Over Sea, Under Stone (by Susan Cooper)

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I first heard of Susan Cooper when my sons, aged 11 and 9, were given a copy of ‘Over Sea, Under Stone’ by a family whose children had grown up. As far as I remember, I read it aloud to them - a habit we continued until the older one left home - and we liked it so much that we managed to find copies of the other four books in the ‘Dark is Rising’ sequence.

However I had not read them again, although my sons re-read them more than once. But when I realised that I had entirely forgotten the storyline, over twenty years later, I thought it time to read it again.

The story involves three children: Simon, Jane and Barnabas. Their ages are not given, but from the pictures and the context, I imagine Simon is about twelve, Jane eleven (we’re told she’s not much younger) and Barney perhaps nine. They go to stay in a cottage in a Cornish village with their parents, and their Great Uncle Merry.

Uncle Merry isn’t in fact a blood relative, but a kind of adopted uncle, or perhaps a godfather, to the children’s father. He’s quite old, but very lively and they like him very much. He’s a historian, and often vanishes unexpectedly; this holiday is no exception. It’s evident he’s looking for something but he doesn’t tell them what it is.

The children decide, one day, to explore the house and discover a hidden room, and, under the floorboards, an ancient document… this starts them on a quest which is both exciting and extremely dangerous, because there are some ominous and unpleasant people who are searching for the same thing.

This book was first published in 1965, so inevitably the surroundings are somewhat dated: cars are old-fashioned, phones are attached to the walls, and middle-class households have someone from the village to cook and clean for them. The only thing that actually jarred for me was when a sum of a hundred pounds is mentioned towards the end, with the clear implication that it was a very large sum as far as the children were concerned - quick research afterwards told me that it’s roughly equivalent to two thousands pounds in today’s money.

Children have a great deal of freedom too - the three roam around, not always together, and generally expect to be safe. That’s not the case in this book as they’re up against some dangerous enemies, but this is clearly unusual.

The writing is excellent; it’s the kind of book that is appealing to adults as well as children, with deeper themes of good vs evil that probably wouldn’t be fully appreciated by many children or even younger teens. I found the children entirely believable. Simon is a bit impatient and arrogant, and often rude to his siblings; yet when crises hit, or he has to take charge, he becomes a good leader. Barney is thoughtful and intuitive, and Jane quite practically minded.

There’s also a strong King Arthur connection underlying the quest. Barney is already aware of many of the legends, and the story assumes that many of them are true. There’s an interesting aside when Uncle Merry explains how legends arise, and how truth and fiction often become mixed as the decades and centuries pass.

It works as an adventure story, with plenty of tension and some fact action, and I think is probably ideal reading for children of about nine and upwards. I enjoyed re-reading it, and look forward to re-reading the later books in the series, probably in the first months of next year.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews