 |
| (Amazon UK link) |
My edition of this book is an Armada one, but as far as I understand it, it was published like this - on the front it claims to be an Armada Original - so my book isn’t abridged, unlike the other Armada editions I had read in the past. For that reason, I didn’t make any attempt to get hold of a more recent ‘Girls Gone by’ publication of ‘Home to Witchend’. I may do so at some point if it is printed again, as I gather it comes with a short story as well as interesting information about the author and the series.
I knew this book was a way of ending the series with a reunion of the entire Lone Pine crew, along with their parents and close friends. I knew that two of the three older Lone Pine couples were going to make interesting announcements. But I had entirely forgotten the details of the story. I hadn’t even remembered that the evil Miss Ballinger returns along with her supposed niece, and the man who first appeared in ‘The Gay Dolphin Adventure’...
Action switches between the Lone Pine activity and that of the baddies. I’m always more interested in the relationships and interactions between the Lone Piners, particularly David Morton and Peter (Petronella) Sterling, who know they’re going to spend their lives together. They haven’t seen each other much, recently, as Peter works in a stables in Shropshire while David has been working and studying in London. Peter starts to wonder if David has found more glamorous girls in the city, and is feeling quite insecure as the book opens. She also begins to wonder what her father really thinks of David.
Tom and Jenny are mentioned several times but don’t have huge parts in this story; Jon and Penny don’t even appear until later in the book. But there’s plenty about David’s twin brother and sister, Richard and Mary, who are almost twelve but don’t seem to have matured much since their days of being nine in ‘Mystery at Witchend’.
David is 18 in this book, Peter about to have her 18th birthday, and I was a bit surprised to learn that Jenny, who used to be younger than Peter, is now six months older. But ages are flexible in these books which span several decades - the author deliberately kept his main characters the same ages in the first few books and then allowed them to grow up just a little, although the culture and environment around them moved forwards with the author.
There’s quite an exciting plot involving some forged bank notes - that’s the part I had totally forgotten - which David and the twins stumble upon. David really wants to concentrate on his girlfriend, but Richard is keen to be a journalist and wants to report his findings to his friend James, a journalist with a big newspaper. And, as happens in all these books, adventures just happen around them.
I thought this book was a good blend of relational interactions and excitement, with some tension as people get caught up in danger, although we know they’re going to be rescued eventually. And while the ending is perhaps a tad over-organised, it works well to tie up the entire series, leaving open a future with the younger Lone Piners and some new recruits while the older ones pair off, remaining true to each other but no longer interested in tracking strangers or watching birds.
Malcolm Saville had quite a gift of description - without it becoming dull - and characterisation, and as with his other books, the writing in ‘Home to Witchend’ is just the right pace for my tastes. It’s not a book to read as a standalone; although each adventure is complete in itself, this one brings together so many characters from other books that it would be very confusing to a new reader. However, to anyone (teenager or adult) who has loved other books in the series, this is highly recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment