A Traveller in Time

by Alison Uttley

Other authorsPhyllis Bray (Illustrator)
Hardcover, 2011

Status

Available

Local notes

Fic Utt

Barcode

594

Publication

New York Review of Books (2011), Hardcover, 331 pages. Purchased in 2014. $17.95.

Description

When, in the late 1930s, Penelope is sent to stay with relatives in a remote ancient farmhouse in Derbyshire, she finds herself mysteriously transported to Elizabethan times where her sixteenth-century family is scheming to free the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots, but, even with her twentieth-century knowledge, Penelope remains helpless in the face of danger.

Language

Original publication date

1939

Physical description

331 p.; 8.58 inches

User reviews

LibraryThing member TeresaInTexas
This is one of the few books I've ever read that I honestly could not put down. I was enchanted from the first page. It helped that I was immersed in Tudor-love at the time, but even so, adult novels have never transported me to another time so compellingly as this one.
LibraryThing member Imprinted
Never think of this as a children's book! Alison Uttley paints a hauntingly beautiful portrait of rural England in two centuries that will captivate any adult. Her descriptive passages of the people and the landscape will stay with you forever. Although the plot is certainly enjoyable, and you can
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learn more about a controversial episode in history, it's the author's mastery of dialogue, character, and place that make this book so successful to me.
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LibraryThing member overthemoon
How sad, to turn the page and see that it is the last one. I easily fell under the charm of this book, which seems written with a pen dipped in all the smells and fragrance of the English countryside, from cowcakes to meadowsweet. I would have loved to have read it as a child but I had never heard
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of it till it was given the Folio Society treatment. The protagonist, a young girl, Penelope, is sent from Chelsea to convalesce at her aunt's ancient farm, which used to be part of the domain of the Babingtons, supporters of Mary Queen of Scots. Sensitive to the environment, described as fey, Penelope finds herself drawn back into the 16th century and becomes involved in the plotting to help Mary escape - the time travelling happens as if in a dream; when she returns to her own day not a second has passed. The melting between then and now happens so seamlessly it is almost plausible. A bewitching tale.
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LibraryThing member Callann
A wonderful story, written in rich, dreamlike prose that makes both the beautiful English countryside and glimpses of the Elizabethan era come to life. It has a wistful, bittersweet quality and managed to stay with me long after I finished reading the book. Recommended for any age, not just child
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readers.
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LibraryThing member anglemark
The real purpose of this book is in a way purely didactic; Uttley strives to paint a vivid picture of life in the Elizabethan era, to tell the reader about life in the country when she grew up around 1900, and to show how that life hadn't changed much since 1600. The protagonist is just an
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onlooker, she doesn't interfere herself in the storyline. A modern author would have used the time travel and interconnexions to create a much more dynamic story. Nevertheless, Uttley is an excellent storyteller and succeeds admirably in painting her milieus.

Well worth reading.
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LibraryThing member satyridae
I wish I'd read this when I was 12, it would have been one of my favorite books ever. As it is, I'm glad to have read it at this late date. Sweet little British story of a girl with the second sight, an enchanted house, and the doomed Mary, Queen of Scots.
LibraryThing member particle_p
This is one of the best books I have ever read. The ending is both wistful and sad and inevitable. Penelope repeatedly slips back in time at her family's ancient country farm, Thackers, to the 1580s and then back to her present, 1906-08. Penelope's ancestors were servants to the Babingtons, who are
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fundamentally nice people (with a few exceptions). She becomes part of their family, in the 16th century, accepted as a sort of cousin who nobody can quite place and who tends to vanish without notice. The eldest Babington son, Anthony, is deeply involved in a plot to spirit Mary, Queen of Scots out of England to France. Mary is being held prisoner in the farm next to Thackers and Anthony is excavating a tunnel. Penelope knows from the outset that he doesn't succeed, that he eventually dies, but Penelope finds she can't make big changes to history. (This also has the effect of ridding the book of time travel paradoxes.) She can change how people feel about events but not the events themselves. This becomes the true subject of the book: how people feel about history as they are living it, and later looking backward. The reader and Penelope and the Babingtons know how it will end. They hope otherwise, but they know. Anthony knows he is doomed but he tries to save Queen Mary anyway, because he loves her. Penelope knows she can't save them but she keeps returning because she loves the Babingtons. And the house, Thackers, is always there.

Side note: If you love old houses, this ia a book you should read.
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LibraryThing member Eurekas
The author has taken a few liberties with historical facts but the larger bits are true. Anthony Babington was from a wealthy family. He did try to free Mary Queen of Scotts and he was hung, drawn and quartered. But Babington and Mary Queen of Scotts are not the focus of this story. It is a love
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story. Penelope, the main character, is sent to recuperate at her great aunt and uncles farm, Thackers, in Darbyshire. Penelope falls in love with the the farm. Much of the beautiful writing in this book revolves around farm life, both in the 20th century and the 16th. Penelope is able to go back and forth through time. She is distantly related to the cook from the 16th century, so is able to be involved with the workings of the farm naturally. Thackers belongs to Anthony Babington, and his brother Francis falls in love with Penelope, and she with him. A lovely story based partly on the author's own background of growing up on such a farm.
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LibraryThing member marsap
This is the story of Penelope Taberner who goes to stay in a country farmhouse, Thackers, a manor house once inhabited by the Babington family of 1582. The Babingtons were supporters of Mary Queen of Scots and wanted her restored to the throne. Penelope finds she is able to slip back in time to the
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Elizabethan era and becomes involved with inhabitants of the manor house and the plot to liberate Mary Queen of Scots from the nearby Wingfield Manor. She slips effortlessly between the past and the present. It is a bittersweet story because Penelope is aware of the fate of both the Queen and the Babington family and that she will not be able to change the future. The book is written for children but it was written in the 1930’s and the language is very formal and somewhat old fashioned—I don’t think this is a book that would be enjoyed by younger children or even teens. Even I had a hard time finishing the book though I found the topic intriguing. A 2.5 out of 5 stars.
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LibraryThing member thatotter
A little draggy, but I don't regret reading it. I think that it would take a very patient, Penelope-like child to be interested in reading this, though.

I think my favorite thing was getting glimpses of farm life in England in the early 20th century. That world was more interesting and real to me
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than the 16th century.
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LibraryThing member ChrisNewton
One of the best time travel fantasies ever - beautifully written, soft yet exact, with a feeling for the English countryside that made me think of the young D.H. Lawrence.
LibraryThing member john257hopper
My third consecutive classic children's book, which I am reading as a lighter contrast to the current grim reality. This is also a timeslip/imaginative work like Penelope Lively's A Stitch in Time, but this time moving between the present day (which on internal evidence must be 1907, though the
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book was published in 1939) and Elizabethan England of 1582. In both time periods the setting is the fictional estate of Thackers in Derbyshire, a farm in the 20th century and in the 16th century one of the estates of Anthony Babington, a Catholic plotter who sought the release from captivity of Mary, Queen of Scots and her placement on the English throne. Penelope Taberner, staying there with her great aunt and great uncle, soon discovers she can pass from one time period to the other, but cannot control when it happens. The writing is very good, with a great feel for the colour, warmth and detail of life at Thackers in both time periods. This is a moody and atmospheric novel, with the transfers between time periods feeling dream-like/flow of consciousness, such that I sometimes forgot which time period I was in (which I think was the point). The actual plot to rescue Mary from her captivity at nearby (historical) Wingfield manor and hide her at Thackers is only a small part of the narrative. I am fairly sure I read this novel as a child in the late 70s/early 80s (though in my memory it was shorter than its 400 pages here) and also think I watched a 1978 TV adaptation, though I remember no details.
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LibraryThing member electrascaife
Penelope visits her aunt and uncle at Thackers Manor and finds herself stepping back and forth in time, visiting relatives and residents of the place from three hundred years before, and taking part in helping Mary Queen of Scots try to escape her imprisonment. A Narnia-style story with a history
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lesson and a hint of romance, too. I would have absolutely loved this one when I was a kid, and I still enjoyed it quite a bit now.
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LibraryThing member cbl_tn
Worried about her youngest daughter’s health, Mrs. Cameron arranges for all three of her children – Alison, Ian, and Penelope – to stay with her elderly aunt and uncle on the Derbyshire farm where she herself was raised. All of the children, and especially Penelope, soon take to the rhythms
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of country life. However, it isn’t as restful for Penelope as the adults hoped. Penelope finds she has the ability to slip between past and present. She spends more and more time in 16th century Thackers, the country home of Anthony Babington, whom Penelope knows is destined to be executed for his role in plotting the escape of Mary, Queen of Scots. Penelope feels herself caught between the two worlds, as tragedy draws ever closer for her 16th century friends and Penelope is powerless to change the outcome.

This book combines many elements that I love, including old houses with secret passages and time travel into the past. The time travel element reminds me very much of Daphne du Maurier’s The House on the Strand, with past and present coexisting in the same physical space for the time traveler. The descriptions of the house, its furnishings, the farm buildings, and the landscape are vivid enough that I could easily picture them in my mind. The continuity between past and present, with furniture and tools in use over many generations of the farm’s inhabitants, will resonate with family historians who either cherish physical objects passed down in their own family or who mourn their lack.
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Pages

331

Rating

(101 ratings; 4.2)
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