Jennings Follows a Clue - Second in the series of Jennings Books

This is one of those books I had a friend pick up on a lark, and it turned out to be surprising in a number of ways.  The title sounded like a fun read, and since the publisher was Collins, I knew it was a British book.  However, I was completely unaware that this was actually the second book in an on-going series of tales about a precious young boy named J.C.T. (John Christopher Timothy) Jennings and his best friend, C.E.J. (Charles Edwin Jeremy) Darbishire, who are students at the Linbury Court preparatory school.  The series is authored by Anthony Buckeridge (1912-2004), a British author who is best known for this series, as well as another about another schoolboy named Rex Milligan.  The Jenning series lasted for a total of 24 books, with the first book (Jennings Goes to School) being published in 1950, and the final book (That's Jennings) being published 44 years later in 1994.

 

As I began reading Jennings Follows a Clue, I began to wonder if this be a book a simply read and passed on, as it was not overly exciting.  It begins as simply another book about boys at a prep school and their misadventures as they look for ways to have fun and try desperately to avoid any kind of school work whatsoever.  Jennings and his cohort, Darbishire, are some extremely imaginative children, whether it be playing cops and robbers, spies and thieves, cowboys and Indians, or any other made up adventure.  When Jennings gets a little too rambunctious as a gyro-copter and knocks into Mr. Carter, the teach takes it upon himself to introduce Jennings and a couple of other students to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, reading aloud tales of the great detective.  Little does he know that the reading of this book inspires young Jennings to open up his own detective agency at the school, enlisting Darbishire as his very own "Watson."  Now, if they could only find a real mystery to solve...

 

 While the book has a slow start to it, the reader quickly begins to realize the story is more than just a tale of boys' life at a prep school - it is almost an Airplane! or Naked Gun or Scary Movie version of boys' life.  The number of crazy circumstances, the number of bumbling comedy of errors, and the number of Abbott-and-Costello-like dialogue exchanges will more than make you smile, and pretty often make you giggle and laugh out loud.  Jennings and Darbishire are right there at the middle of everything, and despite all of their best intentions, their over-active imaginations lead them into one big mess after another.  The Headmaster, Mr. Carter, and Mr. Wilkins all attempt to reign the boy in, but with Jennings, there is simply no controlling the boy!  He is determined to be a detective, and with Darbishire at his side, the Linbury Court Detective Agency (or Ln. Ct. Det. Ag., for short) is going to solve every mystery the school has to offer - and as luck would have it, one does fall right into their laps, even if no one believes them.

 

The boys make their share of mistakes trying to find a mystery, but when they spot the shadow of a man in the infirmary late at night, when no one is supposed to be there, they believe they are on to something.  They keep their suspicions under wraps, Jennings determined to get real evidence of a thief before they present it to the Headmaster; and with the big Sports Day games coming up, the Ln. Ct. Det. Ag. have very little free time to devote to their detecting.  One fateful night, they chance to see the intruder again, so they sneak over to the infirmary to catch the man in the act - only, the tables get turned, and they are the ones caught instead - locked inside a room while the thief gets away!  At first, the Headmaster does not believe their story, until they return to the school and find that someone has stolen all of the boys' Sports Day trophies from the library!  The game is now afoot, and unwittingly (or, perhaps we should say, dimwittedly!), Jennings and Darbishire follow up on their one clue - a button torn from the thief's shirt - to track down and ultimately unmask the crook.  (And if you pay attention while reading the book, you'll be able to spot the thief fairly easily - but blink, and you might miss it!)

 

Now, there are some things worth mentioning about the story, particularly the time of year.  On the very first page of the first chapter, the author describes "the grumbling February sky" (p. 9), yet, just before that, indicates that this takes place "[d]uring the first half of the Easter term" (p. 9).  This seems rather odd, since Easter normally takes place between March 22 and April 25, and it never falls in February.  So, perhaps the reference to "Easter term" is actually just another way of describing the "Spring term" for the school?  Next, the author makes a passing reference to "Dick Barton" (p. 50), when Jennings suggests to Darbishire that they will hail the next car and ask the driver to follow the one they are chasing, because "[t]hat's what 'Dick Baron' does anyway, and it always works" (p. 50).  I looked it up, and it seems Dick Barton was a radio-serial about a special agent that used to be broadcast on the BBC between 1946 and 1951 - and since this book was first published in 1951, it would have been right around the time that serial was coming to an end (but clearly, young boys like Jennings and Darbishire would still have listened to the stories and be familiar with the character).

 

In addition, readers get a brief lesson in Latin, when the boys are in class, using the pronouns hic, haec, hoc as sound effects for their imaginary plane battle - which comes to an abrupt end when the teacher enters the room, albeit Jennings misses the queue and keeps his "gun" firing:  "Hic-haec-hoc ... hic-haec-hoc ... hic-haec-hoc ... B-A-N-G!" (p. 181).   They jokingly utilize  the feminine ablative, accusative singular, genitive plural, and other variations of the words in their battle, naming their conjugations as they bleat them out in their fantasy battle.  I found this to be an ingenuious way of the author to insert a bit of actual learning into the story.

 

I am not sure who did the cover art  for this edition, but it is a beautiful, wrap-around scene that depicts the opening sequence, when Jennings and Darbishire are attempting to play a quiet game of chess while all the other boys in their grade (or "form," as it is referred to in the book) are wildly engaged in noisy activities, one of which sends a boxing glove right into the chessboard, knocking over all of our main characters' pieces.

 

While I ultimately enjoyed the story, and found a number of conversations to be very much along the lines of the 1980s and 1990s parody films, I am unlikely to search out any other books in the series.  A quick glance at the list of books on the back inside flap of the dust jacket reveals that this book appears to be the only one with any sort of mystery to it. All of the other books appear to be simply tales of Jennings' life at the boarding school and the various misadventures he and Darbishire find themselves in time and time again.  These are not my typical reading material, and so this is just a one-off that will find itself on my shelf of British children's books, never to have any of the other books in its series around it.

 

RATING:  7 Grossman Cine Camera de Luxes out of 10 for a slapstick style misadventure filled with plenty of misunderstandings, crack comments, and a touch of mystery. 

 

The Summer of the Great Secret - the second Romney Marsh story

I honestly cannot recall where I got this particular book - I think, perhaps, it was a book my friend picked up at a library book sale at the library where she works (but I cannot guarantee that).  However this book came to be in my possession, I can say it was the title that caught my attention.  Obviously, based on the publisher (Collins), I knew it was going to be a British publication, and, therefore, the story was likely to be set in England (and it was).  The edition I have is from the early 1960s, but a little research online reveals the story was first published back in 1948 - which does explain some of the questions I had regarding the girls' complete lack of knowledge regarding film making in the story.  I also discovered that this book is actually the second in a series of stories by author Monica Edwards (I'll get more into that later...)

 

The Summer of the Great Secret reads almost like a mish-mash of various series book stories.  It's a story about a girl's love of horses and an accident that leaves her unable to walk and possibly never ride again; it's also the story of a group of smugglers who are accidentally revealed by two young girls playing around on an old, weathered shipwreck; in addition, it's the story of a town excited about a film crew coming to make a movie in their sleepy little village; if that weren't enough, there's also a short tale of a haunted house; and it's the story of a mysterious greasy man whose true intentions are suspect.  While these four stories may sound completely unrelated, author Monica Edwards manages to weave them all together in one somewhat enjoyable story.  (No, it's not the most exciting book I've ever read, but it does have some good moments and fun adventures in it, and the movie making scenes remind me much of the Moving Picture Girls books.)

 

The main characters in the book are Tamzin Grey and Charissa ("Rissa") Birnie, best friends who share a love of horses and a sense of adventure.  While swimming in the bay, they decide to jump off the wreckage of an old ship that had long ago come to rest on the shore - but Rissa accidentally falls through the deck into the level below, where the girls unexpectedly find boxes of liquor and perfume!  Realizing the ship was being used as a hiding place for smugglers, the girls soon learn that the smugglers are none other than men in the village with whom they are very familiar.  They promise to keep the secret, even from their own parents, and soon become messengers of sort for the criminal fishermen.  While this story is developing, readers learn that Lesley Frampton, a friend of Tamzin and Rissa, is out west, recovering from an injury that has left her paralyzed.  Lesley is set to come back for a visit, and she is anxious to see her pony, Cascade, who now belongs to Tamzin.  Ultimately, it is this visit and Cascade who give Lesley the fire to walk again!

 

The book weaves back and forth among the various plots, an an incident with a car being caught in the high tide leads to the girls meeting a movie producer - a producer who comes back to their small town because his film studio wants to do a movie there.  Tamzin's father, who is the town vicar, is called upon as a historical advisor for the film, and Tamzin, Rissa, and even Cascade are all given parts in the film!  Of course, while all of this is going on, the authorities have also come to town, looking to smoke out the smugglers.  Tamzin and Rissa keep their word and say nothing (which is a bit on the unbelievable side, as the authorities do not take any action against the girls, even though both admit they know the smugglers, but will not give up their names - in the real world, they would tell or face some severe consequences!).  Along the way, a "greasy man" as Tamzin describes him comes to town looking for information on the smugglers - his identity, and his fate, are ultimately revealed to be something less than stellar by the end of the book.  (And why is it that villains are never described as handsome or beautiful; they are also greasy with horrific facial features?)

 

The book is illustrated by Anne Bullen, who provides 19 internal line illustrations (nearly one for every chapter).  Bullen is known for illustrating books about ponies, but she and her husband also bred ponies.  Her illustrative work was mostly for Collins.  She did the full colour dust jackets for the first four books by Monica Edwards, but I can't be sure she provided the art for the edition that I have (1963), as the book gives no credit to the cover artist.  Apparently, though, Edwards was not overly thrilled with the humans in Bullen's illustrations, and after The Midnight Horse, published in 1949, Edwards' books were illustrated by a different artist.  (Anne Bullen, Artist)

 

The book has gone through several editions over the years, and with it, the cover art has changed (although three out of the four covers focus on Tamzin and her horse, Cascade - the fourth book features the smuggling aspect of the story).  My edition, the first cover shown above, has both Tamzin and Rissa - Tamzin wth her horse, Rissa with her bicycle. Another edition features the two girls with Cascade, with another has Rissa with a chestnut colored pony.  The later, paperback Armada printing has Tamzin and Rissa coming out of the boat with one of the smugglers helping them up onto the wharf.  

 

Now, with respect to the series of which this book is a part, it turns out Edwards wrote fifteen books in a series of novels about "Romney Marsh."  The first book, Wish for a Pony, was published in 1947 (one year before the original publication of this one), and features Tamzin and Rissa in their first adventure.  As the series progresses, the characters age and are joined by other new characters, and by book fifteen, the stories become much more mature in nature (as the last book deals with one of Tamzin's friends becoming blind and having to deal with the emotional trauma associated therewith).  Apparently the stories are based upon real people in Edwards' life (Tamzin's father being based upon Edwards' father, who was a reverend) and the locations were very real, simply renamed.  While this story was somewhat enjoyable, I don't know that I will actively seek out the other books in the series - if I happen across one, I might pick it up if the price is right; otherwise, this is not a series for which I am anxious to read all the books.

There is one horrible thing that occurs in the book that I simply could not overlook.  One of the smugglers, Jim, has a cat in his home that gives births to kittens.  He offers them to Tamzin and Rissa, and while Rissa declines, Tamzin agrees to take the one tiger-colored kitten.  The remaining kittens?  Well, Jim tosses them out into bay and drowns them all!  I could not believe such a thing would be written into a children's story.  Researching the matter online, it seems back in the day this was a fairly common practice to keep the population of unwanted, stray kittens and puppies down.  I just cannot even imagine such a thing!  Definitely did not raise my opinion of this book by any means... 

 

RATING:  7 cat-related advertisements for fertilizer out of 10 for managing to mix smugglers, ghosts, filmmakers, and sleazy criminals into one story and keeping it coherent enough to read!