The Elusive Grasshopper (by Malcolm Saville)

(Amazon UK link)

In slowly re-reading Malcolm Saville’s ‘Lone Pine’ series, I reached the sixth, ‘The Elusive Grasshopper’, which I had not read since 2009. It follows on directly from ‘Lone Pine Five’, which I read towards the end of last year. Not that it’s necessary to have read that one first; but there are a few links that make more sense if they’re read in order.

This book opens, unusually, in Paris. Jon and Penny Warrender have been in France for a couple of weeks to improve their language. It’s worked for Jon, we learn, but Penny has become more stubbornly English. Jon is very much an academic, whereas Penny is not - she’s intuitive and caring, and full of courage, but not someone for whom academic learning comes easily.

The cousins have been staying with a French family who have a daughter, around Jon’s age, called Arlette. She is to travel back to England with them, to stay at Jon’s mother’s inn, the ‘Dolphin’, in the East Sussex town of Rye. Jon and Penny were introduced to the series in the third book, ‘The Gay Dolphin Adventure’. While it’s not necessary to have read that first, I feel it’s much more enjoyable to have done so.

Jon suddenly spots someone who is an old enemy - from the third book - and it turns out that he is travelling back to London with them, on the same train and ferry. They lose sight of him as they return to Rye, but, unsurprisingly, he’s involved in a new and exciting adventure in which they find themselves.

David Morton and the twins are invited to stay, along with Mackie the dog. They are quickly on the trail of a trio of former adversaries, as well as an innocuous-looking man who claims to be a bird-watcher, usually cycling around the countryside on a bike. Jon is suspicious, and while there are perhaps a tad too many coincidences for realism - not to mention rather a number of rescues from dangerous situations - it’s a good story.

I’d only read this book previously in the Armada edition; I’d thought it pleasant enough, but nothing special. I’m sure all the storyline was there in the abridged version, but as with others that I’ve checked, a lot of conversation and description was cut out. The Armada books are quick reads, telling the story in an almost abrupt way. The full edition - I have a Girls Gone By version - has so much more depth.

Malcolm Saville had quite a gift of characterisation, and in this book it comes out in several different ways. Jon, who has been seen as more of a quiet thinker than a leader, assumes control of the situation several times. Penny shows her impetuous, easily offended side, particularly in conversation with James Wilson, a journalist who they meet, and who isn’t entirely sure how to deal with them at first.  And the ten-year-old twins, Dickie and Mary, clearly show their differences as well as their similarities.

I liked this story very much; I’d forgotten most of it, and thought it well-written, albeit in a 1950s style. Definitely recommended to teenagers who like relatively innocent adventure stories, and of course nostalgic adults like myself who first read these books in their teens.>

'The Elusive Grasshopper' isn't an easy book to find; but sometimes it's available second-hand. Unfortunately, other than the original hardback and the recent 'Girls Gone By' edition, most versions are abridged quite significantly.

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