THE END OF SOMETHING NICE

Something nice ends when the nursery door closes even if this is a somewhat anachronistic world where children are naughty and given dry bread and milk in return. This deals with the months which follow when Jonathan and Jane, twins, eight, are sent away to school separately. Their misery is compounded by an almost unbelievable succession of events: their father dies in his sick room while his stand-in Uncle James meets a more violent death; Mama contemplates suicide; Jane runs away and (accidentally) kills the gamekeeper attempting to retrieve her; and Jonathan goes through the ritual of bullying and ""blubbing"" at a public school. The book presents several difficulties: its rather unconnected series of mishappenings; its dialogue, pages of short, stunted sentences of one or two words, many no more than visual sound effects (""Arrrrrr"" or ""Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuggugllhh""); but primarily its distance from its young victiros of a deprived, privileged way of life.