I am nearing the end of a very engaging novel called Slave Girl by Jackie French. My enjoyment is all the more as when I started it several weeks back I had few expectations of it all. It was one of a number of books that have been piled up in our landing for almost six months, books that my daughter Marnie had discarded to the pile prior to being re-homed. I had been looking for a diversionary activity one restless night and Slave Girl just happened to be on the top of this pile. It tells the story of Hekja , who is a young girl of 12 when the story begins and is living in a small rural fishing community in the northern parts of Europe around the tenth century AD. Its a hard life, the men in her famiy have all died leaving her and her mother very much the poor of the parish. For our hero life is made more bearable by the relationship she has with a dog called Snarf. They meet when Snarf is a puppy belonging to the clan chief, he is a fat food obsesses little mutt whose greed leads him astray. He gets into a fight with a seagull over some scraps and is left for dead by his owner, this is the only reason Hekja gets him in the first place.
Life was to become even harder for Hejka as a gang of Vikings drift into their bay and go marauding. They kill many of her clan including her mother and take her and her dog with them as slaves. They are taken back to Greenland were this particular community of Vikings live. Its the harshest of climates with iceburgs, dark brutal winters and cursery justice meted out to the slaves within the group. Helka and Snarf are slaves to a household that unusually has as its leader a strong minded woman called Freidas, the daughter of the clan chief. In the story I am up to she has led her household over to America on an expedition to establish a colony in a land of plenty. I can see the appeal for my daughter and female teenage readers generally in this story, as difference and being true to yourself are rich strands throughout.
I myself found reading with a passion when I hit my teenage years. I was always quite an intense kid and the ability to lose myself in novels at that age gave me an outlet that my teenage self could continue in this way. The external Richard meanwhile was hell bent on not doing anything to draw attention to himself for fear of humiliation and ridicule. I became a regular at my local library and was working through the library books by alphabet quite often. Novels mainly, but I would work through by author, read a lot of H’s then try O’s. This interest in literature was encouraged by an English teacher I liked and I subsequently went onto study English at A level- though my interest in English and study generally began to wane. When studying at university I recall finding the reading experience itself too caught up with stuff I should be studying and I cannot recall any literature that I read from that time.
I would say that my reading only began with any enjoyment when I was reading or more likely listening to audio books with my daughter, 15-20 years later. Although lots of childrens literature has animal characters as key, think Beatrix Potter or Philip Pulman my particular favourite was Dick King Smith. His career as a writer began in his sixties after working as a farmer for most of his life and his observations on the character of various animals I really enjoyed. During the decades when depression hung around these trips into such stories have so much more clarity than much else that was happening at the time.
So when Slave Girl introduced us to Snarf as a puppy, I find my ears pricking up, alert and focused, I am waiting to see what happens next. At times in the story when things are almost impossibly tough for this duo, we the reader are treated to simple intimate accounts of Snarf being there for Helka and visa versa in a very touching way. As I write this it is morning time, I am in bed and Betty is curled up beside me. She has come in to see me earlier(she seldom allowed on the bed at night) so excited and intent on seeing me it is lovely and never fails to lift my spirits. So com’n Rich, the day beckons, and like our eponymous hero’s exploring America, let’s see what is in store for me today.
Life was to become even harder for Hejka as a gang of Vikings drift into their bay and go marauding. They kill many of her clan including her mother and take her and her dog with them as slaves. They are taken back to Greenland were this particular community of Vikings live. Its the harshest of climates with iceburgs, dark brutal winters and cursery justice meted out to the slaves within the group. Helka and Snarf are slaves to a household that unusually has as its leader a strong minded woman called Freidas, the daughter of the clan chief. In the story I am up to she has led her household over to America on an expedition to establish a colony in a land of plenty. I can see the appeal for my daughter and female teenage readers generally in this story, as difference and being true to yourself are rich strands throughout.
I myself found reading with a passion when I hit my teenage years. I was always quite an intense kid and the ability to lose myself in novels at that age gave me an outlet that my teenage self could continue in this way. The external Richard meanwhile was hell bent on not doing anything to draw attention to himself for fear of humiliation and ridicule. I became a regular at my local library and was working through the library books by alphabet quite often. Novels mainly, but I would work through by author, read a lot of H’s then try O’s. This interest in literature was encouraged by an English teacher I liked and I subsequently went onto study English at A level- though my interest in English and study generally began to wane. When studying at university I recall finding the reading experience itself too caught up with stuff I should be studying and I cannot recall any literature that I read from that time.
I would say that my reading only began with any enjoyment when I was reading or more likely listening to audio books with my daughter, 15-20 years later. Although lots of childrens literature has animal characters as key, think Beatrix Potter or Philip Pulman my particular favourite was Dick King Smith. His career as a writer began in his sixties after working as a farmer for most of his life and his observations on the character of various animals I really enjoyed. During the decades when depression hung around these trips into such stories have so much more clarity than much else that was happening at the time.
So when Slave Girl introduced us to Snarf as a puppy, I find my ears pricking up, alert and focused, I am waiting to see what happens next. At times in the story when things are almost impossibly tough for this duo, we the reader are treated to simple intimate accounts of Snarf being there for Helka and visa versa in a very touching way. As I write this it is morning time, I am in bed and Betty is curled up beside me. She has come in to see me earlier(she seldom allowed on the bed at night) so excited and intent on seeing me it is lovely and never fails to lift my spirits. So com’n Rich, the day beckons, and like our eponymous hero’s exploring America, let’s see what is in store for me today.