Five Go to Smuggler's Top (Famous Five, #4)

One of the few Famous Fives where the wondrous meals took a back-seat! Smuggler’s Top however, atop the mist-shrouded Castaway Hill more than made up for the absence of “lashings” of delicious food.

The adventure starts off with the Five heading off to Kirrin for another glorious vacation. But a terrible gale puts a damper in plans. It uproots a massive ash tree that crashes on to Kirrin Cottage. Four active kids, an excitable dog, a house badly in need of repairs and an irritable Uncle Quentin. Poor Aunt Fanny is in a right fix!

Uncle Quentin comes up with the plan of parcelling off the children to his fellow scientist, Mr.Lenoir’s house. And the house goes by the name of 'Smuggler’s Top'. An added attraction is Sooty (Pierre Lenoir), Mr.Lenoir’s stepson…..a prankster who goes to school with Dick.

Smuggler’s Top is a huge house straight out of history….with hidden passages behind panels….pits under seemingly ordinary floors…..all mysteriously ensconced on a small island surrounded by marshes and swirling mists.

After a few uneventful days, the five soon discover that someone is flashing signals from the tower of Smuggler’s Top. Is smuggling still going under wraps of the creeping mist? And who is involved? Is their host up to something sinister? A delicious mystery made all the more intriguing by the house and it’s many unknown secrets.


Interesting characters are Mr.Lenoir….who likes to appear jolly and friendly, but regularly flies into a nasty temper (the indication of which is the tip of his nose turning white!). His man-servant Block is instantly repulsive with his blank-face....supposed deafness and brute-like strength. And then ofcourse, there’s Mr.Barling….the slightly eccentric smuggler who has escaped the police so far. He longs for a bygone era when ships crept in, over the treacherous marshes towards the appointed place.

Another one of my Blyton favourites……Five Go to Smuggler’s Top was one that appealed to me purely for the entire ambience created. The house located atop a hill……riddled with secret passages….the sleepy town with cobbled streets and diamond-pane windows……the catacombs, where people could wander for days and get lost forever….the squelching mud of the marshes…collectively added to the aura that was Smuggler’s Top. Enid Blyton effectively created a world that I could picture with startling clarity even after so many years.

When I was a snotty-nosed kid, I always read “Five Run Away Together” and “Five Go To Smuggler’s Top” back to back. From the windswept beauty of Kirrin Island to the sinister charm of Castaway Hill…..each had it’s own appeal.

And while I have replenished my stock of other long-lost Famous Fives….I have loyally preserved this ancient double edition…a slice of my childhood and a reminder of simpler times!

Five Run Away Together (Famous Five, #3)

Nothing brings back a slice of childhood like a good ol’Famous Five. While I lost many of the books along the way.....there is one particularly dog-eared copy which I turn to at regular intervals. Two adventures in one: Five Run Away Together & Five Go To Smuggler’s Top.

Five Run Away Together had it all...the truly hateful Stick family…Aunt Fanny taken ill and Uncle Quentin not running interference…full freedom to the Five to go and live on Kirrin Island and have their weird but truly fantastic meals (who can forget the freshly baked loaves of bread, tinned peaches, hot cocoa, potted meat etc.)…and the case of the mysterious trunk hidden in the wreck.

Are smugglers using the island as a stop-over? And who does the terrified scream in the middle of the night belong to?? A nice, juicy adventure handed on a plate to the Five!

Five Run Away Together has been my comfort-food for as long as I can remember. No particular reason…I liked the fact that outspoken George learnt to curb her temper towards the Stick family out of regard for her ailing mum. I thought Julian was the epitome of maturity for being able to shut the Sticks up with his ready tongue and quick wit. And I always enjoyed the whole “running-off-to-Kirrin-and-living-in-a-cave” idea. Sleeping on sweet-smelling heather…dozing off to the mysterious shadows cast by a friendly fire and waking up to mixed-up meals always sounded “mah-velous”!

Adding special significance for me, were the illustrations that are generously sprinkled all over the book. The later editions are almost clinical when compared to this visual treat. Am now moving on to “Five Go To Smuggler’s Top”…and continuing my trip down memory-lane.

Eat Cake

Long ago at a Stress-Reduction Seminar, Ruth Hopson learnt that the best way to deal with stress was to visualize a place where you feel safe and comfortable. While others dreamt of childhood bedrooms or Jamaican beaches…..Ruth’s ‘Happy Place’ was the warm, scented, hollowed-out centre of a bundt cake (preferably gingerbread). And this is perfectly natural for Ruth who has been whipping up cakes for as long as she can remember. Cakes are her stress-reliever…and the stress is only mounting.

Her once independent mother is staying with her.....Ruth’s husband Sam has lost his stable job and is bent upon discovering himself…her teenage daughter is uncommunicative and slowly drifting apart…..and to top it all, her estranged father lands up at her house….an invalid with both his wrists broken.

Diminishing funds, frayed tempers and all panic stations at full alert...Ruth is having a tough time. So she handles her stress the best way she can…she bakes. And then a chance remark by a well-wisher gets Ruth thinking. Could all that baking be put to constructive use? Could Ruth’s fabulous cakes save the day and turn around her family’s fortune?

A happy-baker myself, I can totally understand Ruth’s complete fascination with the whole measure-sieve-whip-pour-and hopefully not burn process of turning out a light and fragrant cake.A sweet and simple book...'Eat Cake’ is a family book dealing with real-life problems. I read this book as a part of Reader’s Digest’s Select Editions. The condensed version was just right, without endless pages of drama and dialogue.

Love, Rosie

Rosie Dunne & Alex Stewart have a deep friendship that begins in their schooldays and grows over the passing years. They share each other’s lives through a series of notes, e-mails, IMs and sometimes long, winding letters. Their friendship survives unexpected pregnancies, marriages (not to each other), subsequent divorces, bereavements and various phases of their chequered careers.

While everyone expects them to end up together, Alex & Rosie are the proverbial ships passing in the night. When Rosie wants to take the friendship further, Alex is announcing his marriage. When Alex wants to profess his love to Rosie, the latter is unaware and taking another shot at her failing marriage. A series of similar ‘almost-there’ moments and that’s pretty much the gist of ‘Love, Rosie’.

Cut the book in half and it would be a fantastic read. Instead, it rambles on.....and on...and on. While you start off rooting for Rosie and Alex…somewhere along the way, the roadblocks seem a bit contrived. The only bright spark for me was the quirky cast of supporting characters. They pepper the pages with their wit, humour and sheer likeability.

The Star of Kazan

Eva Ibbotson weaves an old-fashioned adventure around a young foundling called Annika. Abandoned in a church on the slopes of Mt. Dorfelspitze, the baby is adopted by a pair of friends: Ellie, the cook and Sigrid, the housemaid. They take her back to their owners’ house in Vienna. Annika is a happy, industrious child…..learning to cook Viennese delicacies from Ellie, keeping the house sparkling clean and doing a multitude of odd jobs for the eccentric professors who are the owners of the house. Her spare time is spent enacting mock-plays with her friends Pauline and Stephan. She also manages to pay frequent visits to a dying old lady who was formerly known as the wonderful actress ‘La Rondine’.

She only has one wish…that her birth mother sweeps in one day and says: ‘Where is she? Where is my long lost daughter?’. And here the adage of “Be careful what you wish for, it just may come true” comes into full play. Very soon, an aristocratic lady named Edeltraut von Tannenberg comes to claim Annika and swoop her off to a cold and desolate castle in Germany.

Fitting into a new scenario is always tough, but for Annika who has been used to a warm and friendly Vienna, her new home throws up many nasty surprises. Unfriendly relatives…lies and secrets…dreary food...dank climate...things are not as Annika imagined her new life to be.

The only bright speck is the new friend she makes called Zed, a Romany stable boy. But as the mystery shrouding her new family deepens...Zed is accused of robbery…robbery of a trunk which was left to Annika by ‘La Rondine’. Annika is torn between her faith in Zed and her loyalty to her surprisingly cold mother. In Vienna her old family is missing Annika terribly and also come across some unpalatable facts …which could put Annika’s life in grave danger.

A simple story…a predictable mystery and a plot oft-repeated. But what makes ‘Star of Kazan’ so engrossing is the absolute love and affection with which Eva Ibbotson describes the splendour and grandiose of a vintage Vienna..... The ancient but much-loved Emperor Franz Joseph with his ‘mutton-chop whiskers and bald head’. The extravagant waltzes streaming out of the cafes. The decadent opera houses. The sinfully rich confectionaries bursting with aroma and taste. And of course the pride of Vienna : The dancing Lipizzaner Stallions. You are soon transported to a magical city that seems to hum with colour, light and vitality. This is a book to be savoured...and enjoyed at a leisurely pace. Eva Ibbotson triumphs yet again !

The Zoya Factor

Zoya Solanki.....a mid-level marketing executive at an ad-firm...a typical ‘Karol-Bagh’ type....with masses of black curling hair and a super-spunky attitude. Her idea of a perfect assignment: Working with SRK and getting a glimpse of his toffee-coloured torso!

So how does ordinary Zoya Solanki become ‘The Zoya Devi’..the Indian Goddess.....the good luck charm on which the hopes of a million Indians are riding?
Simple!

Zoya happened to be born at the very moment when India clinched the World Cup in 1983…infact when the last wicket fell, out popped Zoya! As she works on an assignment with the current Indian Cricket Team, the superstitious bunch discover that having breakfast with Zoya leads to victory. And not eating with her...well, crushing defeat (…to Bermuda!!). Zoya is instantly escalated to the status of “Lucky Charm”!

With the tenth ICC World Cup just around the corner, Zoya is soon begged, bullied and emotionally blackmailed to accompany the Indian team as their official good luck mascot. Driven by a misguided sense of loyalty to India and the hope of bringing back the elusive world cup.....Zoya is soon off to Australia on a fully-paid holiday.

But being a lucky charm is not all it’s cracked up to be. Zoya is soon crossing swords with the brilliant captain of the Indian team, Nikhil Khoda. Khoda doesn’t believe in lucky charms. He works hard and wants the team’s victories to be attributed to the effort put in by the “boys”. The fact that there’s a definite attraction between the two.....only adds to the escalating fiasco.

Pursued by pista-munching agents, harangued by saffron-clad babas, manipulated by IBCC chiefs and wooed by Cola firms……Zoya is soon sinking into the mad-crazy world of Indian Cricket. In a country where cricket is almost a religion, Zoya is elevated to goddess-status. Staying true to herself is becoming more and more difficult and the hype threatens to over-power the sassy Zoya.

Finally a book by an Indian author that I can say I thoroughly, truly enjoyed. No “Indian-settled-abroad-culture-clash” drama…no pages of purple prose.....just pure unadulterated fun. Anuja Chauhan has brought the fun back into Indian Literature. Generously peppered with doses of 'Hinglish' and ribald humour…”The Zoya Factor” is a laugh riot.

As the author herself puts it “Anybody who loved DDLG and the Twenty20 World Cup will like Zoya”. Too true….and I hope fledgling Indian Authors everywhere get the hint and leave the “rhona-dhona” behind!!

The Haunting Of Hiram

Alex MacBuff is 12 years old. He is also the sole surviving owner of the ancient castle of Carra. While Alex does his best in the upkeep of the crumbling castle, he soon realizes that there’s never going to be enough money to meet with the ever-increasing expenses. The only solution is to sell the castle and hope for the best. And luckily, an American millionaire Hiram C.Hopgood is willing to buy the castle…crumbling turrets, underground passages, blood-stained drawbridge et al. But he has one condition……there should be "no ghosts". Not a single scary spook haunting any nook or cranny of the castle.

And Alex has a new task at hand. Finding a suitable new home for his resident ghosts. There’s Krok Fullbelly, the six-foot four enormous Viking, whose body was thrown off Carra rock. Miss.Spinks, the Victorian governess…..who suffers from Water Madness and spends her time flinging herself into the well or any other available waterbody. Mr.Louse, the ancient vampire who’s lost his false teeth when he drove his wheelchair over it. Wrecking good-natured havoc like any self-respecting poltergeist is the youngest ghost of Carra…Flossie. And then of course, the excitable little hell-hound Cyril who has an over-exaggerated body of a dachshund and follows Alex around like a dutiful pup.

Alex adores his ghostly family and the thought of being separated from them fills him with dread. But a castle owner's (and a penniless one, at that) got to do what a castle owner's got to do!!

And thus begins a crazy adventure. An unlikely group of heroes and a truly nasty bunch of villians....."The Haunting of Hiram" is enjoyable and filled with drama, mayhem and a lot of nonsensical good fun!

The Great Ghost Rescue

Humphrey is a lovable little ghost, the colour of summer clouds and cursed with twinkling eye-sockets. He wants to be “Humphrey the Horrible” .....downright scary like his impressively hideous family. But that’s the least of his problems.

Craggyford Castle, their home for the past 500 years is soon going to be converted into a holiday resort and they need to find a new home.....soon. In their search they come along Rick, a small boy in a school dormitory who appears to have the solution to their woes. Rick’s plan: head off to London and make an appeal to the Prime Minister for a Ghost Sanctuary.

Meanwhile, ghosts and other spectres elsewhere are also losing their homes as rivers get polluted with industrial waste...lovely old estates get converted to tourist hotels and green fields morph into smog-filled motorways. Rick and his motley crew are soon accompanied by displaced ghosts and even a family of blood-starved vampire bats.

A grave (pun, wholly unintentional) problem indeed! Will Rick’s grandiose plan work? Will the Prime Minister

do his job or be a skeptical non-believer? And will the ghosts find a place where they can truly, in the full sense of the word.....Rest In Peace?

Eva Ibbotson’s droll sense of humour effectively puts across an ecological message. In a time when animals are losing their natural habitats and the world is becoming a messier place to live in.....is it too much a suspension of reality to imagine, that ‘undead’ creatures are facing a nasty end too?

A fantastical tale..yes, but with it’s heart in the right place.

Dial-A-Ghost

Frieda and Fulton Snodde-Brittle are bursting with joy. Finally the rather gloomy but majestic Helton Hall seems to be theirs. But before they can savour their inheritance, they have to deal with the sole surviving Snodde-Brittle, a small orphan called Oliver Smith who lives in a children’s home in London.

Oliver, an asthamatic and frail child is not exactly keen at the prospect of leaving his orphanage friends and taking up residence at the sinister Helton Hall. And Fulton and Frieda sense the perfect plan to scare the beejusus out of Oliver. They call up "Dial-a-Ghost". Dial-A-Ghost is an agency run by two kindly ladies who provide homes for misplaced ghosts.

Fulton has a clear request.....proper, fiersome ghosts who moan and groan and scream and curdle the blood in your veins. The agency, unaware of Fulton's devious scheme are happy that they have the perfect candidates: Sir Pelham and Lady Sabrina De Bone …a pair of thoroughly disgusting ghosts. Originally belonging to the aristocratic set, the couple had ‘A Great Sorrow’ which had driven them mad. Carrying their wildness into the after-life.....they are truly hideous and seem to fit Fulton’s requirements to the tee.

But a mix-up by the agency’s office boy leads the de Bones to a nunnery and causes the Wilkinson family to make an appearance at Helton Hall. And a nicer ghost family it is difficult to find. Warm and considerate…they provide Oliver with the love and family support which a lonely boy always needed. It's a Happy Haunting for all!

Things seem to be going splendidly, but what will happen when the Snodde-Brittles realise the faux-pas?....How long would it take for the scary spooks to leave the nunnery and take up rightful residence at Helton Hall?

One more fun read from Eva Ibbotson’s “Ghosts-aren’t-anything-to-scream-about” collection. She manages to talk about ooze and slime and severed heads and crumbling body parts and you still can gaurantee that any child who reads them would be hooked till the last page.

Percy Jackson and The Battle Of The Labyrinth

After a week of so-so…and some truly disappointing reads, am thoroughly glad to say ‘Percy Jackson and The Battle of The Labyrinth’ lived up to my expectations and was a truly fine read!

Half-boy, half-God Percy Jackson starts off another school year by fighting off a pair of ‘Empousai’ and blowing up the school…again. He also runs into Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the mysterious mortal girl who can see through the mist.

It’s time to head back to camp Half-Blood, because trouble is brewing….huge, scary ‘the-GODS-are-angry’ kind of trouble. The ancient Lord Kronos is slowly reforming, aided by Luke and his unearthly army. Luke’s plan is to invade Camp Half-Blood, raze it to the ground along with it’s heroes and then head off to destroy the Olympians.

While the camp members felt that Camp Half-Blood was impenetrable...they soon realize that Luke intends to invade it through one of the exits of the famous underground Labyrinth. Percy and gang decide to head into the labyrinth themselves and discover Daedalus’s (the creator of the Labyrinth) workshop, so that they can find a way to stop the invasion.

Simple? Not Really! The Labyrinth is supposed to be the only piece of architecture that changes constantly. Even the creator Daedalus himself has no control over it. Tunnels changes.....new ones pop up…and backtracking is never a good option..because you never know what is in store for you…left, right, back or front. A person could enter the maze and never get out. Add to that the constant threat of running into Luke’s demonic army and Percy has his job cut out!!

Is Percy doomed to roam the endless labyrinth? Will Grover finally find the lost God Pan? Will Annabeth’s faith in Luke lead to her downfall? And will the Gods survive to fight another day? All that and much more.....perfectly packaged in another superb instalment by Rick Riordan.

Percy Jackson, the prince of understatement is as quick with his trusted ‘Riptide’ as he is with the droll quips. A brave and comical hero, you’ll be rooting for him till the last page.