The Early Days of a Better Nation

Monday, September 28, 2009



The Trease Project

Farah Mendlesohn is blogging her research and reading on the influential writer of children's historical fiction, Geoffrey Trease. Who he was:
Geoffrey Trease published his first historical novel for children, Bows Against the Barons in 1934. His last novel was published in 1997, in the year he died. I think it can be plausibly argued that he created the modern version of the historical novel for children, that lasted for most of the twentieth century, and he certainly helped to create a market for the likes of Rosemary Sutcliffe, Hester Burton, Ronald Welch and Henry Treece and many others. But he didn't just do that. Trease was quite left wing. He never joined a party as far as I know, but he set out to write a new form of history for children, which didn't focus on great men and women, but on the you and me of history. His works are full of sly little digs at the traditions of Empire, the assumptions of Progress, and the questions people should ask when they read history.

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2 Comments:

Wonderful book, currently back in print: http://www.fiveleaves.co.uk/young.html

I always thought Trease was CP?

- Mat C

Hi Mat - I don't know if he was in the party.

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