At our book festival, I had the joy of working with Elizabeth Laird.  I’ve read all her novels but I re-read Red Sky in the Morning.  What an excellent book it is!  And what a great writer she is.  We sold out of The Witching Hour and I think had only six of her other books left after two sessions so it seems I’m not alone in my views.

The book is called One Dog and his Boy and is for younger readers.  You will, of course, want to read it for yourself so I won’t tell you about the story.  I’m tempted to say that the story doesn’t matter anyway.  That’s not true, naturally, but it’s the quality of Eva’s writing that once again stands out for me.  The book is written in her distinctive style: subtle and gentle but still somehow making very pointed remarks about people.  And she paints pictures in the mind seemingly effortlessly.  As with everything else she’s written, it is a joy to read.

That she was never awarded the Carnegie Medal is a huge regret for me.  It will be interesting to see if books that won Medals instead of Eva’s stand the test of time.  I think that her Journey to the River Sea and The Star of Kazan will.  I’ve written about the latter previously and I have no reason to change my opinion that it is a jewel of a book.  Read it or Madensky Square over Christmas and you will be transported to Vienna at the turn of the Twentieth Century.  You may not wish to leave.