"Over Sea Under Stone" by Susan Cooper

The first novel in the series The Dark is Rising.

It was rather stereotyped. Three polite and well-brought-up middle-class kids come to Cornwall for their holidays, staying in an old house in a fishing village. Their parents (a doctor and an artist natch) more or less leave them to their own devices. They discover, in the loft, an old parchment and a map; there seems to be some suggestion of King Arthur. There are sinister people in the village including a clearly lower-class boy. Their mysterious great uncle, known as 'The Professor' looks after them. It's very reminiscent of the Famous Five. There's even a dog!

It became quite exciting towards the end and there were some moments of great description:

• "The end of the headland, rocky and grey, stretched out far beyond them into the sea, and sweeping towards it the land looked immensely solid, as if it were all rock and the soil above it no more than a skin." (Ch 7)
• "it was easy to scramble from one grey jagged ridge to the next, skirting the small pools where anemones spread their tentacles like feathered flowers among seaweed leaves, and shrimps darted transparent to and fro." (Ch 13)

It was well-paced and easy to read. It is aimed at young children. IO have always liked this sort of book in which mysterious and mystic forces intrude upon everyday life. But this wasn't a patch on Alan Garner's work (eg The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and its sequel The Moon of Gomrath, and especially Red Shift and the superb The Owl Service).

Selected quotes:

• "A part of him which had not quite gone to sleep at all was warning him of some danger very near." (Ch 9)

November 2023

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God