Margot Pardoe supervision; as in Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons series", these often take place in a rural setting. However, there are some differences which set Pardoe's books, and the "Bunkle" series in particular, apart. The children do not live in a vacuum; unlike Blyton's St Clare's series, World War II is mentioned (with the associated inconveniences of rationing and black-out), and the children also age. Bunkle is ten when the first book starts and ages gradually until the last but one volume, before returning to his original age in the last adventure which is hard to find owing to a short
Elinor Lyon Lyon wrote over twenty books for children, which had some success on both sides of the Atlantic. She found they "came much more easily" than writing for adults and believes her inspiration came from "omnivorous reading". Lyon began "The House in Hiding", for example, after reading "Swallows and Amazons", because she disliked the characters within it (they were too good at everything). In response, the children in "The House in Hiding" get things wrong, but still manage to succeed eventually. The development was pinpointed in an obituary by Julia Eccleshare: "Lyon's adventures, with their strong girls and sensitive boys and