Devil by the Sea

by Nina Bawden

A headstrong nine-year-old girl is pursued by an old man who she believes is the Devil.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, British Literature, Gothic, Crime, Thriller, Abuse

175 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Nina Bawden was a popular British novelist and children's writer. Her mother was a teacher and her father a marine.

When World War II broke out she spent the school holidays at a farm in Shropshire along with her mother and her brothers, but lived in Aberdare, Wales, during term time.
Bawden attended Somerville College, Oxford, where she gained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Her novels include Carrie's War, Peppermint Pig, and The Witch's Daughter.

A number of her works have been dramatised by BBC Children's television, and many have been translated into various languages. In 2002 she was badly injured in the Potters Bar rail crash, and her husband Austen Kark was killed.

Bawden passed away at her home in London on 22 August 2012.

Reviews

[Andy Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

A south coast seaside town at the end of the season is the setting of this unsettling story, seen through the eyes of nine year old Hilary. She and her family live in the town, her seven year old brother Peregrine is favoured while she believes she, is naughty and less loved. Hilary’s father Charles goes off to work in the shop each morning, while his wife Alice stays at home. The children are often looked after by Janet, their seventeen year old half-sister; though her eyes are usually elsewhere.
Ignored by Janet, Hilary and her brother are on the beach one day when they see a man leading another child away. The child is pictured in the paper the next day, and Hilary confirms her suspicion, that he is the Devil. The adults, each concerned with their own lives, fail to listen to Hilary.
Bawden, better known for her children’s books, excels in her depiction of children. Though Hilary is terrified by the man, she is also interested by him, and wants to meet him again. The confusing, frightening world of things not understood as children, is a dark place, and one which Bawden describes compellingly.
This was originally published in 1957, and shouldn’t be confused by the easier to find version of 1976, which is a children’s version Bawden was asked to rewrite.
Had I the chance to influence her writing, I would have asked her to do the reverse, rewrite some of her children’s books as dark chillers. She had the knack to terrify, that’s for sure.

Here’s a couple of clips..

He stood up and held out his hand to her. “Come along. There’s a nice, good girlie. Well have a lovely time, won’t we?”
The young moon shone like a pale ghost in the sky. He was lit with an unearthly radiance. She saw his hoof, his horns, the sad, beautiful face of a fallen angel. She was not in the least afraid. “I’ll come,” she said. “I promised I’d come, didn’t I, to see your bird.”

In the last pages, as part of the narrative, Bawden herself summarises what the novel is about...

He (the policeman) also saw, fingering his bristles on his chin, that she was not really interested in him, nor in what he had to say to her. She was absorbed in a world of new discoveries: that other people are not to be relied upon; that promises can be broken; loyalty abandoned; the world that is also childhood’s end.

[Cheryl]

I must have read the wrong blurb when I decided to read this. Yuck. Not just the Devil, but the rest of the characters, too, seemed horrid. I skipped to the end, and it's still very unsettling. I might be able to stomach it if it were as magical as the books of Sonya Hartnett but it's not.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

We love Nina Bawden when she writes for children, because she understands a child's mind so well. She uses this same level of understanding to chilling effect in this book, where 9 year old Hilary witnesses a little girl being led away to her death. I found this book repulsive and compelling in equal measure - definitely worth reading.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

I already had got this book on my all Virago all August pile for this month, when I heard the news on Wednesday that Nina Bawden had died at the age of 87.
Like many readers I was first introduced to Nina Bawden as a child, when I read Carrie’s War, which has always remained one of my top three favourite children’s books. A few months ago I read The Grain of Truth – the first of Nina Bawden’s adult novels I had read.
Devil by the Sea – I can imagine not being to everyone’s taste – it is a chillingly dark story. The strange and claustrophobic world of a seaside town at the end of the season is seen through the eyes of unattractive nine year old Hilary. She and her family live in the town, her seven year old brother Peregrine is good while she, Hilary believes is bad. Janet, their seventeen year old half-sister is preoccupied with her innocent dalliance with a married man and the continuing battles with her step-mother. Auntie a once free spirit is now deaf, spends her days secretly beachcombing, hiding her “treasures” in a cave. Hilary’s father Charles goes off to work in the shop each morning, while his wife Alice stays at home. The adults, each concerned with their own lives fail to listen to Hilary.
As the novel opens, Hilary and Peregrine are watching an outdoor seaside show, their half-sister is supposed to be watching them, but is busy with her boyfriend. It is here they see the man Hilary and Peregrine call the Devil.
“Looking at the man sitting next to them, the children thought he must be old too, or sick. He wore a full-skirted naval bridge coat and a blue woollen muffler knotted round his neck. Beneath his cloth cap his face was thin, the cheeks so hollow that his mouth stuck forwards like a dog’s mouth.”
They watch as the man leads another child away, Hilary is at once horrified and fascinated by the man, who slowly draws her into his net. The child Hilary watched him lead away is pictured in the paper the next day, and Hilary knows he is the Devil. Bawden’s depiction of children, their way of thinking, is brilliantly done. Hilary is by turn terrified and interested in the man, she promises to meet him again, but later is terrified of seeing him, of him seeing her in the window of her bedroom.
“She knew him now, for certain, and the knowledge was terrible. She pressed herself against the cold bars, hoping that stillness might save her. What she could not see from the window, her memory supplied: the wide, black coat sweeping low over the twisted foot. Feeling his eyes burn into her, she gave a low cry and closed her own. Holding herself rigid, she thought: he won’t recognise me, not in my nightgown. And then she knew, with awful certainty, that God had marked her for just this occasion. For what other reason, when she had been born so plain, had she been given her one beauty, her bright, unmistakeable, red hair?”
The adults live in fear – there is a murderer in the town, and they want him caught. However the atmosphere of fear which hangs over them all doesn’t stop them being too preoccupied to listen and see what is happening.
There was one slightly odd thing for me – which doesn’t detract from an enjoyable book at all. In the Grain of Truth (1968) that I mentioned I read a while back, the central character’s back story concerns the death of a child who she had always believed she had killed in game not ever realising the boy had an illness. This incident is almost exactly the same as an incident in Hilary’s own back story in this novel. Strange that Nina Bawden should use the same thing twice.
Nina Bawden’s storytelling is compelling, the confusing, frightening world of things we don’t quite understand as children, is a dark place, and one that Nina Bawden understood well. I enjoyed this book a lot, and have more Nina Bawden TBR that I look forward to.

[Hemavathy DM Suppiah-Devi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nina Bawden is a children's author, and she understands children the way few writers do, but there is nothing childish about this book. Devil by the Sea is a book for adults. An odd, frightening, dark story that is at times all too familiar. Every adult, and every child, with the exception of Wally, is dislikeable. Baden seems to have magnified the flaws of every character, even the saintly Peregrine, in an effort to make the story as uncomfortable as possible. It is an odd book. And a discomforting one.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unsettling and disturbing. I have enjoyed Nina Bawden’s work generally, this was possibly different because it’s about children and written from a child’s view - rather than a story written for children which her other books have been. I didn’t like it but that could be because of the subject matter? Too believable that this could happen and that nobody listens to a lonely child. She understands children’s minds and emotions well.

[Mark H · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little girl is murdered in a seaside town, so I was reading this intent on decyphering who the murderer might be. But while this provides tension, the book is more about four generations of women living in one household. But while their characters are rich and realistic, the many events didn’t seem to develop their attitudes or problems. I was expecting payoffs, revelations lr surprises.

[Paul Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Sphere Books Limited] (1967). SB. 191 Pages. Purchased from Richard Dalby’s Library .

A cold, hard, bitter, cruel, detached character gallery - echoes Anna Kavan’s fractured and frozen perspective. Nihilistic. Darkly atmospheric.

“He had a sudden vision of the final horror of the human predicament…”

[Sarah Thornton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gritty, gnarly, and full of the shameful human moments we all experience that Bawden so brilliantly brings to light.

[Jeffre Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

good suspense, but I wanted to murder every adult in Hilary's life--of course the most reasonable adult dies on the way to getting help

[Sarah Rigg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apparently I really liked this when I read it at age 12 and gave it 9/10 stars in my journal from that time.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dithering between three and four stars so I may amend my star rating at a later date. This would be an easy read if the subject matter wasn't so dark. Nina Bawden has captured her characters perfectly, they are all flawed and terribly vulnerable. The story belts along with not a dull moment from start to finish but it's real too, having lived through the 90's when it was written I recognise the world, the people, the manners, the places, the details, that the author describes.
It is dated and I wonder if it is still possible to buy new. I found my copy in a charity shop, just lucky chance.
I didn't realise Nina Bawden wrote for adults as well as children. I would say that this isn't a children's book, it's sinister and too well written, too close to home perhaps, her descriptions are visceral and disturbing.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this book when I was about ten and didn't finish it. As an adult, I spent a good amount of time looking for it for a reread. Finally found it and read the whole thing in one sitting. It has a very creepy feel to it. I enjoyed it so much that I'm looking for more books by this author to read.