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feather_ghyll) wrote2013-09-13 08:52 am
feather_ghyll) wrote2013-09-13 08:52 am
REVIEW: Redshank's Warning
Redshank’s Warning: Malcolm Saville. Armada 1963 edition
This is the book that introduces the Jillions (aka the Jillies – Mandy, Prue and Tim) to the Standings (Guy and Mark) and readers.
The first meeting between the two families is hardly fortuitous, because Tim, the youngest, is playing the fool and Guy, the eldest. is being somewhat superior about the Jillies’ car, nicknamed Benjamin and not the most reliable starter. However, when they find themselves staying at the same seaside town during the last week of the Easter holidays, a friendship is forged during an adventure. For, of course, the children meet some mysterious people doing some strange things that an authority figure encourages them to investigate, and all thoughts of ornithology are set aside – the redshank is a bird and the warning refers to its call when it is disturbed by some of the children and some of the mysterious people who are, indeed, crooks. One of the baddies is obvious from their ill-treatment of a dog (although Saville missed a trick in not having the kids follow up how he was doing after delivering him to a vet who knew who the owner was).
The blurb describes the Jillies as charming or delightful. I really didn’t find them so in this book (I haven’t in the past, although they were far more tolerable in The Luck if the Sallowbys, reviewed here). Tim, the perennially hungry, is a brat – I don’t care if typing that groups me with the Standigns’ gently criticised mother. Mandy (really Amanda) is also quite irritating, although I know I’m meant to find the girl-woman who has taken the reins of the household since her mother’s death attractive, but I didn’t.
The Jillies are the first family that we meet, living a slightly ramshackle but middle class existence in arty Chelsea. Their father is known as JD (for Jilly Darling) by his children and is an artist. Prue has just got over measles, which Mandy uses as an excuse to wheedle a holiday for them all. They need to take rooms, whereas the Standings are returning to a hotel in Blakeney, which they know well. Their father plays golf, which JD thinks is a silly game. So we’re meant to see the appeal of both families to the other, epitomised by the sparks and attraction between Mandy and Guy – relatively speaking given the era and audience. As the oldest children, both are used to being the boss. Mandy thinks serious Guy needs taking down a peg or two, but he shows signs of being able to check her.
The mystery is solved over a couple of days and in very few locations, making the inevtable map almost unnecessary, although Saville’s books was one of those that predisposed me to expect maps in all books. We get to know where the author wrote his story, which is a nice gesture.
This is the book that introduces the Jillions (aka the Jillies – Mandy, Prue and Tim) to the Standings (Guy and Mark) and readers.
The first meeting between the two families is hardly fortuitous, because Tim, the youngest, is playing the fool and Guy, the eldest. is being somewhat superior about the Jillies’ car, nicknamed Benjamin and not the most reliable starter. However, when they find themselves staying at the same seaside town during the last week of the Easter holidays, a friendship is forged during an adventure. For, of course, the children meet some mysterious people doing some strange things that an authority figure encourages them to investigate, and all thoughts of ornithology are set aside – the redshank is a bird and the warning refers to its call when it is disturbed by some of the children and some of the mysterious people who are, indeed, crooks. One of the baddies is obvious from their ill-treatment of a dog (although Saville missed a trick in not having the kids follow up how he was doing after delivering him to a vet who knew who the owner was).
The blurb describes the Jillies as charming or delightful. I really didn’t find them so in this book (I haven’t in the past, although they were far more tolerable in The Luck if the Sallowbys, reviewed here). Tim, the perennially hungry, is a brat – I don’t care if typing that groups me with the Standigns’ gently criticised mother. Mandy (really Amanda) is also quite irritating, although I know I’m meant to find the girl-woman who has taken the reins of the household since her mother’s death attractive, but I didn’t.
The Jillies are the first family that we meet, living a slightly ramshackle but middle class existence in arty Chelsea. Their father is known as JD (for Jilly Darling) by his children and is an artist. Prue has just got over measles, which Mandy uses as an excuse to wheedle a holiday for them all. They need to take rooms, whereas the Standings are returning to a hotel in Blakeney, which they know well. Their father plays golf, which JD thinks is a silly game. So we’re meant to see the appeal of both families to the other, epitomised by the sparks and attraction between Mandy and Guy – relatively speaking given the era and audience. As the oldest children, both are used to being the boss. Mandy thinks serious Guy needs taking down a peg or two, but he shows signs of being able to check her.
The mystery is solved over a couple of days and in very few locations, making the inevtable map almost unnecessary, although Saville’s books was one of those that predisposed me to expect maps in all books. We get to know where the author wrote his story, which is a nice gesture.