REVIEW: The Explorer's Son
The Explorer's Son: Theodora Wilson Wilson. The "Boy's Own Paper" Office.
I started reading this because it was the next in the pile, as it were, but it turned out to be a rather seasonal story. Donald Fisher and his mother are renting rooms in a homely farm in the 'Northlands'. Lilla Fisher has stayed there, shunning society and her family, for several years because she refuses to accept that her explorer husband died in a failed Arctic expedition. However, she is starting to think that this reclusive life is bad or limiting for her son, who will not leave her for a good school because of a promise he made to his father. But when he is involved in a ski-ing accident on Christmas Eve, it's an opportunity for his mother to send for her doctor brother-in-law, who brings his eldest son along to confirm that after a little rest, Donald will be fine, and contact with the outside world begins. The focus expands rather from the titular character, covering his more boisterous cousins, who include mischevious twins Kat and Rat, musical Jonathan and impulsive Betsy, the local dale farmers and a mysterious blind man that sailor Benjamin brought home. As with many of the coincidences - some of which are not such strange ones when more of the family history and connections are revealed - you can tell where it's going, and it's no surprised when the long-lost will is found by the twins (of course it is - I'd thought it would be something to do with the fiddle, but it turned out to be somewhere else).
Although the focus is supposedly more boy centric, and intrsting that "The Boy's Own Paper" had no problem with publishing such a book by an authoress, it's really a family book, with some sentimentality in the theme of reuinisting families. There's some fun and humour, with lots of interest in Arctic exploring. There's also a north and southy theme, with the hard, healthy, outdoor country life in the dale contrasted with southern Goldres' Green, where the Bellmans live. I didn't feel compelled to read it from first page to last without cease, but it was fin, although I've found the other books by her that I've read more engrossing.
And as I probably shan't have a chance to do this: Merry Christmas to you all! (Happy reading!)
I started reading this because it was the next in the pile, as it were, but it turned out to be a rather seasonal story. Donald Fisher and his mother are renting rooms in a homely farm in the 'Northlands'. Lilla Fisher has stayed there, shunning society and her family, for several years because she refuses to accept that her explorer husband died in a failed Arctic expedition. However, she is starting to think that this reclusive life is bad or limiting for her son, who will not leave her for a good school because of a promise he made to his father. But when he is involved in a ski-ing accident on Christmas Eve, it's an opportunity for his mother to send for her doctor brother-in-law, who brings his eldest son along to confirm that after a little rest, Donald will be fine, and contact with the outside world begins. The focus expands rather from the titular character, covering his more boisterous cousins, who include mischevious twins Kat and Rat, musical Jonathan and impulsive Betsy, the local dale farmers and a mysterious blind man that sailor Benjamin brought home. As with many of the coincidences - some of which are not such strange ones when more of the family history and connections are revealed - you can tell where it's going, and it's no surprised when the long-lost will is found by the twins (of course it is - I'd thought it would be something to do with the fiddle, but it turned out to be somewhere else).
Although the focus is supposedly more boy centric, and intrsting that "The Boy's Own Paper" had no problem with publishing such a book by an authoress, it's really a family book, with some sentimentality in the theme of reuinisting families. There's some fun and humour, with lots of interest in Arctic exploring. There's also a north and southy theme, with the hard, healthy, outdoor country life in the dale contrasted with southern Goldres' Green, where the Bellmans live. I didn't feel compelled to read it from first page to last without cease, but it was fin, although I've found the other books by her that I've read more engrossing.
And as I probably shan't have a chance to do this: Merry Christmas to you all! (Happy reading!)