The Adventures of Mike and SJ – Episode 4

This thread started on a forum Mike and I shared, when we started playing off each other about this alternative/fantasy persona we each gave ourselves. Since then, we’ve started writing a novel together and Mike has had a number of books published as Michael D. Griffiths (The Chronicles of Jack Primus, Part I, The Chronicles of Jack Primus, Part II, Eternal Aftermath) while I’ve been busy rewriting several books and establishing my Creative Writing classes at Northbrook College. But though he writes horror and I write sci fi, when we get together, we write… differently! So I thought I’d put a slice of our combined madness on my blog…

Wow

SJ sure has a lot of cool things in here guest room. I guess since her family has lived her for so long these old artifacts just sort of pile up.   Still, why does she let her place go when she has all these old jewels lying around? She could probably just sell a few of these off and be fine.

This Orb is the best though. I can’t stop staring at it.  SJ is off making tea again. Does she have to do that like eight times a day? I must have dozed off. Where was I? Wow this Orb thing almost seems to be glowing. Hmm that is strange. Wasn’t I sitting on the other side of the bed?

Huh, what is SJ all worried about now? She is all in a tizzy about the long drive I asked her to go on. Shoot – after that stupid tank museum, I feel like taking a break.

Chepstow Castle in Wales? I don’t remember asking her to take me there at all. She must be drinking too much tea. But it does sound cool. Oh it’s in Wales, even better!

Sheesh she acts like it is so far. Driving from here to Wales is like going on a wood run back home. Big deal. She says she can take me in the morning. Sweet. It is about time we saw some real castles. Now… where did I leave those Samual Smiths?

***

Thank goodness our day out at Bovington went off smoothly – no ‘wax’ incidents, I’m pleased to say. Altho’ Mike wasn’t in the best of moods.

I thought he’d enjoy seeing all those cool tanks, with their riveting history. But he grumbled constantly about the car journey. Kept telling me to ‘open her up’ and ‘put the pedal to the metal’. Whatever that means. I’ve got perfectly respectable mats in my little Ford Fiesta, I’ll have you know. And as for ‘opening her up’ – as I kept telling him HOW??? There were always cars ahead of us. So then he’d jab me in the ribs and yell, ‘There’s a space, go on, just zip by…’ When we’d have been smeared across the radiator grill of some 42 tonner coming towards us.

And halfway around Bovington museum, when I’d just got onto explaining to him the crucial role of the Sherman T in WW2, he got all fidgety and wanted to know whether there were any swords or suits of armour. So we had a nice cup of tea and went home again. With him still moaning about the traffic, all the cars, the speed I was driving at… Meaning, I was obeying all the speed restrictions (there’s lots and lots, by the way.) I was taking extra care to make sure I wasn’t breaking any rules, because there was this black SUV four or five cars back. It tailed us all the way to Bovington and all the way back…

So when we got home to a tasty, nourishing meal of spaghetti hoops on toast (Mike grumbled about that too. Bit of a cheek from someone who served up rat burgers night after night, when I was his guest…) my jaw grazed the floor, when he announced that he wanted to drive to Wales the following day. Wales! He’d been nearly cross-eyed with frustration on the drive to Bovington. Wales was a whole lot further… But – nope, I couldn’t talk him out of it. Mike wanted to go to Chepstow Castle. When I mentioned the price of fuel, he just sniggered and said I should think about selling some of the cool stuff in my spare room.

I smiled and said it was too precious. I mean, I know my signed copy of Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather would be worth a bit – even with the crayon drawing little Johnny did of the pig arriving at Crumley’s all over the first 30 pages… But I couldn’t part with it. I don’t ever part with a book…

So, this morning we set off. And now… here we are. Finally arrived in Chepstow. Thank goodness. If I’d had to spend another hour in the car with Mr Why-aren’t-we-there-yet, one of us would have ended up on the grass verge. And it wouldn’t necessarily have been Mike…

And after raising a second mortgage on the house to pay for the fuel to get here – Mike threw a tantrum cos I wouldn’t take us to St Justinans Country Hotel for our stay. Accused me of being mean! Well, then I lost it. Parked on a double yellow – hauled him out’ve the car and took him to the nearest hole in the wall, punched in my PIN number and showed him the extent of my wealth. He had the grace to look a bit ashamed, but still went on muttering about the ‘stuff in my spare room’.

So, we’ve ended up here, at the Rat and Dog Inn on a ‘bargain’ package. Meaning our rooms would make the average wardrobe look spacious. Never mind. I’m too tired to care. And tomorrow, we’re off on a proper tour of the Castle. I think *yawn* Mike’s headed down to the bar. Maybe his waxed hairdo will keep them all amused with his beer-sucking trick…

Hope… it’ll… be… ok…zzzzzzzzzz

Review of A Conspiracy of Alchemists – Book 1 of The Chronicles of Light and Shadow by Liesel Schwarz

This book is something of a genre mashup – it certainly has strong steampunk elements in it, and the early descriptions of the airship are especially enjoyable. But it is also part romance and part Fantasy, with a strong and well-designed world in which the failing warlocks are desperately trying to rally their fading forces against the powerful, well organised alchemists.

When dirigible pilot Elle Chance accepts an unusual cargo in Paris, she finds herself in the middle of a deadly war between the Alchemists and Warlocks. The Alchemists will stop at nothing to acquire the coveted carmot stone and its key, and Elle must do everything in her power to thwart their diabolical plans.

I felt Schwarz managed to achieve a strong sense of the Edwardian era in her writing, without unduly holding up the action. The period details and customs were well depicted and, particularly the scenes in Constantinople which were full of colour and a number of interesting characters. Schwarz’s lively and pacey writing style is well suited to keeping the tension going in a variety of settings, without losing a sense of place.

Elle is also an engaging heroine – a suitably plucky gel, with plenty of the intrepid drive that finally won women the vote. Her determination to break away from the boring, narrow life of a married woman of the time was both appealing and convincing. However, I was less persuaded by the romantic thread running through the story. Mr Marsh is an interesting character in his own right – and his views on women and their role in society certainly is of the time. The trouble was, this part of the story suddenly seemed to fall into a clichéd dance that didn’t happen in the rest of the narrative. So I found I was slightly skimming the scenes between the two protagonists in order to get to the more interesting plotlines. Fortunately, there is plenty going on that is great fun, so that this was a minor disappointment rather than a big deal.

As the story romped to the climax, I stayed up reading until the small hours to find out what happens – and Schwarz manages to bring this slice of the story to a satisfying conclusion, while leaving some interesting plotlines dangling for the next instalment. Patrice, in particular, is an intriguing villain who kept popping up throughout the book and promises to figure prominently in the next slice of this adventure. Which I shall definitely be looking forward to with interest and anticipation. Steampunk can only benefit with a series like this to add to the genre.
8/10

Review of Babylon Steel by Gaie Sebold

I wasn’t totally convinced that I was going to enjoy this Fantastic romp. A female brothel owner cum ex-mercenary isn’t generally my sort of go-to character, but I’d fleetingly met Gaie at Fantasycon and was impressed with her friendly, solid advice, so gave the book a go. I’m mighty glad I did. It certainly brightened up a really dreary week in March.

Babylon Steel, ex-sword for hire, ex… other things, runs The Red Lantern, the best brothel in the city. She’s got elves using sex magic upstairs, S & M in the basement and a large green troll cooking breakfast in the kitchen, and she’d love you to visit, except… She’s not having a good week. The Vessels of Purity are protesting against brothels, girls are disappearing, and if she can’t pay her taxes, Babylon’s going to lose the Lantern. She’d given up the mercenary life, but when the mysterious Darask Fain pays her to find a missing heiress, she has to take the job. And then her past starts to catch up with her in other, more dangerous ways.

Well, reading through the reviews of this book, it seems something of a marmite number – folks either love it or hate it. I loved it.  For starters, I thoroughly enjoyed the genre mash-up – the portals to various worlds happily rubbed shoulders with a medieval city/ancient Egyptian backdrop and there was a strong urban fantasy feel in the tone and writing. Great fun. Sebold also has the skill to pull off a dual narrative, one recounting Babylon’s past as an orphan serving girl who moves on to another, wholly different career – and the other plotline giving us the current slew of adventures that are engrossing our heroine. This structure worked perfectly and had me hooked from the first chapter. I also liked the variety of different races Sebold introduces and the quick-fire pace at which the book progresses.

Niggles? Well, I do think it a shame that Solaris saw fit to make Babylon white-skinned on the cover, when she is several times mentioned as being dark/copper skinned.

The world-building was enjoyable and unfolded through Babylon’s eyes with the fluid, pacy style that Sebold quickly established. This may be her debut novel, but she is clearly an experienced, skilful author, whose future work is firmly on my list of books to look out for. The ending had everything satisfyingly resolved – with a shock at who dies during the climactic action. I got to the final page with a real sense of regret that I’d finished the book and still wanting more. And if you are feeling grumpy and jaded with the current atrocious weather, search out this book and dive in.
9/10

Review of The Shadow of the Soul – Book 2 of the Dog-Faced Gods by Sarah Pinborough

Sarah Pinborough is one of the stars of Fantasycon – a bubbly character with sufficient personal charisma to stop the traffic, something that most authors don’t possess. I’d known that she wrote Horror/Dark Fantasy, so when I came across this offering I plucked it off the shelves.

As the world sinks deeper into recession, London is rocked by a major terrorist attack that cripples the city. Detective Inspector Cass Jones is busy investigating a series of apparently linked student suicides when Special Branch calls on him to help in their search for a very unusual suspect. As if that isn’t enough, Cass is given a message from beyond the grave. With three words – ‘They took Luke’ – written by his brother before he was brutally murdered, Cass Jones once again feels the world tilt beneath him. He knows who ‘They’ are – Mr Bright and the shadowy Network – and he knows that his dead brother has given him the task of finding the baby, his nephew, stolen at birth.  As Cass tries to divide his time between his two legitimate investigations and his private one, it’s not long before he discovers links where none should be…

This book plunged right into the action and didn’t let up until the final page, and though at no time was I floundering – Pinborough is far too accomplished a writer for that – I did get the sense that I would have better appreciated exactly what was going on if I’d tracked down the first book, A Matter of Blood, before launching into The Shadow of the Soul. However, it didn’t take long to get drawn into this gritty police procedural tale that felt far more like a Rankin whodunit than your average Dark Fantasy crime story. Cass Jones is a typically overburdened inner-city detective with a dysfunctional family life, rather than the supernatural, angst-driven beings that often inhabit urban fantasy crime novels.

Pinborough has successfully managed to come up with a flavour all of her own in this increasingly popular sub-genre. Second books in a trilogy often lack pace as they simultaneously have to produce a complete story arc, yet leave/produce a series of vital plot points dangling for the final book to solve. But this story whisks along as we get increasing insights into the Network and the strains within the apparently invulnerable organisation, as Cass Jones is still desperately trying to come to terms with what has happened to him and his family during the previous book. All these concerns are woven through the current investigations with deftness and skill that ensure this is a solid page-turner.

So, does the denouement pack sufficient punch? It needs to – Crime/Dark Fantasy genres require a strong ending to be regarded as successful and as Pinborough has braided these ingredients together, she has to pull off a really gripping conclusion that provides genuine shock value. Which she achieves with style. As Cass struggles to cope with the new set of facts he uncovers after investigating the events that have befallen his troubled family – the crimes he has also been following also get tied up in a way that I didn’t see coming.

This second book has been sufficiently gripping that I’m going to hunt down the first and third offerings in this disturbing, compulsive series – and I recommend that you give it a go. But start with A Matter of Blood – writing this good deserves to be read in the correct order.
9/10

Review of Switched – Book 1 of The Trylle series by Amanda Hocking

If you are remotely interested in e-publishing or Fantasy fiction and haven’t heard of Amanda Hocking, then you clearly were off-planet for the duration of the media fuss. Just in case you were sojourning somewhere on the Moon, or have a memory like mine – Amanda Hocking is the twenty-something who, on finding it impossible to get her work accepted by an agent or publisher, decided in April 2010 to start to self-publish her seventeen books. She brought out her three series in quick succession on Amazon’s Kindle and by August was able to quit her day job. By the following January, she was selling 100,000 plus a month and eventually signed up with St. Martin’s Press to publish her Trylle trilogy and the new Watersong series, after having sold well over a million books and earned over two million dollars in book sales. So when I spotted this volume on the shelves, I couldn’t resist. Would I find it an enjoyable, absorbing read as so many of Hocking’s fans have before me?

Wendy Everly knew she was different the day her mother tried to kill her and accused her of having been switched at birth. Although certain she’s not the monster her mother claims she is – she does feel that she doesn’t quite fit in… She’s bored and frustrated by her small town life – and then there’s the secret that she can’t tell anyone. Her mysterious ability – she can influence people’s decisions, without knowing how, or why…

When the intense and darkly handsome newcomer Finn suddenly turns up at her bedroom window one night – her world is turned upside down. He holds the key to her past, the answers to her strange powers, and is the doorway to a place she never imagined could exist: Főrening, the home of the Trylle.

These Trylle are trolls – no, not the grotesque, lumpy creatures that lurk under damp bridges to eat goats, this version are sexily attractive with magical powers that are dwindling while they use their abilities to gain material possessions, instead. So they switch their babies with wealthy human hosts, allowing them to inherit fortunes before bringing them back into the fold.
Wendy is a strong heroine – wilful, not altogether likeable, spiky and with plenty of vulnerabilities. She is struggling. Disliked at school by her peers, who instinctively sense her difference, she is often reduced to coercing people against their will. While she is sharply aware that her brother and aunt spend far too much of their precious time and energy worrying and caring for her – something that makes her both angry and even more awkward.

Hocking has this under-achieving teenager absolutely nailed – her sense of frustration is palpable. So when Finn turns up, she is not immediately inclined to believe the story he comes out with – a refreshing change in a genre where often I feel that the humans involved throw themselves into the supernatural high jinks with far too little soul-searching, or scepticism.

Once Wendy finds herself in Főrening, still scrambling to play catch-up in an environment where secrecy seems to be a way of life, we meet maybe the most intriguing character in the book. Wendy’s true mother, Queen Elora, is beautiful, aloof and utterly formidable – she certainly doesn’t display any maternal cosiness as her attitude towards Wendy is guarded and detached. Unsurprisingly, Wendy finds herself floundering.

It did occur to me that maybe that society reliant on switching their children at birth with human hosts to parent their offspring would be a lot slicker in providing a strong familiarisation programme, once those offspring returned back to Trylle society. However, this is a minor niggle in what is a well-structured story with an enjoyable world and some engaging characters. Am I going to get hold of the sequel, Torn? Oh yes – because I found that once I got into the story and overcame the occasionally lumpy prose, Switched was difficult to put down again. And I want to know what happens to Wendy.  And her mother…
8/10

Review of Born of Shadows – Book 4 of The League series by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Although I’d heard of this series, I hadn’t read any of Kenyon’s books, so when the opportunity came to whip a copy of this off the shelves, I took it. However, it meant that I was reading the book completely out of sequence. So, did that significantly affect my reading pleasure – and did I enjoy the Kenyon experience?

For Caillen Dagan, a defiant soldier of fortune, survival isn’t a right: it’s a brutal daily battle. Moving through the Ichidaian universe like a wraith, his brushes with the law and death are legendary. But when an act of rare heroism reveals his hidden birthright, he’s forced into a world much more dangerous and cold-blooded than the bloody streets where he was raised – one of obscene wealth and lethal politics.

Ferocious and determined, Desideria serves as an official bodyguard for her queen. Born of questionable genetics, she will do anything to prove herself worthy of the weapons she carries and the position she’s won by combat. But when she uncovers a ruthless plot to assassinate the queen and overthrow her country’s government, Desideria is caught in the crossfire.

And that’s the starting point for both of our protagonists. Of course, it’s a no-brainer that they are going to get together. This, after all, is romantic fantasy. Kenyon wraps up the age-old boy meets girl scenario in a cool world which I found well detailed and convincing. In fact, it was Kenyon’s ability to spin a cracking good tale that held me through the story, rather than the unfolding romance – or the characters. To be honest, I found Caillen’s initial tantrums about having to dress in court clothes and adopt the customs and manners of court life more than a tad tedious. And at odds with the depiction of this experienced, pragmatic smuggler who could blend into any situation – he came over more as a whiny teenage brat than an intelligent survivor of a hundred tricky situations…

Desideria was far more convincing as the mixed-blood outsider whose affection for her foreign father had set her up as a target with her half-sisters and haughty, uncaring mother. As for their unfolding romance – some of the repartee worked well, but I could have done with less of the smart replies between the pair of them. However, once the action really got going and Caillen’s team joined the fray, the pace picked up and Kenyon’s supporting characters were all effective, as were her action scenes. She writes tension-filled danger very well.

The fact that it was the fourth book in the series didn’t impact on my enjoyment in any way. Kenyon has been smart enough to ensure that though there is obviously a cast of characters who are steadily developing throughout the series, the storyline isn’t strongly tied to the previous book. While I got the impression that I would have known a bit more about Caillen’s mates, my ignorance of their backstory didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the adventuring that went on in Born of Shadows. All in all – apart from some exasperation with Caillen – this was a fun read and a slickly written fantasy romance with plenty of excitement and adventure thrown in with the mushier stuff. No wonder Kenyon has such a strong fan base.
7/10

Review of Wizard Undercover – Book 4 of the Rogue Agent series by K.E. Mills

If you happen to come upon this book and you haven’t read the three previous books, The Accidental Sorceror, Witches Incorporated and Wizard Squared – don’t. Go back to the beginning and track down these other books, first. Otherwise there will be a whole raft of asides and references that you will simply miss or find irritating, which would be a real shame.

This is a really interesting fantasy series – it started off quite light with plenty of humour and some sharp-tongued exchanges between the main characters, who nonetheless are very fond of each other. But in the third book of the series, the whole premise takes a left turn into something a whole lot nastier and darker, making Wizard Squared a compelling page-turner. So, can Mills sustain that angst and tension in Wizard Undercover?

Wedding bells are ringing for the constantly battling nations of Splotze and Borovnik and the upcoming royal nuptials could at last put an end to their dangerous hostilities. But in a development that hardly bodes well, one of Gerald’s fellow janitors goes missing – after delivering a dire warning of danger surrounding the marriage treaty. So Gerald must embark on a perilous mission to uncover the troublemakers, before wedded bliss becomes international war. But going undercover isn’t as easy as it looks, even with Melissande and Emmerabiblia for camouflage. Soon Gerald finds himself fighting for his life as well as world peace.

But poor old Gerald is still reeling from his terrible experiences in the previous instalment – should someone still traumatised and possibly unstable be sent out without a suitable recovery time? And if international relations and potential war looms, is that sufficient reason to also risk two spirited young women? These are the kinds of moral questions that confronts Gerald’s devious superior, Sir Alec.

Other than that, we still have the wonderfully bossy Reg, a talking bird who has adopted Gerald and has a frighteningly indepth knowledge of all sorts of gnarly magic – although there are now some uncomfortable issues around Reg, after the fallout from shocking events described in the previous book… There is a love interest between Gerald and his best friend’s sister, Emmerabiblia Markham. However after the last book, where all these characters were confronted with a terrible evil and many of them simply didn’t prevail, there is the after-echo of that experience that still reverberates through this story. I found it added a darker twist that Mills skilfully played on throughout the book.

I was worried that after the last book, I would find this something of an anti-climax, but of course Mills is far too experienced and adept to commit that kind of crime against her readers. While this episode in the series doesn’t hit the same savage climaxes as those in Wizard Squared, there is still plenty of tension and pace as Gerald desperately tries to pinpoint exactly who is creating such vile magic. I also very much appreciated the fact that Mills isn’t minded to roll her adventures blithely forward without showing the battle scars still evident in all her main characters after their terrible experiences. All in all, a great addition to the series which left me wanting more.
8/10

Review of The Heir of Night – Book 1 of The Wall of Night by Helen Lowe

I’ll come clean – Epic Fantasy generally doesn’t do it for me. While I find a book sporting a cool spacescape cover well-nigh irresistible, having some grim-faced warrior in deep shadow glaring out at me while brandishing a kind of sharp pointy weapon tends to encourage me to pass it over… So when my husband came home clutching Helen Lowe’s book, I wasn’t best pleased. But he strongly recommended I give it a go. So I did.

Young Malian is being trained to rule. Her people garrison the mountain range known as the Wall of Night against an ancient enemy, keeping a tide of shadow from the rest of their world. Malian is expected to uphold this tradition, yet she’s known little of real danger until the enemy attacks her fortress home and the Keep of Winds becomes a bloodbath. And that’s as much as I’m going to give you of the backcover blurb, otherwise we’re into spoiler territory…

If you’re looking for any major genre-bending, then this isn’t the book for you. Lowe has the mandatory young, inexperienced heroine who unexpectedly finds that she fulfils an ancient prophesy. All reasonably staple stuff… But. There are some really enjoyable touches in this book. Firstly, there isn’t just the main female character – who, let’s face it, things mainly happen to, rather than her taking any sort of real control. But there is also a female Captain of the Guard, a female steward of the fortress and the Temple complex is also run by a Priestess. Lowe presents us with a world where men and women seem to be truly equal – which is a refreshing change, particularly in this sub-genre. Furthermore, she’s good at writing convincing strong females.

Malian is part of a particularly miserably grumpy race known as the Derai. And no wonder – they get to spend most of their time brooding on a large wall in bad weather trying to keep the Darkswarm at bay. However in an interesting twist, the Derai have landed on this world, bringing their ancient enemy with them. And over time due to misguided convention, they have isolated those with telepathic abilities who can sense the Darkswarm and kept them out of the army. This is a repeated theme in the book – that historical custom often is misleading and unhelpful when trying to apply it to current problems…

Lowe manages to sustain a real sense of tension – and writes action scenes very well. The passages where Malian is scurrying for her life had me reading well past the time I’d planned to put the light out, because I wanted to know what was going to happen next.  Any niggles? Well, Lowe’s dialogue at times lets her down. Her plotting, pace and ability to set the scene while keeping the tension bar tight are extremely good – so the fact that there are places where the conversation between the characters plain graunches is thrown into sharp relief. This inevitably impacts on the characterisation, at times.

But despite that one grizzle, I zipped through this book with such enjoyment I immediately tracked down the second in the series, Gathering of the Lost, which picks up the story five years later – and if anything, is better than The Heir of Night. So I shall be keeping an eye out for the next two books in the series. And then lie down in a darkened room from the shock of having read so much highly readable Epic Fantasy…
8/10

Review of The Alchemist of Souls – Book 1 of the Night’s Masque series by Anne Lyle

I’d had Anne Lyle’s historical fantasy debut on my radar for a while, but when I got to meet her again at Fantasycon this year, I also picked up her book and tucked into it on the journey home…

When a Tudor explorer returned from the New World, they brought back a name out of half-forgotten Viking legend: Skraylings. Red-sailed ships followed in the explorers’ wake, bringing Native American goods – and a Skrayling ambassador – to London. But what do these seemingly magical beings really want in Elizabeth I’s capital? Mal Catlyn, a down-at-heel swordsman, is appointed as the ambassador’s bodyguard, but assassination attempts are the least of his problems. What he learns about the skraylings and their unholy powers could cost England her new ally – and Mal his soul.

This debut novel is an intriguing alternative historical fantasy adventure where Elizabeth I has married and produced two princes. The Skraylings – a mysterious and powerful New World race that is proposing an alliance with England at a time when formidable interests are ranged against the country raises the stakes in this involving tale of political manoeuvring and personal ambition. There are three main protagonists whose stories intertwine – Mal, a mercenary fallen on hard times; Ned, a scribe who works in the theatre and Coby, a girl posing as a young man working as a tireman for the famous theatre group the Sussex’s men. Going for three protagonists is always something of a risk – I often find there is one character’s storyline I skim in order to get back to my favourite. It didn’t happen in this case. All three stories held me sufficiently to want to follow each one to the climactic and satisfying conclusion.

What this isn’t, is some rollicking swashbuckler. Lyle’s London is too gritty and full of menace – in her attention to detail, I was at times reminded of C.J. Sansom’s depiction of Tudor London in his successful Matthew Shardlake series. And although this is a fairly hefty read at just over 500 pages, the book zipped along at a fair clip.
The heart of the story – just what exactly the Skraylings represent and how this is going to impact on all three main characters – is a strong story arc with plenty of narrative tension along with the period detail. The only caveat I have is that perhaps Ned would have felt a bit more tormented about the prospect of Hell due to his lifestyle and I wasn’t completely sure that Religion was important enough to all the protagonists at the time when hundreds of people were willing to die and kill for their beliefs. However, this one quibble didn’t prevent me from hugely enjoying this impressive debut and very much looking forward to the sequel.
9/10

Review of Four Children and It by Jacqueline Wilson

This modern makeover of E. Nesbitt’s classic story Five Children and It, could have been a wincingly purile dumbing down of a much-loved gem in children’s literature. But, of course it is in the hands of the very capable and experienced Jacqueline Wilson…

We have been reading Wilson in our household since my granddaughter, reeling from her parents’ separation, seemed to need stories that reflected her own devastating experience. Her books were an immediate hit – and when I saw this book on the shelves, I couldn’t resist it…

Rosalind and Robbie don’t want to spend the summer stuck in their dad’s new house with irritating Smash and her glamorous mum. Dad’s biggest wish is for everyone to get along. So when he suggests a picnic in nearby Oxshott Woods the children grudgingly agree. That afternoon, in a golden sandpit, Rosalind makes a wish of her own and something extraordinary happens. It just might change their summer from weeks of rows and bickering into the best holiday these four children have ever had…

Rosalind and Robbie are part of a modern blended family – their step-sister, Smash, takes delight in tormenting them. In fact, the only thing they can all agree on, is that little Maudie, Dad and Alice’s daughter, is an absolute poppet – but that leads to squabbles over which of her half-siblings she prefers. Wilson’s unflinching depiction of what marital breakdown means to the children caught in the middle should be required reading for all divorced and separated parents.

Wilson’s storytelling doesn’t dodge the sadness – we both found the story quite emotional in places. But there are also places where we were laughing aloud. Smash’s comments were often astutely amusing – especially about the adults. As for the adventures that involve the four children – they are suitably madcap and Wilson’s sharp, pacey style made them compelling – I read aloud one afternoon for nearly two hours, because neither of us wanted to stop until we knew what happened next… But there is a big bonus for Wilson’s readers – she doesn’t only provide an engrossing, enjoyable story. Each of the main characters in the story is depicted with compassion, some humour and a large dollop of understanding – it’s a very neat trick to pull off. So many children’s books have the adults behaving like absolute idiots or tyrants – and while Wilson’s grown-ups often get it wrong, there is generally a sense that they are trying hard to do their best in difficult circumstances. It also means that while Wilson portrays the children as getting the raw end of the deal, she resists making them into total victims – and while she doesn’t have their parents magically getting back together, which is generally what most children would like to see, she does provide a shaft of hope that everything is going to get better.

Having recently re-read the original story, Five Children and It, I was struck by how much each magical adventure seemed to conclude with some moral lesson for Edwardian children. I can’t help thinking that Wilson’s trick of offering real comfort for children confronted with major family upheaval a far more valuable gift.
10/10