At the Firefly Gate

This is a ghost story, or more exactly a tale of the paranormal. Even before the supernatural events begin, Henry’s life is changing. He is in his last summer of primary school, the big comprehensive ahead, when his parents move from London to a village in rural Suffolk. In an unfamiliar place, missing old friends and needing new ones, Henry gets no help from Grace, next door but one, a year older and openly hostile. But he meets unexpected warmth and sympathy, even recognition, from Grace’s frail great-aunt Dottie. And he begins to experience strange dreams and visions, all connected with the Second World War, in which a younger Dottie seems to figure. Gradually we realise that Henry is an unwitting medium between the spirit of a dead pilot, another Henry, and Dottie, whom he loved. A game of Scrabble acts like an Ouija board, and a computer game induces in Henry a medium’s visionary trance. As he copes with this unnerving role, Henry gradually makes friends in his new life, and wins lucky omens for his own future as he helps others to close their tragic past. There is nothing very original here, but Henry is a likeable character and his trying but finally happy summer makes a readable, enjoyable story. All the same, a writer of Linda Newbery’s standing should not confuse her readers by carelessly changing the names of minor characters and mixing up grandparental relationships.