GGBP first published A Coronet for Cathie in 2003, 21 years ago, and we are delighted to be republishing it now. It was originally published in 1950, and at the time the blurb said that ‘it will be enjoyed by girls of eleven to fifteen’. Well, most of us who will be reading it in 2024 will be older than fifteen (some of us much older!) and we will not all be girls.
Perhaps the most popular of all Gwendoline Courtney’s books, this tells the story of Catherine Sidney who goes for a quiet holiday to Devon, and on the death of her previously unknown grandfather becomes a Duchess, with huge estates to manage, a family of cousins whom she has never met, and the question of education.
Over the years, there has been some discussion of how similar this book is to The Girls of the Hamlet Club by Elsie J Oxenham, and back in 1992 Mabel Esther Allan wrote an article about this for The Abbey Chronicle. We do not agree with her findings (and nor indeed did many at the time) but we thought it would be interesting for people to read, and especially for fans of MEA to enjoy.
Mia Jha is writing our proper introduction in which she will look at the storyworld that GC creates for Cathie (with its Ruritanian elements) and compare the book’s themes of good fortune and responsibility with other GC works.
(added to website 3 May 2024)
