Her perilous mansion by Sean Williams
Allen & Unwin, 2020. ISBN: 9781760877361.
(Age: 10+) Highly recommended. Almanac, an orphan named for his
prodigious memory is asked to go to a manor house to be second
butler. At a loss understanding what is going on when no one greets
him, he meets Etta, the youngest of twelve daughters, come to work
as a chambermaid in the same house. Neither has any idea of how they
came to be there, why they are there or what is expected of them.
Convinced the house is under a spell, Etta thinks she will be able
to put things right if only she can find the library. A phone call
from Dr Mithilty sends them upstairs and eventually they find her in
the attic room, but leave without any of their questions answered.
While preparing their meal, the ingredients having mysteriously
appeared, what they think are rats in the chimney introduces himself
as Ugo, and further introduces the woman who lives in the pipes,
Olive. Etta comes to believe that all the people they have met, or
rather not met, must be ghosts and she struggles to find the spell
to undo this enchantment, while Almanac spends his days clearing out
the cellars, often grumbling to himself about Etta.
This is a wonderful read, full of twists and red herrings, humour
and laughs: voices up the chimney, people buried under bedclothes,
figures only partly seen, a seemingly endless stockpile of rubbish
needing clearing in the cellar, while the more they look the more
rooms and wings they find in the sprawling manor house. The two
children keep on trying to work out what is going on, each
suspicious of the other as the reader is scooped up at a brisk pace
for an amazingly mysterious journey.
Striving to escape, the children find they are prisoners, but Etta
manages to climb over the gate, Almanac grumbling that she has
deserted him. But he hears her in the house and tracks her down to
the tiny scullery, where she has been incarcerated with the rest of
the ghosts. It is up to Almanac to set them all free.
Highly original, the detailed descriptions give an authentic
backdrop to the story, while each of the characters, even Ugo in the
chimney, has a strongly identifiable and individual voice. A fabulous
read.
Themes: Fantasy, Orphans, Magic, Adventure.
Fran Knight