Fleur Marvell and the Ingenious Inventions

the third and final volume of the 

Threepenny Tales 

series:

Fleur Marvell and the Ingenious Inventions

The

Inventive Adventures
of a 

Girl in a Revolution

The third in the 

THREEPENNY TALES  series,  

Fleur Marvell and the Ingenious Inventions  

links to its predecessors The Adventures of Barnaby Twickins and Lily of Lonestorm through some characters, references and settings.

This Threepenny Tale is inspired by the 18th century fascination with science and experiments and by the French Revolution. 

Yet Ambrose's inventions are generally more fantastical and improbable and Fleur's Revolution is absurdity itself...

 

Fleur, Ambrose's lively and resourceful daughter braves abduction, stealth and subterfuge with her friends (a mouse, a cherub and a cheerful boy called Bruno) while the Revolution turns the whole world upside down and inside-out.

         LITTLE MISS KIWI

 Living up to Expectations

Spoiler Alert:

this post contains details which reveal plot elements of Little Miss Kiwi

before the opening of the  Suez (1869) and Panama (1914) Canals, these were the routes between Britain and New Zealand

The last century saw a steady and continuous counter-emigration from former British colonies back to the 'Motherland'. Many such travellers settled permanently in Britain, making their own contribution to its culture and society.

Little Miss Kiwi is based on a true-life story of this kind of emigration, or, more exactly, on one principal story and several other subsidiary stories. It is intended as a homage to the trials and tribulations and eventual success of one of the many who made the journey.

route via Panama Canal

At that time, and until the advent of cheaper phone calls and, more recently, free, instantaneous communications, letter-writing was the only reasonable means of keeping in touch with one's faraway loved ones.

Letter-writing took time and patience, and was only ever a partially satisfactory tool. Still, there was an anticipation and excitement in the sending and receiving of letters which have been lost in our age of instant gratification.

I hope to have rendered the flavour of those past times through Lucy's letters as they contrast and conflict with the actual events of her new life in a new land.  

The Kids from S.N.O.O.P

Memories of an Australian Childhood


Spoiler Alert:
this post contains details which reveal plot elements of The Kids from Snoop

The Kids from S.N.O.O.P interweaves personal memories of growing up in inner suburban Melbourne in the 1960s with the fictional adventures of three aspiring young detectives and their quest for mysteries to solve.

 

The Kids from S.N.O.O.P has been a lovely excuse for me to revisit people, neighbourhoods, school, customs, fashions and foods from the past, as well as particular memories.

The Seekers

I recall the 1960s as an era when children's external possibilities for entertainment were much more limited than today, yet in many respects we were freer to play, invent and explore on our own in ways which would be unthinkable nowadays.

The storyline reflects that contradiction: Rache, Suzi and Tom dispose of seemingly endless and countless days to play at being detectives, and although their means and scope are limited, their imaginations have free rein. All the same, their peaceful, ordinary environment frustrates them time and again: where are the crimes they are so keen to solve?

SAvAgE DAys

the first volume of 

the Savages of Kipper Street series

A MeSsy Family having MaSses of FuN


Spoiler Alert:
this post contains details which reveal plot elements of Savage Days

SAvAgE DAys: the navenchas (adventures) of Sadie Savage, her Sensitive New Age Grandma Angie, her parental units Delia and Phil and her snotty-nosed, squabbling twin brothers Peas and Mash, who get into some a-m-a-zing scrapes, plus last but not least: Toddy the bounding Irish wolfhound and Splendour the splendid cat. 



Sometimes ideas for writing come from nowhere. Of course they never come from nowhere but sometimes it's tricky to pinpoint where they do come from...

Sadie's escapades have an echo of A Bear called Paddington without the (inimitable) Bear; a dash of Max and Moritz, those 19th century German rapscallions; possibly a trace of Pippi Longstocking and that wacky cartoon series from the 1990s, Bangers and Mash. Some of these 'influences' only occurred to me while writing this presentation, for when I started SAvAgE DAys I wished merely to portray, in a purely comic light, a quirky, unruly family.

 

The family sprang to life as 21st century Londoners, living in a terrace house next door to grumpy neighbours. The narrator, Sadie, is an outspoken, individualistic teen, her father a keen Green, her mother a frustrated actor, her grandmother not the conventional 'nan', and her twin brothers as wicked as possible without being hooligans. There is also a gorgeous cat and a bounding hound.

Wide Awake

The Diary of an Australian Milkmaid

1882 to 1889 


Spoiler Alert:
this post contains details which reveal plot elements of Wide Awake
 

Wide Awake was written with several narrative themes in mind: two serious, one frivolous.

Woolstone House, home to a wealthy squatter, c. 1908

First, the frivolous: the romantic narrative. I relied on the glorious voice and spirit of the inimitable Stella Miles Franklin whose example of independence and freethinking might be emulated today by more young women. There is an element of her My Brilliant Career, an echo of Austen and a touch of Hardy in the basic love-interest storyline.

Stella Miles Franklin

view from the Horn, Mount Buffalo

Lily of Lonestorm

the second volume of the 

Threepenny Tales 

series:

Lily of Lonestorm

The 

Seafaring Adventures 

of a Girl 

in search of her Parents

The second in the 

THREEPENNY TALES series, 

Lily of Lonestorm

is a touch more melancholy than its predecessor Barnaby Twickins, however Lily's lonely life is soon cheered by a band of extraordinary pirates and an unusual friendship, as she launches a quest to find her long-lost parents. 

Will's Way

A Story of Shakespeare's Youth

Spoiler Alert:

this post contains details which reveal plot elements of Will's Way

Cremonese School, Portrait of Young Boy, late 16th century

 

A leitmotif of my stories is the evolution - and power - of the written word: from writing's beginnings as a Mystery accessible to an elite, to its controversial transformation into a tool for the many, through religious upheavals and technological advances (the invention of paper and the watermark and the revolution of the printing press) and the increasing literacy of the general population, touched on in Will's Way.

William Shakespeare? The Grafton Portrait, 1588

Shakespeare's participation in these last developments seemed the perfect basis for a new novel. Yet I had no intention of embarking on a story about the adult playwright. Apart from the fact that so much has already been written, I was curious about his childhood, his beginnings, the influences which formed him. I hoped too that such an introduction to the Bard might stimulate curiosity in young readers. The advent of the theatre in Shakespeare's day can be compared with movements in music and art which have inspired the youth of our era. But although Shakespeare is 'for all time', his language can be challenging. To meet him as child and youth, living in his turbulent but exciting age might help render him more accessible. 

William Shakespeare? The Sanders Portrait 1603