Johnny Swanson is a charmingly old fashioned – in the very best way - adventure novel. It is set in 1929, more than ten years after the end of World War One, and Johnny, whose father died in the conflict, lives alone with his mother. Reminders of the war are everywhere, not just Johnny’s photo of his dad in uniform, but in the characters of Johnny’s schoolteacher, Mr Murray, who is full of bitterness and horribly scarred, and in Hutch, the owner of the corner shop, who has a limp.

 Johnny and his mother are terribly poor, she works as many jobs as she can find, including cleaning for the village Doctor, and Johnny does a paper round for Hutch. Johnny Swanson is fed up with being small and being picked on by Mr Murray, and falls for a small ad in the paper that promises ‘the secret of instant height’. He foolishly spends all his mothers pitiful savings on the scam and crestfallen when he gets the answer, and facing eviction, begins his own money making scheme.

There is a much bigger thread to the novel, that of, TB, medical malpractice, and murder. And when Johnny’s mother is arrested and faces hanging, and the whole village turns against her, it up to Johnny to fight for the truth and save her. This is a great read, it zips along and illuminates a period of history that is usually forgotten.

2010-04-05