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The Whispering Knights
Three children concoct a witch's brew that conjures up Morgan le Fay in the guise of a local tycoon's wife who immediately stirs up trouble in the village
156 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
Penelope Lively
120 books866 followersPenelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger.
Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra’s Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began.
She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List, and DBE in 2012.
Penelope Lively lives in London. She was married to Jack Lively, who died in 1998.
Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra’s Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began.
She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List, and DBE in 2012.
Penelope Lively lives in London. She was married to Jack Lively, who died in 1998.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
June 5, 2016
In the Cotswolds village of Steeple Hampden, Martha, Susie and William, bored in their school holidays, decide to boil up the classic witch’s brew — ‘Eye of newt and toe of frog’ — in a barn supposedly once inhabited by an actual witch. Doing their best with the ingredients (they order a tin of frog’s legs from a London shop, but have to make do with pictures for the more difficult items), they succeed in awakening a long-dormant malevolence, Morgan le Fay. Little more than a vaguely scary force at first, Morgan eventually manifests herself fully and becomes the wife of a local factory owner, whose sudden decision not to sell his factory to make way for a new motorway threatens Steeple Hampden, which is the alternative route. Meanwhile the children are threatened more directly, as Morgan lures dreamy Martha away…
The Whispering Knights starts out a little less serious, and more Famous Five in tone, than Lively’s previous YA book, Astercote. The first half is episodic, with Morgan’s scattered attempts on the three children lasting no more than a chapter each, and being easily dealt with. It’s in the second half that things pick up, with Martha’s kidnap and a chase across a stormy, darkening landscape. There’s a real feeling that genuinely threatening supernatural forces are on the loose, with echoes of the long cross-country chases that make up Alan Garner’s first two books.
Like Astercote, it’s about the anxiety of modern encroachments (motorways, factories) on village life (Morgan’s supernatural evil allies itself with the worst of these forces of modernity). On the one hand, it’s the children’s half-belief in witches that reawakens Morgan — who ‘feeds on credulity’, and so gets her power from people believing in her — but then it’s this same belief that allows them to defeat her when more rational, adult-minded methods (a petition, letters to the local paper) fail. Definitely gets better in the second half, with the writing in chapter 9 (the main chase sequence) being particularly good, both evocative of the English countryside, and of a dark, difficult, isolated chase.
The Whispering Knights starts out a little less serious, and more Famous Five in tone, than Lively’s previous YA book, Astercote. The first half is episodic, with Morgan’s scattered attempts on the three children lasting no more than a chapter each, and being easily dealt with. It’s in the second half that things pick up, with Martha’s kidnap and a chase across a stormy, darkening landscape. There’s a real feeling that genuinely threatening supernatural forces are on the loose, with echoes of the long cross-country chases that make up Alan Garner’s first two books.
Like Astercote, it’s about the anxiety of modern encroachments (motorways, factories) on village life (Morgan’s supernatural evil allies itself with the worst of these forces of modernity). On the one hand, it’s the children’s half-belief in witches that reawakens Morgan — who ‘feeds on credulity’, and so gets her power from people believing in her — but then it’s this same belief that allows them to defeat her when more rational, adult-minded methods (a petition, letters to the local paper) fail. Definitely gets better in the second half, with the writing in chapter 9 (the main chase sequence) being particularly good, both evocative of the English countryside, and of a dark, difficult, isolated chase.
May 28, 2015
Pre-read for my son. Enjoyable ghost story for kids, written by one of my favorite authors, Penelope Lively. Might be a bit too creepy for my son just now, but I think soon he'll be ready for it. Lively based the stones in the book on the Rollright stones, some of which are called The Whispering Knights. Yet another stop to add to my fantasy itinerary of a literary tour of Britain with my son. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollrigh...
April 16, 2020
Our story begins when three youths, William, Martha and Susie, decide to conjure up what they believe to be a witches' brew in an disused barn. What they lack in raw ingredients, they make up for in ingenuity and a strong sense of belief that this will work. Little do they realise that the latter, in some old parts of England, is all you need and unbeknownst to them the dormant and dangerous spirit of Morgan le Fay begins to rise and cause havoc upon the land. Along with the guidance of the mysterious Miss Hepplewhite, it is up to the children to send the spirit back from whence she came before they lose their village and history entirely.
I may have enjoyed The Wild Hunt Of Hagworthymore (perhaps for its more prominent folkloric ties) but this is a still a fine book to the canon of British fantasy. I got the feeling, when reading, that Lively was still finding her feet with regards to resurrecting myth and landscape and time. There is a sense that all the right ingredients are there but they don't quite gel as well as they do with The Ghost of Thomas Kempe but then that's one book that will rightly always been considered her finest work for children.
April 9, 2016
Lively steps definitely into the realm of fantasy here, with good success, although I find it fascinating how much her modern incarnation of Morgan shares with villains of other contemporary British children's books -- clearly there was something going on in Britain at this time about the virtuous middle-classes (hard working, not too much money, shabby houses filled with solid old things) and the evil newly wealthy, with their cars and makeup and designer clothes.
June 24, 2022
This has some great elements typical of Lively stories: shifts in time, elemental magic, powerful sense of place. But the characters aren't as well drawn as in many of her other books, and overall it's not as successful.
June 3, 2014
We read this aloud to our 9 year old, who enjoyed it - a taste of British countryside and some English mythology thrown in. With so much new juvenile fiction available these days, the Whispering Knights moved kind of slowly for her. She's definitely a kid of her time, wanting everything fast, fast, FAST.
December 24, 2019
“Private triumph is often the most satisfactory."
The Whispering Knights has a rather old fashioned feel to it, considering it was written in 1971 (I know, I know, that’s only 48 years ago), but the writing style is reminiscent of Edith Nesbit’s Five Children and It. Our hero and heroines - William, Susie, Martha and Miss Hepplewhite are a deliciously eclectic bunch. William, Susie, and Martha are the archetypal Nesbit influenced country children living in a village threatened by a pale, sleek, stylish, and modern Morgana ale Fey (whom they have accidentally brought to 1970s Britain.) It is a fight between good and evil, between old and new, between small town values and local village grocers count and tobacconists and country buses and old fashioned taffy, and modern highways and tabloid newspapers and fur coats. There is a battle of course, and there is victory. And the world is saved.
I wonder though who Mrs Winifred Williams of a Freeland Primary School was. And why the book is dedicated to her.
Lively is a wonderful writer and this book is Very Satisfactory.
The Whispering Knights has a rather old fashioned feel to it, considering it was written in 1971 (I know, I know, that’s only 48 years ago), but the writing style is reminiscent of Edith Nesbit’s Five Children and It. Our hero and heroines - William, Susie, Martha and Miss Hepplewhite are a deliciously eclectic bunch. William, Susie, and Martha are the archetypal Nesbit influenced country children living in a village threatened by a pale, sleek, stylish, and modern Morgana ale Fey (whom they have accidentally brought to 1970s Britain.) It is a fight between good and evil, between old and new, between small town values and local village grocers count and tobacconists and country buses and old fashioned taffy, and modern highways and tabloid newspapers and fur coats. There is a battle of course, and there is victory. And the world is saved.
I wonder though who Mrs Winifred Williams of a Freeland Primary School was. And why the book is dedicated to her.
Lively is a wonderful writer and this book is Very Satisfactory.
December 12, 2015
This had a strong premise: three children unwittingly revive an ancient witch's spirit, who then invades the children's lives via whatever means she can: inhabiting human form, invading TV sets, sending out poison laced cakes. The result is a cracking good read.
The children are easily identifiable: sensitive Martha, pragmatic Susie, scornful William. There is an enigmatic old lady: Mrs Hepplewhite, who speaks in riddles and acts as a sort of consultant against Morgana.
The writing is often eerie and nightmarish - particularly when describing Martha's dreams, and a long relentless pursuit by Morgana in a church, in a crowded village, and out in the fields.
The ending is somewhat vague: as the children huddle and shield their eyes you get fleeting glimpses of what's actually going on in the penultimate battle between the stones and Morgana.
The children are easily identifiable: sensitive Martha, pragmatic Susie, scornful William. There is an enigmatic old lady: Mrs Hepplewhite, who speaks in riddles and acts as a sort of consultant against Morgana.
The writing is often eerie and nightmarish - particularly when describing Martha's dreams, and a long relentless pursuit by Morgana in a church, in a crowded village, and out in the fields.
The ending is somewhat vague: as the children huddle and shield their eyes you get fleeting glimpses of what's actually going on in the penultimate battle between the stones and Morgana.
April 9, 2017
Belongs to the tradition of rural fantasy, typified by Alan Garner and Susan Cooper. The Whispering Kights is set in the Cotswolds, in and around Long Compton and the Rollright stones (these have been renamed, but it's pretty obvious.) There is a touch of Arthuriana and old magic, and wonderful characterisation of the three children, especially Martha, who is highly sensitive and imaginative. Lively excels at concise and evocative descriptions of the natural world and weather, without distracting from a thrilling story. Definitely plan to re-read this, possibly during my next visit to Oxfordshire!
July 14, 2016
The Whispering Knights by Penelope Lively has the old premise of children's literature of wickedness. Innocently brew some witches stew in a cauldron and inadvertently raise the spirit of a wicked witch evil in the form of Morgan from the dark past. The three friends Martha, Susie and William who just wanted a little excitement over the school holidays are now have to battle a witch. Younger students seemed to enjoy it, I not so much. That said, it does provide lots of contextual opportunities for lookig at folklore and mythology of the British countryside.
November 13, 2016
A lovely little book with a lovely story and lovely characters. I'm planning to read several books about the king Arthur legends and this children's story was the perfect thing to get me in the mood. Penelope Lively is fab.
November 14, 2021
I love Penelope Lively's prose - there are moments of visionary description in this story which match anything in the more lauded children's books by Alan Garner. The way that the latest incarnation of Morgan Le Fay pursues the three children through the Cotswold countryside one afternoon is a wonderful mixture of the frightening and the 'back in time for tea' school of English fantasy, but there are many other pleasures here. Fifty years is a long time in children's fiction, and the book is inevitably dated in some respects (and indeed, records much which has passed away and perhaps should have been defended more determinedly). It looks backward to E.Nestbit's Bastables and forward to Susan Cooper (though I think Lively is a more varied and imaginative writer than Cooper, much as I love 'The Dark is Rising' sequence), but it is less easy to connect with contemporary trends in children's and YA fantasy, and modern kids might find it a little slow and sentimental. However, I defy any parent not to go a little cold at the scenes depicting the abduction of Martha...this novel was published not that long after the predations of Myra Hindley and Raymond Morris, don't forget. Lively's ability to mix supernatural and real shudders is still impressive, five decades since the book first appeared.
April 7, 2012
Still on my Penelope Lively jaunt. I enjoyed this one too - a story about Morgan le Fay - reminiscent of The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen - 3 children accidently summon up evil in the form of Morgan and have to stop her from destroying their village. Again, there is more there to think about than just the good vs evil storyline with the children trying to stop a motorway from being built through their village.
March 14, 2022
The Whispering Knights by Penelope Lively
There is not really much about knights in the story entitled The Whispering Knights. It is an adventure involving three children named William, Susie, and Martha, who fight against a witch named Morgan.
The title of the book comes from the old legend of The Rollright Stones, which are an ancient and mysterious group of megaliths spread across fields close to the village of Long Compton on the border between Oxfordshire and Warwickshire in England. Each group of stones is probably from a different time period, testifying to the continuing importance of the site to those who held it sacred. The small group of stones making up The Whispering Knights appear to lean in toward each other in a conspiratorial way, and local legend has it that these warriors were plotting against their king when a witch turned them into stone. In the novel, Penelope Lively changes the names of the places slightly, and Sharnbrook where the children fish and play is in reality about 60 miles from where the stones are located.
The story starts with the three children mixing a witches’ brew in a neighbor's barn just for fun. But when the neighbor, Miss Hepplewhite, hears what they have done, she suspects they may have awoken an ancient evil from its slumbers, since the barn is a place of importance to Morgan le Fay, sister of King Arthur, who once lived there, and who was in the area more than once in the past. Miss Hepplewhite fears that Morgan will seek out the children - and that is exactly what she does. From this point, things become dangerous both for the three children, and for the entire village, the continued existence of which is suddenly threatened by the building of a new road. Are the ancient stones known as The Whispering Knights friends or foes, and will they help the children to thwart the witch’s wicked schemes?
The author's descriptions of situations and settings are vivid, haunting and compelling, and the juxtaposition of the modern/commonplace and ancient/arcane is particularly effective. However, compared with other novels by this author, such as Astercote and The Driftway, the plot is not quite so convincing. Apart from the ending being somewhat predictable, there is also a central part of the story which is never satisfactorily explained: the three children William, Susie, and Martha have attracted the attention of Morgan by boiling up the witches’ brew and intoning a spell, but what threat they pose to Morgan and why she pursues them so relentlessly is never made plain. There is nevertheless a genuine feeling that wild and menacing supernatural forces have been unleashed, and the pursuit of the children by Morgan is reminiscent of the chases which occur in Alan Garner's celebrated Tales of Alderley (although I am of the opinion that Penelope Lively’s children’s books are superior to those written by Garner).
In a similar vein to Astercote, The Whispering Knights can also be understood on a higher level, and adult readers will likely be conscious of the tension due to the encroachments of modern developments like motorways and industrialization on rural village life which runs through the book. Indeed, since this book was published at the beginning of the 1970s, much has been lost which might have been preserved if more forethought had been exercised by the relevant authorities.
Overall, despite its weaknesses, The Whispering Knights should be an absorbing and satisfying read for audiences of all ages.
Following are some quotations from the book which resonated with me:
William, when he dreamed at all, dreamed adventures, he said. 'Like in old films on the telly. And it's always me who's the captain or whatever. Smashing.'
You must never play the game according to her rules. The one weapon we have against her, apart from disbelief, is reason. And she knows very little about science.
She has a strong dislike for the laws of nature: she is always trying to go against them. Our strength is to use them against her.
She talks lovely, Susie thought to herself, like a book—with commas and full-stops and no 'urns' and 'ahs' when she can't think how to put things. And she talks to you like you were grown-ups, leaving in the long words.
High above them soared the spire of the church, black against the sky, with the clouds and the rooks moving around and above it so that if you stared long enough you began to feel as though the whole world was wheeling and spinning and only the spire was still and solid at its centre.
'It doesn't matter what you look like or who you are. It's courage and conviction that count,' said Miss Hepplewhite, watching them with a great intensity.
People see only what they expect to see: we can no longer endure the unexplained.
She sighed, and decided suddenly to pursue the matter no further. There were always some things you were never going to be sure about.
Nobody'll ever know that it was us did it,' said William, a little sadly. 'Never mind. You will always have cause for self-congratulation. Private triumph is often the most satisfactory. '
There is not really much about knights in the story entitled The Whispering Knights. It is an adventure involving three children named William, Susie, and Martha, who fight against a witch named Morgan.
The title of the book comes from the old legend of The Rollright Stones, which are an ancient and mysterious group of megaliths spread across fields close to the village of Long Compton on the border between Oxfordshire and Warwickshire in England. Each group of stones is probably from a different time period, testifying to the continuing importance of the site to those who held it sacred. The small group of stones making up The Whispering Knights appear to lean in toward each other in a conspiratorial way, and local legend has it that these warriors were plotting against their king when a witch turned them into stone. In the novel, Penelope Lively changes the names of the places slightly, and Sharnbrook where the children fish and play is in reality about 60 miles from where the stones are located.
The story starts with the three children mixing a witches’ brew in a neighbor's barn just for fun. But when the neighbor, Miss Hepplewhite, hears what they have done, she suspects they may have awoken an ancient evil from its slumbers, since the barn is a place of importance to Morgan le Fay, sister of King Arthur, who once lived there, and who was in the area more than once in the past. Miss Hepplewhite fears that Morgan will seek out the children - and that is exactly what she does. From this point, things become dangerous both for the three children, and for the entire village, the continued existence of which is suddenly threatened by the building of a new road. Are the ancient stones known as The Whispering Knights friends or foes, and will they help the children to thwart the witch’s wicked schemes?
The author's descriptions of situations and settings are vivid, haunting and compelling, and the juxtaposition of the modern/commonplace and ancient/arcane is particularly effective. However, compared with other novels by this author, such as Astercote and The Driftway, the plot is not quite so convincing. Apart from the ending being somewhat predictable, there is also a central part of the story which is never satisfactorily explained: the three children William, Susie, and Martha have attracted the attention of Morgan by boiling up the witches’ brew and intoning a spell, but what threat they pose to Morgan and why she pursues them so relentlessly is never made plain. There is nevertheless a genuine feeling that wild and menacing supernatural forces have been unleashed, and the pursuit of the children by Morgan is reminiscent of the chases which occur in Alan Garner's celebrated Tales of Alderley (although I am of the opinion that Penelope Lively’s children’s books are superior to those written by Garner).
In a similar vein to Astercote, The Whispering Knights can also be understood on a higher level, and adult readers will likely be conscious of the tension due to the encroachments of modern developments like motorways and industrialization on rural village life which runs through the book. Indeed, since this book was published at the beginning of the 1970s, much has been lost which might have been preserved if more forethought had been exercised by the relevant authorities.
Overall, despite its weaknesses, The Whispering Knights should be an absorbing and satisfying read for audiences of all ages.
Following are some quotations from the book which resonated with me:
William, when he dreamed at all, dreamed adventures, he said. 'Like in old films on the telly. And it's always me who's the captain or whatever. Smashing.'
You must never play the game according to her rules. The one weapon we have against her, apart from disbelief, is reason. And she knows very little about science.
She has a strong dislike for the laws of nature: she is always trying to go against them. Our strength is to use them against her.
She talks lovely, Susie thought to herself, like a book—with commas and full-stops and no 'urns' and 'ahs' when she can't think how to put things. And she talks to you like you were grown-ups, leaving in the long words.
High above them soared the spire of the church, black against the sky, with the clouds and the rooks moving around and above it so that if you stared long enough you began to feel as though the whole world was wheeling and spinning and only the spire was still and solid at its centre.
'It doesn't matter what you look like or who you are. It's courage and conviction that count,' said Miss Hepplewhite, watching them with a great intensity.
People see only what they expect to see: we can no longer endure the unexplained.
She sighed, and decided suddenly to pursue the matter no further. There were always some things you were never going to be sure about.
Nobody'll ever know that it was us did it,' said William, a little sadly. 'Never mind. You will always have cause for self-congratulation. Private triumph is often the most satisfactory. '
October 19, 2016
I bought this from a local bookshop the same day I did The Marrow of the World. What are the chances of getting two books about Morgan le Fey, on the same day?! I bought this earlier this year& never got around to reading it, but I thought it fit the halloween season now.
‘Plump Susie, so well insulated by her own fat that she rarely wore a sweater even in winter.’ Wow. That could have worded a little more…sensitively.
Where is this going with William? That he’s bothered by the fact that he doesn’t wanna hang out with the guys, and instead hangs with the two girls? Is he gay?
‘Are you bothering me?’ said Mrs. Hepplewhite, a little sharply. ‘Perhaps I am the best judge of that.’ That was rude! William was being nice.
-‘The most important thing is never to meet her on her own ground. One must surprise her.’
‘You must never play the game according to her rules. The one weapon we have against her, apart from disbelief, is reason. &she knows very little about science. She has a strong dislike for the laws of nature: she is always trying to go against them. Our strength is to use them against her.’ WHAT?
‘There’s something to be said for the time-honoured methods. She respects them.’
What in the world? This makes no sense!
Love the British words! Barmy. Posh. Nosh-up(nvr heard that one!)
Mrs. Hepplewhite called the poisoned cake ‘elementary’! They could have died! ‘So long as she goes on like this I really do not think we have much to worry about.’ I can’t believe she reacted like that.
-‘If it is anything to do with her,’ said Miss Hepplewhite, ‘then it is definitely cause for concern. It means she is moving onto our ground, &into our time.’ Then she works out that Morgan is coming through the tv because she thinks it’s like a god, because people sit in front of it and ‘worship it’ so Hepplewhite says ‘we can disregard this particular move of hers. It cannot harm us.’
- O-level exams!! (that was mentioned in Andrew Morton’s bk about Princess Diana. Love this british talk!)
Rooks are mentioned quite a bit too. Are those birds?
I thought it was so funny, I was thinking that sign in front of the stones, saying it’s free to go in didn’t make sense, and the kids go& say the same thing! Haha!
Wondered what the Whispering Knights would mean in this story, didn’t think it would be the stones.
I knew the second they said Mr Steel’s new wife was responsible for the road, it was Morgan. So that surprise was ruined.
‘We’d better tell her Morgan has actually been here, in Steeple Hampden.’ How blasé! How could they have known that!
-‘We’ll be needing them, you might say. It’s time the Knights was coming back to look after their own, eh?’
‘They say as how the Stones were Knights in the old days, and they fought a great battle with a bad queen,&they won, and now they sits there to protect the valley, like.’ That’s the moment I was like this is cool. Haven’t had that yet. Love that idea!
But William didn’t connect the ‘bad queen’ to Morgan! I’m surprised. But they connected the lady in the car to Morgan.
Pg 81 and rooks have been mentioned like 4 times. They were mentioned throughout the book.
What are lorries? Some type of car?
‘The green marble trick, that’s an old favourite of hers.’ Everything is so blasé. Mrs. Hepplewhite isn’t shocked by anything. And the green marble? It’s just random. Her ‘tricks’ are random. When do they end? &what’s the point of it?
Susie was feeling like she hadn’t contributed, cuz the others had actually fought Morgan, or tried to. &William says ‘jolly good thing she saw you coming up behind, or I dunno what would have happened.’
‘Think that’s what did it?’
‘Sure, must’ve been.’
‘Oh. Oh, I see.’
Which made her feel better, but I wondered if William did it on purpose, but it didn’t sound like he did.
‘He crossed back over the bridge& plunged into the tangle of willow-herb and teazles that crowned the bank, Here, at the point where the stream began to narrow again before the corner.’ Should have been a period before ‘here.’
Mrs. Hepplewhite didn’t go with them to get Martha back?! I couldn’t believe it! She sent two kids off on their own to confront a witch!!
Morgan kidnapped Martha, and then went for a horse ride. Why would she do that? It made it real convenient to just get into the house& grab Martha.
‘The children shot down the other side of the stairs, slithering on the stone, pulling Martha between them. They were so quick that they had reached the bottom where Morgan had time to turn and start to come down after them.’ She never said Morgan even saw them. All of a sudden she just follows them.
The part where the car road into the creek was an example of when things weren’t written very well, which made it hard to picture. At first I thought the car went nose-first into the creek, with the back straight up in the air. Then all of a sudden it was sinking. I didn’t know the creek was that big or that deep. &that the car had gone in the creek all the way to even sink. Some things in here you can’t picture well, or are described well.
‘They had the feeling that heavy bodies passed within inches of them, avoiding crushing them only by a miracle, and sometimes the crashes and shrieks were only a yard or two above their heads.’
Because they felt ‘it was got good to watch’ WE didn’t get to see the battle. I felt like I had been robbed of a scene I’ve been waiting the whole book to see!
‘Not in your time, my dear. She is never routed for ever, for of course she exists at different levels of time to you--to us. I don’t think we need fear her any more at present. And her powers are growing less. That is why she clings to the things she is familiar with.’
‘Of course it is always the larger things she is after.’ What larger things?!?!
‘It’s a long story. Far too long to go into now--some other time, perhaps. And of course she was rampant in the 17th century--I must tell you about that some time.’
What?!? You’re seriously not telling us the story? Any story?
‘We been through worse today than being told off, haven’t we?’
‘You can say that again,’ said William warmly.’ Warmly didn’t really fit there. There was one other time, the author used an adjective to describe the way Martha or Susie said something, &it didn’t fit.
“‘Must be because of your campaign really, Dad,’ he said.” I think the author meant ‘rally.’
‘frogmen dragging the river yesterday afternoon and this morning could find no trace of a body.’ Frogmen!! Like Navy seals?
The book ended too suddenly, with not enough wrap-up. And ended with that ‘trace of the road’ which was something else confusing. How was it only seen once a year?
There was a mention of a Harvest Festival earlier in the book. That would have been nice in here. Show a little local culture, and maybe have something with Morgan happen that night. The book needed something else to happen, to break it up. Also, I didn’t like how short the time frame was. Took place over only a few days.
It was cool reading a book from England. I liked the terms and language. Something new and nice to read.
The drawings were the scratchy kind. Hard to make out. And I wish they were colored. Also, the drawings should have been after what was being said, because they spoiled what we haven't even read yet. Before they had spotted Martha sitting at a desk in Morgan's house, I saw the drawing, which ruined the surprise. More drawings, and clearer ones, would have maybe brought the book to life and made the town and everything clearer to me.
What ruined this book was the lack of description. We needed a backstory of who exactly Morgan Le Fey was. If you've never heard of her , this book won't enlighten you in any way. Also, she never really talked. The kids had no dialogue with her. All she did was make hissing noises shrieks, like a snake or some other animal.
The battle at the end was a huge letdown. I wanted to hear of the stones. How were they knights? Did they turn into men? Or stone men? We'll never know.
It seemed many times that the author avoided things just to make it convenient. Like skipping talking of Morgan. how old she is, why she's after children, what her goal is, anything really. Why can't she be killed? What happened between her& Hepplewhite?
we didn't get to hear what the knights looked like during the 'battle.' It was literally only noises. It's like the author didn't tackle anything that would be difficult; that's why there wasn't much of a story or descriptions. Morgan was a weak, sort of one-dimensional evil character.
in the end, when Susie says they won't find any body in the river, and her mom knows she was somehow involved, we don't get to hear how Susie explained her way out of it.
I did like the humor in here. It kept it lively, and I liked the children. However, sometimes the voices/personalities of Susie and Martha overlapped to where I couldn't separate them in the beginning. they had more distinct personalities as the book went on, particularly after Martha was hypnotized.
I couldn't really picture things all that clearly. For some reason, I kept picturing a dirt road through their village, so any time asphalt was mentioned, it threw me a bit out of the story. I know it's a modern book, but for some reason I pictured it as a country, dirt-road type village.
I don't know that anything felt really scary to me. Some moments could be described as threatening, others just weren't. Maybe it would be more scary if I read this when I was a kid. Also, Morgan was a typical witch--pale, black hair, mean eyes. She was just flat.
I might keep this book, because of the humor, and it's cool that it was originally published in England, and I liked the language. This book would have been much improved with more backstory, a more dimensional and threatening evil witch. better world-building, more descriptions, an actual battle scene, wrap-up with Mrs. Hepplewhite where we learn her dealings with Morgan.
It wasn't a terrible book, but it could have been a lot better.
‘Plump Susie, so well insulated by her own fat that she rarely wore a sweater even in winter.’ Wow. That could have worded a little more…sensitively.
Where is this going with William? That he’s bothered by the fact that he doesn’t wanna hang out with the guys, and instead hangs with the two girls? Is he gay?
‘Are you bothering me?’ said Mrs. Hepplewhite, a little sharply. ‘Perhaps I am the best judge of that.’ That was rude! William was being nice.
-‘The most important thing is never to meet her on her own ground. One must surprise her.’
‘You must never play the game according to her rules. The one weapon we have against her, apart from disbelief, is reason. &she knows very little about science. She has a strong dislike for the laws of nature: she is always trying to go against them. Our strength is to use them against her.’ WHAT?
‘There’s something to be said for the time-honoured methods. She respects them.’
What in the world? This makes no sense!
Love the British words! Barmy. Posh. Nosh-up(nvr heard that one!)
Mrs. Hepplewhite called the poisoned cake ‘elementary’! They could have died! ‘So long as she goes on like this I really do not think we have much to worry about.’ I can’t believe she reacted like that.
-‘If it is anything to do with her,’ said Miss Hepplewhite, ‘then it is definitely cause for concern. It means she is moving onto our ground, &into our time.’ Then she works out that Morgan is coming through the tv because she thinks it’s like a god, because people sit in front of it and ‘worship it’ so Hepplewhite says ‘we can disregard this particular move of hers. It cannot harm us.’
- O-level exams!! (that was mentioned in Andrew Morton’s bk about Princess Diana. Love this british talk!)
Rooks are mentioned quite a bit too. Are those birds?
I thought it was so funny, I was thinking that sign in front of the stones, saying it’s free to go in didn’t make sense, and the kids go& say the same thing! Haha!
Wondered what the Whispering Knights would mean in this story, didn’t think it would be the stones.
I knew the second they said Mr Steel’s new wife was responsible for the road, it was Morgan. So that surprise was ruined.
‘We’d better tell her Morgan has actually been here, in Steeple Hampden.’ How blasé! How could they have known that!
-‘We’ll be needing them, you might say. It’s time the Knights was coming back to look after their own, eh?’
‘They say as how the Stones were Knights in the old days, and they fought a great battle with a bad queen,&they won, and now they sits there to protect the valley, like.’ That’s the moment I was like this is cool. Haven’t had that yet. Love that idea!
But William didn’t connect the ‘bad queen’ to Morgan! I’m surprised. But they connected the lady in the car to Morgan.
Pg 81 and rooks have been mentioned like 4 times. They were mentioned throughout the book.
What are lorries? Some type of car?
‘The green marble trick, that’s an old favourite of hers.’ Everything is so blasé. Mrs. Hepplewhite isn’t shocked by anything. And the green marble? It’s just random. Her ‘tricks’ are random. When do they end? &what’s the point of it?
Susie was feeling like she hadn’t contributed, cuz the others had actually fought Morgan, or tried to. &William says ‘jolly good thing she saw you coming up behind, or I dunno what would have happened.’
‘Think that’s what did it?’
‘Sure, must’ve been.’
‘Oh. Oh, I see.’
Which made her feel better, but I wondered if William did it on purpose, but it didn’t sound like he did.
‘He crossed back over the bridge& plunged into the tangle of willow-herb and teazles that crowned the bank, Here, at the point where the stream began to narrow again before the corner.’ Should have been a period before ‘here.’
Mrs. Hepplewhite didn’t go with them to get Martha back?! I couldn’t believe it! She sent two kids off on their own to confront a witch!!
Morgan kidnapped Martha, and then went for a horse ride. Why would she do that? It made it real convenient to just get into the house& grab Martha.
‘The children shot down the other side of the stairs, slithering on the stone, pulling Martha between them. They were so quick that they had reached the bottom where Morgan had time to turn and start to come down after them.’ She never said Morgan even saw them. All of a sudden she just follows them.
The part where the car road into the creek was an example of when things weren’t written very well, which made it hard to picture. At first I thought the car went nose-first into the creek, with the back straight up in the air. Then all of a sudden it was sinking. I didn’t know the creek was that big or that deep. &that the car had gone in the creek all the way to even sink. Some things in here you can’t picture well, or are described well.
‘They had the feeling that heavy bodies passed within inches of them, avoiding crushing them only by a miracle, and sometimes the crashes and shrieks were only a yard or two above their heads.’
Because they felt ‘it was got good to watch’ WE didn’t get to see the battle. I felt like I had been robbed of a scene I’ve been waiting the whole book to see!
‘Not in your time, my dear. She is never routed for ever, for of course she exists at different levels of time to you--to us. I don’t think we need fear her any more at present. And her powers are growing less. That is why she clings to the things she is familiar with.’
‘Of course it is always the larger things she is after.’ What larger things?!?!
‘It’s a long story. Far too long to go into now--some other time, perhaps. And of course she was rampant in the 17th century--I must tell you about that some time.’
What?!? You’re seriously not telling us the story? Any story?
‘We been through worse today than being told off, haven’t we?’
‘You can say that again,’ said William warmly.’ Warmly didn’t really fit there. There was one other time, the author used an adjective to describe the way Martha or Susie said something, &it didn’t fit.
“‘Must be because of your campaign really, Dad,’ he said.” I think the author meant ‘rally.’
‘frogmen dragging the river yesterday afternoon and this morning could find no trace of a body.’ Frogmen!! Like Navy seals?
The book ended too suddenly, with not enough wrap-up. And ended with that ‘trace of the road’ which was something else confusing. How was it only seen once a year?
There was a mention of a Harvest Festival earlier in the book. That would have been nice in here. Show a little local culture, and maybe have something with Morgan happen that night. The book needed something else to happen, to break it up. Also, I didn’t like how short the time frame was. Took place over only a few days.
It was cool reading a book from England. I liked the terms and language. Something new and nice to read.
The drawings were the scratchy kind. Hard to make out. And I wish they were colored. Also, the drawings should have been after what was being said, because they spoiled what we haven't even read yet. Before they had spotted Martha sitting at a desk in Morgan's house, I saw the drawing, which ruined the surprise. More drawings, and clearer ones, would have maybe brought the book to life and made the town and everything clearer to me.
What ruined this book was the lack of description. We needed a backstory of who exactly Morgan Le Fey was. If you've never heard of her , this book won't enlighten you in any way. Also, she never really talked. The kids had no dialogue with her. All she did was make hissing noises shrieks, like a snake or some other animal.
The battle at the end was a huge letdown. I wanted to hear of the stones. How were they knights? Did they turn into men? Or stone men? We'll never know.
It seemed many times that the author avoided things just to make it convenient. Like skipping talking of Morgan. how old she is, why she's after children, what her goal is, anything really. Why can't she be killed? What happened between her& Hepplewhite?
we didn't get to hear what the knights looked like during the 'battle.' It was literally only noises. It's like the author didn't tackle anything that would be difficult; that's why there wasn't much of a story or descriptions. Morgan was a weak, sort of one-dimensional evil character.
in the end, when Susie says they won't find any body in the river, and her mom knows she was somehow involved, we don't get to hear how Susie explained her way out of it.
I did like the humor in here. It kept it lively, and I liked the children. However, sometimes the voices/personalities of Susie and Martha overlapped to where I couldn't separate them in the beginning. they had more distinct personalities as the book went on, particularly after Martha was hypnotized.
I couldn't really picture things all that clearly. For some reason, I kept picturing a dirt road through their village, so any time asphalt was mentioned, it threw me a bit out of the story. I know it's a modern book, but for some reason I pictured it as a country, dirt-road type village.
I don't know that anything felt really scary to me. Some moments could be described as threatening, others just weren't. Maybe it would be more scary if I read this when I was a kid. Also, Morgan was a typical witch--pale, black hair, mean eyes. She was just flat.
I might keep this book, because of the humor, and it's cool that it was originally published in England, and I liked the language. This book would have been much improved with more backstory, a more dimensional and threatening evil witch. better world-building, more descriptions, an actual battle scene, wrap-up with Mrs. Hepplewhite where we learn her dealings with Morgan.
It wasn't a terrible book, but it could have been a lot better.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 19, 2022
I was a little disappointed by this one. I liked The House in Norham Gardens quite well, I loved The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy, and I was sure I would be over the moon about this one.
I wasn't. Perhaps it was due to my high expectations, I don't know. It was shortish, fastish, and vague. Rather than instill a quality of mystery about the characters, it just felt rushed and half-baked. It really reads, to me, like a short story (it reminded me of At the River-Gates by Philippa Pearce).
I can summarize it briefly in this way: .
If you liked this book for the mythological aspects and the UK countryside, I would highly recommend the aforementioned The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy by the same author (I just started in on Astercote - review on its way!), or you could jump straight into The Dark Is Rising Sequence at book 4, The Grey King (which won the Newbery Medal), though why you'd want to deprive yourself of the others is beyond me.
Ah, right - I shelved this under "May Day Pagan Traditions" just for a single line early in the book about holding a Walpurgis Night out of season to chase away witchcraft and evil, "usually held the night before May Day", but it's long since fallen out of memory, and it's a summer night when the kids perform an impromptu ceremony. I was expecting good things to come out of the book when I read this, but that was all there was (If you have any good recommendations for May Day celebrations, anywhere, please do comment!).
I wasn't. Perhaps it was due to my high expectations, I don't know. It was shortish, fastish, and vague. Rather than instill a quality of mystery about the characters, it just felt rushed and half-baked. It really reads, to me, like a short story (it reminded me of At the River-Gates by Philippa Pearce).
I can summarize it briefly in this way: .
If you liked this book for the mythological aspects and the UK countryside, I would highly recommend the aforementioned The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy by the same author (I just started in on Astercote - review on its way!), or you could jump straight into The Dark Is Rising Sequence at book 4, The Grey King (which won the Newbery Medal), though why you'd want to deprive yourself of the others is beyond me.
Ah, right - I shelved this under "May Day Pagan Traditions" just for a single line early in the book about holding a Walpurgis Night out of season to chase away witchcraft and evil, "usually held the night before May Day", but it's long since fallen out of memory, and it's a summer night when the kids perform an impromptu ceremony. I was expecting good things to come out of the book when I read this, but that was all there was (If you have any good recommendations for May Day celebrations, anywhere, please do comment!).
May 6, 2024
Matthew's review nailed it there. This is from 1971 remember so the talented mrs Lively is starting out on her ghostly english folk tale journey. A touch of repetition and procedural nature to some action scenes isn't going to tarnish another uplifting and very English kids adventure from one of my favourite authors.
Her knack for humour shines early here. Just like the equally wonderful Jan Mark, PL appreciates subtle parental witticisms about irritating neighbours and local politics. Their books always share at least one parent or elderly friend who is wise, positive and comforting to be around.
Her knack for humour shines early here. Just like the equally wonderful Jan Mark, PL appreciates subtle parental witticisms about irritating neighbours and local politics. Their books always share at least one parent or elderly friend who is wise, positive and comforting to be around.
April 8, 2024
An old barn in the woods has now become a playspot for the 3 children, and one day, they decide to brew the Witch's concoction, thinking it would do no harm. Little did they know they were inviting trouble. They have caught the witch’s attention, and it might just destroy everything they hold dear.
I loved the short crisp version this story presented and it's fast paced structure. Some may find it dark, though it was a cozy witchy story for me involving some adventure.
Genre: #witchy #fantasy #middlegrade
Rating: 4/5 ⭐️
I loved the short crisp version this story presented and it's fast paced structure. Some may find it dark, though it was a cozy witchy story for me involving some adventure.
Genre: #witchy #fantasy #middlegrade
Rating: 4/5 ⭐️
January 5, 2021
i think i only ever read this one the once -- it feels paler & less distinct than the other two, both in my memory & on re-reading. some combination of being an earlier book, less stylistically & thematically secure, and overlapping too closely with books i liked & think about more, like the the dark is rising sequence & the stone book quartet & the snow spider trilogy ?
April 24, 2018
For any student who is intrigued with historical figures intertwining with today this is a great book for her to get lost in both as a read aloud or independently at age 9 +
May 5, 2018
I read this book 2 months ago, but for some reason I haven't put it on mu goodreads. so here it is.
I didn't lie this. but for a childrens book it was good
I didn't lie this. but for a childrens book it was good
March 4, 2021
quite interesting but I got actually scared at times
August 26, 2022
One of the most important books of my childhood. Lively is a genius and it still holds up nearly years later.
October 31, 2022
One of my favourite books of all time. I love the starting point of the spell from Macbeth. A lovely read for younger readers and not as dated as I thought it would be!
May 8, 2023
Had to read for university. Not the best.
December 26, 2021
ojalá este libro se pudiera morir
September 27, 2022
An excellent children's book, as evocatively written as one would expect from Penelope Lively, with every page evoking the English countryside. Another example of the vogue for what we would now term 'folk horror' prevalent among children's writers of the 60s and 70s, with stone circles, ancient witch figures and the reassuring if somewhat mysterious figure of Mrs Hepplewhite to provide aid and assurance from the adult world to the those of the three young protagonists. The villain of the piece - Morgan - is, naturally recognisable as the latest incarnation of both Morrigan and Morgan le fay, and indeed calls to mind both Selina Place (herself the Morrigan) of Garner's Weirdstone of Brisingamen, and also the Lord of the Dark from Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising, both authors of course at the forefront of that era's folk horror leaning. Particularly striking in that regard is a sequence in which Morgan - a black rider on a white horse - chases the three children across the fields in a scene highly reminiscent of the ride of the Dark in Cooper's book (which followed two years later). Similarly, the climactic battle, the tumult in the air, is comparable in each. Missing from Lively's book are the stakes that Cooper brings to her age long war, but it is nonetheless a striking read for all that, and the battle between Morgan and the three children for the soul of a small English village (symbolised by the coming of the motorway) is a satisfying addition to the genre, masterfully executed.
July 29, 2011
Read it mostly because it is loosely connected to the Rollright Stones where I did some voluntary work. Obviously aimed at a younger audience. Still good though. Quite scary in places!
July 21, 2012
Loved reading this book after visiting the Rollright Stones. Powerful and well-plotted, and the atmosphere of a small Cotswold village is just right.
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