell.bsky.social•62 days ago

"One f is always av sound" - handy pronunciation tips! #TheGreyKing

unamccormack.bsky.social•62 days ago

This is where I first learned how to pronounce Welsh.

louiestowell.bsky.social•61 days ago

One welsh lesson later, Will thinks something utterly chilling about Bran: "he disliked the shadows of crafty arrogance that this talking had put over the other boy's face. It was a pity [...] one day he would take it away." #TheGreyKing

scsmith4.bsky.social•62 days ago

Machynlleth. #sloshybabies

cog1.bsky.social•10 days ago

Sorry, an old chat but just stumbled on this when clicking through to your bio.
I see this as an interesting development of the trope in (most famously) Blyton’s books where often the stranger was - um - of a different ethnicity. Cooper’s use of Dark Magic is a much better spin!

louiestowell.bsky.social•10 days ago

This guy DID turn out to be of a different ethnicity though! He was Roma I think! So Cooper definitely has Pockets Of Dodge. But also so much genius.

cog1.bsky.social•10 days ago

Ah, it’s been a while since I re-read them, but I loved the series as a child. I’ve still got copies so must cycle through them again.

louiestowell.bsky.social•10 days ago

I haven't managed to finish the last one cos a bunch of deadlines came in, need to get back to it!

cog1.bsky.social•10 days ago

It wraps things up in a very satisfying way 🙂

lizwadsworth65.bsky.social•62 days ago

I was a bit baffled by Cooper's choice of hepatitis as an illness, as it's usually sexually transmitted. We know Will is a precocious kid, but he's not THAT precocious.

corylus.bsky.social•61 days ago

Pretty sure there are food/water routes for hepatitis too

louiestowell.bsky.social•61 days ago

Also it sounds like it's not a natural vector that gets it to him...

passeriform.bsky.social•59 days ago

There are, and we didn't hear nearly as much about it being sexually transmitted in the 70's and early 80's

rachaelking70.bsky.social•57 days ago

I think that might be Hep C? Hep A can one from contaminated food. There was a scare here in NZ about imported frozen berries 😬

alisonbaker01.bsky.social•57 days ago

I was a kid in England in the 70s and of course Susan Cooper was in the US. Children being sent to places to recover was rare, but not unheard of. My sister spent the summer in hospital in 1978; her surgeon recommended a family holiday in September to recuperate and off we went!

speedy.photography•55 days ago

Maybe it was Hep A - the vaccine for which they’ll give you if you go travelling in the global south, and is an “unsafe food/water” disease, and in 70s Britain that might not have been as uncommon as now!

jamesrhodes.bsky.social•62 days ago

Stunning book, set in my favourite place. Bran's loneliness and outsider status really spoke to me as a young teen.

louiestowell.bsky.social•61 days ago

And now I finally get the raven connection for Bran in game of thrones!

justaddbooks.bsky.social•61 days ago

What I found interesting about that one is the implication that the Old Ones of the Light made Will sick so he would be sent away to recuperate. The kind of absolute ends justifying the means. Which is also what happens with the Walker.

louiestowell.bsky.social•61 days ago

So far Will is suspecting The Dark for making him sick...the Light is a MUCH MORE interesting route. Yes, the Light eats people up. The Walker was a fascinating figure!

justaddbooks.bsky.social•61 days ago

From memory (and I do apologise for any spoilers) they needed to get Will to Wales so decided this was the best way.

louiestowell.bsky.social•61 days ago

God they're bastards I love it. (And I'm not spoiler sensitive don't worry)

justaddbooks.bsky.social•61 days ago

They’re ruthless in their objective like the Dark but they feel justified. The nuances in a series aimed at kids are amazing really.

louiestowell.bsky.social•61 days ago

It's giving British Empire...

ennennal.bsky.social•61 days ago

I’ve not read that series since I was a kid. I did purchase, though, the first two on audible. So I’ll eventually revisit it.

I really really loved it as a kid.

lucycoatswriter.bsky.social•58 days ago

Loving this thread so much! It’s the book of the series for me. Bran is an absolutely extraordinary piece of character writing. Your enthusiasm makes me want to read it all over again.

louiestowell.bsky.social•58 days ago

I'm so pleased you're enjoying it! It's inspiring me to RE read things too and see what my adult brain makes of them (Le Guin, Garner, Nicholas Fisk, John Christopher)

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