Quote of the Day

The rain came that night in good earnest, and the wind howled round Petit Chose; windows rattled and doors banged, and Sara woke up in the middle of the night to find herself lying in a pool of water. Her efforts to shut the window roused Caroline.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"Trying to shut this beastly window," Sara panted.

"Well, don't, or we'll suffocate."

"I'd rather suffocate than drown," Sara told her. "My bed's soaking."

From BRETON HOLIDAY, Chapter 12, Sara Does Some Rescue Work.

Breton Holiday (frontispiece)

This is the first ever illustration for a Jane Shaw book, the frontispiece for Breton holiday, drawn by A. H. Watson in 1939. 

Abridgement of Breton Holiday and Bernese Holiday

Whenever I have read about Breton Adventure and Bernese Adventure, they are always described as "slightly abridged" versions of the original Holiday books. In Susan and Friends, detailed descriptions are given of two scenes that were edited or deleted prior to the publication of Bernese Adventure, both from Chapter 11. On Page 105, it says that when Caroline and Sara were on the train to Interlaken, "the nice blue-eyed guard came and passed the time of day with them; and when they reached Interlaken, Sara went quite wild over the shops". In Bernese Holiday, the train journey scene is longer, with Sara thinking that the guard's name is Bob because he has the letters BOB emblazoned on his cap. Caroline explains that the letters actually stand for Bernese Oberland Bahn. The other deleted scene takes place the next morning, when Sara awakes early and is delighted to find that it is snowing. After breakfast, Caroline and Vanessa decide to take advantage of the cold snap to write some post cards. The next paragraph begins: "Two days later, the snow had gone, the sun came out again and the flowers reappeared..." However, in Bernese Holiday, while the others are writing their post cards, Sara borrows the hotel owner's skis and has a go at skiing. Caroline eventually has to come out and dig her out of a snow drift. One of the members of the Jane Shaw Facebook group, who has a copy of Bernese Holiday, also recalls what she refers to as some "curtailed dialogue" but could not be more specific as she had conducted her comparison some time ago. I recently purchased a copy of Breton Holiday and looked forward to comparing it with the reissued version. However, as far as I can tell, there was no abridging of the story at all. The above photograph shows the contents page of Breton Holiday on the left and the Adventure on the right. They are identical. So, although the original book is much thicker, there are no extra scenes. The only differences are that the dedication to Jane Shaw's parents is omitted from the Adventure and that the Holiday has a black and white frontispiece drawn by Alice Helena Watson. My copy of Breton Adventure has no frontispiece, although I've been told that some editions of the book did have one. Bernese Adventure has had two frontispieces, one colour and one black and white, which you can see by clicking here and here.

Quote of the Day

The worst was nothing like what they expected. They were lying by themselves sun-bathing at the grève the next afternoon, when a young man, slight, but with a body which seemed to be entirely composed of springs, came bounding down the path with a dog at his heels. Coming over to the girls, he grinned till his eyes crinkled up and disappeared, shook hands, and announced himself as Raymond.

From BRETON HOLIDAY, Chapter 2, They Meet Artichokes, Ajax - and Raymond.

Breton Holiday Dedication

Breton Holiday contains the first of the cryptic dedications that permeated Jane Shaw's books throughout her career. Her first dedication, quite appropriately, is to her parents. M.W.P. is her mother, Margaret Wilson Patrick. J.P. is her father, John Patrick. This dedication was not included in the reissued version of the story, Breton Adventure in 1953, probably because the price of paper had soared in the early 1950s and because paper was still rationed in those post-War days.

Breton Holiday (Blue Boards)

Breton Holiday

This week, my copy of Breton Holiday arrived from Peakirk Books. It is much fatter than the later Breton Adventure. Published in 1939, it has very thick paper that has yellowed far less than my copy of Breton Adventure, which was published 14 years later. Quite a treasure.

Quote of the Day

Ever since Raymond had pointed them out to her - a dim outline on the horizon - from the cliff above the grève, the very thought of the islands had fascinated Sara, and her imagination, never unfertile, was stirred by those mysterious bare rocks which only became visible at low tide.

"Anything in the way of adventures might happen on such exciting islands," she enthused to Caroline.

"The most exciting thing will be if you go and get left behind again, and drown yourself," Caroline replied - rather unnecessarily, Sara considered.

From BRETON HOLIDAY, Chapter 6, Shrimping.

Quote of the Day

They arrived, contrary to expectations, intact, though indeed rather shattered, in plenty of time to lay in what Sara considered an adequate store of Pierrot Gourmand nougat, and to establish themselves right at the very ring-side, beside an aisle, Raymond in the middle and Sara next to the passage.

Probably Caroline and Sara derived more amusement from the audience than from the circus itself, for the clowns' patter was too quick and too colloquial for them, though Raymond roared and laughed, while Sara, her specs firmly on her nose for once, watched with fasicnated eyes a dear old woman, dressed in her best for the occasion even to a muff, hoping, as seemed likely, she would laugh herself right out of her seat and into the ring.

From BRETON HOLIDAY (1939), reissued as BRETON ADVENTURE (1953), Chapter 8, Sara at the Circus.