A younger girl called Emily calls Charlotte her sister, and addresses her as "Clare". The next morning she finds herself in the same place, but in the year 1918. The book has been re-issued by The New York Review Children's Collection.Ĭharlotte arrives at a new boarding school, and is shown around by a prefect named Sarah. The most significant of these is that a number of events at the end of the story were removed, including a poignant episode where Charlotte, back in her own time, receives a package from Clare's sister, Emily, as an adult.
Ī revised edition of the novel was published in 1985, with a number of changes.
The boarding school where the story takes place is set near where Penelope Farmer lived in London. Charlotte's sister Emma, and grandfather, Elijah, do not appear in Charlotte Sometimes, although there are references to them.Īccording to Farmer, Charlotte and Emma were originally based on her mother and her mother's sister as children, having no parents and "…having to be everything to each other," one being the responsible one, the other being rather difficult. It is by far the longest of these three books. A second book, Emma in Winter, with Emma as the main character followed in 1966.Ĭharlotte Sometimes was first published in 1969 by Harcourt, and by Chatto and Wyndus in the same year. This was rewritten as the first chapter of The Summer Birds (1962), her first book featuring Charlotte and Emma Makepeace. One story originally intended for this collection proved too long to include. Charlotte struggles to maintain her own identity as Charlotte, whilst living Clare's life in Clare's time.Īt the age of twenty-one, Penelope Farmer was contracted for her first collection of short stories, The China People.
As the story progresses, Charlotte becomes trapped in Clare's time. The story is entirely written from Charlotte's point of view: we never get to meet Clare. The girls are faced with the disconcerting scenario of finding out how to live each other's lives without being discovered. Although Charlotte and Clare never meet each other, they communicate with one another by writing notes.
Charlotte and Clare mysteriously exchange places each night, each one alternating between the years 19. The teachers and other students call her "Clare", the girl in whose shoes Charlotte finds herself. The story is centred around a girl called Charlotte, who, not long after starting at a boarding school, finds that she has mysteriously travelled back more than forty years.
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