![]() Front cover of first edition | |
Author | Sheena Porter |
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Illustrator | Annette Macarthur-Onslow |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Genre | Children's adventure novel, supernatural fiction |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Publication date | 1964 |
Media type | Print (hardcover) |
Pages | 144 pp (first edition) |
ISBN | 0192770853 (New Oxford Library, 1979) |
OCLC | 688964 |
LC Class | PZ7.P8338 No3 [1] |
Nordy Bank is a children's adventure novel by Sheena Porter, published by Oxford in 1964 with illustrations by Annette Macarthur-Onslow. Set in the hills of Shropshire, it features children whose camping holiday seems to engage the prehistoric past. Porter won the annual Carnegie Medal for excellence in British children's literature. [2]
Roy Publishers issued the first US edition in 1967, retaining the original illustrations. [1]
Six children plan a camping trip during the Easter holidays, deciding on Brown Clee Hill as it is out of the way of summer visitors. They set up camp on the top of the hill, which turns out to be the site of an Iron Age hill fort, Nordy Bank. Bronwen is particularly susceptible to the atmosphere of the place, and shows unexpected knowledge about its construction. Her personality begins to change, as from a quiet good-natured girl she becomes argumentative, then increasingly withdrawn and sullen. Bron is aware of the change and frightened by it. Her friend Margery believes she is possessed by the spirit of an Iron Age woman.
Meanwhile an Alsatian dog of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps escapes while on his way to retraining by the National Canine Defence League after being retired due to partial deafness. Being muzzled, he is unable to hunt and becomes increasingly hungry. When the dog appears lurking round the camp, the dog-loving Bron reacts with fear and hostility, calling him a wolf. However, his forlorn state eventually rouses her true self and she befriends him.
The novel is set primarily in a precisely described location, Nordy Bank on Brown Clee Hill in Shropshire. The surrounding countryside, the Shropshire Hills, the village of Clee St. Margaret, and the market town of Ludlow also feature prominently. [3] (As of 2007 Porter lives in Ludlow.) [2]
The ancient hill fort at Nordy Bank was designed for defence against men or wolves. The novel describes the differences between Roman, Iron Age and Stone Age camps on the site.
Margery and Bron quote from A. E. Housman's poem "The Welsh Marches" while looking at the surrounding landscape. The novel echoes the theme of the poem, the long history of warfare in the region, the "war that sleeps" in the land itself.
For reading in camp, Bron takes Rosemary Sutcliff's novel Warrior Scarlet , about a boy in Bronze Age Britain whose test of manhood is the single-handed killing of a wolf. When the army dog first appears, she is reading aloud to the others a wolf attack on the boy's sheep.
In The Nesbit Tradition, Marcus Crouch calls Nordy Bank Sheena Porter's finest book. He describes the camping scenes as beautifully done, conveying a sense of adventure and good companionship, but he regards the novel as primarily concerned with the development of personality. "In Nordy Bank Sheena Porter shows how self-discovery can go hand-in-hand with the discovery of society. It is an effective lesson, the more so because the lesson is contained in an absorbing and dramatic story and the inner and outer themes are inseparable." [4]
Porter and Nordy Bank won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association for 1964, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject. [2]
Shropshire is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England bordering Wales. Shropshire borders with the English counties of Cheshire to the north, Staffordshire to the east, Worcestershire to the southeast, and Herefordshire to the south, and bordering Wales with the counties of Wrexham and Powys to the west. A unitary authority of the same name was created in 2009, taking over from the previous county council and five district councils, now governed by Shropshire Council. The borough of Telford and Wrekin has been a separate unitary authority since 1998, but remains part of the ceremonial county.
Ludlow is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located 28 miles (45 km) south of Shrewsbury and 23 miles (37 km) north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The town is near the confluence of the rivers Corve and Teme. The oldest part is the medieval walled town, founded in the late 11th century after the Norman conquest of England. It is centred on a small hill which lies on the eastern bank of a bend of the River Teme. Situated on this hill are Ludlow Castle and the parish church, St Laurence's, the largest in the county. From there the streets slope downward to the rivers Corve and Teme, to the north and south respectively. The town is in a sheltered spot beneath Mortimer Forest and the Clee Hills, which are clearly visible from the town.
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The Cypress Hills Massacre occurred on June 1, 1873, near Battle Creek in the Cypress Hills region of Canada's North-West Territories. It involved a group of American bison hunters, American wolf hunters or "wolfers", American and Canadian whisky traders, Métis cargo haulers or "freighters", and a camp of Assiniboine people. Thirteen or more Assiniboine warriors and one wolfer died in the conflict. The Cypress Hills Massacre prompted the Canadian government to accelerate the recruitment and deployment of the newly formed North-West Mounted Police.
The Stiperstones is a distinctive hill in the county of Shropshire, England. The quartzite rock of the ridge formed some 480 million years ago. During the last Ice Age Stiperstones lay on the eastern margin of the Welsh ice sheet. The hill itself was not glaciated though glaciers occupied surrounding valleys and it was subject to intense freezing and thawing which shattered the quartzite into a mass of jumbled scree surrounding several residual rocky tors. At 536 metres (1,759 ft) above sea level it is the second-highest hill in the county, surpassed only by Brown Clee Hill. Stiperstones' 8-kilometre (5 mi) summit ridge is crowned by several jagged outcrops of rock, which may be seen silhouetted against the sky.
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Titterstone Clee Hill, sometimes referred to as Titterstone Clee or Clee Hill, is a prominent hill in the rural English county of Shropshire, rising at the summit to 533 metres (1,749 ft) above sea level.
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Nordy Bank is an Iron Age hill fort on Brown Clee Hill in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in South Shropshire, England.
Sheena Porter is a British author of children's novels. She won the 1964 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising Nordy Bank as the year's best children's book by a British subject.
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