posted on 01 Nov 2016

The Dungeon by Lynne Reid Banks

Lynne Reid Banks is one of those remarkable authors who appears to be able to write for children, young adults and older readers and be both prolific and popular with all three audiences. Although she's a name I'm very familiar with, my only previous engagement with her work was reading The L Shaped Room in the 1970s when that particular book was usually included in a list of iconic ‘kitchen-sink’ novels that had some popularity in the 1960s – many of which were also turned into successful film adaptations.

The Dungeon is one of Reid Banks’ young adult novels which was published in 2002 and which I originally picked up a few years back. I have to be honest and say that I grabbed it on something of a whim to read between other books I’d got lined-up - but I’m glad I did because it proved to be an interesting experience. I guess the title of the book might give you an indication that this isn’t going to be a bright and jolly read – and you’d be entirely right. This almost feels like an extended fairy story in the grimmest of Grimm modes, or maybe a moral fable dealing with some of the darker edges of human emotions.

The book is set in an unspecified past – other hints suggest it is the 13th century – and it has as its central figure the Scottish Laird, McLennan who is a bitter, brutal man eaten-up with the desire for revenge over his mortal enemy, the Laird McInnes. Gradually we discover that the root of McLennan’s bitter hatred was the murder of his children and wife at McInnes’ command, if not directly by his hand.

McLennan is a self-made man – or rather a man brought to the top by his prowess at warfare and so  it is little surprise that he embarks on the massive project of building; an impressive castle that will house a fearsome dungeon designed to be the last resting place of his mortal enemy.  While the project is being undertaken by his hired builders, McLennan goes travelling in search of the mysterious secrets of China. While there he learns the language, joins a band of mercenaries and, critically for the story, buys a child, a girl servant whose name translates as Peony.

It is the complex relationship that unfolds between McLennan and Peony that is the heart of the book and the tragedy that will unfold around them. When the two return to Scotland for McLennan to take possession of his new castle and dungeon, Peony goes with him and learns a sort of doggerel Scottish that allows her to communicate with another young servant of McLennan’s called Fin. The two develop a friendship and teenage romance but this is not something that can be shared and certainly not with the possessive McLennan.

Eventually McLennan launches an abortive assault on McInnes and, because he can’t blame himself for the failure of the enterprise, he blames the disastrous outcome on Peony. This triggers a series of terrible events that I won’t reveal here – but it’s safe to say this is tragedy of Greek proportions.

Ultimately, this is a story about love and loss and about terrible effect of hubris. McLennan is a man who has forced himself not to love and not to face reality and the consequences of this are terrible – on him as a human being and on the people who should be able to depend on him. He refuses to listen to the truth of his own heart and is determined to live in the darkness – a fate he achieves in a way he didn’t expect.

Terry Potter

November 2016