BLACK HEARTS IN BATTERSEA

Too! What have we here. It's right on the spoor to The Wolves of Willoughby hase, that parody of the Victorian novel which amused many adults and still bemused others as to its suitability for younger readers who might not have the reading background to get the point. Anyway, from its beginning to its happy, happy ending the saga of Simon, nobody's boy from Globber's Poor Farm, continues. He comes up to London to live with the Twites (Hanoverian plotters) whose celler is an arsenal, and they may account for the disappearance of his friend, Dr. Field. Then there's Sophie, also an outcast from the Poor Farm, now in service to Lady Battersea, along with his new friends— Justin, presumably the Battersea heir, and Dido Twite, barely kept alive on a diet of fish porridge. The children are kidnapped, shipwrecked, and saved to find out the True Facts of their birth revealed by a telltale tuft of hair; Justin is just as glad not to be a lord. "It's a mug's lag"; and they are also able to prevent the attempt to kill the Duke and Duchess of Battersea... Once again this period(s)poof is full of coincidence-prone circumstances and providential deliverances and even if the talk is summat thick, you "must be picked in the nob" not to enjoy it. This sequel is wisely being billed for "all ages.