Remember July 1991? My wife and I do. We spent the two weeks of our honeymoon in a damp fisherman’s cottage in Mousehole. The month was noted for its blazing sunshine; not in Cornwall.

Why on earth had we picked the place? Because we’d had such wonderful childhood holidays there, and had forgotten that those holidays had often been spent in rain-spattered anoraks.

Green Smoke offers children – young and old – a taste of those holidays. Susan is spending a day on the beach at Constantine Bay when she sees a puff of green smoke. Shortly afterwards she discovers a dragon – R Dragon – and begins her adventures.

The first three books came out before I was born; the last of the four was published shortly before I left school.

Green Smoke (1957)
Dragon in Danger (1959)
The Dragon’s Quest (1961)
The Dragon in the Harbour (1980)

I strongly recommend these books to children who aren’t in a hurry to grow up. Old-fashioned and worth reading while curled up with an adult.

Rosemary Manning was a teacher – latterly a headmistress – who gave pleasure to so many children; I wish she had had more joy in her own life.