The Magical Detectives: review

Image: Waterstones.com

Brian Keaney's The Magical Detectives is set in the small town of Bridlington Chawleigh. Otto Spinoza's mother runs a bookshop. She is a terrible worrier, and the only thing that pacifies her is a packet of biscuits. One day she is worrying more than usual, and Otto pops to the shop to buy a packet. But when he gets back, she has disappeared, leaving a message HELP ME spelled out in magnetic letters on the fridge. What is Otto to do? On the community notice board in the shop he notices a card advertising the services of Maximillian Hawksmoor, Magical Detective Agency, and with Maximillian's services, and the accidental help of classmate Juliet Pennington and her cat Cornelius, he must travel through a magical portal in the grounds of a stately home to another world to rescue her.

This is the promising beginning of a series (I read and reviewed the second in the series for The Bookbag) and could be read and enjoyed by a confident reader of 7+. For children who like their mystery stories to have a touch of fantasy, magic and a few sherbert lemons, this would be a great, fun read. Brian is appearing at the Lewisham Literary Festival in September.

I would like to thank the Brian Keaney for sending me a copy of this book; however this review is my honest opinion.

Nannies and Grannies and Governesses, oh my!

A couple of months ago, I was watching Nanny McPhee,. I realised that while I knew the film was based on the Nurse Matilda stories of Christianna Brand I had never read them. I finally found a second hand copy of the collected tales, illustrated by her cousin Edward Ardizzone, and I read them with enormous enjoyment.

Of course, the film changes many of the details of the stories; Mr Brown is not a slightly hopeless, hardworking undertaker; instead there is an incredibly fecund Mr and Mrs Brown with an indeterminate number of incredibly naughty children. The Browns live in a large country house with a butler, cook and tweeny (Evangeline), and one of the most memorable pieces of naughtiness they get up to involves them going through the green baize door into the servants' domain, culminating in an almighty food fight in a pond, with Cook's wig as a major casualty. I particularly enjoyed the repetition of listing the naughtiness, and I can imagine children wriggling in vicarious delight. Some will be familiar to people who have watched the film (decapitating dolls, feigning measles, dressing animals in best clothes), although the outcome is quite different. The enigmatic Nurse Matilda, who arrives when children need but don't want her, but must go when they want but don't need her, is much the same, and it would be interesting to discuss with children whether she really does get less ugly as the children behave better, or do they grow to love her and therefore no longer see her blemishes?

Nurse Matilda is a great contrast to the original magical nanny, P. L. Travers' Mary Poppins. The Mary of the book is an altogether far more astringent character than Nurse Matilda (and bears little resemblence to the saccharine Disney version). Traver's Mary is vain, sharp tongued and clearly doesn't speak 1930's received pronunciation: "Strike me pink!" It's a hugely enjoyable re-read, and again, it would be an interesting subject of  discussion- it has been adapted numerous times, including similarities with Hindi film Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, where Geeta, the female lead, is like a cross between Maria Von Trapp and Mary Poppins. Graphic novel fans may remember Mary Poppins being in the Blazing World sequences from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (definitely not recommended for children!)

Interestingly in both books the magical nannies have had to come to help out the families because the badly-behaved children have driven away the former nannies. Mrs Brown fails to see that her children do anything wrong and has absolutely no authority over them; Mrs Banks in the first book has only recently had the twins and is rarely mentioned. The fathers seem to have no involvement with the children at all.

With nannies being less and less common for middle class families, there remains a problem of obtaining suitable childcare where one parent staying at home is an impossible dream. Who, then, steps in to look after the children? In  Granny Nothing by Catherine McPhail there is Sue, the  mean, reality TV obsessed nanny of the McAllister children (Stephanie, Ewen and Baby Thomas), whose parents are too busy to see that they are miserable. Then in the middle of a dark and stormy night Granny Nothing arrives, the mysterious mother of narrator Stephanie's father.

Mr McAllister is ashamed of his eccentric, fat, untidy mother, and initially only Thomas sees the good in her. However, as she helps the children deal with such threats as scary dogs and bullies, she wins over Stephanie, Ewen and their school friends, and ultimately is the conduit for Nanny Sue's downfall. While perhaps not magical, she certainly has special powers and is incredibly strong. According to Strident Publishing, the book was reissued due to popular demand from teachers, librarians and children, and I can quite see why: I read it on a train journey, and it is lucky my train could go no further without going into the sea, as I was enjoying it so much I would certainly have missed my stop!

Imagine a cross between Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and Jane Eyre, and that would give you an idea of how engrossing and enjoyable the first book in  Maryrose Wood's The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series is. Miss Penelope Lumley is 15 years old, and having completed her studies at Agatha Swanburne's Academy for Poor Bright Females, she is summoned to an interview at Ashton Place, the home of Lord and Lady Ashton. She is expecting a rigorous interview, and is instead surprised to find Lady Constance begging her to stay. However, unline the young Browns or Banks, Alexander, Beowulf and Cassiopeia Incorrigible are not naughty; they were discovered in the forests surrounding Ashton Place, apparently raised by wolves and with an unfortunate fascination with squirrels. As many teachers have asked themselves, what does one do with a child who growls in public? Penelope does incredibly well until, at one of the most hilarious Christmas parties I have ever read about, events come to a head and the mystery is at least partially explained; of course, there is a sequel...

With the exception of The Incorrigibles, I would suggest that these books could be read with great pleasure to 6 years +, read alone from 7-8 years, depending on the child's confidence. I would read The Incorrigibles to 8 year olds, but I think the humour and sophistication would be best appreciated by 9 years + (and stolen by parents and older siblings!)

Everyday Magic

Elisabeth Beresford died on Christmas Eve. A prolific children's author, she was most famous as creator of The Wombles novels, which later became a BBC tv show. I had forgotten that she wrote a series of novels before she created The Wombles (apparently so named because her children were running on Wimbledon Common after a long car journey and her small daughter called it Wombledon Common), the Magic books, until I saw Neil Gaiman's comment on Twitter wondering why they weren't more popular. So I ordered some books from Amazon (second hand- sadly they're all out of print), and have been enjoying them.

Travelling Magic was the first in the series, first published in 1965. My Target edition is from 1973, with lovely 1960s cross-hatched illustrations by Judith Valpy. It is the story of Marcus and Kate, who have to go to stay in a boarding house in a London suburb (I deduce that it is Wandsworth since it has the river Wandle flowing through it and a common) during a school holiday, possibly October half term although this isn't made explicit. Their mother is dead and their father has had to go to Istanbul for his work. Mrs Button, the landlady, and her daughter do their best to make the house welcoming for the children and their two other lodgers, Mr Snip and Mr Trevillick, but they and the area have come down in the world, and what was once a desirable area has become more and more urbanised- a block of flats is being built nearby, and a shared area at the back of the gardens has become a dumping ground. On their first night in the house, Marcus is awoken by a noise at his bedroom window- an owl is trying to get in. The children discover that he is a Latin-speaking owl, the guide of Mr Trevillick, who is a trainee magician from the 6th Century, who has travelled forward in time to gather information to present to the council so that he can join the Magician's Guild. He has received a travelling scholarship to study Housing, Travel and Food, with Horace the Owl to act as his guide. However, Horace has become too old, and far too grumpy, to be much use, so the children agree to help. Horace is a lovely example of an obstructive magic creature- he speaks Latin, and calls Marcus "simplicitus".

After adventures involving travelling through the wasteground at the back of the house (which is in fact a time-travel portal), travelling back to Mr Snip's youth, making him much happier and witnessing the statue of Boadicea (sic) on the Thames Embankment coming alive, Mr Trevillick casts a spell, making the Button's road a prime spot for redevelopment, enabling them and the old people from the Laurel's old people's home (where Mr Snip was about to move) to live more comfortably.

Awkward Magic is the second of the Magic books.

This is about Joe, a boy living with a foster mother in Brighton, since his mother is dead and his father is in the Army. On his way home from school for the summer holidays, he rescues what he thinks is a dog being hurt by two boys. It turns out to be a talking Griffin, travelled from the Ancient World to find a mysterious treasure that has been lost. Joe and his friend Grace assist the Griffin, whose magical powers enable them to have adventures, including finding and riding on a magic carpet. Along the way they make friends with Mr Wilkins, a washing machine salesman whose real passion is antiques, and it is through him that the unexpected treasure is found in the most unexpected place. Joe is well drawn, and he is a likeable boy. Beresford explicitly points out the development in his character as the story progresses- he has become much more self confident through his involvement in the Griffin's quest. Grace, however, is less well drawn. She conceals her real circumstances as a plot device, but this leaves her as a rather shadowy sidekick. Mrs Chatter, Joe's foster mother, jars rather for the 21st century reader- she reminds me of the comic char lady from a 1950s Ealing comedy, with her obsession with owning a washing machine and her enjoyment of watching the upper classes going in and out of the Regal Splendide Hotel.

The books have similarities- a light, comical touch, and the use of fantasy and magic is believable, as Beresford uses it to enhance everyday occurances rather than create extraordinary events. They are reminiscent of Edith Nesbit in this; for example The Story of the Amulet, where the juxtaposition of the Queen of Babylon with contemporary London is used to great comic effect. The character of the Griffin is reminiscent of the Psammead or the Phoenix from Nesbit's novels; he is vain and autocratic, and has great difficulty in understanding contemporary life. Both authors use parental absence to enable the children to have the freedom to pursue their adventures, and while magic causes them inconvenience or embarrassment, they are never in danger. Eventually magical agency allows the children what they really want: to be reunited with their parents.

I find it interesting that Beresford's novels are of fantasy in a distinctly urban environment; Travelling Magic in south west London, and Awkward Magic in a very clearly described Brighton. Joe and Mrs Chatter live in Kemp Town, the children visit the Brighton Museum, Royal Pavillion and the Lanes in the search for the lost treasure. There is a very funny scene in a department store. By contrast, Beresford's most well known contemporaries (for example Alan Garner, Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander) tended to set fantasy novels in the countryside or small towns. These novelists tend to have a mentoring adult to help the child protagonists in their quest- a Merlin figure. However, Kate, Marcus, Grace and Joe are the voice of reason, and the most knowledgable characters involved in the task or quest the magical character is involved in. Again this is reminiscent of Nesbit's comic fantasy, rather than the high fantasy genre that the other novelists espoused.

I have Sea Green Magic still to read. The blurb explains that it is the story of three children who find a djinn (genie) inside an old bottle, where it has been imprisoned for four hundred years. I fully expect it to be as enjoyable as the other two books. I would recommend these novels; they are great fun to read, and in my opinion although they are not completely successful (the endings in particular are a little anti-climactic) they stand up against other comic fantasies such as Helen Cresswell's Winklesea novels or Susan Cooper's The Boggart. Snap them up if you see them in a second hand bookshop, and enjoy them.

The Tao of Ged

Once there was a poor boy who was neglected by his family. Strange things started to happen around him, and he was taken in by a man with affinity with the natural world. His powers earned him a place at a school for wizards, a place of esoteric learning and strange rules, where he was teased and humiliated by a boy from a high born family. The boy was impetuous and hot tempered, and well aware of his poor home life, and as a result of using magic in an unauthorised way, called up a dreadful threat which only he could defeat.

 A Wizard Of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin was first published in the UK by Puffin books in 1971, as the rather psychadelic/ pre Raphaelite cover above suggests. This is the cover I remember as a child (I think this was my Mum's book; at any rate it didn't feature in my bedtime stories from my Dad. Maybe he thought it was too scary- but somehow had no compunction about reading the far more gory Hobbit!) I didn't read this as a child. I first read it a couple of years ago. It is a very different beast from the plot-driven fantasy of much popular modern children/ Young Adult fantasy such as Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl or the Lemony Snickett novels (and I don't mean this dismissively- these are all very enjoyable and often challenging reads). But Le Guin is writing in a different era, from a different stand point.

The novel was first published in 1968. This was an era of race riots, Black Power, Vietnam protests, USSR and China testing nuclear weapons, strikes and riots in Europe, hippies, "free love" and women's liberation. Ursula K Le Guin is a feminist, she is concerned with ecological issues and in Taoist philosophy, and these themes are often explored in her novels. Le Guin has stated that she feels that too often Science Fiction is about white men colonising space; she writes specifically from a feminist perspective in her later novels (see The Tombs of Atuan and Tehanu, the fantastically creepy sequels in the Earthsea novels). A huge innovation in her Earthsea novels is the diverse nature of her world; Ged and most other characters are described as having copper skin and black hair (although you wouldn't know it from the cover above or the recent television dramatisation.) Ged's friend Vetch is black. Le Guin drip-feeds this information about her characters throughout the first few chapters; a clever ruse given the year the novel was published in, and clearly sadly the producers of the television series didn't feel that staying true to Le Guin's vision would be popular either with viewers or with advertisers. See Le Guin's comments about this here.

I have stated that this novel is not plot driven, like much modern fantasy. Ged is on a quest, to defeat the evil that he releases due to his vanity and egotism. However, I believe that the novel’s key theme, the necessity for Ged to restore balance to Earthsea and thereby to learn moderation and self-control, are Taoist in origin. His growing maturity is demonstrated in his changing names: he is Duny as a child herding goats, then Sparrowhawk when he is with Ogion before going to school, but his true name is Ged, which must be guarded, for knowing a person’s true name gives the hearer power. (I know very little about American Indian beliefs, but Le Guin’s mother was an anthropologist who wrote a famous book about Ishi, a Yahi  man. I wonder if the idea of the power of names came from her mother’s research.) Ged must learn a dragon’s true name in order to gain power over it, and this section of the novel, where very little action occurs, but a great deal of character progression happens, can be related to the Taoist principle of inaction. Ged must learn to be in harmony with the universe.

A BBC audiodrama was recently repeated on BBC7. It is still available to listen again for a few days, and I strongly recommend it.

Christmas reading, Christmas joy

2010 is the 75th anniversary of a perennial Christmas favourite, The Box of Delights. It was first published in 1935, when author John Masefield was the Poet Laureate, as well as being a respected and popular novelist. (I have never read any of his novels, although I believe Sard Harker is still in print so I hope I'll get round to it some time...) The edition of The Box of Delights I have is Egmont, with colour illustrations by Quentin Blake, who was the first Children's Laureate, which seems appropriate. Blake chose The Box of Delights as one of his favourite children's books  in a poll of children's laureates to celebrate 10 years of the post.

The novel is the sequel to Masefield's 1927 children's novel, The Midnight Folk. In The Box of Delights, Kay Harker (the protagonist of both books) is now about 12, and is a public schoolboy. In the opening chapter he is on his way back from school for the Christmas holidays. He is going to Seekings, his home, and to Caroline Louisa, his governess. On the journey he is joined in his train carriage by a pair of shifty curates, who cheat him at a game of Hunt the Lady and whom he suspects of stealing his purse. He also meets an old Punch and Judy man, Cole Hawlings, and his dog, Barney. Cole gives him a mysterious message to pass on: "the Wolves are Running". At home, he learns that the Jones children are staying for the Christmas holiday- Peter, Jemima, Susan and surely one of the best girl characters in children's fiction, Maria: "I don't know where I've been," Maria said. "I've been scrobbled like a greenhorn. I knew what it would be, not taking a pistol. Well, I pity them if I ever get near them. They won't scrobble Maria Jones again."

Cole Hawlings is not just a Punch and Judy man. At Seekings, he does real magic for the children, and gives Kay his Box of Delights, with which he can go Swift, go Small or go into the past. Kay and the Jones children have some wonderful adventures, including rescuing Caroline Louisa, Cole and the clergy and choir of the Cathedral, who are being held to ransom by the burgling gang led by the wizard Abner Brown, now married to Kay's former governess Sylvia Daisy Pouncer (his adventures leading to their downfall are told in The Midnight Folk).

This is a wonderful book, to be read aloud a chapter a night to listeners in pyjamas drinking hot chocolate before bed, on the twelve days before Christmas Eve. I should think that anyone over 7 would love it. It doesn't matter if you haven't read The Midnight Folk, as the story stands alone. I have only one quibble- the "it was all a dream" ending. The Midnight Folk was content to have magic as the logic behind the talking toys, cats, foxes, witches and Kay's ancestors from the past helping him to find treasure. However, I still love this book, 35 years after my dad first read it to me. I've even ordered the DVD of the BBC series which readers of a certain age might remember, and I am hoping that it arrives before all the snow melts!