Mystery at Witchend, first published in 1943, is the first in Malcolm SavilleLeonard Malcolm Saville (21 February 1901 – 30 June 1982) was an English author best known for the Lone Pine series of children’s books, published between 1943 and 1978. ‘s series of Lone Pine books. Set in rural Shropshire, it was written when his own children had been evacuated to that county from the family home in Hertfordshire during the Second World War. A further nineteen books followed in the Lone Pine series; the last one – Home to Witchend – was published in 1978.[1]
Synopsis
The Morton children, 15-year-old David and his 9-year-old twin siblings, Mary and Richard (Dickie) and their Scottie dog Macbeth (Mackie), have been evacuated from their home in Hertfordshire to Witchend in Shropshire, a cottage on the east flank of the Long Mynd. The cottage has been bought for that purpose by Mr Morton, a London solicitor called away to become a fighter pilot in the RAF.
The Malcolm Saville Society
Much of the book is concerned with the Morton children’s setting up of the Lone Pine Club, together with their near neighbours Petronella (Peter) Sterling and Tom Ingles, an evacuee from London. Peter lives in nearby Hatcholt with her elderly retired father, and it is she who suggests forming a secret club, after coming across the Morton children while out riding her pony on the Long Mynd and rescuing Dickie from a bog he had fallen into. Mary discovers a gorse-surrounded clearing above Witchend containing a single tree, the inspiration for the name of their club. David is appointed Club Captain and Peter Vice-Captain.
It is decided that the objectives of the club are to explore, watch birds, and track strangers. Each member signs an oath “to be true to each other whatever happens always” in blood, which along with the rules is hidden in a salmon tin buried near the roots of the tree in their secret meeting place.
The club’s first adventure revolves around Appledore, a house on the other side of the Long Mynd belonging to the mysterious Mrs Thurston, who is eventually revealed to be a German spy. Strangers whom the members of the club keep encountering are in reality German saboteurs coordinated by Mrs Thurston, parachuted in at night with the aim of destroying the local reservoirs. David and Peter’s suspicions are raised when they see Mrs Thurston taking pictures of the reservoir and the damn, and share their unease with Peter’s father. But their concerns are not taken seriously until the twins go missing.
The twins have wandered off on their own and become lost in a fog on the Long Mynd, and end up at Appledore together with a parachutist who claims to be a British officer. They are rescued by a unit of the Home Guard out searching for one of the saboteurs, whom they eventually catch, but not before he has succeeded in damaging Hatchholt’s dam.