The Visitor: A Story of Suspense

by Josephine Poole

A young boy seems to be the only one to notice the strange events that begin to happen after his new tutor arrives in the village.

Genres: Fiction

148 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1972

About the author

Jane Penelope Josephine Helyar known by her nom de plume Josephine Poole is the renowned author of several books for children and young adults. Her first book was published in 1961, and she has also written extensively for television. She lives in Somerset.

https://whistlesinthewind.wordpress.c...

Reviews

[Murray Ewing · Rating 3 out of 5]

To the village of Cormundy comes the mysterious Mr Bogle, there to engage in ‘light tutoring’ duties for fifteen-year-old Harry Longshaw, who’s out of school after an illness has left it difficult for him to walk. Mr Bogle has a goat’s foot inkstand, a gown made of tabby cat fur, and a keen interest in the phrase inscribed over the fireplace in Harry’s room: “Arise, thou avenger to come, out of my ashes”. Harry’s family home was, Mr Bogle tell him, a site where witchcraft was once rooted out with fire. Harry takes an instant dislike to Mr Bogle, who is soon to be found consorting with the resentful, out-of-work males of the village, leading them in a revival of the ancient ‘Horn Dance’…

I came to this 1970s YA book after reading (here) of similarities between it and two other recent reads, Penelope Lively’s The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy, and William Rayner’s Stag Boy, both of which are about clashes between the old ways and the new in English villages, published around the same time. In contrast to the Lively and Rayner books, Poole’s lacks the evocation of paganism as a wild, ancient and amoral power, dangerous to mess with but an essential part of life. Here, Mr Bogle is simply the Devil, and his Horn Dance is a pied-piper call to the village men to rise up and cause trouble. The final confrontation takes place, fittingly, around a church where, the next day, Harry’s sister (who is of old village stock) will marry Rupert Musgrave (newly arrived, and wanting to modernise the village’s old ways with new farm machinery), whereas Mr Bogle wants to paralyse everyone with a nostalgia of old superstitions and no progress.

The book has its moments, but never quite grabbed me as those other two (from Lively and Rayner) did, in part because the story wandered away from young Harry too much to make him the emotional centre of the story, but also because, lacking the sense that the pagan past is both dangerous and of value, it doesn’t catch its young protagonist in the same sort of complex emotional crux, which is something, I’d say, that forms the core of a really good book about being a teen.

[Capn · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is that bell ringing for?
said Meet-on-the-road.

To ring bad spirits home again,
said Child-as-it-stood.

OLD ENGLISH BALLAD

THE VISITOR
A Story of Suspense
Josephine Poole

Strange things begin to happen soon after Mr. Bogle, Harry's tutor, arrives at Fury Wood. Harry is the only one who notices that Bogle is a peculiar man with some very well-kept secrets.
If Bogle has never been to the house before, how does he know by heart the inscription above the fireplace? What strange power does he hold over the villagers of Cormundy? Where does he come from, and what is he really doing at Fury Wood?
Mr. Bogle is certainly not all that he pretends to be. There is something unnatural about the man, something evil. Harry senses it, but nobody pays any attention to him until it is almost too late. An eerie atmosphere of evil surrounds the visitor's relentless drive for power over the minds of the Cormundy villagers.

(My copy comes from Boston (sez Google - Frank V. Thompson School, anyway) and was allegedly purchased with "Federal Aid Under ESEA State Plan - Title II", and still has the children's names written on the library card on the back (Helena Chambers (1-5-83) and James Chaney (10/11) are the only ones I can make out for certain. I love this.)

Oh, Josephine Poole!!!! ❤ Comparing her to Shirley Jackson is the highest and most deserved praise I can think to give her. Here is an author who can build layer upon layer of foreboding dread with a few choice words and deft dialogue.

My friend Len recommended Billy Buck to me a year or so back, after I gushed over Penelope Lively's The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy (which is still one of my favourites). Sadly, in spite of scouring the internet and lying silently and unseen in wait like Shelob even since, no copy of Billy Buck ever reached my threshold of justfiable price. However, serendipitously, we stumbled upon a blog (Whistles in the Wind on Wordpress) which claimed that The Visitor: A Story of Suspense was in fact the U.S. edition of Billy Buck. And it was affordable.

When I first received my copy, I immediately deflated - there was no mention anywhere inside of it being Billy Buck in a new mantel (you can see the discussion here, on Forgotten Vintage Children's Lit We Want Republished!: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...). But again, thanks to Len and the other lovely members of that group (which you are welcome to join, btw!), we found yet another blog that summarized this obscure book. Both featured Harry, the village of Cormundy, and a tutor named Mr. Bogle.

I don't wish to say much more than the official summary gives and risk spoiling this story for you, but it's centered upon an ancient pagan Horn Dance (see my list, here: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...) in a fictional English village (I love how she described Cormundy - it was so well depicted, I'd know it if I saw it!). The characters have depth. The atmosphere grows increasingly oppressive. There's symbolism everywhere that an English teacher would go nuts with unravelling (was there ever a book read in class whose magic wasn't utterly undone by such Philistines?! Argh. Ruinous practice!). It's both heavy and light in all the right ways - it's fun to read and teases and terrorizes without laying anything too bare. It's very, very creepy and sits well alongside The Lottery for unsettling, latent human evil.

A note about the covers: I prefer the original Billy Buck, whereas my friend Hilary prefers this one. Both are good, and both, I'm pleased to say, do fit the story. I won't elaborate to prevent spoilers.


Having never read Billy Buck, I can't say if it differs. But I can attest that words such as draft (draught) and plowed (ploughed) appeared, so at least the spelling conventions changed (and possibly also terminology: flashlight was used for (electric) torch, and generic 'beer' perhaps in place of lager/ale, and the like. As a Canadian, I'm fluent in both languages and might have overlooked something). And the title - perhaps "Billy Buck" sounded too much like a Western to American ears, I don't know. I do know that I could think of half a dozen better alternative titles than 'The Visitor' off the top of my head, but nevermind. Otherwise, I found it read very well, and so I suspect mostly true to the original. Seeing as there's no mention of original source material or an adaptation from the same, I'm moderately hopeful that no one tinkered with the plot or ending. (Again, it was Len who mentioned that he knows of a book (Brother in the Land) where later editions had a "happily ever after" ending whilst the original most certainly did not! WHO DOES THAT?!! Reprehensible!).

There were a few imperfections here and there, but now that I've slept on it, I can't remember what I found fault with. So it's a perfect 5 stars from me. I loved it, and I'll reread it. And after that, I'll read Stag Boy (which is available for free on OpenLibrary, but thanks to corporate greed, that might not be true forever... Act fast!).