Midwinter
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Cover Story
This issue's cover is a photograph of Anne Frank whose diary is discussed by Michael Rosen fifty years after its first publication. Following the arrest of the Frank family and their companions, the secret annex in Amsterdam where they had been in hiding was locked up and everybody forbidden to enter it, since Jewish possessions became Nazi property and were carted away. Before this happened, the young woman, Miep Gies, who had provided those in hiding with food and who had a second key to the annex, risked herself once more by entering it. Miep retrieved Anne's diary from the devastation together with the Frank family photograph album.
Thanks to Penguin Children's Books for help in reproducing this cover.
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Set in a land 'distant in time and place', this is the story of 12-year-old Thomas Ortellus's quest to find the great Sword, stolen many years before by the mysterious Midwinter himself. Thomas's rejection of war and his study of the old ways of the green folk of the forest help him find the sword, negotiate with the raiders and discover his true father. While not in the class of A Wizard of Earthsea, this is a very enjoyable read, containing many of the necessary elements of a good fantasy and only occasionally lapsing into an inappropriately modern tone. Unfortunately the book is closely printed in a small sans-serif type, and badly laid out with a particularly narrow margin at the top of the pages, making it difficult to read and unattractive to look at. A pity, since these visual deterrents might well put off a reader who would otherwise enjoy the story.