The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively

First published: 1973; illustrated

Type of work: Fantasy/historical fiction

Themes: Jobs and work, and the supernatural

Time of work: The late twentieth century

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: Oxfordshire, England

Principal Characters:

• James Harrison, newly arrived with his family in Ledsham, who must cope with the poltergeist in which no one else believes
• Helen Harrison, James’s younger sister, who provides a realistic foil to James’s dreamier personality
• Thomas Kempe, a seventeenth century alchemist, who is never seen but whose writing and smashing of people’s property gets James in trouble
• Bert Ellison, a local builder, who understands about poltergeists and knows ways to trap them
• Fanny Spence, a former nineteenth century occupant of East End Cottage, James’s house, whose diary shows that she also had to contend with Thomas Kempe
• Arnold Luckett, her nephew, who runs afoul of Thomas Kempe but has an aunt who believes and helps him get rid of the ghost

The Story

The unsuspecting Harrison family moves into an old cottage in Ledsham, a village which has been occupied since the Bronze Age. Workmen restoring the attic for the son, James’s, room unleash Thomas Kempe, a poltergeist who had been exorcised, captured in a bottle, and boarded up in the room in the nineteenth century. James, as the occupant of the room, is selected by Thomas Kempe to be his apprentice, and notices acknowledging this appointment begin appearing in spidery, seventeenth-century-style handwriting in public places. Everyone blames it on James.

He begins to suspect supernatural possibilities when too many written notices appear. He knows that he has not written them. Odd thumps emanate from his room when no one is there, and his dog barks at unseen things. The messages begin to advertise for business; Thomas Kempe will find lost articles, foretell the weather, cure coughs. People only need contact his apprentice. He objects, in writing, to James’s project on Greece, insisting that he write in Latin. Because no one pays him any heed, he moves to more violent methods. He burns down Mrs. Verity’s cottage, calling her a witch. He destroys the work of archaeologists unearthing a Bronze Age city.

James does some research at the local library and learns about poltergeists. He discovers that he will need an exorcist, and Bert Ellison, a local builder and water diviner, is recommended. Finally, someone takes him seriously, and Bert comes to try various methods, none of which works. Pursuing his own interest in the history of the house, James digs up a diary out of a scrapheap in his backyard. It had been written by Fanny Spence, a former occupant of the cottage. She too had been bothered by Thomas Kempe. Her nephew, Arnold, had come for a visit, and he too occupied the attic bedroom. In much the same fashion, Thomas Kempe had inflicted himself on Arnold, writing him notes about his abilities as a sorcerer and generally making a nuisance of himself by breaking vases and other valued objects. Shown a note, Aunt Fanny had gone straight to the local vicar who captured Thomas Kempe in the bottle which had then been plastered up in the wall of James’s room. Thus, Kempe is now more wary of exorcists and can avoid all Ellison’s attempts to trap him.

Yet James has found a friend in Aunt Fanny; she understands her nephew, unlike James’s father, who declares the notion of a poltergeist rubbish because it lacks scientific evidence. James is curious about what happened to Fanny and her nephew Arnold. During the school’s centenary celebration, James learns that Arnold Luckett was a benefactor of the school and that the elderly man who stares out of a 1910 painting at him is Arnold grown into old age.

Eventually, Thomas Kempe tires of being ineffectual in the nonbelieving twentieth century and asks to be laid to rest. With the help of Ellison, James fulfills Kempe’s wish. James is left with the realization that history resides in places, layer upon layer.

Context

The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, one of Penelope Lively’s earlier works, was the Carnegie Award winner for 1974. Since that time, she has continued to write thoughtful, intelligent children’s books which invite the reader to consider life from numerous perspectives. Frequently, people from past times invade a present-day child’s existence, as in The House in Norham Gardens (1974) or Uninvited Ghosts (1984). Lively also writes adult books, and her Moon Tiger (1987) won the Booker Prize in 1987. The attention to history and time is a reminder to adults and perhaps an introduction to children of the concept that humans occupy a space that has layers of experience. Place becomes a focal point in her works.

In this respect, Lively’s book fits into the context of other books that bring the realization of history to the attention of the child protagonist. Rudyard Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906) and E. Nesbit’s The Story of the Amulet (1906) introduced the idea of historical persons and events interacting with present-day children. In the Kipling book, people from the past appear on the Sussex Downs, and in Nesbit’s books the children travel by means of an amulet into the past. Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical fiction books acknowledge their indebtedness to Kipling, and C. S. Lewis uses the device of bringing someone from the past into the children’s world in his The Magician’s Nephew (1955) in much the same fashion as Nesbit did.

What makes The Ghost of Thomas Kempe especially appealing to the attentive reader is the introduction of seventeenth century English ideas and beliefs into twentieth century reality. The language reflects the robustness of the period of exploration in several areas, in particular “sorcerie,” “astrologie,” “geomancie,” “alchemie,” “recoverie of goodes loste,” “physicke.” Thomas Kempe had a remedy for easing a cough, suggestions for finding stolen goods, and teaching children (beat them more). He is accustomed to having his advice taken seriously.

Lively manages to convey the whole story in a light vein. The more desperate Thomas Kempe becomes, the more amusing the situation becomes. James’s realistically minded family must devise odder and odder reasons to explain all the strange happenings. James knows, and so does the reader. The message becomes: Value old ideas, or at least do not reject them outright.