Milly Molly Mandy

Over the last couple of months, I have been enjoying reading Milly Molly Mandy with Rebecca at nights in our story and Bible reading time (at the moment Dave reads to Jacob and I read separately to the girls because they are at such different stages).

The stories were originally written by Joyce Lankester Brisley, the first collection published in 1928 and the last in 1948. They revolve around a little girl called Milly Molly Mandy (short for Millicent Margaret Amanda) and her friends 'little friend Susan' and Billy Blunt, and the everyday events in their small English village in the early 20th century.

It's a lovely, innocent and pure little world these characters inhabit. Last night's story was a good example of this (which, by the way reduced me to tears and I had trouble finishing!). In it, Milly Molly Mandy had torn her everyday dress beyond repair (in the days when they only had two dresses - the everyday dress and the Sunday best). Her mother takes her to the shop for some material to make a new one. There is some discussion about whether she should get more of the same pink-and-white striped material she's always had, or go for the floral alternative (only two options!). In the end, she forgoes the floral so another girl can have it, reasoning that the other girl's name is Violet, so she should really have the dress with flowers, and consoling herself with the fact that she will still get to see the material on the other little girl at school.

When I retell it, it sounds kinda saccharine, but (you have to trust me on this!) the real thing is told with a real lightness of touch, and the characters are (cutely) believable and three-dimensional.

I'm sure there's a heavy dose of nostalgia and idealisation that goes into the creation of the world that MMM inhabits, but I still think there is something very special about the way the stories expose my kids (and me) to a world so different from our own. And the Edenic innocence and simplicity of that world is still beautiful (and I think we ought to see it as beautiful!) however much it is - at least partly - a fiction.