The Exciting Journey (1947), Mystery Christmas (1948), Skeleton Island (1949) which form a trilogy.
The Valley of the Snake (1953), The Casket and the Sword (1955), The Clock that Struck Fifteen (1956), Johnnie-by-the-River (1957)
Brief synopses:
The Casket and The Sword (1955)
This book tells the story of Jeremy who is sent off to the West Country to recuperate after Measles, to stay with his Aunt Eleanor.. Near to her cottage is the mysterious country estate of Castlecombe. Surrounded by 15 miles of brick wall, the estate is fascinating to Jeremy and he has adventures with Clive and Sally exploring the menagerie of animals on The Old Park and the sprawling house of Castecombe itself. Can Jeremy help the Palfrey's regain their family home?
The House in Cobble Lane (1964)
This book is set in London and tells that tale of two boys and how they become entangled in a mystery involving a missing yacht, Venezuelan singer and the Brunner mob. I enjoyed this book very much and managed to complete it in just two sittings.
The House Where Nobody Lived (1958)
Two children are staying wit relatives in the countryside when they find an abandoned house in the woods and decide to fix it up. They encounter a gang of other children and have a few adventures and close calls. This book was ok but personally I was disappointed as it was very short and written I imagine for a younger audience than his adventure novels.
Hi Charlie, wouldn't it be nice if somebody who either was related to Norman Dale or knows more about him would find your blog and provide us with more details about his life?
ReplyDeleteDuring the pre-Internet years in the early to late 1980's I spent a lot of time in university libraries creating bibliographies of my favorite authors. So here are Norman Dale's books in chronological order:
ReplyDelete1. 1938 The Serpent and the Clove
2. 1943 Secret Service (Ginger & Peter 1)
3. 1944 Dangerous Treasure (Ginger & Peter 2)
4. 1945 The Best Adventure (Ginger & Peter 3)
5. 1947 Sweet Confusion
6. 1947 The Exciting Journey (Part 1 Tim & Sidney)
7. 1948 Mystery Christmas (Part 2 Tim & Sidney)
8. 1949 Skeleton Island (Part 3 Tom & Sidney)
9. 1949 The Yellow Book
10. 1951 Arrival in Wycherly
11. 1952 Clockwork Castle
12. 1953 The Valley of the Snake
13. 1954 The Secret Motorcar (Ginger & Peter 4)
14. 1954 Story in a half-light
15. 1955 The Casket and the Sword
16. 1956 The Clock that struck fifteem
17. 1957 Johnny-by-the-River
18. 1957 The Medenham Carnival 1.
19. 1958 The House where nobody lived
20. 1959 All Change for Medenham 2.
21. 1959 The Game that really happened
22. 1959 The Pied Piper of Medenham 3.
23. 1960 The Six Stone Faces
24. 1960 Look at Farms
25. 1962 A Medenham Secret 4.
26. 1964 The House in Cobble Lane
27. 1966 The Bayeux Tapestry
28. 1971 Loaded Gun
Thanks Chrissie. I think Loaded Gun might have been a translation work by Norman Dale, though usually for translation he used his real name.
DeleteThis is from tomfolio.com:
ReplyDeleteNorman George Denny
Norman George Denny (1901 - 1982) (Pseudonym: Norman Dale). English writer, translator, and a literary advisory to a prominent English publishing house. Little is known about his life. He was born in Kent, England in 1901, later lived for two years in Mexico City where his father was a mining engineer, and thereafter returned to live in England until his death.
A dustjacket for one his juvenile books of the early 1950s carried a statement by Denny that he lived with his wife, 2 sons & a daughter on a farm in Surrey, England. Richard A. Hutchings, however, stated Denny "was married to my aunt, and lived in Devon, England, at least from 1950 until my aunt's death in 1973. He then lived in Hove, Sussex until his own death."
The bulk of Denny's literary were some 50 translations. Most were from French, but he also translated several German books.
Denny’s own writings were first published in 1936 when Argosy (UK) magazine carried 2 of his short stories, The Lost Garden & The Perfect Conspiracy. The following year, The Storyteller published a third short story called Profit…No Loss. All three were published under his first pseudonym, Bruce Norman.
His first novel appeared in 1938 under his own name, but in 1943 he began writing juvenile fiction as Norman Dale, a pseudonym also used by E(dwin) C(harles) Tubb, one of the most popular and prolific British writers of science fiction. Like several other authors of literature for children and juveniles, he too began by writing down the stories he had been telling his eldest son.
Denny also compiled a selection of writings and art work from the famous British quarterly "THE YELLOW BOOK" which remained in print for several decades. THE YELLOW BOOK: A SELECTION was first published in 1949 by Bodley Head (London), but also issued by Viking (New York) the following year. Spring Books (London) reissued the title about 1970.
Novels written as NORMAN DENNY:
◊The Serpent & the Dove (1938)
◊Sweet Confusion: A Novel (1947)
◊Arrival in Wycherly (1951)
◊Story in Half-Light (1954)
◊The Bayeux Tapestry: The Story of the Norman Conquest (1966) – with Josephine Fillmore Sandy
Juvenile Fiction written as NORMAN DALE:
◊Secret Service (1943)
◊Dangerous Treasure (1944)
◊The Best Adventure (1945) as The Exciting Journey (1947)
◊Mystery Christmas (1948)
◊Skeleton Island (1949)
◊The Valley of the Snake (1953)
◊The Secret Motorcar (1954)
◊The Casket and the Sword (1955)
◊The Clock that Struck Fifteen (1956)
◊Johnnie-by-the-River (1957)
◊The Medenham Carnival (1957)
◊The House Where Nobody Lived (1958)
◊All Change for Medenham (1959)
◊The Pied Piper of Medenham 1959)
◊The Game that Really Happened (1959)
◊Look at Farms (1960)
◊The Six Stone Faces (1960)
◊A Medenham Secret (1962)
◊Workbook (1963)
◊The House in Cobble Lane (1964)
Content provided by Henry F. Hain III.
Hi Charlie,
ReplyDeletehere is an interesting addition for your blog.
My mother Dale Rita Wright (Neé Hall) 1918-2010), always claimed that she wrote 'Secret Service' and 'Dangerous Treasure' before giving up working in 1945 when I was born. That she wrote the books was an accepted 'fact' by family and friends. How it came to pass I am not quite sure but the story was that she was asked to write them by Bodley Head under the pen name Norman Dale and that the the series was then continued by Norman Denny. We had multiple of copies of the books in the house when I was young.
I recently received a copy of 'Secret Service' from an uncle who had been given it my my mother for his 12th birthday in September 1943. My own copy having been left with my sons in Australia I was grateful to get this. On discovering the books dedication was made to 'Michael Francis Denny' I decided to do a bit of checking and came across your blog. It obviously seems to point to the fact that Norman Denny was the actual author.... but not necessarily.
There are passages in both books that sound extremely like my mother, turns of phrase particularly and there is nothing in the writing that she would not have known about or experienced. She always maintained that the stories were set on the Dorset coast near Swanage. The Tilly Whim caves being very likely candidates for the cave in Secret Service. She was a Wren working at the Admiralty at the time.
If anyone can shed any light on this I would be most interested.
Claire Wright
Hi Claire,
DeleteThat is fascinating. I wonder if there is any way we can find out more. I did search for Norman Denny's son (who I think the dedication is for) and I think he is still alive and possibly living in Brighton. Might be worth you trying to contact him to see if he knows more about this? Thank you.
Hi Charlie,
DeleteI have thought of contacting Reading University who hold the archives of The Bodley Head publishers to see if there was any sort of contract. And yes it might be worth trying to find the son. I have a freind who is good at that sort of thing so will see if he can help.
Hi Charlie, Norman Denny is my grandfather, though I have few memories of him as he died when I was seven or eight. If you have any questions I can try to answer them with help of my family.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you that although Norman and his family did live in Devon they moved from Surrey when Dad was very young. Norman the moved to Sussex (where my uncle lives) after my grandmother died. Two of Norman's three children are still alive. My father, his eldest son, died in 2016.
Esther Denny
Wow thank you for getting in touch Esther. Very sorry to read of your father's passing. Your grandfather was a terrific author and I admire him very much.
DeleteHello Esther, I grew up in Germany and now live in the US since 2002. In my German childhood I had two favorite children's books authors: Enid Blyton and Norman Dale. I'll bnever understand why Blyton is still in print and Norman Dale's books are not. - In Germany Dale's books were published at first from Westermann Verlag in Braunschweig. I lived with my parents in Georg-Westermann-Allee on the opposite side of the publishing house and next door lived the publisher who sometimes invited us to coffee and cake, because my mom translated texts for him. On two occasions he gave me German translations from "The Exciting Journey" and "Clockwork Castle" which I reread over and over again. Unfortunately the excellent sequels "Mystery Christmas" und his master piece "Skeleton Island" were never translated into German, so in 2008 when my English was finally good enough to read books in English, I ordered "Mystery Christmas" and "Skeleton Island" from amazon.co.uk. - When I was 60 or 61, I sent an e-mail to The Bodley Head and asked if they have an older employee who still remembers Norman Dale aka Norman Denny, but they claimed to have never heard of him.
ReplyDelete