Reviews

A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley

misajane79's review

3.0

While I didn't love this book, I did like it. Time travel is always fun, and British books are always fun. I also liked that the whole time travel wasn't a problem, but almost a gift. There was no attempt to solve it--just enjoy it!
I probably would have enjoyed this book more if I was more into the royals and Elizabethan history.

sandypotato's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

jayfr's review against another edition

5.0

This was everything I remembered and so much more. This was the book that kickstarted my love of history and rereading it over 20 years after I first did proved that it stood the test of time. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

oliviasbookshop's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mcsangel2's review against another edition

5.0

Wow, this book is quite different from the usual run-of-the-mill YA book. It has everything I love: a time travel story, a history lesson (honestly, I never gave much thought to Anthony Babington as a real person with a home and family), a beautiful setting, and absolutely gorgeous language. The descriptions are SO vivid. Published in 1939, set maybe around the turn of the century (by my calculations).

If you like any of these things, you need to read this book!

foggy_rosamund's review against another edition

4.0

Published in 1939, and set somewhere between 1900 and 1920, this is the story of Penelope Taberner. Following an illness, Penelope goes to Thackers, a Tudor-era country house, set deep in the Darbyshire countryside. The house has a changeless, timeless quality: there is no electricity, cream is churned by hand, beds and tables are hundreds of years old, and the old kettle used for boiling hams descends from a Tudor kitchen. This house belongs to Penelope's great-aunt and her great-uncle (a brother and sister), who have lived there all their lives. Barnaby and Tissie are kind and affectionate, and make Penelope and her siblings feel at home, as well as telling them stories of Thackers. The Taberners have lived at Thackers for as long as anyone can remember, but they were once servants to the Babington family who owned the manor house. In the 1500s, Anthony Babington tried to rescue Mary Queen of Scots, and was betrayed and beheaded as a traitor to the crown. The longer Penelope spends at Thackers, the more her world and the world of the Tudor servants and the Babingtons blur together, and she beings to travel back in time, working in the great Tudor kitchens, and befriending the Babington family.

The plot of this novel doesn't stand up to much scrutiny, but Uttley's prose is beautiful. She writes convincingly of the countryside, of family ties, of animals, and of the timelessness of the old farm at Thackers. When this book was written, Uttley was writing of 300 years in the past, but now we are looking at 400 years into the past, and I feel there are few connections between our lives and the lives of Tudors. Uttley creates a sense of timelessness, of past and present existing at the same time, that is made palpably real by how much Penelope's 1920s present reflects the Tudor period. She couldn't do this in the same way if she was writing today, because the landscape and our way of life has changed so much. But Uttley captures something eternal about history and the ways it is interwoven with our present, and the history of old houses, and the ever-changing and yet timeless natural world. I found this book very moving and a wonderful piece of escapism: I felt I was on the farm with Penelope, exploring the richness of the past and the wealth of the present.

foreverday's review

2.0

I could not get into this book. It wasn't terrible, but it just did not grip me at all. I think part of the problem was that nothing happened- she travels to the past but makes zero difference in doing so. You are told at the beginning of the book what happened in the past and then you just watch that happen, from the perspective of an additional character that literally doesn't affect it at all.

I will say that the setting was beautifully done, but in general what grabs me is a mix of characters and plot, and I couldn't get into either.

inkdrinker13's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

arianappstrg's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

rcsreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0