Monday, 22 October 2012

A dream of Sadler's Wells; Lorna Hill

I recently bought a lovely collection of books by Lorna Hill (thank you Ruth) and thought it would be nice to share some of the cover art with you.

Lorna Hill was born in Durham, England in 1902. A dream of Sadler's Wells (1950) was the first of a long series of novels based on her daughter's training at the Sadler's Wells Ballet School (now The Royal Ballet School).  Lorna Hill wrote numerous books during her lifetime, including the Dancing Peel series (ballet), the Marjorie series and the Patience series (pony books) and a series about Vicarage children. If you are interested in finding out more about Lorna Hill and her books, Collecting Books and Magazines is a good place to start.














































All the above books are now sold, thank you for your interest.

Have you read anything by Lorna Hill or any other books about the ballet?
Update July 2016: March House books closed on my retirement in 2015, but I do still blog here at March of Time Books and always appreciate your visit. 
at 10:04

30 comments:

  1. Garden Of Daisies22 October 2012 at 13:48

    Oh my goodness, these look so wonderful! If these had been in my library when I was young, I would have read them ALL.

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  2. Bish Denham22 October 2012 at 13:56

    I know I must have had a couple of these when I was a kid as I took ballet for many years and they're just the kind of thing my mother would have gotten for me. They seem very familiar.

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  3. barbaraannefisher22 October 2012 at 16:40

    They are wonderful so much so that I’m very tempted to start reading. You know what will happen then? Someone will buy them! Thanks for calling in.

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  4. barbaraannefisher22 October 2012 at 16:44

    Oh how lovely! I always wanted to take ballet lessons, but I was far too clumsy. These make me think I should have tried it.

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  5. Sharon Souter22 October 2012 at 19:31

    Oh Barbara! - I saw these on your website a little while ago and just drooled! I read all of these when I was a tweeny and just LOVED them. I would go off into daydreams about being accepted at Sadler's Wells and becoming a prima ballerina - of course it was out of the question as I lived at the other end of the world in Africa! If I have ever been really tempted to buy something I know I shouldn't it is one of these - but now what makes me really happy is that you have all the covers (including those that are sold) in this post so that I can come back and see them whenever I feel like it!

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  6. The Desert Rocks22 October 2012 at 20:36

    I'm sure I would have loved these books!

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  7. Donna DM Yates22 October 2012 at 21:49

    These covers are beautiful. She wrote quite a few books! I would have loved to read these.

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  8. Joleene Naylor23 October 2012 at 02:48

    beautiful covers!

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  9. Darlene Foster23 October 2012 at 03:28

    What a wonderful collection! I had not heard of any of these books before, perhaps they did not make across to North America.

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  10. Stephanie@Fairday's Blog23 October 2012 at 03:30

    I have not read anything by Lorna Hill. These covers look beautiful and I think it is great to find out where her ideas for the books came from! I know a lot of dancers that would probably love these books! Thanks for sharing!

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  11. barbaraannefisher23 October 2012 at 18:22

    Hello Sharon, I just knew you would like them. The covers are truly beautiful, and the books far too nice to read! I’m toying with the idea of buying them in paperback so that I can keep and read them. I never dreamt about being at Sadler’s Wells, but I did dream about the wonderful costumes.

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  12. barbaraannefisher23 October 2012 at 18:25

    Thanks Donna, I agree. They are beautiful.

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  13. barbaraannefisher23 October 2012 at 18:26

    Hello Eve, it would be difficult not to love them.

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  14. barbaraannefisher23 October 2012 at 18:28

    Thanks Joleene, I won’t argue with that!

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  15. barbaraannefisher23 October 2012 at 18:32

    Hello Darlene, I suppose it was harder to get books into lots of countries back then. The internet has made the world a much smaller place.

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  16. barbaraannefisher23 October 2012 at 19:08

    Staphanie - agree with you! I’m sure anyone interested in dance would love these. I enjoy sharing, thank you for taking the time to call in.

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  17. Vintagecobweb25 October 2012 at 02:06

    Oh Barbara, they're lovely. I'd have them on my bookshelf. Runs off to see if I have any Lorna Hill books shoved away somewhere.

    I love the way you show your books on here.

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  18. Claudine G25 October 2012 at 12:40

    Beautiful covers, Barbara. It's a pity I've never learned ballet. Ballets are so graceful and ethereal. One day I shall watch one. I read a modern picture book few years ago about a young girl who wished to be a ballerina but was awkward in her moves. It had great chalk illustrations, and yep, she did become a ballerina in her own style in the end.

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  19. barbaraannefisher25 October 2012 at 16:08

    Thanks Michelle, I think they are lovely too. I’m sure you will find some in one or other of your special hiding places. I hope you do anyway!

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  20. barbaraannefisher25 October 2012 at 16:26

    Hello Claudine, I love going to the ballet my favourites are Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. They are just so beautiful. I hope you get to go one day. The picture book sounds lovely – I was trying to think which one it might be. The only one I can think of with chalk like illustrations is ' am a ballerina' by Valerie Coulman. I did have a copy a while ago, but it sold so I can’t check out the story. I’m glad you liked the cover’s on these.

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  21. Angela26 October 2012 at 15:00

    What a lovely lot! Thanks so much for sharing. Your posts are always so interesting and full of bibliophile eye-candy!

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  22. Rodolfo Novo27 October 2012 at 04:08

    Barbara, these books are so nice...
    Besos, Silvina

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  23. barbaraannefisher27 October 2012 at 14:52

    Angela
    What a lovely lot! Thanks so much for sharing. Your posts are always so interesting and full of bibliophile eye-candy!

    Thank you Angela. I'm sorry blogger still won't post your comments but I didn’t want you to think I was ignoring you!

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  24. barbaraannefisher27 October 2012 at 16:25

    Thank you Silvina, you and I like the same things!

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  25. Anne Marie Stevenson7 March 2013 at 18:24

    Oh, I've just found your blog and have bookmarked it. I have all the Lorna Hill ballet and pony books apart from Dancer on Holiday, which I am waiting for GGB to re-print hopefully. At some time I will be looking for good homes for the ballet books, as I can't part with the pony ones for a while.

    These books are true comfort food and I re-read them every so often. It is difficult finding room for all these comfort books as I am in a small house.

    I just love all of them.

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  26. Anne Marie Stevenson7 March 2013 at 18:27

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  27. barbaraannefisher7 March 2013 at 18:47

    Hello Anne, I've just checked but can't remove your surname, I can remove the entire comment if you wish. I'm not sure if you can edit a comment from your end? I can only edit my own comments not those left by other people, Best wishes, Barbara

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  28. barbaraannefisher8 March 2013 at 06:13

    Hello Anne, Welcome! Thanks for calling in and leaving a comment. I’ve never thought of books as comfort food, but of course that’s exactly what they are – comfort food that doesn't put on weight.
    I’m always looking for good-quality children’s books so please let me know if/when you do decide to sell.

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  29. Campfire3 April 2013 at 13:19

    Hello Barbara, it doesn't matter. I will certainly contact you when I am ready - small house, very little storage. Some of them are paper backs but there are some hard backed ones of the fairly rare variety. I also have all but last of the 'Dancer' series, they are the Award Publication ones. How would I go about doing this please?

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  30. Barbara3 April 2013 at 14:20

    The easiest way to contact me is to click the e-mail button in the right hand side bar of this blog or to visit my website marchhousebooks.co.uk and click on the email link on the home page. I would give you me email address here but every time I do that I get a deluge of spam. I need a list of all the titles with a condition report of each one - please mention any names/tears/missing or torn pages/damage and in the case of the hardbacks I need to know if they have dust jackets or not. Thanks very much Barbara

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I really appreciate your comment. Thank you!
Barbara xx

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