K M Peyton with her horse
Having had nearly seventy novels published in my long writing career (my first when I was fifteen) I cannot believe that I have four new books being published in 2012.
The Swallow Tales
First is a reissue of The Swallow Tales by Corgi books. It has an introduction by Meg Rosoff. After reading the Flambards series she writes:
“It was nearly thirty years later that a wise bookseller put me on to more of Peyton’s books Fly-by-Night, The Team, and of course the delightful Swallow series — and turned me into a bona fide Peyton groupie. I devoured book after book with the joy of a twelve-year-old pony lover and the critical faculties of a hard-to-please middle-agaed writer and reviewer. Neither version of myself was ever disappointed, except in the realisation that so many of her books were ones I wished I had written.”
The three Swallow books have been collected together into one lovely volume (a bargain at £7.99!)
When The Sirens Sounded
One of the other books is an autobiography of my schooldays in Wimbledon during the war, culled from my diaries written at the time, starting from when I was ten years old.
A few years back I wrote a novel called Blue Skies And Gunfire set during the wartime, entirely fictitious, but recalling that period brought to life all the memories of my own experiences of that time. It seemed a real waste not to make use of this marvellous material so I wrote it exactly as I remembered it and it is published with my own illustrations by AAPPL Artists’ and Photographers’ Press Ltd.
Paradise House
My other new book is Paradise House, published by Scholastic. This is the story of a girl in the racing town of Newmarket in the late nineteenth century who makes her mark by becoming the only person who can handle a very valuable but vicious race horse. With this entry into the life of a thriving trainer’s household she finds out the shocking truth of her own identity and a whole new world opens up for her.
Snowfall
The other new publication from Scholastic is the reissue of my book Snowfall first published in 1994. This is also set in Victorian times and is a for a slightly older readership, about a group of very disparate young people who set up house together after a disastrous climbing expedition to Zermatt that was supposed to be a great holiday. It has a present day ending. I think it is one of my best books.