OPERATION PEEG

by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 23, 1974

Gathorne-Hardy is the author of The Unnatural History of the Nanny, and when the family housekeeper Mrs. Deal arrives in a Land Rover at the dismal Peeg Island boarding school where Jane Charrington and her friend Jemima have been left alone as punishment, one expects her to blossom into a surrogate Mary Poppins. Instead, a sudden explosion sends the whole island of Peeg drifting through the ocean and Mrs. Deal becomes the chaperone for a Robinson Crusoe-ish adventure culminated by the discovery (just when Jane and Jemima are about to perish from thirst) that Peeg is actually a floating munitions cache manned by a lovably dotty pair of Tommies, who believe they are still England's last line of defense against the Huns. The five form a jolly crew, having so much fun that planning an escape becomes just another diversion. . . at least until their spurious ""rescue"" by Captain Tulip, a suave luxury-loving villain who arrives in his well-appointed nuclear submarine and hijacks Peeg as part of a plot to blackmail Australia. In spite of the atomic-age technology and the junior James Bond ambience, this is really an old-fashioned fantasy with Jane and Jemima meeting each new improbability in a spirit of sober wonderment. The tale is certainly a corker, and the author furnishes the sort of concrete, comforting detail -- Mrs. Deal's menus, charts of the workings of Peeg's flotation system -- which add ballast to the more whimsical developments. A certain failure of pacing, a tendency to pile episode upon episode, makes this not quite the humorous classic it strives to be, and of course the streotypical characters (the ever dusting Mrs. Deal, the darling soldiers, Jane's pseudodemocratic father who is a ""former earl"") may not evoke universal laughter. This is especially for the somewhat precocious younger reader, who craves a story rich in incident and improbability.

Pub Date: Sept. 23, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1974

Categories: FICTION