feather_ghyll (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
feather_ghyll) wrote2012-06-01 09:33 pm
feather_ghyll) wrote2012-06-01 09:33 pm
REVIEW: The Luck of Sallowby
A break from all the tennis talk!
The Luck of Sallowby: Malcolm Saville. Lutterworth Press, 1952.
I opened this with much less excitement than if it was one of the few Lone Pine or Buckingham books that I hadn’t read before (although I mainly have Armada copies). I think because I came to the Jillies books when I was older than all the main characters, I never took them to heart so much. But I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Reading it was less of a drudge than I remembered the last Jillies book as being.
The fifth in the series has many, many familiar Saville elements from the strong sense of location onwards. The younger Jillies, aka the Jillions – Mandy, Prue and Tim in order of age - have been invited to Ely in the Fens by an aunt only Mandy really remembers for part of the Easter holidays. Aunt Bridget owns a cafe with several rooms upstairs, which she plans to let out over the summer. Impetuously and without waiting for her aunt’s permission, Mandy has also invited their great friends the Standings – Guy, who is a little older than her and with whom she has the beginnings of an older children Saville romance, and younger Mark who likes teasing Guy about Mandy, although it seemed to me that in a few years, people could tease him about Prue. The Standings are only too happy to use the excuse to get out of the house on a cycling holiday (it’s hinted that they’re glad to get away from their stifling mother) after two weeks of rain. So they hop on their bikes when there’s a break in the rain and arrive at Ely only a few hours after Aunt Bridget has heard about their existence. Fortunately, there really are several rooms above the cafe.
The children find that the local people are seriously concerned about the likelihood of flooding of the low-lying Fens. While it’s all an adventure to them, especially the boys, this means danger for people’s property and crops that in 1952 would be vital to the country, for instance in and around the village of Sallowby. Aunt Bridget has a gentleman friend who lives there in a Manor on the closest thing to a hill in the area, who has a family heirloom known as the Luck of Sallowby, which the children are thrilled by.
While everyone around them is worried about the weather and the threat of floods, the gang of children, which expands to include local boy Francis, have – as all gangs of children in Saville series do – other fish to fry. They’ve bumped into a man they crossed paths with before but under a different identity. We know he’s no good because he hurts Francis’s puppy (totally against Lone Piner rules). The children pick up clues that prove to them that he’s in league with thieves and planning to steal nice Colonel Sallowby’s heirloom. But can they get the adults to take them seriously when they’re far more worried about the rising water? And aren’t the adults right to be worried about said rising water?
The loyalty of this group of friends to each other is praised, as is their bravery (although Mandy’s adventure is as much caused by a desire to show off as bravery). En masse, they overwhelm the adults, although sometimes their wish to be in on things is stronger than their ability to cope – Tim, the youngest, is often sleeping before matters have been resolved.
I’m trying to analyse the very Savillian dialogue. The way the characters explain what is going on and how they feel is peculiar to him and really struck me from the opening pages. I’ll just quote some samples:
(page 46): ‘”You know perfectly well you ought not to put your feet on the seat, Mandy,” she said. “If I did it—or Tim—you’d make an awful fuss and put on airs and say that we were selfish and didn’t know how to be behave ourselves.”
(pages 74-75): ‘“I hope all you boys pray that you’ll never grow up into a man like that, “ Mandy said. “I’m always noticing that the older generation doesn’t seem to have any manners. He took practically no notice of me at all....What shall we do? Go to that place he said if it isn’t too far, or explore on our own somewhere else?”’
(page 112): Mandy, just coming in from the kitchen, begged him to look at himself in the mirror.
“Your face is smothered in ash and your hair is full of it too.”
“The fire’s going, anyway,” he retorted, “although I expect most of it to be blown out on to the hearth at any moment. Let’s have those Jilly drinks as soon as possible[...]”
(page 136): ‘”Is this dangerous here?” Tim said. “I mean, will the water come right over and sweep us over with it? I’m not afraid, of course, but I like to know things before they happen.”
“I think we’re safe enough, Tim,” Francis replied.
We only get a sample of Tim dogging a suspected thief, i.e. doing a Morton twins innocent act while sticking as close to a grown-up as possible while winding them up most politely. Although I’ve made all these Lone Pine references, the Jillies remind me more of the Buckinghams, being focused on a tighter group of characters. I wonder if Saville ever wrote about them meeting – it’d be fascinating to see Juliet and Mandy cross paths!
The Luck of Sallowby: Malcolm Saville. Lutterworth Press, 1952.
I opened this with much less excitement than if it was one of the few Lone Pine or Buckingham books that I hadn’t read before (although I mainly have Armada copies). I think because I came to the Jillies books when I was older than all the main characters, I never took them to heart so much. But I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Reading it was less of a drudge than I remembered the last Jillies book as being.
The fifth in the series has many, many familiar Saville elements from the strong sense of location onwards. The younger Jillies, aka the Jillions – Mandy, Prue and Tim in order of age - have been invited to Ely in the Fens by an aunt only Mandy really remembers for part of the Easter holidays. Aunt Bridget owns a cafe with several rooms upstairs, which she plans to let out over the summer. Impetuously and without waiting for her aunt’s permission, Mandy has also invited their great friends the Standings – Guy, who is a little older than her and with whom she has the beginnings of an older children Saville romance, and younger Mark who likes teasing Guy about Mandy, although it seemed to me that in a few years, people could tease him about Prue. The Standings are only too happy to use the excuse to get out of the house on a cycling holiday (it’s hinted that they’re glad to get away from their stifling mother) after two weeks of rain. So they hop on their bikes when there’s a break in the rain and arrive at Ely only a few hours after Aunt Bridget has heard about their existence. Fortunately, there really are several rooms above the cafe.
The children find that the local people are seriously concerned about the likelihood of flooding of the low-lying Fens. While it’s all an adventure to them, especially the boys, this means danger for people’s property and crops that in 1952 would be vital to the country, for instance in and around the village of Sallowby. Aunt Bridget has a gentleman friend who lives there in a Manor on the closest thing to a hill in the area, who has a family heirloom known as the Luck of Sallowby, which the children are thrilled by.
While everyone around them is worried about the weather and the threat of floods, the gang of children, which expands to include local boy Francis, have – as all gangs of children in Saville series do – other fish to fry. They’ve bumped into a man they crossed paths with before but under a different identity. We know he’s no good because he hurts Francis’s puppy (totally against Lone Piner rules). The children pick up clues that prove to them that he’s in league with thieves and planning to steal nice Colonel Sallowby’s heirloom. But can they get the adults to take them seriously when they’re far more worried about the rising water? And aren’t the adults right to be worried about said rising water?
The loyalty of this group of friends to each other is praised, as is their bravery (although Mandy’s adventure is as much caused by a desire to show off as bravery). En masse, they overwhelm the adults, although sometimes their wish to be in on things is stronger than their ability to cope – Tim, the youngest, is often sleeping before matters have been resolved.
I’m trying to analyse the very Savillian dialogue. The way the characters explain what is going on and how they feel is peculiar to him and really struck me from the opening pages. I’ll just quote some samples:
(page 46): ‘”You know perfectly well you ought not to put your feet on the seat, Mandy,” she said. “If I did it—or Tim—you’d make an awful fuss and put on airs and say that we were selfish and didn’t know how to be behave ourselves.”
(pages 74-75): ‘“I hope all you boys pray that you’ll never grow up into a man like that, “ Mandy said. “I’m always noticing that the older generation doesn’t seem to have any manners. He took practically no notice of me at all....What shall we do? Go to that place he said if it isn’t too far, or explore on our own somewhere else?”’
(page 112): Mandy, just coming in from the kitchen, begged him to look at himself in the mirror.
“Your face is smothered in ash and your hair is full of it too.”
“The fire’s going, anyway,” he retorted, “although I expect most of it to be blown out on to the hearth at any moment. Let’s have those Jilly drinks as soon as possible[...]”
(page 136): ‘”Is this dangerous here?” Tim said. “I mean, will the water come right over and sweep us over with it? I’m not afraid, of course, but I like to know things before they happen.”
“I think we’re safe enough, Tim,” Francis replied.
We only get a sample of Tim dogging a suspected thief, i.e. doing a Morton twins innocent act while sticking as close to a grown-up as possible while winding them up most politely. Although I’ve made all these Lone Pine references, the Jillies remind me more of the Buckinghams, being focused on a tighter group of characters. I wonder if Saville ever wrote about them meeting – it’d be fascinating to see Juliet and Mandy cross paths!