I found the children entirely believable. The writing is excellent it’s the kind of book that is appealing to adults as well as children, with deeper themes of good vs evil that probably wouldn’t be fully appreciated by many children or even younger teens. That’s not the case in this book as they’re up against some dangerous enemies, but this is clearly unusual. The only thing that actually jarred for me was when a sum of a hundred pounds is mentioned towards the end, with the clear implication that it was a very large sum as far as the children were concerned - quick research afterwards told me that it’s roughly equivalent to two thousands pounds in today’s money.Ĭhildren have a great deal of freedom too - the three roam around, not always together, and generally expect to be safe. This book was first published in 1965, so inevitably the surroundings are somewhat dated: cars are old-fashioned, phones are attached to the walls, and middle-class households have someone from the village to cook and clean for them. The children decide, one day, to explore the house and discover a hidden room, and, under the floorboards, an ancient document… this starts them on a quest which is both exciting and extremely dangerous, because there are some ominous and unpleasant people who are searching for the same thing. It’s evident he’s looking for something but he doesn’t tell them what it is. He’s a historian, and often vanishes unexpectedly this holiday is no exception. He’s quite old, but very lively and they like him very much. Uncle Merry isn’t in fact a blood relative, but a kind of adopted uncle, or perhaps a godfather, to the children’s father. They go to stay in a cottage in a Cornish village with their parents, and their Great Uncle Merry. Their ages are not given, but from the pictures and the context, I imagine Simon is about twelve, Jane eleven (we’re told she’s not much younger) and Barney perhaps nine. The story involves three children: Simon, Jane and Barnabas. But when I realised that I had entirely forgotten the storyline, over twenty years later, I thought it time to read it again. However I had not read them again, although my sons re-read them more than once. As far as I remember, I read it aloud to them - a habit we continued until the older one left home - and we liked it so much that we managed to find copies of the other four books in the ‘Dark is Rising’ sequence. I first heard of Susan Cooper when my sons, aged 11 and 9, were given a copy of ‘Over Sea, Under Stone’ by a family whose children had grown up.
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