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Darnley Mills #3
Sea Peril
Peter Beckford and his friends Arthur and David found themselves with plenty to occupy their minds that summer. There was the search for the remains of a Roman signal-tower which their earnest history master "Sandy" was convinced lay in the vicinity of Lady Bridgebolton's estate--and the difficulty of approaching Lady Bridgebolton, because of Arthur's feud with her; there was the forthcoming County cricket-match, which Arthur was optimistic his team would win with the aid of the "Ramsgill-Frankenstein Secret Weapon"; and, best of all, there was Sea Peril--a battered old punt found in Bos'n Jake's scrap-yard and converted into a paddle-driven houseboat by the ingenuity of Peter and his friends.
- GenresChildrens
205 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1966
14 people want to read
About the author
Philip Turner
86 books4 followersPhilip William Turner is an English author best known for his children's books set in the fictional town of Darnley Mills (1964–1977). Under the pen name Stephen Chance he is known for the Reverend Septimus Treloar mystery fiction series (1971–1979).
For his second novel and second Darnley Mills book, The Grange at High Force, he won the 1965 Carnegie Medal in Literature from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.
Born in British Columbia, Canada on 3 December 1925 to English parents from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, Philip Turner was brought to England in 1926. He was educated at Hinckley Grammar School in Leicestershire and spent many school holidays exploring the East Anglian fens whilst staying with his grandparents.
He served his National Service from 1943 to 1946 as a Sub-Lieutenant Mechanical Engineer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He then resumed his education at Worcester College, Oxford, whence he graduated in 1949. He married Margaret Diana Samson in 1950 with whom he had two sons and a daughter.
He began writing religious pieces in the mid-1950s and also wrote several books for young adults under the name Stephen Chance. The first Septimus book, The Danedyke Mystery (1971), was adapted for television in 1979.
Philip and Margaret lived in West Malvern for 30 years until his death from cancer in January 2006. He is buried at St. Mathias Church, Malvern Link.
For his second novel and second Darnley Mills book, The Grange at High Force, he won the 1965 Carnegie Medal in Literature from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.
Born in British Columbia, Canada on 3 December 1925 to English parents from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, Philip Turner was brought to England in 1926. He was educated at Hinckley Grammar School in Leicestershire and spent many school holidays exploring the East Anglian fens whilst staying with his grandparents.
He served his National Service from 1943 to 1946 as a Sub-Lieutenant Mechanical Engineer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He then resumed his education at Worcester College, Oxford, whence he graduated in 1949. He married Margaret Diana Samson in 1950 with whom he had two sons and a daughter.
He began writing religious pieces in the mid-1950s and also wrote several books for young adults under the name Stephen Chance. The first Septimus book, The Danedyke Mystery (1971), was adapted for television in 1979.
Philip and Margaret lived in West Malvern for 30 years until his death from cancer in January 2006. He is buried at St. Mathias Church, Malvern Link.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 9, 2023
It comes as a shock to remember just how good (and sophisticated) children's books used to be in the days before the 'Young Adult' market was invented, when the readership was not yet assumed to be limited to pre-teens. There is zero hormonal activity in the plot, because it was taken for granted that readers wouldn't be interested in that, but there is social commentary, history, vividly sympathetic depictions of a variety of eccentric adults and their interactions with the sometimes oblivious young (and vice versa), and enough technical explanation to enable you to extract your own punt from a hay loft or create a home-made fridge to keep your butter cool while on a boating holiday!
I came to Philip Turner as a child via an interest in steam engines, and originally devoured "Steam on the Line" and "Devil's Nob" - I was a little disconcerted to realise, looking at the publication dates, that Sir Henry Bridgebolton was actually fleshed out subsequently from the references to an eccentric ancestor in this book, rather than "Sea Peril" giving a nod back to a memorable earlier character. (Especially as one of the locomotives from "Devil's Nob" then actually features in a sequel to this book, evidently written later; on first reading I had no idea the series had been written out of chronological order...)
The highly imaginative David is the main protagonist of the first book, and an understandably useful authorial voice for evoking history; Peter remains something of a generic 'absent-minded Professor' character in this book, remarkable mainly for his inventions and the comic and/or plot potential to be derived therefrom. But it is Arthur who unexpectedly blossoms from his designated role as clown and brawn into a more perceptive role here. (Incidentally, it was "Sea Peril" and Murder Must Advertise that were between them responsible for teaching me almost everything I know about the game and strategy of cricket, a sport we never played at school...)
Archie and his motor cruiser are amazingly reminiscent of Arthur Ransome's Hullabaloos in Coot Club; their modern-day descendants are equally bad boaters but seem less actively malign. I don't know if this was a deliberate caricature on the authors' part of the type of uneducated vulgarian ('White Van Man') who represented the natural social enemy of the literary-minded child who was likely to be reading the book, or if the rivers really were full of homicidally stupid lunatics. I suspect that particular type of entitled menace now drives a 4x4 and takes out his rage on anyone who dares to 'cut him up' on the roads with a lesser vehicle :-(
My overriding impression of the book is that it is astonishingly *intelligent*. The author doesn't write down to his audience at all, and while he is vividly conscious of the difference between the adult and the child mindset and has enlisted himself seamlessly on the side of the latter, he does so with full powers of sophistication and without any attempt to condescend or hold anything back.
This is not the prose of a modern novel aimed at 'children', or for twelve-year-old boys who are deemed to read only reluctantly, if at all, and need to be coaxed into it with 'relevant' language; it's an adult author writing at the height of his powers and doing his audience the honour of taking it for granted that they will readily and gladly follow.
(I'm afraid I really don't like the spider-scribble of Ian Ribbons' pen and ink illustrations in this edition, though!)
I came to Philip Turner as a child via an interest in steam engines, and originally devoured "Steam on the Line" and "Devil's Nob" - I was a little disconcerted to realise, looking at the publication dates, that Sir Henry Bridgebolton was actually fleshed out subsequently from the references to an eccentric ancestor in this book, rather than "Sea Peril" giving a nod back to a memorable earlier character. (Especially as one of the locomotives from "Devil's Nob" then actually features in a sequel to this book, evidently written later; on first reading I had no idea the series had been written out of chronological order...)
The highly imaginative David is the main protagonist of the first book, and an understandably useful authorial voice for evoking history; Peter remains something of a generic 'absent-minded Professor' character in this book, remarkable mainly for his inventions and the comic and/or plot potential to be derived therefrom. But it is Arthur who unexpectedly blossoms from his designated role as clown and brawn into a more perceptive role here. (Incidentally, it was "Sea Peril" and Murder Must Advertise that were between them responsible for teaching me almost everything I know about the game and strategy of cricket, a sport we never played at school...)
Archie and his motor cruiser are amazingly reminiscent of Arthur Ransome's Hullabaloos in Coot Club; their modern-day descendants are equally bad boaters but seem less actively malign. I don't know if this was a deliberate caricature on the authors' part of the type of uneducated vulgarian ('White Van Man') who represented the natural social enemy of the literary-minded child who was likely to be reading the book, or if the rivers really were full of homicidally stupid lunatics. I suspect that particular type of entitled menace now drives a 4x4 and takes out his rage on anyone who dares to 'cut him up' on the roads with a lesser vehicle :-(
My overriding impression of the book is that it is astonishingly *intelligent*. The author doesn't write down to his audience at all, and while he is vividly conscious of the difference between the adult and the child mindset and has enlisted himself seamlessly on the side of the latter, he does so with full powers of sophistication and without any attempt to condescend or hold anything back.
“David went on through the dark churchyard, over the wooden bridge where the beck chuckled unseen beneath him and an owl hooted loud above him somewhere in the starry darkness beyond the black yew-trees. The moon had not yet risen above the horizon of the high moors. But already, like a herald of its coming, the stark shapes of the Black Rocks were sharply outlined: black cut-outs against a sky clear as a blue diamond.”
This is not the prose of a modern novel aimed at 'children', or for twelve-year-old boys who are deemed to read only reluctantly, if at all, and need to be coaxed into it with 'relevant' language; it's an adult author writing at the height of his powers and doing his audience the honour of taking it for granted that they will readily and gladly follow.
(I'm afraid I really don't like the spider-scribble of Ian Ribbons' pen and ink illustrations in this edition, though!)
December 19, 2024
I loved this book--three smart, interesting boys (a farmer's son, a carpenter's son, and a minister's son) making an old punt into a bicycle powered paddlewheel house boat, and setting off up the river to explore for Roman remains, while feuding with an entitled jerk of a motorboat operator. There's more too--walks on the moor (and lovely descriptions of old places), a run-in with local nobility, saving a little girl from drowning, cricket, the deplorable condition of the water supply in a small nearby hamlet, singing in the church choir, remembering Shakespeare quotes, and having fun. I liked the supportive adults, and it made me laugh out loud several times.
I didn't like, though, the motorboat jerk being nicknamed "the Chinese laundryman." The first time he almost capsized the boys, Arthur yells to him that he couldn't even drive a "Chinese laundry cart," and the nickname sticks, and comes up a lot, and felt rascist….So even though there is no explicit rascism, and even though I gave it five stars, it is really 4.8 stars from me.
I didn't like, though, the motorboat jerk being nicknamed "the Chinese laundryman." The first time he almost capsized the boys, Arthur yells to him that he couldn't even drive a "Chinese laundry cart," and the nickname sticks, and comes up a lot, and felt rascist….So even though there is no explicit rascism, and even though I gave it five stars, it is really 4.8 stars from me.
August 26, 2019
I read this book many years ago when I was young, and having obtained all of Philip Turner's children's books on the used market, I have been re-reading them to see if they were still as interesting and enjoyable as I remembered. And they are! In this adventure, the boys introduced in Col. Sheperton's Clock and the Grange At High Force, construct a little houseboat on a punt--a type of flat-bottomed rowboat. Maybe boys of today can't imagine building a boat or in this age of snowflakes and helicopter parents, being allowed to take it on an upriver trip, but I suspect that any boy today would wish he was Peter or David or Hugh! Along with the houseboat punt, the boys also tackle the mystery of a missing Roman watch tower tied into their local history, and interact with a wealthy Lady who owns a large local estate and village, where she refuses to invest in a much needed new sewer system, and her young grand-daughter. In the highlight of the story, the boys wreck their beloved boat saving the young girl, but this serves to breach the gap with the Lady and also solve the mystery of the missing tower. It is a shame Sea Peril is no longer in print, because it is a great boys adventure, a little dated, with some English words and phrases unfamiliar, but in this area of dumbing-down, this book is a great read. If you can find it, and you enjoyed Philip Turner's other books, you will enjoy Sea Peril very much!
April 11, 2021
A "Little Free Library" find; fun read, but not remarkable.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews