‘Aftermath’ by Siegfried Sassoon, copyright Siegfried Sassoon, reproduced by kind permission of the Estate of George Sassoon. Widely anthologized. For more of Sassoon’s war poetry, see Poets of the Great War: Siegfried Sasson, published by Faber.
Afterword, by K.M. Peyton
Author of Flambards
I wrote the first Flambards book fifty years ago, and the two sequels immediately afterwards. The fourth, Flambards Divided, was written twelve years later, after the first three books had been made into the TV series and been so successful that the actors (who had a whale of a time making it) wanted some more. Unfortunately their enthusiasm was not matched by Yorkshire Television (who had made the films) and no more was made, in spite of its popularity. So Flambards Divided stayed unfilmed. After that I thought enough was enough, although I sometimes toyed with yet more Flambards. I told Linda once how I thought the story would have continued, but I had since gone into pastures new with my series of Pennington books and did not want to go back to Flambards.
So it was quite a pleasant surprise to read how Linda has used my original story to base her own story on. She had asked me if she could do this and of course I didn’t mind, not wanting to write any more myself. Funnily enough the real Flambards is a house near where I live, but although I filched the name my imagination over time changed the appearance of the house quite substantially. It is usually the way with writing: real places or incidents become the base for the writer’s embroidery, usually straying so far from the original that the writer forgets where it all came from in the first place. ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ is the most common question a writer is asked, and usually most writers can’t answer it. ‘Out of the blue’ is no answer but mostly the one that springs immediately to mind. It is quite often that only years later the writer realises where a certain book was born. The same with the characters: we all say they are totally figments of our imagination, but is this true? How can they be? Amalgams of all the people we meet in some way, a bit of him, a bit of her. I only once totally wrote about a character who was a straight lift from my life, and when the book was published this character – the most real character I ever put into words – was dismissed in criticism as a complete stereotype. One critic said she was completely unbelievable. Ho ho I smiled: come and meet her, she would love it. She would make mincemeat of you. She is still one of my best friends as we both approach our nineties.
K.M. Peyton, May 2018
OTHER BOOKS BY LINDA NEWBERY
Young adult fiction
The Shell House
(shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal)
Set in Stone
(winner of the Costa Children’s Book Award)
The Damage Done
Sisterland
(shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal)
Flightsend
Junior Fiction
The Brockenspectre
(illustrated by Pam Smy)
Tilly’s Promise
Blitz Boys
The Treasure House
At the Firefly Gate
Nevermore
The Sandfather
Andie’s Moon
Stories for Young Children
Lob
(illustrated by Pam Smy)
Barney the Boat Dog
Cat Tales
Posy
Adult fiction
Missing Rose
(Quarter Past Two on a Wednesday Afternoon)
Copyright
The Key to Flambards
by David Fickling Books, 31 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2NP
This ebook edition first published in 2018
All rights reserved
Text © Linda Newbery, 2018
Cover illustration © Katie Harnett, 2018
The right of Linda Newbery to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
ISBN 978–1–78845–006–5