The Young Visiters: Or, Mr Salteena's Plan

Fiction by nine-year-olds is rare, but the precocious Ashford redeems her unremarkable story in ways she could never have imagined. Written in 1890 but not published until 1919 (and kept in print in Britain since that time), this novel proves to be a completely innocent yet inadvertently amusing spoof of Victorian society. The guileless author writes of 42-year-old Alfred Salteena, who, born on the wrong side of the blanket, wishes to become a gentleman. The suave and well-connected earl of Clincham imparts to his apt pupil (without irony and with telling accuracy) the essence of becoming one of the upper class: have plenty of money, keep your unsavoury past hidden, wear the right clothing and, above all, know how to hunt, shoot and ride. Armed with this knowledge, Salteena is instantly transformed into Lory Hyssops and gets a job with the royal family. His story is a perfect vehicle for the author's parade of pious, hard-drinking, tight-fisted, socially stratified and hypocritical Victorians. Ashford's fractured syntax, phonetic spelling and imaginative grammar eventually become wearing, but fortunately the book is brief. According to Kendrick's prefatory note, Ashford gave up literary ambitions after she wrote a second novel at age 14; she died in England in 1972.

About the Author :
Daisy Ashford, full name Margaret Mary Julia Ashford (1881-1972) was an English writer who is most famous for writing "The Young Visiters," a novella concerning the upper class society of late 19th century England, when she was just nine years old. The novella was published in 1919, preserving her juvenile spelling and punctuation. She wrote the title as "Viseters" in her manuscript, but it was published as "Visiters." She was born in Petersham, Surrey, the daughter of Emma Georgina Walker and William Henry Roxburgh Ashford, and was largely educated at home with her sisters Maria Veronica 'Vera' (born 1882) and Angela Mary 'Angie' (born 1884). At the age of 4 Daisy dictated her first story, "The Life of Father McSwiney," to her father; it was published in 1983. From 1889 to 1896 she and her family lived at 44 St Anne's Crescent, Lewes, where she wrote "The Young Visiters." As well as "The Young Visiters," she wrote several other stories; a play, "A Woman's Crime"; and one other short novel, "The Hangman's Daughter," which she considered to be her best work. She stopped writing during her teens. In 1896 the family moved to the Wallands area of Lewes, and in 1904 she moved with her family to Bexhill, and then to London where she worked as a secretary. She also ran a canteen in Dover during the First World War. When published in 1919, "The Young Visiters" was an immediate success, and several of her other stories were published in 1920. In the same year, she married James Devlin and settled in Norfolk, at one time running the King's Arms Hotel in Reepham. She did not write in later years, although in old age she did begin an autobiography which she later destroyed. Ashford's name was sometimes used as a way to criticize adult authors of the 1920s if their style was deemed too childish or naive; Edmund Wilson referred to the novel "This Side of Paradise" by his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald as "a classic in a class with The "Young Visiters."" Walter Kendrick is Professor of English at Fordham University and author of "The Thrill of Fear: 250 Years of Scary Entertainment" (1991) among other titles.

Review :
..". quite the most humorous thing that ever found its way into print." "New York Times"" "For obvious reasons, literary prodigies are rarer than musical ones; writers have to have lived. But for "The Young Visiters, "the only adjective is "Mozartian."" "Entertainment Weekly"" .".. quite the most humorous thing that ever found its way into print." -- "New York Times"