KING JOHN'S TREASURE

The practiced hand that wrote Journey's End, a play, and Chedworth, an adult novel, fashions a smooth flowing English mystery adventure with grace and facility. Plumbing history for his theme, he takes the story of King John's loot- the Crown and Regalia of the Plantagenet Kings, supposedly lost in the Lincoln Fens a week before his death- and weaves an amazing tale of its present day discovery by two school boys, Simon and Peter. When they hear the story from their history professor, they are inspired to go on a search during their next vacation. They come upon surprising sets of circumstances- the key one being the closed up estate of the Lesters, where that family has lived sequestered for centuries. On probing further, the boys discover that it was Sir Hubert, an ancestor of the Lesters, to whom the regalia were given by John who also bequeathed him the kingdom; and that the Lesters and been living there ever since with the crown and their sacred trust. Through young Michael, next in line to be ""king"", Simon and Peter make friends with the family, help them to see the foolishness of their position and the wisdom of turning over the treasure to the authorities. Traditional pen drawings by Douglas Relf for this neatly solved case. A strange story made credible.