A first for me, not only a book review but, as an extra element to merely reading the
story, I also visited the very locations described in the book!
BOOK REVIEW:
Although I have quite enjoyed some of Malcolm Saville’s
books, I wouldn’t say I was a dedicated fan. However when I found out that this
story was set around my beloved home turf of Swaledale and Richmond, I was
intrigued. This is a fairly gentle children's holiday adventure story with a slight
mystery element. It is actually the last in a series (the Nettleford series)
about a brother and sister, Sally and Paul Richardson and their friends. All
the books are set in the children’s home town of Nettleford, except for this one in which the
action moves to North Yorkshire.
The plot involves a holiday in which Sally and Paul are
taken along with their friend Elizabeth Langton and her Vicar father when he
swaps Parish for a couple of weeks with a Yorkshire clergyman so that his
family can have a bit of a break. Before
they leave Sally and Paul’s father gives them a mysterious note in which they
are told to visit a Mrs Quegley in her bookshop at Richmond. There begins a
series of clues and intrigues and they also meet a rather unpleasant red-haried
man whom they christen ‘Ginger Whiskers.’. When they arrive at the village
where they are staying they immediately set off to explore, despite the rather
inclement weather! They visit a mysterious ruined house called Crackpot Hall,
and venture into an exciting cave at the top of a hidden valley. They also keep
running into ‘Ginger Whiskers’ and begin to suspect him of nefarious goings on!
What is his secret and what does it have to do with the cave and the ruined
Crackpot Hall…?
There is a lot to like in this book but for me it is the
realism throughout that impresses me the most, along with the contrast to the more
usual (and fairly clichéd) holiday adventure stories. The almost workmanlike
denouement at the end of the book may perhaps be a little tame for those
readers who like the rather garish adventures of the Famous Five and their ilk,
but I preferred this more realistic ‘adventure.' For
me this was far more like my own childhood in which children wove fantasy scenarios around
real situations and people, and I feel that readers will be able to identify
with this sort of adventure far more than with the unlikely kidnappings and
various nefarious goings-on of Enid Blyton’s more lurid tales. In some ways
this was a type of ‘Northanger Abbey’ scenario in which the children build up
all sorts of wild and wonderful theories of what could be happening before finding
out the more prosaic reality. Such is life!
Realism also comes in the form of the setting. Like most of
Malcolm Saville’s books this was set in a real place and, despite the unlikely
name, Crackpot Hall actually does exist - as does the cave, the town of Richmond
and the River Swale. Although a few liberties have been taken with the exact
location of some places and a few real villages have been amalgamated to form
the fictional village the children stay at in the book, it is possible to actually visit a
lot of the locations in the story (And indeed I did visit them – see below) The
author really captures the character of the place and re-creates in words a very
real picture of the locations. He even weaves the lead-mining heritage - a huge part of Swaledale history and identity - into the plot. This evocation of real places is perhaps Malcolm Savilles’s
greatest strength as a writer and sets him apart from most other children’s
authors of the time.
Even the weather is more realistic than (and a direct
contrast to) most holiday adventures I have read. Usually long hot days where
kids bask in shorts are the order of the day. However in this book the rain is
pretty relentless. Apparently the author is writing from the experience of a
long wet holiday spent in Swaledale. I can’t help but wonder if there was also
some ironic contrast intended here. Just as the reader expects a deadly villain
but is given something more real, so the reader gets rather more realistic
weather than the surely idealised holiday adventure sun. Even the (for me somehow
irritating) habit children have in these books of going for a bracing early
morning dip is contrasted with the unplanned near drowning in the treacherous and icy waters of the River Swale. As I was reading this book a few weeks ago when we were
experiencing the coldest wettest spring since I could remember, this was
actually a refreshing change for me: I was becoming heartily sick of reading
about the long hot summers in children’s books whilst I was shivering in umpteen
layers of clothes! (Ironically, as I am publishing this blog post the weather has
made a return to those old-fashioned hot story book summers!)
Despite this being far more realistic than most children’s
adventure stories, the author still keeps the reader hooked throughout the book
by creating a sense of excitement, mystery and danger throughout. The story is
populated by various mysterious characters such as Mrs Quigley, Mr Scarlett and
Ginger Whiskers, there is a sense of menace in the creepy ruins and the scary
dark cave. And there are very real dangers in the swollen rivers of the Swale
and the perilous remains of houses and mines. This weaving of adventure and mystery over a more down to
earth backdrop exactly evokes the way that childhood imagination – without the
need for computers or video games it may be added – can create amazing and magical worlds
within the framework of reality.
Perhaps not a classic in the genre, but this is a clever,
thoughtful exploration of the contrast of fantasy and reality, as well as a
cracking holiday adventure story.
LOCATION VISIT:
A friend and fellow Malcolm Saville fan and I set out from
Richmond to visit two of the main locations in the book – Crackpot Hall and the
cave and waterfall at Swinner Gill. Despite the previous few days being warm and sunny – a
marked contrast to the weather in the actual story – life began to imitate art
as we set out on a cold and grey day with rain in the air. I hadn’t actually
seem either the ruin or the cave before so I was almost as excited as the child
protagonists as we set up the beautiful Swale Valley towards Carckpot Hall.
This is a very impressive ruined house set high on the side of the valley with
a wonderful view over the River Swale. However I didn’t feel any of the menace
which the children attributed to the place in the story. To me it seemed a
peaceful and starkly attractive place. But to childish eyes looking for
adventure and danger, I could see how it could easily be converted into a haunted
house or villain's hide-out.
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| Crackpot Hall |
From Crackpot we
headed further above the Swale into the dramatic deep sided gorge of Swinner
Gill. Here the pretty waterfalls contrasted with the gloomy grey remains of
lead mining and here once again it is easy to see how the wildness of the place could spark off
many vivid imaginings.
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| Swinner Gill |
The cave entrance was actually quite a pretty spot where a
dainty waterfall trickled over a profusion of rocks. The entrance itself however
was anything but pretty. I had somehow expected a large welcoming cave mouth but this was a
low blackly grinning tunnel in which one has to scramble quite a way on hands
and knees in order to reach the large main chamber. Sadly the children in the
story proved far more intrepid than us. After a few feet of scrambling through the
tunnel on treacherously slippery rocks, juggling both torches and
claustrophobia, we decided to beat a sensible retreat. In the parlance of those
fictional adventures we would no doubt have been dubbed ‘feeble’ but age
changes priorities somewhat and being labelled feeble somehow does not have the
menace of the threat of a broken ankle!
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| The waterfall and cave entrance |
The visit was enjoyable and brought the book even more to
life, however it made me realise that, as much as adults may enjoy reading
children’s adventure books, they are far more suited to re-creating those
adventures in their heads rather than in real life. It thus proved a fitting tribute
to a book which contrasts fantasy and reality!
More info on the book and other Malcolm Saville titles can be found on the Malcolm Saville website
