The Child of the Moat: A Story for Girls, 1557 A. D

by Ian Holbourn

Excerpt from The Child of the Moat

As for the grown-ups the story is not written for grown ups, and if they want to know why it begins with such a gruesome first chapter, let them ask the children. Chil dren like the horrors first and the end all bright. Many grown-ups like the tragedy at the end. But perhaps the children are right and the grown-ups are standing on their heads. Besides they can skip the first chapter; it is only a prologue.

422 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1916

About the author

Ian Holbourn, born John Bernard Stoughton Holbourn, was laird of Foula, a professor and lecturer for the University of Oxford, and a writer. He was a second-class passenger on the RMS Lusitania on her last voyage in May 1915.

Reviews

[Valéria. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now, I went into this completely blind to what’s the story about.
And I was delightfully surprised. Nice story of 12-years-old Aline, and what she’s went through, people she met and helped, friendships, deaths, happy ending.

[Lea · Rating 3 out of 5]

So after watching a movie about the sinking of the Lusitania, I went down a rabbit hole that ended with reading this book. It is entertaining from an anthropological perspective, being written in 1916 and set in 1557. It's pretty awful by 2022 standards. lots of talk about the superiority of the "high born" or those with royal blood over "low born" or common folk, and very lecherous undertones that make me wonder just how awful the professor (the author) was, and was he inappropriate with the child, Avis Dolphin, aboard the Lusitania, or after, or just dream of it?

[Leserling Belana · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the book:

PEEFACE
On the analogy of the famous apple, "there ain't
going to be no" preface, "not nohow." Children do
not read prefaces, so anything of a prefatory nature
that might interest them is put at the beginning of chapter
one.
As for the grown-ups the story is not written for grownups,
and if they want to know why it begins with such a
gruesome first chapter, let them ask the children. Children
like the horrors first and the end all bright. Many
grown-ups like the tragedy at the end. But perhaps the
children are right and the grown-ups are standing on
their heads. Besides they can skip the first chapter ; it is
only a prologue.


A really lovely story. I was proofreading it for distributed proofreaders and became totally engrossed.
The story of the book's origin and the author's motivation for writing it is fascinating, too.
If you should read it, bear in mind when it was written, and the time it is set in, and I'm sure you'll agree that this is an extraordinary story for little girls.

[Janelle]

Dnf. Some of the Librivox narrators read too fast for me.