Stormsearch by Robert Westall was first published in 1990, my copy is a Puffin book. Previously I had only read The Machine-Gunners by this author. Stormsearch wasn’t quite as good, in my opinion anyway.
Tim and his sister are staying with their aunt and uncle in Cornwall over the school holidays. They live close to a beach so Tim and Tracey have a sandcastle building competition, during the digging they strike something hard. At first they thought it might be an old mine from the war, then maybe an old barrel, but it turns out to be a very old model of a sailing ship, in reasonable condition although the sails have rotted away.
Uncle Geoff is thrilled to bits with it and he sets about finding out more about it, he knows that he should be able to track down information on it – and who it belonged to originally.
The blurb at the back says:
A compelling story of obsessions, family hatred and adventure, which it is, and it’s entertaining holiday time reading for not too young readers.
Hi Katrina,
I am a humungous (!) fan of Robert Westfall and have read loads of his books, although none recently, mostly because he passed away quite a while ago. I wish I could recall the titles of my favorites. Most of my reading of his work was in the 1990s. I have a beloved edition of his Christmas stories, which included two novellas. They were a bit on the grim side, but I loved them for that. Super cheerful Christmas stories from Robert Westfall would not hit the spot, I don’t think. I’ll have to search for the title you’ve reviewed here.
Judith,
Wow, I’m obviously way behind you re Westfall. I’ll have to see if I can get a copy of his Christmas stories. I must admit that I hadn’t even heard of him until I picked up a copy of The Machine Gunners in Edinburgh.