Visitors from London by Kitty Barne

First published: 1940; illustrated

Type of work: Adventure tale/psychological realism/social realism

Themes: Family, coming-of-age, and war

Time of work: Summer, 1939

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: Steadings, a rural manor and farm near Poleham, Sussex, England

Principal Characters:

• Myra Farrar, the Farrar children’s aunt, cool, efficient, yet sympathetic and attuned to children, especially her red-headed nieces and nephews
• Gerda Farrar, fifteen, steady and fond of her family, especially her brother David
• David Farrar, thirteen, mature for his age, practical, efficient and authoritative, but likable
• Jimmy Farrar, eleven plus, dynamic, inventive, helpful, and a mechanical whiz
• Sally Farrar, ten, unruly, fond of small children but given to tantrums
• Lily Tipping, twelve, an indomitable Cockney evacuee, acting cheerfully as “mother” to her small siblings
• Fred Fell, thirteen, a surly, undernourished London urchin transformed by the joyous discovery of the shepherd’s blood in his veins
• Steve Fell, eleven, Fred’s brother, sly and streetwise, an accomplished and confirmed petty crook

The Story

The Farrar children are reunited for the summer holidays at Poleham, Sussex, to stay with their aunt, Myra. (Their stay with her at Poleham village the previous Christmas is the subject of Family Footlights, 1939.) They are eagerly anticipating this stay at Huggetts, a farmhouse attached to ancient Steadings, all that is left of a huge estate now owned by the ailing “Mus” Bloss and presently leased to Roly Martingale, a London writer, a largely offstage but romantic presence and benefactor in the Farrars’ lives. The middle-aged Huggetts farm the Steadings lands; the Farrar children enjoy the farm animals, chores, and the freedom of the Sussex countryside. After three weeks, however, a telegram arrives from Roly, telling them that he has lent Steadings to the Women’s Voluntary Service for the sheltering of children evacuated from London to escape the threatened bombing raids marking the outset of World War II. The Farrars are to prepare Steadings and supervise the evacuees. From then on, the holiday peace is shattered.

The Farrars undertake frantic preparations, at first with reluctance but soon with increasing ingenuity, a sense of adventure, and the help of new friends from the village. When the evacuees arrive unceremoniously, they are not only the expected children but mothers with their families. These visitors from London are an exhausted and nervous group, confirmed city dwellers plucked from their working-class lives and deposited in a rural setting as alien to them as the moon. Once settled into their fancifully named Steadings bedrooms, the evacuees quickly sort themselves into those who can and those who cannot cope.

There are the Tipping children, headed by shrewd, practical twelve-year-old Lily, who despite her tough manner cares with fierce love for her small siblings, proving more efficient than some of the actual mothers. Mrs. Fell, a grim older woman, rules her family of six with liberal slaps and never reconciles herself to her stay at Steadings. Her sullen son Fred, however, falls in love with the Sussex downs and discovers that he was born to be a shepherd; with the tutelage and love of Old and Young Tolhurst, colorful local shepherds, Fred finds his niche and fills out to become a sturdy, tow-headed, serene country boy, never to return to gang life in squalid London. Yet brother Steve, already permanently shifty and unloving, earns everyone’s dislike with his underhandedness and a series of petty thefts he undertakes to acquire betting money. Young Mrs. Thompson is pitiful; disabled by fear of her husband, the threat of bombings, and the alien countryside, and exhausted by recent childbirth, she is a near-invalid. She shuts herself in her room, imprisoning her children with her, until they are finally coaxed out by the cajoling and ingenuity of Jimmy Farrar. This small family’s growing, if timid, confidence is quickly scotched by the aggrieved, authoritarian husband who arrives to sweep his weeping family back to London. The Jacobsons fare the best overall; sustained by her solid marriage, kindly, hardworking Mrs. Jacobson devotes herself to her three sons and proves invaluable in the Steadings kitchen. When her husband joins the army, she arranges work in the village and assures the continuing education of her children, especially her eldest son Joe. The Jacobsons are the family, Myra observes, who seem “always to get such a grip of things.”

Noisy, mostly harmonious coexistence punctuated by quarrels, rivalries, outings, and tangles with farm pets form most of the novel’s plot. Memorable highlights are a profitable seashore prawning picnic and a sojourn at the local fair; the idyllic aspects of both events, however, are spoiled by the nasty scheming of young Steve Fell. An uproarious nocturnal encounter with a zealous local air warden underscores the seriousness of the war that has otherwise come to seem so far away.

On the third Sunday of the evacuees’ sojourn, the London husbands, Roly Martingale, and the autumn arrive simultaneously at Steadings. The Farrars throw a party; at its conclusion, the evacuees head, more or less enthusiastically, back to London, or scatter to take up their new lives around Sussex. The Farrar children prepare to return to school, enriched by their encounter with their visitors from London and better prepared for the shifting fortunes of wartime.

Context

Though Visitors from London is a children’s novel, and much of its gaiety and entertainment is expressed through the children, it has a serious intent for its young readers as well: to portray realistically ordinary people forced to react to the special tensions introduced by wartime, in addition to the other pressures affecting their daily lives. Author Geoffrey Trease noted that “the outbreak of war in 1939 gave [Barne] inspiration and immediately enlarged opportunities. No one could any longer pretend that young readers could or should be protected from reality.” For example, this novel and its predecessor Family Footlights portray a family that, despite the elements in the stories of the “holiday adventures” familiar to readers of other British children’s authors such as Enid Blyton, leads a life containing certain less positive aspects of British upper-middle-class life. Like Mary Lennox’s in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden (1911), the Farrars’ parents are civil servants in the Indian colonial service, and so the Farrar children rarely see them; the children are also separated from one another during the school terms. The outbreak of war is likely to prolong these separations; however, the Farrar children, like many of the lower-class, disadvantaged evacuee children they house, are independent and adaptable, showing to young readers Barne’s faith in the innate strength of young people.

The novel’s adults are credible because they are vulnerable. Behind Myra Farrar’s even-tempered good humor, the alert reader can detect loneliness; Mrs. Fell’s chronic grimness masks her sense of helplessness in the face of the social pressures on her and her large family; young, pathetic Mrs. Thompson is simply overwhelmed, unloading on seven-year-old Ernest the responsibilities she cannot take.

Author Barne’s central purpose is both to entertain and educate her young readers without condescending to them. Certainly the charm and appeal of rural life are vividly depicted; the antics of The Monarch, the imperious Steadings gander, and George, Lily’s lovingly tended runt pig, provide much comedy; yet the reader also understands through the kindly but preoccupied Huggetts and the ailing Mister Bloss that a farmer’s life consists largely of hard work. Perhaps the Tolhursts are the characters who best embody Barne’s dual purpose. Readers can enjoy Old Tolhurst’s colorful stories and shepherd’s lore, and simultaneously learn about the idiosyncrasies of sheep and the nature of the Sussex countryside. At the Sussex seaside, as well, they can enjoy the London children’s at first dubious, then joyous, encounter with the “real” sea and also learn about the rich marine life in the tidal pools. Visitors from London is a novel in which children take the spotlight and children are the foremost intended readers. Though the English rural life depicted has probably largely disappeared, the appeal of the novel’s characters alone recommends it to young readers.