posted on 10 Nov 2022

The Children Who Stayed Behind by Bruce Carter

Originally entitled ‘The Kidnapping of Kensington’ and published in 1958, it was issued in 1964 by Puffin Books and retitled The Children Who Stayed Behind. The author, Bruce Carter, was in fact the prolific  Brighton-based military author, Richard Hough who was the father of the novelists and children’s authors, Deborah Moggach and Sarah Garland, used the pseudonym of Carter for all of his seven children’s books.

The Children Who Stayed Behind is set in an imaginary Brighton that is preparing to deal with the German invasion of the town and the book plunges straight into the ‘feud’ that exists between the children of the rather upright middle-class Hartford family and those of the more Bohemian Foulshams, who are the offspring of the local artist. In this instance the cause of the conflict is the ownership of a white rabbit, Kensington, that is the love of Gillian Hartford’s life but which is claimed by the Foulshams under the name of Van Gogh.

It seems, however, that the dispute will come to an abrupt end when the Germans mount an attack and the authorities decide to evacuate everyone from Brighton, leaving it totally deserted. However, through a series of misunderstandings both the Hartford and Foulsham children get left behind and are forced to look after themselves. 

The more conservative Hartfords continue to try and live as they had previously - doing all their chores scrupulously and with an eye to rectitude while the Foulsham clan take possession of the pier and seem to be having a high old time taking advantage of the amusement park. Despite the way the children maintain separate lives, the fate of the ownership of Kensington, the white rabbit continues to be an issue of dispute between them. But they are unexpectedly brought together by the war bursting in on their world in the shape of an arial fighter-plane dogfight that ends with both British and German pilots ditching in the sea near the pier.

The children put aside their animosity to show extraordinary bravery and ingenuity in saving both pilots. In the process they learn an important lesson about working together and come to understand that although they were temperamentally very different, each had their own skills and strengths. A new friendship is forged from the experiences they go through.

The book ends with the adults returning to Brighton as the German invasion is repelled and it’s quite hard not to see lighthearted echoes of the themes treated with much more gravity by William Golding in Lord of the Flies.

This Puffin edition is illustrated by C. Walter Hodges who provided drawings for numerous classic children’s books and who was awarded the Kate Greenaway medal for children’s book illustration in 1964.

The Children Who Stayed Behind has been fairly recently reprinted by Vintage Children’s Books and can be purchased for well under £10 and you can go onto second hand book sites and get the Puffin for not much more.

 

Terry Potter

November 2022