Crazy Castle

Warner Family Series #4

by David Severn

David Severn could have called this book The Affair of the Missing Pony. For Heather Stubbs' new pony, Pride of Persia, had been stolen--of that there was no shadow of doubt. In vain the Stubbs and the Warners scoured the surrounding countryside. The search went on right through the summer holidays, but no one came forward to claim the reward. And then, at last, Joan Warner discovered a clue. An important clue. With her brothers, Alan and Cristopher, she started out on a hunt that was to take them in turn to the office of the Sports Editor of the Beacon, cheery Dicky Willoughby; to the home of deaf old Colonel Roderick (the man with a horse in his house!); to Lone Farm, haunt of the 'copers'; and hot on the trail of Pride of Persia, to the drawbridge of Crazy Castle itself!

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

David Severn was a pseudonym for David Storr Unwin, a British writer. He was the son of publisher Sir Stanley Unwin, of whom Severn wrote a biography in 1982, Fifty Years with Father.

Severn attended Abbotsholme School, Derbyshire from 1933–36, and worked for the League of Nations Secretariat, Geneva (1938), Unwin Brothers (printers), 1939, Blackwells (1940) and George Allen & Unwin (1941-43), having been declared medically unfit for the armed services.

His first series for children (1942-46) featured "Crusoe" Robinson, who was befriended by youngsters in holiday adventures, many featuring a Romany group. The Warner family series followed (1947–52), featuring pheasants, ponies and country life. The scraperboard illustrations of Joan Kiddell-Monroe greatly enhance these two series.

A number of books experimented with the paranormal and time-slip, and can be compared with many modern books revisiting supernatural themes. Drumbeats! has a musical youngster beating a native drum which transports children to a lost expedition to Africa twenty years earlier. Dream Gold shows the hypnotic power of one boy over another, with dreams reliving the conflicts of their ancestors. The Future Took Us is a time-slip. The Girl in the Grove, his longest book, is a psychological ghost story. He also produced illustrated books for younger children.

Reviews

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

just added the jacket flap copy (the book is better written). It's a mid-20th century UK story of three kids solving the mystery of a stolen pony, with lots of adult help. Although I'm not a fan of villainous Gypsies of the stereotypical awful sort one finds in vintage UK books at least there was also a villainous farmer to share the blame, and the story was as a whole quite entertaining, even making me chuckle, and I liked the kids. I would read more of the series (this seems to be the fourth book about the Warner siblings, as three other titles are listed here; I too have keen powers of detection...)