The High House by Honor Arundel was published in 1967 and I suppose it was aimed at young teenage girls. Although Arundel was born in Wales she married a Scot and set a lot of her books in Scotland. In The High House she wastes absolutely no time in getting rid of those pesky parents, as all good children’s authors do. At the beginning we’re told that the parents have been killed in a car crash. Their children Emma and Richard have never even met their Aunt Patsy before as she lives in London and they live in Edinburgh. Then Aunt Laura and Uncle Edward arrive from Exeter. The aunts are very different from each other.

The children are given the option of splitting up and staying with an aunt each or being put into a ‘home’ together. They can’t bear the thought of an orphanage. Emma plumps for Aunt Patsy and moves to Edinburgh. Patsy is very artistic and is a freelance designer. It’s not long before Emma thinks she has chosen the wrong aunt. Patsy is very untidy and disorganised, money is always a problem, it’s feast or famine as Patsy is always waiting for payment on her latest project. But the letters that Emma gets from her brother Richard make it clear that he’s not enjoying life at all with Aunt Laura  who has a boring son that he has nothing in common with, and she’s the opposite from Patsy, too tidy and controlling.

When Emma starts school in Edinburgh she decides not to tell anyone about her parents, she can’t stand the thought of everyone being sorry for her. It’s a very different atmosphere from her school in England. She’s horrified when she realises that the pupils can get the belt (tawse) from the teachers as a punishment. When Emma stands up for another girl who has been belted by the maths teacher it leads to a change for the better in the relationship between aunt and niece.

This was a very quick read at just 124 pages but it’s enjoyable and as it’s over 50 years old it’s a piece of social history now. Kids don’t get the belt in Scottish schools nowadays for one thing.