AS IN THE LONG AGO

I'm trying to read all the winners of the Carnegie Medal in the order in which they were published, but even this harmless activity has fallen victim to the lockdown and I've had to skip the 1940 winner for now. I've also realised that there are quite a lot of books to read, and I may struggle to finish this project before my 100th birthday, so I'd better get on with it! The first thing to say about   The Radium Woman , the 1939 winner of the Carnegie Medal, is that I enjoyed it very much. The book is unusual in several ways. Firstly, it's not completely original, but is an abridgement and retelling for children by Eleanor Doorly of Eve Curie’s biography of her mother. As far as I can tell, with the current limited access to libraries, it is also an abridgement of a translation, although, given Doorly’s lifelong love of all things French and her ability to speak seven languages, it is possible that she made the translation herself. Finally, it is one of just fou...