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Ravensgill
Fifteen-year-old Bob stumbles across some old secrets involving his family and a forty-year-old murder.
- GenresYoung Adult
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
35 people want to read
About the author
William Mayne
135 books16 followersWilliam Mayne was a British writer of children's fiction. Born in Hull, he was educated at the choir school attached to Canterbury Cathedral and his memories of that time contributed to his early books. He lived most of his life in North Yorkshire.
He was described as one of the outstanding children's authors of the 20th Century by the Oxford Companion to Children's Literature, and won the Carnegie Medal in 1957 for A Grass Rope and the Guardian Award in 1993 for Low Tide. He has written more than a hundred books, and is best known for his Choir School quartet comprising A Swarm in May, Choristers' Cake, Cathedral Wednesday and Words and Music, and his Earthfasts trilogy comprising Earthfasts, Cradlefasts and Candlefasts, an unusual evocation of the King Arthur legend.
A Swarm in May was filmed by the Children's Film Unit in 1983 and a five-part television series of Earthfasts was broadcast by the BBC in 1994.
William Mayne was imprisoned for two and a half years in 2004 after admitting to charges of child sexual abuse and was placed on the British sex offenders' register. His books were largely removed from shelves, and he died in disgrace in 2010.
He was described as one of the outstanding children's authors of the 20th Century by the Oxford Companion to Children's Literature, and won the Carnegie Medal in 1957 for A Grass Rope and the Guardian Award in 1993 for Low Tide. He has written more than a hundred books, and is best known for his Choir School quartet comprising A Swarm in May, Choristers' Cake, Cathedral Wednesday and Words and Music, and his Earthfasts trilogy comprising Earthfasts, Cradlefasts and Candlefasts, an unusual evocation of the King Arthur legend.
A Swarm in May was filmed by the Children's Film Unit in 1983 and a five-part television series of Earthfasts was broadcast by the BBC in 1994.
William Mayne was imprisoned for two and a half years in 2004 after admitting to charges of child sexual abuse and was placed on the British sex offenders' register. His books were largely removed from shelves, and he died in disgrace in 2010.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 9, 2023
There are untold links between Vendale’s New Scar House and Ravensgill farm, secrets that caused a rift in the 1920s, forty-six years before, a death that looked like murder but may not have been.
Young teens Judith Chapman in Vendale and Bob White at Ravensgill are suddenly aware of missives flying between farms from an older generation but nobody will say what or why, and even their older siblings discourage any questions.
It will take a swimming rivalry between Bob and Judith’s brother to launch a simmering feud from low-level bullying into violence before the secrets of a Yorkshire Dales moor, mire and reservoir suggest a rapprochement may be possible.
Yorkshiremen and women are often characterised as bloody-minded and stubborn, blunt and argumentative, close with money, prone to speaking cryptically, maybe even proud to be all these. The author, a Yorkshireman himself, brings out many of these traits in the people of these two households – the two female cousins who have barely communicated for four decades, the twin brothers who have remained loyal to the owners of their respective farmsteads, the grandson of one who holds a grudge towards the grandsons of the other, and Bob and Judith who have been kept in the dark all their life about relationships.
Though we get to see some events from Judith’s perspective, the focus is mostly on Bob’s experiences – his talent for swimming, his near-death episode which might or might’ve given him an inkling of how events may have played out 46 years before – if he hadn’t lost some memories; then there are his conversations with his classmate Judith as he tries to draw out the threads of the fateful day which turned his grandmother into a persona non grata at New Scar House.
One of the qualities that particularly struck me about this modern children’s classic is the sense of a place and a time: a corner of the then West Riding of Yorkshire amongst hill farmers in the late sixties. Mayne powerfully evokes the way of life and routines surrounding dairy farming and haymaking, machinery repair and bread making, when communication was slow by today’s standards and farmsteads more isolated.
Dominating the Vendale landscape is the reservoir and the wall of its dam: I fancy this was inspired by the Scar House and Angram Reservoirs built in the 1930s in Nidderdale, an area with the peat moorland of Middlesmoor which Mayne knew well from his childhood. Ravensgill may have drawn its name from Ramsgill village where the Nidd river fed into Gouthwaite Reservoir; meanwhile the sighting towers which play a key part in the narrative owe much to the Colsterdale Towers to the east, by Leighton Reservoir.
In this desolate landscape the Whites and the Chapmans first maintain a distance and then resurrect an animosity formed decades before after the wet battered body of Abraham Dinsdale of New Scar House is discovered close by Ravensgill, and Bob’s gran is accused of aiding and abetting the supposed murderer’s escape, even though it was clearly impossible for the dead man to get so quickly from one farm to the other.
Vendale – an imaginary region of underground passages and storied lives also appearing in Mayne’s Earthfasts novels – was borrowed from Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies; in that Victorian novel a climbing boy gets lost in chimney flues and is later ‘reborn’ in a Yorkshire stream. While echoing aspects of Kingsley’s fantasy Mayne’s Ravensgill only reluctantly reveals this Vendale’s secrets. It’s beautifully crafted, its language poetic, its manner of sustaining the mystery masterful. Above all, the dialogue feels authentic, conveying how terse phrases can nevertheless communicate much whilst also emphasising how prejudging and prolonged bitterness can result from refusing to enter into dialogue.
Young teens Judith Chapman in Vendale and Bob White at Ravensgill are suddenly aware of missives flying between farms from an older generation but nobody will say what or why, and even their older siblings discourage any questions.
It will take a swimming rivalry between Bob and Judith’s brother to launch a simmering feud from low-level bullying into violence before the secrets of a Yorkshire Dales moor, mire and reservoir suggest a rapprochement may be possible.
Yorkshiremen and women are often characterised as bloody-minded and stubborn, blunt and argumentative, close with money, prone to speaking cryptically, maybe even proud to be all these. The author, a Yorkshireman himself, brings out many of these traits in the people of these two households – the two female cousins who have barely communicated for four decades, the twin brothers who have remained loyal to the owners of their respective farmsteads, the grandson of one who holds a grudge towards the grandsons of the other, and Bob and Judith who have been kept in the dark all their life about relationships.
Though we get to see some events from Judith’s perspective, the focus is mostly on Bob’s experiences – his talent for swimming, his near-death episode which might or might’ve given him an inkling of how events may have played out 46 years before – if he hadn’t lost some memories; then there are his conversations with his classmate Judith as he tries to draw out the threads of the fateful day which turned his grandmother into a persona non grata at New Scar House.
One of the qualities that particularly struck me about this modern children’s classic is the sense of a place and a time: a corner of the then West Riding of Yorkshire amongst hill farmers in the late sixties. Mayne powerfully evokes the way of life and routines surrounding dairy farming and haymaking, machinery repair and bread making, when communication was slow by today’s standards and farmsteads more isolated.
Dominating the Vendale landscape is the reservoir and the wall of its dam: I fancy this was inspired by the Scar House and Angram Reservoirs built in the 1930s in Nidderdale, an area with the peat moorland of Middlesmoor which Mayne knew well from his childhood. Ravensgill may have drawn its name from Ramsgill village where the Nidd river fed into Gouthwaite Reservoir; meanwhile the sighting towers which play a key part in the narrative owe much to the Colsterdale Towers to the east, by Leighton Reservoir.
In this desolate landscape the Whites and the Chapmans first maintain a distance and then resurrect an animosity formed decades before after the wet battered body of Abraham Dinsdale of New Scar House is discovered close by Ravensgill, and Bob’s gran is accused of aiding and abetting the supposed murderer’s escape, even though it was clearly impossible for the dead man to get so quickly from one farm to the other.
Vendale – an imaginary region of underground passages and storied lives also appearing in Mayne’s Earthfasts novels – was borrowed from Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies; in that Victorian novel a climbing boy gets lost in chimney flues and is later ‘reborn’ in a Yorkshire stream. While echoing aspects of Kingsley’s fantasy Mayne’s Ravensgill only reluctantly reveals this Vendale’s secrets. It’s beautifully crafted, its language poetic, its manner of sustaining the mystery masterful. Above all, the dialogue feels authentic, conveying how terse phrases can nevertheless communicate much whilst also emphasising how prejudging and prolonged bitterness can result from refusing to enter into dialogue.
May 13, 2016
A magnificently descriptive book. Wonderful sense of place. The beautiful prose in no way detracts from the page turning quality of the story. Good tale, satisfying mystery. A book I just wanted to live in. Made me want to travel to this part of the world. Truly exceptional author.
August 10, 2018
Ravensgill is deeply rooted in the landscape, culture and language of the Yorkshire Dales. There is a plot – concerning a crime committed almost half a century ago and a divided family – but it seems almost incidental to the real business of the novel, which is a study of lives in a landscape. First published in 1970, Ravensgill is told in Mayne’s typically sideways-on, tangential style; there’s plenty of work involved for the reader in fathoming out exactly what’s going on. Like the landscape, the book is full of hidden secrets and confusing topography.
February 25, 2011
I enjoyed the depiction of the Yorkshire countryside and life on the farm. Mayne uses rich descriptive language and a bit of the local dialect. Interesting that it was an ALA notable book from 1970; the style is quite different than contemporary novels written for young people.
February 12, 2025
Two families, related but divided by something that happened nearly fifty years ago. Can a new generation heal the wounds? First they have to solve the half-forgotten mystery.
Bob lives on Ravensgill farm with his brother Dick and his eccentric and bad-tempered grandmother (when we first meet her she is painting the curtains which is rather different from drawing them). Judith lives in another valley (there are hints of both Romeo and Juliet and Lorna Doone). A policeman's death arouses memories but the old generation won't talk to the kids. “Is it always right to find things out, to let things be remembered?” (Ch 9) But Bob starts to investigate and arouses buried resentments. Tension rises and tempers flare to the point of murderous violence.
It is a beautifully written novel, hugely evocative of the Yorkshire (England) countryside and the farming way of life. Mayne's plot is simple, what drives the story is the reader's desire to solve the mystery, tantalised by the ambiguities built into the dialogue, and the carefully constructed characters, full of very real complexities, driven by very human emotions of pride and jealousy, and curiosity.
Just as important is the setting. There is beauty in the landscape but it can turn dangerous at a heartbeat. There's a sense that something's not quite right, of otherness, and this is fostered by sentences that are lyrical but strangely shaped. For example: “Dick was unable to know what to do. Speech was ready in him, but there was nothing to say. Help was willing in him, but he did not know what to help.” (Ch 5)
The story is as carefully and perfectly painted as Poussin's painting above but the shepherds are looking at a tombstone on which cryptic words are carved.
Bob lives on Ravensgill farm with his brother Dick and his eccentric and bad-tempered grandmother (when we first meet her she is painting the curtains which is rather different from drawing them). Judith lives in another valley (there are hints of both Romeo and Juliet and Lorna Doone). A policeman's death arouses memories but the old generation won't talk to the kids. “Is it always right to find things out, to let things be remembered?” (Ch 9) But Bob starts to investigate and arouses buried resentments. Tension rises and tempers flare to the point of murderous violence.
It is a beautifully written novel, hugely evocative of the Yorkshire (England) countryside and the farming way of life. Mayne's plot is simple, what drives the story is the reader's desire to solve the mystery, tantalised by the ambiguities built into the dialogue, and the carefully constructed characters, full of very real complexities, driven by very human emotions of pride and jealousy, and curiosity.
Just as important is the setting. There is beauty in the landscape but it can turn dangerous at a heartbeat. There's a sense that something's not quite right, of otherness, and this is fostered by sentences that are lyrical but strangely shaped. For example: “Dick was unable to know what to do. Speech was ready in him, but there was nothing to say. Help was willing in him, but he did not know what to help.” (Ch 5)
The story is as carefully and perfectly painted as Poussin's painting above but the shepherds are looking at a tombstone on which cryptic words are carved.
November 15, 2024
Mayne spends the first half of the book showing off his incredible talent for detailed description. He establishes the setting, characters, routines, and relationships. Over the course of this there are brief glimpses of isolated things which are not fully understood. Around chapter 10 we finally get some action, with an old vaguely defined mystery starting to be unraveled. As in reality, there are blind alleys, red herrings, and wild goose chases - as well as successes that are at first unrecognized. By the end, things come together and one wants to reread to catch everything that has been laid out.
Great to see a book with a thorough description of historical newspaper research (no microfilm or scans, just the hard copies). Mayne thinks to include so many aspects of the process, including glorious serendipty.
Great to see a book with a thorough description of historical newspaper research (no microfilm or scans, just the hard copies). Mayne thinks to include so many aspects of the process, including glorious serendipty.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews