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While vacationing on a remote part of the Northumberland coast, a troubled English family has a series of unsettling experiences traveling back in time and confronting the legendary power of St. Cuthbert.
160 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
7 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
About the author
Robert Westall
122 books110 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Robert Westall was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England in 1929.
His first published book The Machine Gunners (1975) which won him the Carnegie Medal is set in World War Two when a group of children living on Tyneside retrieve a machine-gun from a crashed German aircraft. He won the Carnegie Medal again in 1981 for The Scarecrows, the first writer to win it twice. He won the Smarties Prize in 1989 for Blitzcat and the Guardian Award in 1990 for The Kingdom by the Sea. Robert Westall's books have been published in 21 different countries and in 18 different languages, including Braille.
From: http://www.robertwestall.com/
Robert Westall was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England in 1929.
His first published book The Machine Gunners (1975) which won him the Carnegie Medal is set in World War Two when a group of children living on Tyneside retrieve a machine-gun from a crashed German aircraft. He won the Carnegie Medal again in 1981 for The Scarecrows, the first writer to win it twice. He won the Smarties Prize in 1989 for Blitzcat and the Guardian Award in 1990 for The Kingdom by the Sea. Robert Westall's books have been published in 21 different countries and in 18 different languages, including Braille.
From: http://www.robertwestall.com/
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
January 7, 2016
This book changed my life.
There. Five-word review. There aren't many books that do that, and this one did. Perhaps slightly unusual for a life-changing book, in that it's a children's book (and I read it as an adult), it's set in Northumberland (which I'd barely even heard of when I read it, let alone visited), and it's about an obscure 7th-century monk and a dysfunctional 1970s family. But there you go. Life-changing books come in all sorts of strange packages.
As to why it was so life-changing, think on this. My parents are immigrants. They settled in London. Our friends were in London or the south east. So, when we travelled in England, we went to them. Yes, we made the occasional trip further afield, but without a familial sense of where to go and what to visit, we were limited to the most obvious places. Our family trip to Scotland took in Edinburgh, Loch Ness and (for two young boys) an exciting night spent sleeping the back of our estate car when all the B&B places that had 'vacancy' signs in the morning had changed them to 'no vacancy' signs by the afternoon (for the adults, it was no doubt a hugely uncomfortable and deeply mortifying night, but we thought it was great). Most of England was beyond our knowledge and budget. So, by the time I'd grown up, I really hadn't visited very much of it.
Going to university meant that I actually met and became friends with some actual English people - and then, quite a few years later, I went and married one. Now, my wife's family knew quite a lot about England - they'd been here for centuries. And, although undemonstrative, my father-in-law's patriotism is deeply rooted in the understated nature mysticism of the English: the same sort of feeling that permeates the Piper in the Gates of Dawn chapter of The Wind in the Willows, or the poem Adlestrop.
The other strand to this feeling for place is history: a rootedness in the land and landscape that comes from centuries within it. I can see this but, at root, I can't feel it: my roots stop with me. But there is a further, deeper connection, and in this book I began to see the hints of that.
St Cuthbert lived in 7th-century Northumbria. He was a miracle-worker, a bishop, a hermit, a man kind to animals and plants and plagued by demons and devils; he was fierce in love and harsh on evil. With eyes turned to God, all other eyes turned to him, pulling, plucking, trying to pinch a little of his holiness from him. In defence, Cuthbert went exile in view, on one of the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland, and remained there until called back to act as bishop, although he did manage to return to the island for his final few months of life.
The saint lives. In the book, he stirs, opening up the wounds of pride and angry disbelief in an Oxford professor, lashing him to his duty; this is no plaster saint but a man of danger. This is holiness as whirlwind and fire, burning and breaking, making.
Men are broken, bent things. Sometimes they have to be broken further before they can be remade. This book broke some of me in its fire. I hope it remade that part of me in its image.
There. Five-word review. There aren't many books that do that, and this one did. Perhaps slightly unusual for a life-changing book, in that it's a children's book (and I read it as an adult), it's set in Northumberland (which I'd barely even heard of when I read it, let alone visited), and it's about an obscure 7th-century monk and a dysfunctional 1970s family. But there you go. Life-changing books come in all sorts of strange packages.
As to why it was so life-changing, think on this. My parents are immigrants. They settled in London. Our friends were in London or the south east. So, when we travelled in England, we went to them. Yes, we made the occasional trip further afield, but without a familial sense of where to go and what to visit, we were limited to the most obvious places. Our family trip to Scotland took in Edinburgh, Loch Ness and (for two young boys) an exciting night spent sleeping the back of our estate car when all the B&B places that had 'vacancy' signs in the morning had changed them to 'no vacancy' signs by the afternoon (for the adults, it was no doubt a hugely uncomfortable and deeply mortifying night, but we thought it was great). Most of England was beyond our knowledge and budget. So, by the time I'd grown up, I really hadn't visited very much of it.
Going to university meant that I actually met and became friends with some actual English people - and then, quite a few years later, I went and married one. Now, my wife's family knew quite a lot about England - they'd been here for centuries. And, although undemonstrative, my father-in-law's patriotism is deeply rooted in the understated nature mysticism of the English: the same sort of feeling that permeates the Piper in the Gates of Dawn chapter of The Wind in the Willows, or the poem Adlestrop.
The other strand to this feeling for place is history: a rootedness in the land and landscape that comes from centuries within it. I can see this but, at root, I can't feel it: my roots stop with me. But there is a further, deeper connection, and in this book I began to see the hints of that.
St Cuthbert lived in 7th-century Northumbria. He was a miracle-worker, a bishop, a hermit, a man kind to animals and plants and plagued by demons and devils; he was fierce in love and harsh on evil. With eyes turned to God, all other eyes turned to him, pulling, plucking, trying to pinch a little of his holiness from him. In defence, Cuthbert went exile in view, on one of the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland, and remained there until called back to act as bishop, although he did manage to return to the island for his final few months of life.
The saint lives. In the book, he stirs, opening up the wounds of pride and angry disbelief in an Oxford professor, lashing him to his duty; this is no plaster saint but a man of danger. This is holiness as whirlwind and fire, burning and breaking, making.
Men are broken, bent things. Sometimes they have to be broken further before they can be remade. This book broke some of me in its fire. I hope it remade that part of me in its image.
June 12, 2019
A short novel aimed at older children and published around 1976 which is clearly referenced in the text. A dysfunctional family consisting of parents who are both widowed, the son of the mother and the two daughters of the father, arrive at a beach house in Northumberland which the father has just inherited from his uncle who drowned at sea in mysterious circumstances. En route they stop at Durham where the mother deliberately steps on the tomb slab of Saint Cuddy as he is known locally, or Cuthbert, as the saint reputedly was anti-women.
They have not been at the beach house for long when strange things occur centred around a man who appears at night and seems to be luring the youngest girl from the house. But first there is the discovery of an ancient boat in the boathouse, which has the ability to take its passengers back into the past, into the period when Cuthbert was alive.
I quite enjoyed the story and found the characters fairly realistic with their tensions, squabbling and hangups. Interestingly, at the start the mother is the unsympathetic character and the father seems the nice one, but part way through they flip over. The father's flaws become all too visible.
Knowing something about Saint Cuthbert, this was quite an interesting take on his character although one thing jarred: his tomb would not have been a simple slab. The original one was a raised gold and jewel encrusted shrine - it formed an important place of pilgrimage until the Reformation at which point the shrine was broken up and the valuables pocketed by the officials of King Henry VIII. The simple slab is a modern replacement, so the guide's story about the saint miraculously carving the name in the floor just as it is seen by them is completely wrong, and no one in the story suggests he is talking rubbish so that came over as a clunking mistake, early on in the book. However I was able to suspend disbelief afterwards although I don't know how accurate the portrayal of Cuthbert and his circumstances actually was. I rate this story as a 3-star quite interesting read.
They have not been at the beach house for long when strange things occur centred around a man who appears at night and seems to be luring the youngest girl from the house. But first there is the discovery of an ancient boat in the boathouse, which has the ability to take its passengers back into the past, into the period when Cuthbert was alive.
I quite enjoyed the story and found the characters fairly realistic with their tensions, squabbling and hangups. Interestingly, at the start the mother is the unsympathetic character and the father seems the nice one, but part way through they flip over. The father's flaws become all too visible.
Knowing something about Saint Cuthbert, this was quite an interesting take on his character although one thing jarred: his tomb would not have been a simple slab. The original one was a raised gold and jewel encrusted shrine - it formed an important place of pilgrimage until the Reformation at which point the shrine was broken up and the valuables pocketed by the officials of King Henry VIII. The simple slab is a modern replacement, so the guide's story about the saint miraculously carving the name in the floor just as it is seen by them is completely wrong, and no one in the story suggests he is talking rubbish so that came over as a clunking mistake, early on in the book. However I was able to suspend disbelief afterwards although I don't know how accurate the portrayal of Cuthbert and his circumstances actually was. I rate this story as a 3-star quite interesting read.
April 26, 2020
This is my favorite book.
It's for children and I randomly grabbed it on a whim on my way out of the library. I never expected it to be so good. If you grew up by the ocean and you love an old-fashioned ghost story, this is the book for you.
I never thought I could read a book at 25 for the first time that would give me that warm nostalgic feeling of my childhood. Usually, that happens with books you actually read as a child. It's also got some pretty adult themes like divorce and approaches them quite honestly for a "children's novel."
I think this book is 100% perfect escapism with excellent writing.
It's for children and I randomly grabbed it on a whim on my way out of the library. I never expected it to be so good. If you grew up by the ocean and you love an old-fashioned ghost story, this is the book for you.
I never thought I could read a book at 25 for the first time that would give me that warm nostalgic feeling of my childhood. Usually, that happens with books you actually read as a child. It's also got some pretty adult themes like divorce and approaches them quite honestly for a "children's novel."
I think this book is 100% perfect escapism with excellent writing.
May 11, 2012
I don't know how much I would have liked this book as a child. It's fairly unflinching about parental weakness and inadequacy. Even the magic aspects are fairly gritty. It would have got me thinking, at least.
There's a strong sense of place and setting - I finished the book feeling rather windblown and sea-sprayed.
There's a strong sense of place and setting - I finished the book feeling rather windblown and sea-sprayed.
queued
April 17, 2024Bertand and Madeleine shouldn't have got married. Even their children seemed to think so - though the children themselves got on as well as any half-brothers and sisters could be expected to.
Their holiday together got off to a bad start when Madeleine trampled on St Cuthbert's tomb in Durham Cathedral. From then on, the eye of the long-dead saint was well and truly on them . . .
Cover illustration by Nancy Petley-Jones
February 5, 2025
This is only skating by with a 2 due to Westall's writing being pretty decent even this early in his career and his ability to describe and create atmosphere. I found this one grating otherwise: we follow the most unlikable cast of any book ever between two parents who are incredibly hatable, an obnoxious older brother, an annoying cutesy younger sister, and the main character Beth who basically has no defining characteristics beyond being the main character. Except, of course, just like in Watch House about 150 pages in Beth stops being the main character and is just sort of around. The story is also not adventurous enough to silly entertainment but not creepy enough to be horror, so it's very confused feeling. I really, really did not like this one.
March 20, 2019
Engaging and thought-provoking, this has some elements in common with A String in the Harp and The Owl Service.
June 7, 2021
3.5 stars really. Strange little book, dysfunctional family relationships mixed with time travel and St Cuthbert thrown in on a windswept Northumbrian coast. Interesting though.
December 3, 2012
This is a story of a family in the 1970's who go to stay in an old house on the coast off Lindisfarne. They have inherited it from an eccentric uncle. In the old shed they find a bedraggled old boat which they make sea worthy and that's where the adventures start as this boat time travels and is in fact a Viking boat.
The story is mostly about the story of the Viking raids on the monastery at Lindisfarne and also St Cuthbert who tries to stop them. There is a lot of folk tale and legend interwoven into the story. It sounds rather like a famous five type story but it is much more detailed and multi-layered than that. Time travel is not pleasant and they cannot change history anyway but they do change themselves. Cuthbert's message of love and tolerance hits home to the parents more than the children who are not as worldly as their parents and so dont need him as much. Cuthbert heals one of the children and gives faith to her father.
This was a read-aloud for my 9 year old who loved it and it ties in with what we are currently looking at in history and also we live in the north east of England where this all takes place.
The story is mostly about the story of the Viking raids on the monastery at Lindisfarne and also St Cuthbert who tries to stop them. There is a lot of folk tale and legend interwoven into the story. It sounds rather like a famous five type story but it is much more detailed and multi-layered than that. Time travel is not pleasant and they cannot change history anyway but they do change themselves. Cuthbert's message of love and tolerance hits home to the parents more than the children who are not as worldly as their parents and so dont need him as much. Cuthbert heals one of the children and gives faith to her father.
This was a read-aloud for my 9 year old who loved it and it ties in with what we are currently looking at in history and also we live in the north east of England where this all takes place.
January 28, 2020
Possibly as a work of literature this is more a four star book. But personally I can't go that high with it. For starters, the family (blended-1 mother and her son married to 1 father with two daughters) inherit an old house on the coast in the north of England full of fascinating old things. Do we get to spend lots of time exploring and tidying the old house finding interesting things? No. Does the mother get stuck with all the domestic work in this old house with dubious modern ammentities and no emotional support or sense that she might like to have had different choices? Yes. The fact that she is furious with everything and everybody (until the magical intervention of St. Cuthbert) is understandable, but exaggerated; it dehumanizes her. The father is also one note in his encyclopedic knowledge that constantly flows from his erudite mind (I wouldn't mind this, but the kids do, very much). Actually, he has a second note of fanatical atheism...which makes it tricky for him to cope with time travel involving St. Cuthbert, which is the main plot of the book. It is cool time travel. So a somewhat disappointing one for me personally, because it wasn't the book I wanted it to be.
June 14, 2023
“The torch beam swung round the room, lancing into the deeper shadows where the bedtime candle hadn’t reached. It was quite good fun, because there were three together.
Then the torch lanced into the shadow above the wardrobe.
A hollow-eyed face peered down at them.”
YA supernatural story. A modern family are on holiday in Northumberland. They find an old boat and it gives them glimpses of the past and St Cuthbert - Cuddy. There is danger, violence and they are all changed by their experiences.
I like Robert Westall’s books and this is a good one.
Then the torch lanced into the shadow above the wardrobe.
A hollow-eyed face peered down at them.”
YA supernatural story. A modern family are on holiday in Northumberland. They find an old boat and it gives them glimpses of the past and St Cuthbert - Cuddy. There is danger, violence and they are all changed by their experiences.
I like Robert Westall’s books and this is a good one.
July 12, 2025
I first read this well over 40 years ago, perhaps when I was in my first library job (though I doubt that I included it in my elementary school library). Very fine indeed, revolving on belief, saints and time travel.
September 4, 2017
An interesting take on legends, history, and religion. Definitely different.
May 29, 2023
This is one of my favourite books that I re-read every few years. I really love it.
Read
August 4, 2024the edition I read isn't on here, 1995 edition by Macmillan Children's Books, with the Resurre and a crow on the cover
September 9, 2010
This is a great book about a long dead saint and his interactions with a modern day 'blended' family. I do loathe that term. Family is family - regardless of how many mothers and fathers and children there are (or aren't). Anyway, this family has a fairly long journey to go in learning to love each other and get along with each other. It takes a couple of miracles and supernatural experiences for it to happen, but eventually they're ready to devote their lives to the 'family business' as it were. Leaving behind devoted (if dogged) scientific scepticism aside. Although, to be fair, one can only judge the world through one's experiences and given the experiences related I too would abandon certain ideas I hold about the world. Of course, I wouldn't be quite so closed-minded (as the father) in the first place.
Anyway, this is a fun read and well worth it.
Anyway, this is a fun read and well worth it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 26, 2013
This is a kids’ book I picked up because it was in the library’s catalog under St. Cuthbert as a subject. It has lots of legends about him indeed. In fact, it’s a sort of time-travel-meets-problem-novel book, but in the best possible way, from the 70s. Holds up pretty well, actually, since the problems of step-parenting and blended families haven’t gone away, and neither have obnoxious adults viewed through the eyes of powerless children. Very interesting family, although I don't see particularly happy things in the future of the adults. The kids are remarkably well-adjusted but realistic.
A really good book, even if you aren’t interested in St. Cuthbert particularly (you may be once you finish!). Robert Westall is always a good read.
A really good book, even if you aren’t interested in St. Cuthbert particularly (you may be once you finish!). Robert Westall is always a good read.
January 24, 2011
Although this style of writing is now considered a little dated I found it very satisfying. Westwood elegant and imaginative descriptions really added to the story to five it a sense of timeliness. Transporting me not only back to the 1970's but also to a foreign land and a foreign time. So rich and alive. Great narrative was also supported by rich and precise dialogue.
November 7, 2019
Reading the summary of this novel, I'm sorry I don't remember it in more detail. I know I read it in 1986 because I mentioned it in my journal from that time.
May 25, 2025
My favourite Robert Westall book. Creepy and cool!
May 20, 2017
Challenging for a childrens book! good real locations. Had to read some of it twice as each person was challenged and changed by their experiences travelling back in time
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews