The Abbotsbury Ring

by Margaret Greaves, Lazslo J. Acs (Illustrator)

Hardcover

Published May 1, 1979

About the author

Born 1914. Margaret Greaves was educated at St. Hugh's College, Oxford, and taught English in schools and at St. Mary's College of Education, Cheltenham. She died in June 1995

Reviews

[Capn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Selina doesn't expect much from an out-of-season seaside holiday, especially in the company of Colette - who doesn't believe in magic and is afraid of getting her feet wet. But then she picks up the peacock's mysterious golden ring in Abbotsbury Gardens and things begin to happen. She finds that she can talk with animals but learns that it needs more than this to make friends with them. And when she becomes involved in a dramatic kidnapping she discovers that even in Colette there is more than meets the eye . . .
Margaret Greaves' first book for the Pied Piper series has everything from the mystical magic of King Solomon's ring, to the drama of a car chase. It also shows sympathy and insight into a girl's problems of growing up and adjusting to things both real and imaginary.
Illustrated by Laszlo Acs
0416866808

Back cover:

Selina longs for magic and adventure: she encounters a most beautiful peacock and is given a ring - King Solomon's ring - a magic ring; and a dramatic kidnapping and car chase provide her with more adventure than she ever dreamed of . . .
An imaginative and enthralling story with both magic and excitement

Oof. The word 'boilerplate' applies nicely here. This should have been a Target or Armada paperback - I love the cover art and hardcover binding, however: it's the best part. :p

2 is a bit mean, so I'll round up to a 3, seeing as I'm the first to review it. As given above, Selina develops the ability to speak to and with all animals. If only this book was solely focused on that aspect... unfortunately, a good chunk of the time is spent:

- lamenting an April holiday (rather than a summertime one) in Dorset, frequently inclement weather to boot

- having to associate with Mrs Parker, who is the mother of prissy Colette. Mrs Parker is a slightly more vitriolic and judgmental iteration of Hyacinth Bucket (who I find loveable - God bless Patricia Routledge! 95 years old, now!), and is utterly intolerable. There's a lot of her condescension and general venom-spewing to sit through

- being saddled with 4 year old Bouncer (Robert Ferdinand, though that didn't stick) and Jane, whose age I can't seem to find but who must be about five at the oldest... both of them talk like they're two, though, in broken babble and baby-talk, which I found far-fetched

- being saddled with Colette, the only-child, only-wears-dresses, Mummy-says-storybooks-are-stupid, perfectly set curls, girl who is staying next door at the private hotel (not the infinitely more 'common' boarding house Selina's family is in, naturally). The girls are the same age, therefore, have everything in common... an assumption which only adults would be stupid enough to make

- being involved in a jewellery heist, because Selina wasn't believed that she overheard some crooks planning the burglary (no one, of course, believes that she can speak with animals... no one, except perhaps, Arthur*)

Arthur. What a name. (Curse word redacted here) - if Greaves had just run with this character, this story might have been good. Arthur, a bit of a spoiler so stop reading if you're worried, is Mr Parker, Colette's practically mute father, and long-suffering husband of Bitch Queen from Hell Mrs Parker. Was he cursed to marry her? I can only assume... Anyway, mysterious Arthur says little, understands an awful lot (a suspicious amount, really), and is the only sympathetic character in the book. I don't know what he does for work, only that he's "in insurance", which Mrs Parker smugly states. We see little of him and he has virtually no effect on the plot. I think his only major role is to be the person that Selina can knowingly smile at at the conclusion of the story. And that's maddening, because all I wanted in this story was more from Arthur. He reminded me of Merriman in The Dark Is Rising Sequence.

Honestly, the whole burglary plot was very reminiscent of The Catchpole Story in terms of cheap thrills and kidnappings, and I hated that story. The burglars are also similar to the ones in Magic in the Air . . . oh wait, did Magic at Midnight also have a robbery?! I think so - and talking animals, too! There must have been a trend around that time.... anyway, skip all of these. :p

There's NOTHING here about King Solomon, though you think, at the opening, there might be. Nope. Abbotsbury? Why Abbotsbury? Don't know. The back cover blurbs seem to suggest some major personal growth in Selina, but I'm not sure that happens. At least, I was underwhelmed entirely by Selina's conclusions, and even Colette doesn't seem to grow much at all - I mean, she's li'l miss priss and is unlikeable, and then Selina finds that maybe she's not quite as useless as she first judged her to be. That's just normal getting-to-know-somebody stuff, not major character development.

Talking with animals is always a good move, I feel, in juvenile fantasy fiction. But there wasn't much here that was new or exciting or very inspired. Bitchy cats, goofy dogs, daft sheep, noble swans and peacocks, skittish rabbits... sigh. As expected, I guess.

Maybe I'll round this down to 2 after all. It just wasn't very good at all. I don't find Margaret Greaves to be a particulary good writer, but I have read a few of her books and enjoyed them much more than this one. She's not on par with Penelope Lively, for example, but somehow The Abbotsbury Ring occupies the bottom of Greaves' bibliography for me in the same way that The Voyage of QV66 does in Lively's. Both talking animal books, interestingly. ;)