Book Review: ‘Lady Davina Dove, A Christmas Story’ by Jani Tully
Chaplin
Review by Tracey Kifford, owner of WowThankYou, a marketplace for
UK-based designer-makers
I was asked to review the above book via Mumpreneur MumsClub
and saw it as a great opportunity to introduce my two children – my daughter
Millie-Mae (aged 7) and my son Toby (aged 5) to this book in The Manor House
Stories series. I decided that the WowThankYou blog was a good place to post
this review, as it is an ‘all British’ publication, with the author having
written the books in Devon, with a British printer producing the printed copies.
They say you can always judge a book by its cover, and our
first impression was a good one – a nice sized solid hard covered book with an
inviting illustration and a shiny smooth slip cover, with a red ribbon page
marker hanging through it. A good size to suit most hands – from young early
readers through to adults.
When you open the book, the first thing you notice is a
Foreword by Julian Fellowes, the writer of Downton Abbey. This alone suggests
we’re about to read something a little special. Turning a few more pages and
there’s a double-page spread containing lovely illustrations of some of the
characters – all of them rather dapper with equally posh names! It does make
you feel, though, that there are a lot of characters in a relatively small book
(68 pages). You do wonder how these will all be included, and once you start
reading the first few pages, this worry doesn’t immediately go away …
The story, if you haven’t read any of the other books in the
series, does require you to concentrate as there’s a lot to take in. New
characters are mentioned in what seems like every other paragraph initially and
you fear you’ll forget who they are due to ‘character overload’. But once the
story gets going, it all seems to seamlessly come together and when coming
across a character last mentioned right at the beginning, the author very
cleverly reminds you who they are!
The story itself is a very festive one. To us, it is a cross
between Downton Abbey and Wind in the Willows as it is set in an era
approximately late Victorian through to Edwardian times when country estates
were still commonplace with a large staff. In this instance, the cast are all
animals.
The head of Manor House is Lord Peregrine Falcon and his
wife, Lady Davina, is always responsible for arranging Christmas – everything
from organising the household to buying presents. From childhood she’s had a
secret Christmas wish of her own, but it would never come true as she’d never
told anyone about it. Or was that about to change …
Preparing the Manor House for the festivities is the focus
of the story – where you are introduced to such delightful characters as Sarah
Sparrow the Scullery Maid, Delia Duck the Cook, Cream and Sugar the Milkmaids,
Chesterfield Penguin the Butler and Rory Redshank the Footman. All have very
specific instructions on what they need to do to make Christmas flow without a
hitch. You learn about how resourceful they are, from eating vegetables grown
in the Manor gardens by Radish Robin the Gardener, to receiving nuts, berries,
apples and seeds from the hoarded bounty in Sgt. Simon Squirrel the
Quartermaster’s storeroom. Supermarkets were many years away from being
invented! It is a genuine case of “grow your own” and “make do and mend”, as
indeed it was in those days. Even the
Christmas tree had been grown in their own forest!
On Christmas Eve, once everything was ready for the feast
the following day, and Lord Peregrine had lit the first candle on the tree, a
group of characters go carol singing. Everyone from Lady Davina to the
milkmaids sing their way around the village, entertaining the residents of each
and every cottage they visit. It’s a nice touch as it shows that, even though
for most of the time there was a definite ‘upstairs/downstairs’ divide, they
can come together and put their social standings aside.
As Christmas Eve drew to an end, and Lord Peregrine had
spent the evening talking to his guest Sir David Bunnyburrow about all the
conservation efforts underway in the estate to provide safe habitats for many
creatures, Lady Davina went to bed. Here, just before she fell asleep, she once
again repeated her wish to Father Christmas. But does it come true? It’s not
for us to say, but we will tell you that she’s awoken by the sound of tinkling
bells …
It is a lovely story that both children enjoyed. The
illustrations are beautiful and you do feel you are reading a collectable
‘classic’ akin to Beatrix Potter. This book is a keepsake item without a doubt.
In terms of reading age, my 7 year old (who has a good ‘beyond her years’ level
of reading) would struggle with some of the words, mainly owing to them not
being used on an everyday basis – specifically the actual characters names.
This is definitely a book to read to your children, and is that perfect length
that allows you to read the whole book in a single session holding the
children’s attention from the start to the end.
Both of my children gave this story 5 out of 5 – and I agree
with them. It is a very charming read and we will definitely read it again x
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