posted on 21 Jun 2016

The Otterbury Incident by C. Day-Lewis

A swashbuckling children's adventure story isn't what you might expect a poet with left-wing credentials and a serious interest in geo-politics to produce immediately after the end of the Second World War. But that's exactly what we get - a story pitched somewhere between  Erich Kästner’s  Emile and the Detectives and a lost script from the Ealing Film Studio. Anyone who has seen their minor film classic, The Magnet, will know exactly what to expect.

In Otterbury, a small English town, a bomb has fallen during the war creating the 'incident' of the title. Around this site of the wreckage the explosion has caused gangs of children play out mock battles and war strategies with all the brio and conviction of the real thing. When one day a school window is broken and when the Head teacher demands recompense, a truce is called between the rivals in order to raise the money required to get the window repaired - an act of communal solidarity that is aimed at preventing one of their number from being punished. After all, they reason, they were all playing the game and so a misdemeanour by one is the responsibility of them all.

However, as the children get creative in their attempts to raise the sum of almost £5 (an astronomical amount for the children of 1948) , all in the garden is not well - there are those waiting and willing to rob them of their hard won money. Two unpleasant spivs ( World War Two Black Marketeers) contrive to cash in on the alienation of one of the child gang members, recruiting him  to help them set up a sting operation and steal away the cash.

How will the children get their money back? Well, that's the story that unfolds in the exciting last third of the book and it’s the part I'm not going to tell you about because you’ll have to read it yourself. But, you can expect chases, fights, hostages and some brushes with the Black Market.

I wasn't sure I was going to get along with this book when I started it - the language is a barrier because it feels so arcane and almost a pastiche of the 'cripes, here comes the Beak' dialogue I associate with sclerotic children's literature of the past. However, if you stick with it, Day-Lewis is a good enough writer to draw you in and you soon find yourself identifying with the children.

As with all these kinds of books, good has to triumph, evil gets punished and lessons get learned but what makes this book feel different is the willingness of the children to work together, to show loyalty to each other and, crucially, be prepared to change their minds when the evidence demands it. These children are the ones that will go on to build the Britain we now live in - I'll leave it to you to decide whether the new, kinder communal world Day-Lewis presaged with his co-operative youngsters came to pass or not.

 

Terry Potter

June 2016