Anything Can Happen

Here we can see the blurb of Anything Can Happen, the first of the Dizzy and Alison books. There were two stories about these girls: Anything Can Happen (1964), and Nothing Happened After All (1965), both published by Nelson. The first book is set in Paris and the second in South Africa. These characters are a little older than the average Jane Shaw protagonist. At the very beginning of the first book, which is told in the first person, Alison informs us that she has just passed her A levels and got a place at university. As a result of this feat, she has been rewarded with a couple of weeks in Paris, with the added bonus of flying to the French capital rather than going by car or bus. The story also adopts a romantic theme (as can be seen from the blurb). I imagine that after the success of Crooks Tour, Jane Shaw was hoping to hold on to its readership as they got older. However, one consistent trait remains: like Susan and the Carmichaels, Sara and Caroline and Fiona and Katherine from The Moochers, Dizzy and Alison are cousins. I'm looking forward to reading both of these books, which were delivered this week. The only books that I ordered at the end of March that have yet to arrive are The Moochers Abroad and New House at Northmead. Below is the frontispiece of Anything Can Happen. This book has six illustrations in all, but my copy has no dust jacket. My copy of Nothing Happened After All has a dust jacket but no illustrations whatsoever, not even a black and white frontispiece.