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The Changes Trilogy #2
Hearts-ease
At a future time in England when anyone knowledgeable about machines is severely punished as a witch, four children dare to aid in the escape of a "witch" left for dead.
235 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1969
4 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
About the author
Peter Dickinson
142 books156 followersPeter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE FRSL was a prolific English author and poet, best known for children's books and detective stories.
Peter Dickinson lived in Hampshire with his second wife, author Robin McKinley. He wrote more than fifty novels for adults and young readers. He won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Award twice, and his novel The Blue Hawk won The Guardian Award in 1975.
Peter Dickinson lived in Hampshire with his second wife, author Robin McKinley. He wrote more than fifty novels for adults and young readers. He won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Award twice, and his novel The Blue Hawk won The Guardian Award in 1975.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 5, 2015
The Apocalypse! Now! With English Children on Ponies!
Five years after the Changes affected England, the new way of life seems almost normal to children who were very young when the shift occurred. Margaret rarely thinks about how things used to be, and she shares the antipathy to and suspicion of technology and machines that has come over Britain, although she doesn't feel it as strongly as some do.
When a foreign 'witch' (actually an American intelligence agent) that her village stoned turns out to be still alive, Margaret and her brother Jonathan decide to rescue him in secret. Otto is in bad shape and partially paralyzed, but with the help of the woman who's been working for the family as a servant, Lucy, and her mentally-disabled brother Tim, a conspiracy to save Otto and get him back to his people unfolds.
In many ways, the way the story progresses, with a focus on young people independently using their ingenuity to solve problems, especially problems involving ponies and boats (the rescue plan involves a getaway in a vintage tugboat), the book reads a bit like a darker, post-apocalyptic 'Swallows and Amazons.'
The authorial standpoint on the events depicted in the book is... odd. I can't quite put my finger on it. On the one hand, this new England, yanked back into a pre-Industrial era, is horrific. It is one where strangers are stoned to death without question; where children fear, with justification, that their own families will kill them if they are caught breaking the rules, where people truly believe they're doing something charitable by keeping a mentally-disabled person in a shed like an animal.
Our main characters clearly see all these things as wrong - but they're awfully, and inexplicably, willing to forgive people their faults and try to see the best in them. Even the nasty village 'witch-hunter' who causes people's deaths and psychologically terrorizes their beloved aunt, is portrayed sort of like a cranky but lovable neighbor.
At the same time, while the faults of this society are noted, but to a degree, minimized, we have the portrayal of Jonathan, who's mechanically inclined and is attracted, rather than repulsed by technology (It seems the Changes just haven't affected him for some unknown reason). While Jonathan is bright, ingenious and has a moral compass, at the same time he's portrayed as being quite uncaring and callous toward living things, especially animals.
It's an interesting dichotomy that's set up, but I don't think the book uses or explores it as well as it could have. An opportunity to give the reader an outside viewpoint is missed, by giving the American Otto very little dialogue. And I felt like the ending was rather a cop-out (and for that matter, nearly the same cop-out that Dickinson uses in 'The Devil's Children.')
Now, this is clearly intentional. Dickinson seems to be saying that without a misled and violent leader swaying people's minds, cooler heads might prevail. However, I'm still not sure that the events as shown in these books fully bolster that statement. I felt the books are too quick to shift the culpability for truly horrific actions onto others. The book uses the Changes (a possibly magical and inexplicable outside influence) as a device to say that people may not be fully responsible for their own actions - and to me, that puts the whole narrative on a weird and shifting footing.
I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing - there's a lot of food for thought here, and it's very refreshing to see complex issues without easy answers in a book intended for young people. Too many books published today lack anything of the sort. However, I still feel that the book could have done a bit more with these issues.
A re-read - I read and enjoyed this book more than once as a child, but long enough ago that I remembered few of the details.
Five years after the Changes affected England, the new way of life seems almost normal to children who were very young when the shift occurred. Margaret rarely thinks about how things used to be, and she shares the antipathy to and suspicion of technology and machines that has come over Britain, although she doesn't feel it as strongly as some do.
When a foreign 'witch' (actually an American intelligence agent) that her village stoned turns out to be still alive, Margaret and her brother Jonathan decide to rescue him in secret. Otto is in bad shape and partially paralyzed, but with the help of the woman who's been working for the family as a servant, Lucy, and her mentally-disabled brother Tim, a conspiracy to save Otto and get him back to his people unfolds.
In many ways, the way the story progresses, with a focus on young people independently using their ingenuity to solve problems, especially problems involving ponies and boats (the rescue plan involves a getaway in a vintage tugboat), the book reads a bit like a darker, post-apocalyptic 'Swallows and Amazons.'
The authorial standpoint on the events depicted in the book is... odd. I can't quite put my finger on it. On the one hand, this new England, yanked back into a pre-Industrial era, is horrific. It is one where strangers are stoned to death without question; where children fear, with justification, that their own families will kill them if they are caught breaking the rules, where people truly believe they're doing something charitable by keeping a mentally-disabled person in a shed like an animal.
Our main characters clearly see all these things as wrong - but they're awfully, and inexplicably, willing to forgive people their faults and try to see the best in them. Even the nasty village 'witch-hunter' who causes people's deaths and psychologically terrorizes their beloved aunt, is portrayed sort of like a cranky but lovable neighbor.
At the same time, while the faults of this society are noted, but to a degree, minimized, we have the portrayal of Jonathan, who's mechanically inclined and is attracted, rather than repulsed by technology (It seems the Changes just haven't affected him for some unknown reason). While Jonathan is bright, ingenious and has a moral compass, at the same time he's portrayed as being quite uncaring and callous toward living things, especially animals.
It's an interesting dichotomy that's set up, but I don't think the book uses or explores it as well as it could have. An opportunity to give the reader an outside viewpoint is missed, by giving the American Otto very little dialogue. And I felt like the ending was rather a cop-out (and for that matter, nearly the same cop-out that Dickinson uses in 'The Devil's Children.')
Now, this is clearly intentional. Dickinson seems to be saying that without a misled and violent leader swaying people's minds, cooler heads might prevail. However, I'm still not sure that the events as shown in these books fully bolster that statement. I felt the books are too quick to shift the culpability for truly horrific actions onto others. The book uses the Changes (a possibly magical and inexplicable outside influence) as a device to say that people may not be fully responsible for their own actions - and to me, that puts the whole narrative on a weird and shifting footing.
I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing - there's a lot of food for thought here, and it's very refreshing to see complex issues without easy answers in a book intended for young people. Too many books published today lack anything of the sort. However, I still feel that the book could have done a bit more with these issues.
A re-read - I read and enjoyed this book more than once as a child, but long enough ago that I remembered few of the details.
November 21, 2023
I'm not quite sure about why Dickinson wrote (or at least published) this trilogy in reverse order. Maybe he wrote a good story and then found he had no way to take it forward, so he was obliged to look behind. Anyway, this is another good story, though it's of different kind (and Dickinson makes note of this), because the world of the first book included magic and this one does not.
June 10, 2021
So much better than the first one. Now my re-read is stalled because I have to wait for 3rd book to arrive in the post.
April 15, 2009
This is the second book in Dickinson's Changes trilogy. The first book, The Devil's Children, took place immediately after the Changes that caused almost all inhabitants of England to hate and fear machinery. Now, in Heartsease, England has been plunged deeply into a pre-industrial state, and all complex machines are regarded as the work of the devil. This spells bad news for an American who's been sent into the country to investigate the Changes; he is stoned as a witch and left to die. Fortunately, he is rescued by two children -- but now they must all find a way to leave the country, because if the kids are found out, they could all be killed.
This is an excellent adventure story, and I loved the way that Dickinson slowly lets hints about what might have caused the Changes, how the outside world is reacting, and the ways the Changes may be reversed, filter into the plot. I'm looking forward to reading the final book in the trilogy. I also think it would be kind of cool to see these books revived -- I think they're out of print now -- but I haven't come across new editions.
This is an excellent adventure story, and I loved the way that Dickinson slowly lets hints about what might have caused the Changes, how the outside world is reacting, and the ways the Changes may be reversed, filter into the plot. I'm looking forward to reading the final book in the trilogy. I also think it would be kind of cool to see these books revived -- I think they're out of print now -- but I haven't come across new editions.
March 6, 2019
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This second book in the Changes Trilogy is set five years after the first, but follows a different set of characters. The Changes have become more grounded is this book and there is a whole generation emerging for whom this life is becoming the norm.
The society is one built on fear. When an American spy is caught, he is stoned as a Witch and left for dead. A couple of youngster conspire to help him escape from Britain, still mysteriously the only country affected by this apocalypse.
I liked this part a bit better than the first. It felt less dated, and the world seemed a little bit more explained, although many questions remain. The story is also rather concise, since it is not very long and like I noticed in The Devil's Children, the book has a very closed and neat end, which seemed a bit too simple after what happens in the book.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
This second book in the Changes Trilogy is set five years after the first, but follows a different set of characters. The Changes have become more grounded is this book and there is a whole generation emerging for whom this life is becoming the norm.
The society is one built on fear. When an American spy is caught, he is stoned as a Witch and left for dead. A couple of youngster conspire to help him escape from Britain, still mysteriously the only country affected by this apocalypse.
I liked this part a bit better than the first. It felt less dated, and the world seemed a little bit more explained, although many questions remain. The story is also rather concise, since it is not very long and like I noticed in The Devil's Children, the book has a very closed and neat end, which seemed a bit too simple after what happens in the book.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
June 18, 2015
I read this as a kid and remember very little about it.
April 28, 2024
I was leant this by a friend after I mentioned I was reading a lot of children's books that I had missed as a youngster. Without the slightest idea of what it was about I plunged in only to be somewhat perplexed by an early mention of petrol in what seemed to be a rural medieval setting in England. As the plot slowly revealed itself, I caught up with the premise that underpinned the story. England had been beset by the "Changes" 5 years earlier, with the population having developed an unexplained hatred and fear of machines and technology. Machines are left rusting away in barns and fields, and the people farm the land using methods of centuries past. Jo and Margaret, two cousins, rescue a so called "witch" who has been stoned, and keep him in a barn for some weeks while they hatch a plan to get him out of England. Meanwhile they have to dodge the head "witch" hunter, and leader of their village, Mr Gordon. Detection would mean punishment for them all. With the assistance of the family's servant, Lucy and her disabled brother Tim, who becomes the "witch" Otto's devoted protector, the group escape on a barge in pacy and exciting race against time. While Jo provides the brains of the outfit, Margaret is the key to getting the barge through the numerous closed bridges as she rides ahead on her beloved horse, Scrub, to open the way. Margaret is an atypical female character, as in many children's novels of this era, girls are apt to be characterised as the sensible ones who act as a brake on their brothers' more madcap and courageous schemes. This was one of the main strengths of Heartsease for me. Disappointingly, the witch, Otto, had little role in the adventure, and there was no exploration of why he had been stoned, beyond being a spy from America. I think there was another story waiting to be developed there. Despite my usual struggle with visualising maps and geographical features as they are described in most children's books, I really enjoyed the race down the river with the descriptions of hawsers, stanchions, capstans and other boating terms that sent me to the internet more than once. It's an enjoyable tale of resourcefulness, courage and ingenuity and I would thoroughly recommend it.
September 15, 2022
I read this book many decades ago and was curious to give the entire Changes trilogy a re-read to see how it stacked up after all these years. I remembered the finale to the series - vaguely, as it turned out - but very little of the first in the series and almost nothing of this one. Strange, since I eventually pinched the title for my email address. (Though, admittedly, the flower heartsease did have a fair bit of input into that decision as well.)
I was reminded during the reading of a quote from a woman, Katia, who'd survived Auschwitz. She spoke of witnessing a fight between two sisters, one of whom wrenched a blanket away from the other with the words, "I must survive." Katia reflected: "Auschwitz didn't change people. It revealed what was deep inside."
The story of Margaret and her brother Jonathan as they save a "witch" and take on the terrifying mindset of their own village, led by Mr Gordon, reflects that thought of Katia's. And of Peter Dickinson. The Changes with their reversion to a pre-technological age accompanied by an obsessive fear of machines didn't so much alter people as reveal what was deep inside. Mr Gordon's viciousness and his mesmeric inquisitorial behaviour didn't come out of nowhere: it was hidden below an apparently civilised exterior.
Margaret and Jonathan have both broken slightly free of the fear of machines. They rescue a "witch" - actually an American agent sent into Britain to try to understand why no technology works within its boundaries and society has reverted to the Dark Ages. As the "witch" ever so slowly recovers, Margaret and Jonathan have to increasingly rely on servants they'd looked down on in the recent past. Finding a tugboat, Heartsease, they realise it's a way of escape for the "witch", for their servant-friends who are under increasing suspicion from Mr Gordon, and for Jonathan who has started to remember a love of machines. But getting the old tugboat going and then out the locks to the sea will put them all in danger.
I was reminded during the reading of a quote from a woman, Katia, who'd survived Auschwitz. She spoke of witnessing a fight between two sisters, one of whom wrenched a blanket away from the other with the words, "I must survive." Katia reflected: "Auschwitz didn't change people. It revealed what was deep inside."
The story of Margaret and her brother Jonathan as they save a "witch" and take on the terrifying mindset of their own village, led by Mr Gordon, reflects that thought of Katia's. And of Peter Dickinson. The Changes with their reversion to a pre-technological age accompanied by an obsessive fear of machines didn't so much alter people as reveal what was deep inside. Mr Gordon's viciousness and his mesmeric inquisitorial behaviour didn't come out of nowhere: it was hidden below an apparently civilised exterior.
Margaret and Jonathan have both broken slightly free of the fear of machines. They rescue a "witch" - actually an American agent sent into Britain to try to understand why no technology works within its boundaries and society has reverted to the Dark Ages. As the "witch" ever so slowly recovers, Margaret and Jonathan have to increasingly rely on servants they'd looked down on in the recent past. Finding a tugboat, Heartsease, they realise it's a way of escape for the "witch", for their servant-friends who are under increasing suspicion from Mr Gordon, and for Jonathan who has started to remember a love of machines. But getting the old tugboat going and then out the locks to the sea will put them all in danger.
January 20, 2018
Five years after The Changes have left England without all but the simplest machines, a witch is stoned to death in a small village. But a group of kids find he is hanging on to life, and they cook up a scheme to spirit him across the Channel to France, which remains unaffected. Lots and lots of details about canal locks, pulleys, sledges, and other mechanical bits and pieces that some will find fascinating. Well-drawn characters, particularly the technology-obsessed Nicholas and our hero, Margaret,a deft rider who's incredibly brave whether faced with mad bulls or mad dogs.
June 12, 2020
This "second" in the Changes trilogy follows a young girl and her cousin living on a farm in England. When a man stoned for a witch is found by Margaret still alive, she and her cousin Jonathan risk everything to save him. I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first because it involved a lot of boat talk, much of which I couldn't follow but it was still good. The characters are engaging and, as is typical for young adult novels, the teenagers take center stage in a heroic, almost epic way. I was disappointed to not get closure on one of the characters.
December 30, 2025
It is about five years after "The Changes." We find that some people have proven that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Other English children aren't as strongly affected by the technology avoidance. And, sadly, sheltering someone who is mentally-challenged is seen as absurd charity, even when he is kept in the barn. The kindness and heroism of the children is what kept me reading.
October 31, 2025
As a child I loved this Changes Trilogy, where suddenly out of the blue in Britain in the 1970's, everyone takes a violent dislike to modern technology.
September 25, 2019
I enjoyed it but there were a few too many stereotypes for me . . . not enough characterisation.
August 10, 2011
Liked finding out more about life after the Changes - but was disappointed that we didn't really get to know Otto. I suppose we got our ration of the external view of the Changes in The Weathermonger. I have to say the twist at the end is clever, but it left me feeling cheated.
May 2, 2017
When I read this, I didn't realize that it was a trilogy. Normally I like to read books in order. Anyway, it was excellent!
May 22, 2010
I'd give this 3 1/2 stars. Kept me focused on the book throughout.
Want to read
June 5, 2010We actually have the trilogy as one book The Changes: A Trilogy.
Read
October 16, 2017read this as a child and it had a massive impact on me to the point that I still remember it but I want to re read it to see if it still will
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews