posted on 14 Sep 2022

The Intruder by John Rowe Townsend

The Intruder (1969) is probably the author’s best known novel and the one that won him a number of awards - the Horn Book Award in 1970 and the Edgar Award in 1971 and a nomination for the 1970 Carnegie Medal. But Townsend (1922 - 2014) was perhaps even more celebrated as an academic and student of children’s literature and his Written for Children: An Outline of English Children's Literature, which was published in 1965 was regularly expanded and updated, becoming a standard reference work on the subject.

His novels for teenagers - a genre that now gets labelled as books for ‘young adults’ - span a 30 year period from 1961 to 1992 and at least two of them have been picked up for adaptation into a television series. One of these is The Intruder which became an eight episode Granada programme in 1971.

The book is a dark and rather disturbing tale of 16 year old Arnold Haithwaite who lives in the remote seaside town of Skirlston and spends much of his time helping out as a sand pilot, guiding holiday-makers across the potentially treacherous seashore. Arnold lives with his elderly ‘father’ who owns a guest house, Cottontree House, that doubles as a general store but he is in fact an orphan who doesn’t really know who his true parents are. Arnold’s future is uncertain but it is assumed that when the current ‘Admiral’ - who is the full time sand pilot - retires he will take on that role and also inherit the general store.

But Arnold’s life is turned upside down when a mysterious and sinister stranger with a glass eye turns up on the sands and behaves in an odd and threatening way. He suddenly attacks Arnold and makes the startling claim that he, the stranger, is in fact the real Arnold Haithwaite. From this point on Arnold’s life spirals into chaos.

The stranger, known as Sonny, begins a campaign of worming his way into the life of Arnold and his elderly father. He claims to be the legitimate nephew of the old man and by a mixture of charm and menace he isolates the old man from young Arnold and he openly claims his intension of taking over Cottontree House as part of a clearly crazy plan to ‘redevelop’ the whole town.

Arnold slumps into depression as the stranger physically and psychologically asserts himself and he struggles to find anyone who will believe that Sonny is a menace to everyone. He does, however, find two allies in newcomers, the young Peter and his pretty sister, Jane and it is Peter who tries to keep Arnold’s spirits up by getting involved in trying to uncover Sonny’s true identity.

It becomes obvious that the only way to get rid of Sonny is for Arnold to discover the truth about his parentage - which is a secret that has been kept from him by those in the community who know the true story. But getting rid of the intruder doesn’t prove easy and Arnold must fight a life and death battle  with Sonny on the Skirlston sands and, at the same time, save Jane from drowning.

The culmination of the story is breathless and dark - I don’t want to go into detail because it would be a spoiler for those of you who want to read this but suffice it to say that Townsend pulls no punches and there are no cheap or easy happy endings.

This is an uncompromising book for younger readers and doesn’t condescend in any way - it’s a book that is as likely to be enjoyed by much older, adult readers and gives the lie to the idea that ‘children’s literature’ is simplistic or easy to write. This is a brooding story full of menace with some real questions about identity, fairness, the evil side of human nature and, ultimately, your place in community.

Paperback copies of the book can be readily found on the second hand market for well under £10 but hardcopies are harder to find and first editions are especially expensive.

 

Terry Potter

September 2022