Harry and the Wrinklies [Paperback]

Harry and the Wrinklies is a good book for those who like adventure with a bit of crime in a book. The book is centered around Harry...( you don't want to know his four or five names) and features the despicable Gestapo Lil. There are two types of criminals, decide for yourself which are the good and which are the bad. Harry gets taught to pick locks, wrestle and climb trees and drain pipes. An extremely good book, I would recommend it to everyone.

Books mean different things to different people. This book is categorised as a children's book but it has a very serious message for all senior citizens. My childhood days are long since behind me but I found that this book said a lot to me personally. On the sudden death of his parents Harry Barton is packed off to stay with two elderly great aunts in the country. He finds that they form part of an extraordinary community. A kind of modern Robin Hoods who rob banks and give the proceeds to homes for handicapped orphans. What is even stranger is that all the members of this community are senior citizens. They call themselves "The Wrinklies" and Harry joins them. They have to fight for their very survival as they have, for a neighbour, Colonel Priestly, a high court judge who suspects that they "are up to something." Beastly Priestly, as they call him, also tries to have Harry taken away from his aunts and put in an institution. But the Wrinklies know that Colonel Priestly has a dark secret and if they can only uncover it he will never trouble them again. Today there are countless opportunities for our senior citizens but, unfortunately, there are still those who think that they should just vegetate. This book is an answer to those who think that - even if it is a slightly satirical, tongue-in-cheek answer. But often, if one is to make a point, then exaggeration is the only way. The characters are boldly drawn and somewhat larger than life. We see, for example, an old lady riding a powerful motor bike and driving a car at one hundred and fifty miles an hour and another old lady (a former circus star) is shown swinging from the tops of trees. And these are only two examples. But no matter how unlikely these characters may appear they will rejoice the hearts of all senior citizens who are rebelling against the idea that old age should mean enforced inactivity. Who says that rebellion is the preserve of the young? This is a book to bridge the generation gap - for grandparents and grandchildren to read together and discuss. These considerations apart, I really liked the descriptions of Lagg Hall - where Harry goes to stay - and the descriptions of the countryside in the various seasons. Harry is given a room in an old tower beside Lagg Hall. Outside his window swallows swoop for flies in the sunshine. He has a view over the lawns and flowerbeds of Lagg Hall and then over the many acres of woods, a rolling sea of green. A white horse grazes in a paddock and further off there is a lake with a small jetty and a rowing boat. During the summer holidays Harry learns to paint, rambles through the woods with Tangle his mongrel - he has never had a dog before - rides the pony, climbs trees, swims in the lake, goes fishing and "In the mothy evenings he built a fire in the woods and everyone came to his fish suppers. Sitting round the pine scented flames they cooked his perch and grayling on sticks..." Later there are brief but very evocative descriptions of Hallowe'en and Guy Fawkes Night. - "Next came Guy Fawkes Day with a huge bonfire and clothes smelling of wood-smoke, baked potatoes, sausages on sticks, and spouting, soaring fireworks." - Finally there is a lovely description of an old fashioned Christmas. There are magnificent descriptions of the woods in the snow. Here is just one example. "The wood was beautiful and unreal, a tangled fairyland. White branches against a clear blue sky; coils of bramble turned to ice; spiders' webs thick as string... The midday sun, fat as an orange, hung among the trees." "Harry and the Wrinklies" is the kind of book which can be read on many different levels and will mean different things to different people.

I enjoyed this book because it is one of those stories that leads you in many different directions. First it made me think that there was going to be a horrible murder and Harry would die, then it led me to believe that someone was trying to stop Harry from finding out that his aunts and their friends were all crooks, robbing the rich and giving to the poor. Beastly Priestly and Gestapo Lil are fantastically horrible and at times in the story, they were such a threat to Harry that I was standing on my toes with anxiety. I recommend this book to all other nine year olds and upwards. I think grown-ups would like it too.From: Charlie Gilmour