Lone Pine Five (by Malcolm Saville)

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In my re-reading of Malcolm Saville’s ‘Lone Pine’ series for teenagers, I reached the fifth in the series, ‘Lone Pine Five’. The title simply means that it’s the fifth Lone Pine book - perhaps it was originally a working title, and nobody could think of anything better. It used to confuse me, because there are six Lone Piners in the book (or seven if Macbeth the Scottie dog is included).

When I last read this book, almost twelve years ago, I had an abridged (and possibly updated) Armada paperback edition. Since then I have managed to acquire the full ‘Girls Gone By’ reprint of the original, at a charity shop in the UK. As with others which I’ve read, for the first time, in full, I found it a great deal more interesting this time.

This story mainly involves Jenny Harman, the impetuous redhead who lives at a Post Office in a village called Barton Beach. She’s close friends with Tom Ingles, who works on a farm with his uncle not far away. They can’t often see each other, but Tom sends a letter saying that he’s going to market with his uncle, and wonders if Jenny might be able to cycle over to see him. Jenny is thrilled by this.

In the course of the afternoon they visit an auction sale, and Jenny is very taken with a small spoon in a collection of random items. It’s rather dirty but Tom agrees to bid for it, and gets the spoon for a small amount. Then it’s spotted by the elderly Mr Wilkins, who is rather nervous, clearly worried about something. But he examines it closely and says that it might be valuable…

This is the start of an adventure for Tom and Jenny, along with their friends David Morton, Peter (Petronella) Sterling, and David’s twin brother and sister Richard and Mary. They all decide to camp nearby, and help Mr Wilkins with his exploration of the area, but they’re rather deterred by some terrible rain, making it impossible to put up tents. So they spend a night at the home of Peter’s cousin Charles and his father and stepmother, who were all introduced in the second book in the series, ‘Seven White Gates’.

There’s an interlude in a cave, which feels a bit familiar - at least two of the other books in the series have a similar incident - but then many of the Lone Pine series are set in the Shropshire hills, where there are many caves. And even in this full edition, it’s not as stressful to read about than some of the other cave accidents.

In fact, there’s not actually very much story as such. There are some ‘bad’ guys, but they’re more caricatured (almost comic at times) than evil. Mr Wilkins’ nephew is pompous and demanding, his wife rather snooty, and their son Percy puffed up and arrogant. We’re never in any doubt that Mr Wilkins is a ‘good’ guy, and the ending of the story happens rather quickly, after Jenny has an unexpected dream. It’s another device which Malcolm Saville uses elsewhere, and reading from my perspective as an adult, it feels almost like cheating. I never minded - or noticed! - as a teenager, or even when I previously re-read these books, however, and he does it well.

The charm in these books is the characterisation, and I like the way that Jenny and Tom are at the forefront of this novel. Much of the character-building is lost in the abridged versions, and when I read this previously it felt all too short. In the GGBP version, it felt like an enjoyable light adventure story, one that stands alone although I feel that this series works best if read in the order in which it was written.

Recommended to older children, younger teens, and most of all to adults like me who loved these books as a child. Unfortunately the full editions tend to go out of print quickly and can be pricey, but they're occasionally found in charity shops - worth looking out. And even the abridged version is better than nothing.

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