It’s a long time since my last read-through of Malcolm Saville’s ‘Lone Pine’ series. In the past few years I have managed to acquire either hardback or ‘Girls Gone By’ full editions to replace the many Armada abridged versions which I had bought in my teens. I’m still thankful that Armada made these books available inexpensively, enabling people like me to collect them. But I had not realised, until recently, just how much had been cut out.
I read ‘Mystery at Witchend’ in the full edition about six weeks month ago, and have just finished reading the second in the series, ‘Seven White Gates’. Last time I read it, it didn’t do much for me. It’s an important book in the series, in that it introduces Jenny Harman, HQ2 and also the Romany family Reuben, Miranda and Fenella. But in the Armada edition, it moves a bit too rapidly, and much of the character-building conversation is left out.
This time, I enjoyed the book, in hardback, very much indeed. The story itself hasn’t changed, of course. The abridgements were very well done from that point of view. Peter (Petronella) Sterling receives a letter at the end of term at her boarding school, telling her that she can’t go home to Hatchholt at the start of the holidays; instead she must go to stay with her (unknown) Uncle and Aunt, at a farm called Seven White Gates.
Peter has quite a journey, mostly by bike, and shows great courage when she stops a runaway horse. She makes new friends who appear in later books, and she also discovers that there’s a mystery surrounding her Uncle Micah. She learns that he is grieving and lonely, but is still puzzled by his night-time wanderings or the way he speaks like an Old Testament prophet.
His wife Carol, however, is delightful. It seems strange that she fell in love with Micah despite his oddities, but she’s a caring, kind person who Peter likes immediately. And she’s very accommodating when Peter asks if she can invite her friends the Morton family to stay for a few days. And maybe their other friend Tom…
There’s a fair amount of description of the countryside, greatly helped by a drawn map at the start of the book, which I found myself referring to regularly. I don’t find it easy to envisage scenery, but Malcolm Saville draws some excellent word pictures of the Stiperstones, a real area in Shropshire where this story is set. He creates a tense atmosphere too, in places. Peter learns about local superstitions, and while she is cynical, she feels some of the tension too when she’s near the top of the hills.
Dickie and Mary Morton, the nine-year-old twins, have an important role in this book, and I loved the way that (at least in this full version) we begin to see their differences as well as their similarities. Mary is intuitive and sensitive, Dickie braver and more confident. Their loyalty to each other and to their friends is strong, and they have an almost uncanny connection, usually knowing what the other is thinking. But Mary’s characteristics come to the fore in this, in several ways, and I found myself liking her very much.
The book was intended for younger teenagers, and I loved the series myself when I was about thirteen or fourteen. It’s probably too tame for today’s teenagers, even though David is sixteen, and Peter nearly sixteen, but would make an excellent read for a child of about nine or older who likes well-written adventure stories. It’s set in the war years, but although inevitably there’s little technology, and some of the conversation seems dated, the people are realistic and three-dimensional, and it’s a good story.
All in all I liked it very much, and would recommend it highly, either as a read-aloud to children of perhaps eight and older, or to confident readers of around that age. But it would also make a good read for teenagers who like this kind of story, and of course for adults like myself who remember the series nostalgically from their childhood. Best read after ‘Mystery at Witchend’, but it stands alone as a story, so it’s not essential to read them in order.
Unfortunately the 'Girls Gone By' edition is out of print, and the hardbacks are not easy to find. But even an abridged Armada edition is worth having to give the story, even if it's not as enjoyable as the full version.
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