Boys will be boys, but in England, with the reminder of Lord of the
Flies and If, they seem to be a class apart, a law unto themselves,
and the perpetrator-victims of monstrous malevolence. Thus Miss
Hill's spare and unsparing account of the enforced relationship of
motherless Edmund Hooper and fatherless Charles Kingshaw after Mrs.
Kingshaw becomes Mr. Hooper's housekeeper hoping at last to find a
home for herself and young Charles. Edmund greets the newcomer with
hostility; terrifies him with dead moths and a stuffed crow; locks
him up in the rooms of the large, isolated house; and baits and
bullies him on every occasion. Charles decides to run away and
Edmund follows him through the spectral Hang Wood where Edmund,
also susceptible to terror, has an accident. Later he attempts to
follow Charles up on the parapet of a castle and again, frozen in
fear, falls - unfortunately not to his death. Finally with Mrs.
Kingshaw's marriage to Mr. Hooper, Charles can see only one
alternative to his entrapment. . . . Miss Hill's misbegotten little
blighters are not particularly prepossessing or pitiable but one
reads their story fastened on to the inevitable worst in whatever
form it will take. (Kirkus Reviews)
'Some people are are coming today,' said Mr Hooper, 'Now you will have a companion.'
But his son Edmund did not want any other boy in the ugly, isolated Victorian house. It was his house, he was King here. But Kingshaw still came, with his bright, genteel mother. Hooper hated him. He was an intruder, to be subtly persecuted. Hooper learned fast how to turn the most ordinary object into a source of terror. Like a frightened animal, Kingshaw ran.
In Hang Wood their roles were briefly reversed. But Kingshaw could not win, not in the last resort. He knew it, and so did Hooper. The worst was still to come.
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