The Flash Children

The Flash Children #1

by Mabel Esther Allan

Unsure whether they will like their new home in Cheshire, three children soon become involved with a visually handicapped schoolmate and the restoration of a British manor house.

Genres: Fiction

119 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

A prolific British children's author, who also wrote under the pen-names Jean Estoril, Priscilla Hagon, Anne Pilgrim, and Kathleen M. Pearcey, Mabel Esther Allan is particularly known for her school and ballet stories.

Born in 1915 at Wallasey on the Wirral Peninsula, Allan knew from an early age that she wanted to be an author, and published her first short stories in the 1930s. Her writing career was interrupted by World War II, during which time she served in the Women's Land Army and taught school in Liverpool, but the 1948 publication of The Glen Castle Mystery saw it begin to take off in earnest. Influenced by Scottish educator A.S. Neill, Allan held progressive views about education, views that often found their way into her books, particularly her school stories. She was interested in folk dance and ballet - another common subject in her work - and was a frequent traveler. She died in 1998.

Reviews

[Capn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oxfam Bookshop find (also free to borrow from OpenLibrary!) - I have read many books by this author, and enjoy her works for the vintage content and robustly described settings. 102 pages of light, juvenile escapism and small-scale wish fulfillment (You've just moved with your family to a hideous little cottage in a village outside of Manchester. The views are express-trains-on-viaduct in one direction, and the cooling towers and chimneys of a chemical plant in the other. The only kids for miles around are two mean and ugly kids who bicker and resort to petty sadism for fun. Cue secret Manor House and walled garden behind that viaduct, an artist who sees the beauty of the chemical factory across the Flash, and a handsome age-matched anti-hero with a visual disability).

I'll lean on Louise's excellent review, and just add that I'm waffling between 3 and 4 stars, but will round down to a 3. The story is sweet, there is some character development (a bit pat, though), and yes, the Briggs kids are too good to be true. And the motorcycle gang dealings... not sure I'd have opted for such a solution, myself. Kids with pitchforks... hmm.

[Louise Culmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arthur and Dilys Briggs aren't very happy about having to move from their old home on a Shropshire estate to a much less attractive farm in Cheshire. But they soon become interested in the local countryside, in meeting a local artist, and in trying to make friends with Brian, a boy at their school who suffers from very poor eyesight (as Mabel esther Allan did herself). And the they discover a dilapidated old manor house that the owners are attempting to restore to its former glory, which gives them a project for the summer holidays.
A very enjoyable story with attractive characters and an unusual setting. Arthur and Dilys are perhaps a little too good to be true - are many ten and eleven year olds really that sensible and wise? But like all mabel esther Allan's books, the setting is described so vividly you can see it, the great sheet of water that is the flash, the old manor house in its overgrown garden, even John laurie's paintings are conjured up convincingly. It's what makes her books so fascinating.

[Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really nice book. Good for kids. I give it two thumbs up