Priscilla's Spies

About the book

Frank Mannix leaves school basking in sporting and academic success, confident that his summer in western Ireland will provide suitable further triumphs. A sprained ankle and his cousin Priscilla soon upset that expectation. Priscilla knows the boats and islands, possesses a formidable supply of arguments, and has decided that an unfamiliar visitor may be a German spy. Her investigation borrows enthusiasm from adventure books and newspaper alarms, while Frank struggles to preserve the dignity of a responsible prefect. Birmingham makes the sailing expedition a comedy of competing interpretations: adults and children alike can turn their preferred ideas into supposedly conclusive evidence. The bay supplies real practical challenges, but Priscilla's gift for sweeping others into her plans provides the story's most dependable propulsion.

• Imagination and evidence
• Youthful independence
• Comic self-importance

Why read it

Priscilla's inventive use of duty and logic repeatedly defeats Frank's carefully cultivated seriousness.

English text bearing a 1912 George H. Doran copyright