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Christmas at Candleshoe
When an American multi-millionaire is keen to buy an Elizabethan manor, she comes up against fierce opposition from a young boy, Jay, and his band of bowmen, who are prepared to defend the manor and its nonagerian owner against all comers. It seems likely that that behind a monumental, seventeenth-century carving, by the hand of Gerard Christmas, lies a hoard of treasure.
190 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1953
5 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Michael Innes
125 books89 followersMichael Innes was the pseudonym of John Innes MacKintosh (J.I.M.) Stewart (J.I.M. Stewart).
He was born in Edinburgh, and educated at Edinburgh Academy and Oriel College, Oxford. He was Lecturer in English at the University of Leeds from 1930 - 1935, and spent the succeeding ten years as Jury Professor of English at the University of Adelaide, South Australia.
He returned to the United Kingdom in 1949, to become a Lecturer at the Queen's University of Belfast. In 1949 he became a Student (Fellow) of Christ Church, Oxford, becoming a Professor by the time of his retirement in 1973.
As J.I.M. Stewart he published a number of works of non-fiction, mainly critical studies of authors, including Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling, as well as about twenty works of fiction and a memoir, 'Myself and Michael Innes'.
As Michael Innes, he published numerous mystery novels and short story collections, most featuring the Scotland Yard detective John Appleby.
He was born in Edinburgh, and educated at Edinburgh Academy and Oriel College, Oxford. He was Lecturer in English at the University of Leeds from 1930 - 1935, and spent the succeeding ten years as Jury Professor of English at the University of Adelaide, South Australia.
He returned to the United Kingdom in 1949, to become a Lecturer at the Queen's University of Belfast. In 1949 he became a Student (Fellow) of Christ Church, Oxford, becoming a Professor by the time of his retirement in 1973.
As J.I.M. Stewart he published a number of works of non-fiction, mainly critical studies of authors, including Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling, as well as about twenty works of fiction and a memoir, 'Myself and Michael Innes'.
As Michael Innes, he published numerous mystery novels and short story collections, most featuring the Scotland Yard detective John Appleby.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
November 4, 2015
I bought this book because it was the basis for one of my favorite Disney movies when I was a kid. I don't say this often, but the movie was better than the book.
They share the same basic plot: an elderly lady in a large country house is protected against thieves by a group of children. However, this book probably wouldn't appeal to children. (My teenage daughters liked the movie, but I'm not going to recommend the book to them.) Although there are several children present for most of the book, only two of them are even named, and all of the viewpoint characters are adults.
The writing is dense and dry, more so than would appeal to most children or even most adults. It's billed as a mystery, and there is an attempted home invasion-burglary in the middle of it. But the action is more talked about than seen; even the thieves themselves are for the most part an invisible threat. Not only that, but at the very height of the action, it's brought to a grinding halt for a flashback to events earlier in the day, and then further slowed by a history lesson back-story. Even the main viewpoint character seems to be present more as an observer than an actor.Like the movie, the book climaxes with a battle between the thieves and the house's defenders. But instead of being brought to justice by any of the dozen or so "good guys" present by then, the thieves are brought down by a dog and, ultimately, by the house itself.
I don't intend to reread this book, though I'm glad I did since I'll no longer wonder how it compares to the movie. I plan to re-watch the movie again soon instead.
They share the same basic plot: an elderly lady in a large country house is protected against thieves by a group of children. However, this book probably wouldn't appeal to children. (My teenage daughters liked the movie, but I'm not going to recommend the book to them.) Although there are several children present for most of the book, only two of them are even named, and all of the viewpoint characters are adults.
The writing is dense and dry, more so than would appeal to most children or even most adults. It's billed as a mystery, and there is an attempted home invasion-burglary in the middle of it. But the action is more talked about than seen; even the thieves themselves are for the most part an invisible threat. Not only that, but at the very height of the action, it's brought to a grinding halt for a flashback to events earlier in the day, and then further slowed by a history lesson back-story. Even the main viewpoint character seems to be present more as an observer than an actor.Like the movie, the book climaxes with a battle between the thieves and the house's defenders. But instead of being brought to justice by any of the dozen or so "good guys" present by then, the thieves are brought down by a dog and, ultimately, by the house itself.
I don't intend to reread this book, though I'm glad I did since I'll no longer wonder how it compares to the movie. I plan to re-watch the movie again soon instead.
December 31, 2012
I came across the works by the author, Michael Innes, in an Audible sale. I did a little research on his Inspector Appleby mysteries and decided to start with this one because 1) it was the Christmas season, 2) it was listed as an Appleby mystery and 3) it was really cheap at $1.30.
It did not have anything to do with the Christmas season, but rather was about a fictional work by the real English sculptor, Gerard Christmas.
It was not an Appleby mystery. The Scotland Yard inspector did not appear at all in the story, and in fact there was no Scotland yard in the story either.
OK, for $1.30 I got my money's worth of 6 hours and 41 minutes of listening.
The other drawback was that the story line was hard to follow. As characters of the story were introduced it felt like walking down the sidewalk behind some people having a conversation without having any background on what the conversation might be about. There was no comfortable sense of who the people were and what they were supposed to be doing until a good third of the way through the book. It was all rather far-fetched in plot as well.
I would not recommend this book unless you just need a read and can get it cheaply, or maybe if you are a fan of Innes' writings and want to read all he has written. I decided this was not likely one of the author's best works and gave him another try by reading his first Inspector Appleby mystery, "Death at the President's Lodgings" which was a much superior tale.
It did not have anything to do with the Christmas season, but rather was about a fictional work by the real English sculptor, Gerard Christmas.
It was not an Appleby mystery. The Scotland Yard inspector did not appear at all in the story, and in fact there was no Scotland yard in the story either.
OK, for $1.30 I got my money's worth of 6 hours and 41 minutes of listening.
The other drawback was that the story line was hard to follow. As characters of the story were introduced it felt like walking down the sidewalk behind some people having a conversation without having any background on what the conversation might be about. There was no comfortable sense of who the people were and what they were supposed to be doing until a good third of the way through the book. It was all rather far-fetched in plot as well.
I would not recommend this book unless you just need a read and can get it cheaply, or maybe if you are a fan of Innes' writings and want to read all he has written. I decided this was not likely one of the author's best works and gave him another try by reading his first Inspector Appleby mystery, "Death at the President's Lodgings" which was a much superior tale.
October 28, 2020
There are two questions about this book that are bothering me. One: the book I remember reading is quite different from this one. I seem to remember a female narrator, not an omnipresent third person, and a simple plot. Instead, there's the usual very erudite Innes with his different voices, describing two households, missing (or is it?) art, a capable young boy's dream of hidden pirate treasure, a librarian's surprising secret...Two: why on earth did someone read this book and think that it would make a great Disney movie? According to Wikipedia, the plot is almost totally different, as are the characters and even their names. I don't know how good the movie is, but I'm sure it doesn't have that dry British humor that appeals to Innes fans.
January 24, 2009
The book on which the Disney classic film "Candleshoe" starring Jodie Foster, is based.
December 27, 2012
The beginning was amazing - made me think I was on a magical Christmas journey where I could get lost in the prose. But then it somehow just... fizzled.
December 21, 2019
Odd book! I neither hated it nor loved it.
I do find the author tends to use 50 words when 5 would do.
A good start but a slow ending (I may avoid more Innes books for a while)
I do find the author tends to use 50 words when 5 would do.
A good start but a slow ending (I may avoid more Innes books for a while)
March 13, 2022
A mother and son troop around England and come across a crumbling manor that she thinks she would like to purchase. Meanwhile, at a another manor the residents discover that their precious paintings are fake! (Horrors!) They travel to Candleshoe to recover their artworks, where thieves aspire to loot some ancient pirate booty? Scooby Doo appears, as a different dog. Pass on this.
August 9, 2017
"Christmas at Candleshoe" is the basis for Disney's 1977 movie "Candleshoe" starring Helen Hayes (in her last movie role), David Niven and Jodie Foster. My Victor Gollancz edition was pushed in 1954; I think sometime during the intervening years and the script review, 215 of the 223 pages were discarded for plot definition.
The book takes several key 1950's British issues and deals with them in a typically humorous British way - rude Americans touring British manor homes, dotty aged gentry, rude Americans looking for British manors to purchase, and impoverished (dotty) gentry looking for treasures to sell. These issues are cobbled together with characters that are remotely related, and in whom I had a difficult time developing any real interest, until thieves, counterfeit paintings and lost pirate treasure popped up.
I did find the first two chapters humorous, but once we ended up in the woods, so to speak, with the American tourists, I was really tired of the amount of work the author was going to in order to entertain without sympathetic characters. The abrupt travel back and forth between the two manors - the one open for business, the other falling apart - was disconcerting. And by the time I hit an actual story line with pirates and so forth - page 120 or so - I really wanted to be hitting the stride of the plot, rather than continue to have the author work so hard to entertain me. (I probably would have loved the book if the British peerage jokes, or making fun of the aged, were more up my line - I just don't find that as hysterically funny as the author apparently did.) The thievery situation was improbable to the point of ridicule (thieves laying siege to a manor house, unnoticed by the authorities, with a tank?), but I can see the attraction for Disney.
I should note that the book title refers to a password the children on the decaying estate use (and the sculptor of a set of statues), not to the time of year - there's no holiday celebration in the book (another disappointment for me). In the movie, the story is altered significantly such that Jodie Foster is presented by co-conspirators to owner Helen Hayes as the long-lost heir to the Candleshoe estate.g-lost heir to the Candleshoe estate.
The book takes several key 1950's British issues and deals with them in a typically humorous British way - rude Americans touring British manor homes, dotty aged gentry, rude Americans looking for British manors to purchase, and impoverished (dotty) gentry looking for treasures to sell. These issues are cobbled together with characters that are remotely related, and in whom I had a difficult time developing any real interest, until thieves, counterfeit paintings and lost pirate treasure popped up.
I did find the first two chapters humorous, but once we ended up in the woods, so to speak, with the American tourists, I was really tired of the amount of work the author was going to in order to entertain without sympathetic characters. The abrupt travel back and forth between the two manors - the one open for business, the other falling apart - was disconcerting. And by the time I hit an actual story line with pirates and so forth - page 120 or so - I really wanted to be hitting the stride of the plot, rather than continue to have the author work so hard to entertain me. (I probably would have loved the book if the British peerage jokes, or making fun of the aged, were more up my line - I just don't find that as hysterically funny as the author apparently did.) The thievery situation was improbable to the point of ridicule (thieves laying siege to a manor house, unnoticed by the authorities, with a tank?), but I can see the attraction for Disney.
I should note that the book title refers to a password the children on the decaying estate use (and the sculptor of a set of statues), not to the time of year - there's no holiday celebration in the book (another disappointment for me). In the movie, the story is altered significantly such that Jodie Foster is presented by co-conspirators to owner Helen Hayes as the long-lost heir to the Candleshoe estate.g-lost heir to the Candleshoe estate.
March 10, 2015
The Disney film Candleshoe purports to be based on this book but the two have very little in common. Michael Innes's story is a bit of a romp but written in a detached, verbose style, which makes the humour very dry and the irony very arch.
Young American Grant Feather and his super-wealthy mother are tootling around the stately homes of England when they happen upon the Candleshoe of the title, a rundown affair, inhabited by a dotty old woman, her last remaining retainer and a gang of children armed with bows and arrows, led by an eccentric but capable young man by the name of Jay Ray. The Feathers' visit is interrupted by an attack from art thieves and a visit from another branch of the family with an ax to grind. It's all pretty light but given weight by Innes's wordy style.
Young American Grant Feather and his super-wealthy mother are tootling around the stately homes of England when they happen upon the Candleshoe of the title, a rundown affair, inhabited by a dotty old woman, her last remaining retainer and a gang of children armed with bows and arrows, led by an eccentric but capable young man by the name of Jay Ray. The Feathers' visit is interrupted by an attack from art thieves and a visit from another branch of the family with an ax to grind. It's all pretty light but given weight by Innes's wordy style.
November 22, 2021
Michael Innes (2015) CHRISTMAS AT CANDLESHOE (AUDIOBOOK)
BorrowBox - Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
⭐⭐ 2 out of 5 stars
BorrowBox writes, "When an American multi-millionaire is keen to buy an Elizabethan manor, she comes up against fierce opposition from a young boy, Jay, and his band of bowmen, who are prepared to defend the manor and its nonagerian owner against all comers. It seems likely that that behind a monumental, seventeenth-century carving, by the hand of Gerard Christmas, lies a hoard of treasure."
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Got a bit bored with this one.
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#MichaelInnes #ChristmasAtCandleshoe #Book #Books #Read #Reads #Reading #Review #Reviews #BookReview #BookReviews #GoodReads #Audiobook #Audiobooks #BorrowBox
BorrowBox - Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
⭐⭐ 2 out of 5 stars
BorrowBox writes, "When an American multi-millionaire is keen to buy an Elizabethan manor, she comes up against fierce opposition from a young boy, Jay, and his band of bowmen, who are prepared to defend the manor and its nonagerian owner against all comers. It seems likely that that behind a monumental, seventeenth-century carving, by the hand of Gerard Christmas, lies a hoard of treasure."
=====
Got a bit bored with this one.
=====
#MichaelInnes #ChristmasAtCandleshoe #Book #Books #Read #Reads #Reading #Review #Reviews #BookReview #BookReviews #GoodReads #Audiobook #Audiobooks #BorrowBox
March 14, 2013
The start of this story was one of the most thrilling and original I've ever feasted upon. I loved the characters, I loved the humor, that country house air was strong and present throughout. But the narrator's voice was distracting-- I mean the person who is telling the story in the 3rd person. It's very stilted and dry, but somehow annoying. What started out for me as the most promising read ever unraveled in a bizarre, never-ending action movie disaster. The last scenes were oddly out of place (for me), and jarring. I think I'll try one of the author's series inspector books-- because the writing was great-- it was the story itself that did me in.
May 27, 2020
This was first published in 1953 and I must have first read it in the late 1970s as the version I read had a picture from the Disney film (which was released in 1977) on the cover and was simply titled "Candleshoe". Needless to say the film bears no resemblance to the book and features a different plot and characters!
This is a short adventure story concerning stolen art which does not feature Appleby. It's a charming and humorous read but not one of the author's better books.
This is a short adventure story concerning stolen art which does not feature Appleby. It's a charming and humorous read but not one of the author's better books.
March 14, 2022
AKA "Christmas at Candleshoe". The titular Christmas was an artist, not a season--the book is set in midsummer. A band of children and a visiting American tourist, armed with bows and arrows, fend off a criminal attack upon an isolated manor house and its elderly owner. "Candleshoe" is a delightful read. It does have some of the literary references expected in a Michael Innes novel, but they are not intrusive. A gentle book, with remarkably little bloodshed, despite the archery.
December 21, 2012
The old-fashioned writing style came across as strained and unfortunately the plot and characters weren't strong enough to compensate. Not to my taste.
December 29, 2012
A highly improbable little tale, but an entertaining enough to keep the reader going until its predictable, but mildly satisfying end.
January 12, 2013
I got this free from Audible, it was advertised as an Inspector Appleby story. I have to say trades descriptions?!? There was no evidence of the named detective but I quite enjoyed the story.
January 26, 2020
i read this on an airplane at some point but I can't remember when. It was... very odd. I thought it would be a classic mystery and maybe it was but very convoluted.
December 22, 2023
Spoiler! This is NOT a festive story...
May 5, 2023
I wanted to read this book because the film version made by Disney is a beloved memory of my childhood. That film, about a young, street-smart Jody Foster who hooks up with a con man to find a treasure hidden in a grand, stately, but deteriorating English country house, was a brilliantly entertaining adventure story set in the Disney version of England where Mary Poppins and Winnie the Pooh lived. The filmmakers took a lot of liberties with the story, so much so that the movie really only preserves a few elements from this book, a novel which is much less entertaining.
The novel follows a mother and son, Mrs Feather and her son Grant, as they tour a stately English home-Benison Court. Grant is studying at Oxford and his mother is phenomenally wealthy and excited by the English countryside. They tour the house then, on the way to their hotel, stop at the rundown Candleshoe Manor. Already it’s much different from the movie, with two country houses. They meet Miss Candleshoe and Rupert Armigel, a clergyman who resides there, as well as a group of children who spend a lot of their time there.
From here two alternating story lines develop. At Benison Court, Lord Scattergood wants to sell some Titian paintings he has and when he brings in an expert they are found to be reproductions. Consulting a local expert, it is surmised that the real Titians were exchanged for the fakes during the war when the paintings were sent to Candleshoe for storage. Lord Scattergood, his son, and the party of experts drive to Candleshoe to recover the paintings.
Meanwhile at Candleshoe some art thieves are surrounding the manor and apparently attempting to steal the Titians, as they were earlier at Benison Court and apparently figured out where the real Titians were before Lord Scattergood did. The plot is not very propulsive but it is even more slow-moving when Innes cuts away from the action to quote at length from a 1720 diary that provides more genealogical and art history information about the Candleshoes and the Scattergoods, both branches of the same family.
The novel does end in a kind of violent fight scene similar to the one in the movie that I think I can remember, but the treasure here is only paintings and not a chest of pirate loot. The book is written in a style laden with a sort of wannabe sophisticated humour. Some of the jokes landed for me but I think maybe some sort of British background is necessary to get a lot of it. This is also not really a mystery nor really a thriller but rather more of a satirical entertainment. Even the villains are never really unmasked or identified, so it’s not really clear how they figured out where the real valuable paintings were, or what their motive was in trying to get their hands on them.
I can’t think of a movie adapted from a book where the movie was so far and away better than the book in every way. Disney added a spunky American kid-heroine, created an intriguing down-at-heels English country house, and built up tension and suspense with a treasure hunt, and none of these elements are in the novel. Kudos to Disney for making a film that successfully expressed a devout Anglophilia based on this rather drab and dull novel.
The novel follows a mother and son, Mrs Feather and her son Grant, as they tour a stately English home-Benison Court. Grant is studying at Oxford and his mother is phenomenally wealthy and excited by the English countryside. They tour the house then, on the way to their hotel, stop at the rundown Candleshoe Manor. Already it’s much different from the movie, with two country houses. They meet Miss Candleshoe and Rupert Armigel, a clergyman who resides there, as well as a group of children who spend a lot of their time there.
From here two alternating story lines develop. At Benison Court, Lord Scattergood wants to sell some Titian paintings he has and when he brings in an expert they are found to be reproductions. Consulting a local expert, it is surmised that the real Titians were exchanged for the fakes during the war when the paintings were sent to Candleshoe for storage. Lord Scattergood, his son, and the party of experts drive to Candleshoe to recover the paintings.
Meanwhile at Candleshoe some art thieves are surrounding the manor and apparently attempting to steal the Titians, as they were earlier at Benison Court and apparently figured out where the real Titians were before Lord Scattergood did. The plot is not very propulsive but it is even more slow-moving when Innes cuts away from the action to quote at length from a 1720 diary that provides more genealogical and art history information about the Candleshoes and the Scattergoods, both branches of the same family.
The novel does end in a kind of violent fight scene similar to the one in the movie that I think I can remember, but the treasure here is only paintings and not a chest of pirate loot. The book is written in a style laden with a sort of wannabe sophisticated humour. Some of the jokes landed for me but I think maybe some sort of British background is necessary to get a lot of it. This is also not really a mystery nor really a thriller but rather more of a satirical entertainment. Even the villains are never really unmasked or identified, so it’s not really clear how they figured out where the real valuable paintings were, or what their motive was in trying to get their hands on them.
I can’t think of a movie adapted from a book where the movie was so far and away better than the book in every way. Disney added a spunky American kid-heroine, created an intriguing down-at-heels English country house, and built up tension and suspense with a treasure hunt, and none of these elements are in the novel. Kudos to Disney for making a film that successfully expressed a devout Anglophilia based on this rather drab and dull novel.
October 28, 2024
This is a slightly odd but magical novel first published in the 1950s. I enjoy the authors detective novels but this is a very different kettle of fish. I believe there was a Disney movie made out of the book in the 1970s but the plot appears to be substantially different.
The action is set in a crumbling Elizabethan manor inhabited by an old lady, some children and an aged domestic chaplain, the mysterious set up stumbled upon one afternoon by an American youth, Grant Feather and his mother.
There prose is effective and in the early part of the book evokes a sense of a magical place out of time where past and present very much merge. Meanwhile the Marquess of Scattergood and his son, Lord Arthur Spendlove , a long split off scion of the Candleshoe family discover a switch has occurred of two of their valuable portraits and suspecting the involvement of old Mrs Candleshoe due to a centuries old family quarrel set off for Candleshoe just as a gang of thieves are laying siege to the old manor...
It`s all very silly but haunting at the same time and there is a dry, wry, very English sense of humour throughout.
Recommended
The action is set in a crumbling Elizabethan manor inhabited by an old lady, some children and an aged domestic chaplain, the mysterious set up stumbled upon one afternoon by an American youth, Grant Feather and his mother.
There prose is effective and in the early part of the book evokes a sense of a magical place out of time where past and present very much merge. Meanwhile the Marquess of Scattergood and his son, Lord Arthur Spendlove , a long split off scion of the Candleshoe family discover a switch has occurred of two of their valuable portraits and suspecting the involvement of old Mrs Candleshoe due to a centuries old family quarrel set off for Candleshoe just as a gang of thieves are laying siege to the old manor...
It`s all very silly but haunting at the same time and there is a dry, wry, very English sense of humour throughout.
Recommended
November 12, 2024
(Not an Xmas Novel. Only distantly related to the Disney film.)
Christmas at Candleshoe is a brief, adroit adventure novel. In it, the landed gentry of a financially parched estate, Candleshoe, join with neighbors and blood relations to defend the property. (A party of crooks have learned that the house has hidden wealth unknown to current family occupants).
Innes is an impeccable writer and plotter. Christmas at Candleshoe employs more distancing devices than any previous novel I have read.
It's wonderful entertainment.
Christmas at Candleshoe is a brief, adroit adventure novel. In it, the landed gentry of a financially parched estate, Candleshoe, join with neighbors and blood relations to defend the property. (A party of crooks have learned that the house has hidden wealth unknown to current family occupants).
Innes is an impeccable writer and plotter. Christmas at Candleshoe employs more distancing devices than any previous novel I have read.
It's wonderful entertainment.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 12, 2025
This was the first Michael Innes novel I read, and I was stunned--in a good way--by how crazy it is: exciting, weirdly erudite, action-packed, silly...amazing stuff. I'm slowly working my way through all of Innes's books, but I do plan to reread this one.
I re-watched the Disney film (which I liked a lot as a youngster) after reading this, and the plot is only vaguely similar. The movie is slow and dull by comparison...but, to be fair, it's a juvenile film based on a rather peculiar and complicated adult novel. It was a strange choice for adaptation.
I re-watched the Disney film (which I liked a lot as a youngster) after reading this, and the plot is only vaguely similar. The movie is slow and dull by comparison...but, to be fair, it's a juvenile film based on a rather peculiar and complicated adult novel. It was a strange choice for adaptation.
October 25, 2025
If you're planning on reading this because it's the book on which Disney's "Candleshoe" was based, be aware - "based" is here a very generous term.
Aside from both containing a country estate called Candleshoe and a long-lost treasure of sorts, the two have very little in common.
Christmas at Candleshoe is a fun book, in its own sometimes-dry way.
Aside from both containing a country estate called Candleshoe and a long-lost treasure of sorts, the two have very little in common.
Christmas at Candleshoe is a fun book, in its own sometimes-dry way.
December 17, 2025
A thoroughly enjoyable read, particularly for those who like Michael Innes and his erudite style of English.
We have some classic elements of his stories: a crumbling manor house, dilapidated gentlefolk, a mystery and fine art.
This is emphatically not a book written for children or fans of Disney, which the off-putting cover implied.
We have some classic elements of his stories: a crumbling manor house, dilapidated gentlefolk, a mystery and fine art.
This is emphatically not a book written for children or fans of Disney, which the off-putting cover implied.
October 29, 2022
I decided to read this because I loved the film, knowing in advance that the film was nothing like the book. It has a couple slow parts, but the last quarter of the book is delightful.
March 13, 2023
Not sure what to make of this one yet... its story does not feel linear. Though its disjointed telling adds to an eery feeling I am not sure the writer intended,
December 6, 2024
Have you ever embarked on a book thinking it was going to be one thing, only for it to turn into quite another? I've just had exactly that experience with Christmas at Candleshoe. I thought it would be a lovely cosy Christmas crime novel but it turned out to be an amusing and enchanting tale of a wealthy American woman who decides she wishes to buy the Elizabethan manor of Candleshoe only to find the house and estate aren't at all as they first appear to be.
From the point of view of the reader, the confusion arises initially from the fact that it isn't a Christmas novel, and then it turns out the real plot isn't about the purchase of the estate either, it's more about a mysterious group of children who are trying to protect the last surviving member of the Candleshoe family, the Candleshoe family home and a possible hoard of family treasure from thieves.
It's definitely a quirky plot, made even quirkier by the fact that nobody in the house seems clear about which century they're living in, some of the conversations appear to have misunderstandings thrown in apparently for the purpose of confusing the reader almost as much as the other characters, but it all just about comes together at the end. The characters are all delightfully eccentric to some degree or other, although Grant (our narrator) thankfully appears to be a bit more straightforward.
Despite a tendency towards excessive wordiness at times, I really quite enjoyed this book. Apparently Disney have made Candleshoe into a film, but judging from the very judgy judgements of some of the reviewers I found online, the film is one you don't need to rush to watch. But they didn't enjoy the book much either, so what do they know anyway?
From the point of view of the reader, the confusion arises initially from the fact that it isn't a Christmas novel, and then it turns out the real plot isn't about the purchase of the estate either, it's more about a mysterious group of children who are trying to protect the last surviving member of the Candleshoe family, the Candleshoe family home and a possible hoard of family treasure from thieves.
It's definitely a quirky plot, made even quirkier by the fact that nobody in the house seems clear about which century they're living in, some of the conversations appear to have misunderstandings thrown in apparently for the purpose of confusing the reader almost as much as the other characters, but it all just about comes together at the end. The characters are all delightfully eccentric to some degree or other, although Grant (our narrator) thankfully appears to be a bit more straightforward.
Despite a tendency towards excessive wordiness at times, I really quite enjoyed this book. Apparently Disney have made Candleshoe into a film, but judging from the very judgy judgements of some of the reviewers I found online, the film is one you don't need to rush to watch. But they didn't enjoy the book much either, so what do they know anyway?
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March 19, 2010Christmas at Candleshoe by Michael Innes (1961)
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