Fablehouse

In this ingenious novel, E.L. Norry brings together Arthurian fantasy and the fate of the children of black G.I.s and white English mothers in the wake of the Second World War. Some of the ‘brown babies,’ as they were known, were brought up in Holnicote House, a children’s home in Somerset, the inspiration for the Fablehouse in the story. Norry’s narrator is Heather, a girl who has never known her father, and whose mother was taken to ‘a sanatorium’ when she could no longer cope. Heather arrives at Fablehouse angry and lonely but gradually she makes friends with a group of children who decide to call themselves ‘The Roamers’ because of their love of exploring the countryside around the Fablehouse. On one of their expeditions to the local cairn they discover a wounded black man, who tells them his name is Pal, which turns out to be short for Palamedes, a knight of the Round Table. Pal has been set at the cairn by Merlin to prevent the Fae, or fairy folk, from entering the human world, but they have broken through and are intent on replacing humans with sinister Fae changelings. Only Pal and The Roamers can prevent the Fae’s evil plan from succeeding. There is a lot to enjoy and admire in the story. There is the interplay between the children and the fears and longings that they each suffer because of who they are and where they find themselves, and which the Fae play on in the final climactic confrontation in the Fae underworld. And there is a lot of hope and reassurance to be found in the children’s determination and loyalty which ensures that they win out in the end. The 1950s setting is not consistently sustained, nor is Pal’s initial antique language (‘methinks’), but the grasp of what makes a children’s adventure is reminiscent of Enid Blyton, a writer whose stories, although not mentioned, might very well have been read by a real Heather and her friends.