To say I've been delinquent in posting would be an understatement. All I can offer in my defence is the fact that I've been busy trying to write books to fill the bookshops we love so much. I'm prompted into action by BBC Scotland's Radio Cafe who have a new feature starting on April 6 which I think we can all relate to.
It's called the Book Detectives and it's going to be a search for books that people have read and now cannot find. The first is a book by Frank Jennens, a children's book illustrator and author in the 1920s and 30s who wrote 'Brown Mouse'. A friend of the show's producer even thinks there may have been a sequel. She thought she had tracked down a copy to a bookshop in Australia but it subsequently turned out that they didn't have it.
So does anyone out there know where to find a copy of Brown Mouse by Frank Jennens? If you do get in touch or leave a comment.
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12 comments:
If it's the book I remember I loved Brown Mouse as a child and would love to get my hands on a copy. Was B M considered "plain" by her snobby mother who preferred her "prettier" older sister;had a kind but henpecked father; and bobbed hair held with a slide? Met a wealthy family - maybe through some type of accident - befriended by them and ended up marrying the son? DL
I have a copy of this book. I found it in a secondhand bookshop and have just started reading it. Quite an interesting take on the Cinderella tale! But her mother seems too cruel to exist in reality!
Hi, Sorry I can't help with your request, but you may be interested that the sequel was called "Brown and White" - we had both books at home when we were young. Hope this helps. Happy hunting
If this is the story in which the little girl wins a painting competition ( & then everyones respect) I loved it as a child & have been trying to find it for years. so would love to hear if anyone finds a copy. GFB
Just acquired the book "Brown Mouse" by Frank Jennens today.
i absolutely love this book, i lent it to a friend years ago who never returned it and i have lost contact with them. if anyone knows where i can get a copy please please let me know. i used to read this cover to cover at least once a month as a child and wish i had never trusted it to my 'friend'
if liddygally or pat read this could they please let me know which publisher produced this book so i can go and beg at their door. thanks
Beth- according to WorldCat, P.R. Gawthorn (London) was the publisher.
Hello, Everyone...I am pleased to be able to say that I too have a copy of 'BROWN MOUSE'...acquired this very day from my local recycling centre-£1.50 along with four other books. It is very clean and tidy but sadly had no dj.....so I have 'reconstructed' using Frank Jennens' frontispiece as the basis of the jacket.
Not a single copy of 'BROWN MOUSE' available anywhere on the net just a single copy of th e sequel 'WHITE AND BROWN' priced at the astronomical sum of $500,000...YES HALF A MILLION DOLLARS....about £310,000.!!!! and by all accounts BROWN MOUSSE is even harder to find....
If anyone is interested and would like me to post some images of Frank's illustrationS from the book, I would be happy to do so and the dj too....
One thing that did strike me was the remarkable similarity between the 'MOUSE' having her portrait painted in the frontispiece and the young lady blond hair and glasses leaning over the little girl drawing as depicted in one of the photographs posted on another JENNENS blog....uncanny and so much so that the one must be based on the other.
Should anyone wish to contact me they can do so via blueskyline@orange,net.
Regards
Peter
Currently Brown Mouse is available on Ebay for $£40. The sequel to Brown Mouse is Brown and White, which iscurrently available on Amazon for £85.
This seems to be the place on the Internet for discussion of this book! It was my mum's favourite when she was growing up, and I have been trying to find a copy for her for years.
Copyright law in the UK applies for 50 years after the author's death: https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p10_duration
Frank Jennens passed away in 1957: http://bearalley.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/frank-jennens.html
So, theoretically, this should be prime material for an archive somewhere, like Project Gutenberg. however, nobody seems to have submitted it. Is there anyone here with a copy of the book willing to scan it in so it can be digitised?
How? There used to be a copy on Amazon for about 1000 pounds, no longer.
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