Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #105896 in Books
• Published on: 1977-05-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

The most convincing time travel story ever
Reading this book, it is hard to believe that the author didn't personally travel back to the 16th century, her descriptions of life and conversations of the 16th century characters are so convincing. Penelope, staying with her great-aunt and uncle at Thackers Farm in Derbyshire, finds herself able to slip back and forth to the reign of Elizabeth I, when the Babbington family owned Thackers, and her own distant ancestor, Cicely Taberner, was their cook. Aunt Cicely and the other servants are particularly convincing as real peopel, their manners,language andattitudes seem totally authentic, more so than the slightly romatncised upper-class Babbingtons. Penelope becomes involved in the doomed plot to save Mary Queen of Scots from nearby Wingfield Manor, even though she knows she cannot change history.
And she falls hopelessly in love with Francis Babbington, although there is no future in it. Apparently Alison uttley was planning to write a sequel to this lovely book, it is fascinating but frustrating to speculate what it might have been like.

An Enduring Children's Classic
Alison Uttley is a quiet writer, unpretentious and understated. I adore A Traveller in Time which tells a wistful and enchanting tale using the tried and tested device of a child slipping accidentally into another time. It brings to life the period of history when Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned by Elizabeth and when plots were rife as well as recounting the way history is woven into the very fabric of a place. Truly lovely.

A book for all ages
Like all the other reviewers, I have loved this book since childhood - but it is much too good just to be left to children!! It really can be read by any age group; all that is needed is an appreciation of beautiful writing, a love of history and the ability to lose yourself in atmosphere. Oh, and by the way, all the places in the book are real places in Derbyshire and can be visited; you just have to know how to find them.