REVIEW: The Polkerrin Mystery
Jan. 16th, 2021 12:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllThe Polkerrin Mystery: Phyllis I. Norris, Frederick Muller 1949
The four Treherne children are hastily evacuated from London to the family home, Polkerrin House, in Cornwall, which only the oldest children had ever visited before. They are accompanied by Felix Ramsey, a friend, but due to a missed telegram and the speed of the decision, were not expected by the Varcos, the caretakers. Indeed, they have quite an inhospitable welcome, forcing Gerald, the oldest brother, to come off all officious to secure them food and habitable rooms to sleep in.
Things soon improve for the children when their father follows them, with the intention of turning the house into a sort of sanatorium for his patients. Sir Jonathan Treherne specialises in ‘nervous cases’, trying to help people before their mental health deteriorates even more. Until now, his work and that of Felix’s mother, Dr Ramsey, has been something of a mystery to their children, with Barbara casually using the term ‘lunie’. But when it turns out that one of the patients is a schoolfellow of Gerald’s and Felix’s, who they only knew had left school after having a nervous breakdown, they’re forced to consider the impact of what would be called bullying these days on a child who didn’t fit in because of a slight physical impairment. It takes oldest daughter Angela to make sure that the boy, nicknamed Corny, doesn’t run away on seeing the boys, but she is successful at befriending him and getting him to join their gang.
Gerald and Angela are perhaps the main characters, and I rather liked Gerald getting on his high horse and being the bossy oldest son/big brother - it got results - but the story also follows younger sister Barbara and younger brother Rex as they all get to know the Cornish coast. The story was somewhat episodic until the mystery plot (with a few side mysteries) kicked in. Imagine what kind of a mystery it could possibly be on the Cornish coastline in the summer of 1940…
Through the mystery, they befriend Daphne, a girl with a more serious physical impairment than Corny, which again makes the children more thoughtful. It was striking that both she and Corny were obsessed with learning to drive before they were old enough to, with disastrous consequences in one instance.
The writing is less sensitive about conscientious objectors among a local sect called the Sons of Joy. (Perhaps using ‘sect’ is insensitive of me.) Dubbed ‘Conchies’, they are suspected of being a haven for Fifth Columnists.
I didn’t have that much sympathy with the children over this mystery, because if what they thought was going on was going on (it wasn’t quite), they should have gone to an adult, even if the author conveniently made it impossible to contact Dr Ramsey, and everyone’s insistence on being ‘in on it’ was silly and dangerous. There were also a lot of punctuation errors strewn throughout the book (she typed, blissfully ignorant of the typos she’d probably failed to spot.)
I've read at least one other book by Norris, but I don't think I've posted about her here, I probably wouldn't have posted about this book because it's mediocre at best, but I thought the treatment of mental ill health and bullying were interesting. [Edited: 27/9/23.]
The four Treherne children are hastily evacuated from London to the family home, Polkerrin House, in Cornwall, which only the oldest children had ever visited before. They are accompanied by Felix Ramsey, a friend, but due to a missed telegram and the speed of the decision, were not expected by the Varcos, the caretakers. Indeed, they have quite an inhospitable welcome, forcing Gerald, the oldest brother, to come off all officious to secure them food and habitable rooms to sleep in.
Things soon improve for the children when their father follows them, with the intention of turning the house into a sort of sanatorium for his patients. Sir Jonathan Treherne specialises in ‘nervous cases’, trying to help people before their mental health deteriorates even more. Until now, his work and that of Felix’s mother, Dr Ramsey, has been something of a mystery to their children, with Barbara casually using the term ‘lunie’. But when it turns out that one of the patients is a schoolfellow of Gerald’s and Felix’s, who they only knew had left school after having a nervous breakdown, they’re forced to consider the impact of what would be called bullying these days on a child who didn’t fit in because of a slight physical impairment. It takes oldest daughter Angela to make sure that the boy, nicknamed Corny, doesn’t run away on seeing the boys, but she is successful at befriending him and getting him to join their gang.
Gerald and Angela are perhaps the main characters, and I rather liked Gerald getting on his high horse and being the bossy oldest son/big brother - it got results - but the story also follows younger sister Barbara and younger brother Rex as they all get to know the Cornish coast. The story was somewhat episodic until the mystery plot (with a few side mysteries) kicked in. Imagine what kind of a mystery it could possibly be on the Cornish coastline in the summer of 1940…
Through the mystery, they befriend Daphne, a girl with a more serious physical impairment than Corny, which again makes the children more thoughtful. It was striking that both she and Corny were obsessed with learning to drive before they were old enough to, with disastrous consequences in one instance.
The writing is less sensitive about conscientious objectors among a local sect called the Sons of Joy. (Perhaps using ‘sect’ is insensitive of me.) Dubbed ‘Conchies’, they are suspected of being a haven for Fifth Columnists.
I didn’t have that much sympathy with the children over this mystery, because if what they thought was going on was going on (it wasn’t quite), they should have gone to an adult, even if the author conveniently made it impossible to contact Dr Ramsey, and everyone’s insistence on being ‘in on it’ was silly and dangerous. There were also a lot of punctuation errors strewn throughout the book (she typed, blissfully ignorant of the typos she’d probably failed to spot.)
I've read at least one other book by Norris, but I don't think I've posted about her here, I probably wouldn't have posted about this book because it's mediocre at best, but I thought the treatment of mental ill health and bullying were interesting. [Edited: 27/9/23.]
