THURSDAY THREE: Inspired by Nancy Drew

Nancy Drew never seemed to have as big an impact in the UK as she did in the U.S, where she's something of a cultural icon for women and young girls. I remember reading one or two of her mysteries as a "tweenie" and enjoying them, but it was all about Enid Blyton (and later Paula Danziger) for me. So what's with all the interest in Nancy Drew from U.S authors? She seems to have had a huge boom in popularity lately. Perhaps as the world seems more unstable, we get all nostalgic- if only global problems could be solved by Nancy journeying down to Mystery Creek or the haunted mansion and sorting things out...

How Nancy Drew saved my Life by Lauren Baratz-Logsted is the story of nanny Charlotte Bell, who moves to Iceland to nurse a broken heart and work for the mysterious Edgar Rawlings. Everything is not as innocent as it first seems, as Charlotte is inspired by both Jane Eyre and Nancy Drew as she tries to work out what's going on...

What will the next books be? We could send for Nancy Drew or you could continue over the cut to find out...

In Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the woman who created her, Melanie Rehak asks if truth is stranger than fiction, revealing the behind-the scenes fighting between Nancy's creator and syndicate writer Mildred Wirt Benson and tracing Nancy's development and how she reflected the feminist movement. You can read an extract here.

Finally, and taking the theme to its logical conclusion, we we have Nancy Drew's Guide to Life by Jennifer Worick, a pocket-sized summary of Nancy wisdom.

*And if you never got into the Nancy groove, it's not too late! You can buy a starter set of Nancy novels (and I see they've made efforts to update her, too).*

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