The Otterbury Incident
Encyclopedia
The Otterbury Incident is a novel
for children by Cecil Day-Lewis
first published in 1948 with illustrations by Edward Ardizzone
. Day-Lewis's second and final children's book, the novel is an adaptation of a French screenplay, Nous les gosses (Us Kids) which was filmed in 1941.
The novel is set in the immediate post-World War II
period in the fictional English provincial town of Otterbury. The town was largely untouched by the war apart from one accidental hit from a mistargeted bomb which destroyed a few buildings near the centre of the town; the site of this "incident" is now known as "The Incident" - as in the title - and is used by boys from the local school for playing war games.
In celebration of a victory by one side in these games, the boys are wildly kicking a football to each other, and one of the boys, Nick, accidentally kicks it through one of the school windows, and is ordered by the headmaster - a character much feared by the boys - to pay for the damage out of his own pocket. The sum concerned amounts to several pounds, which would have been a reasonable weekly wage for an employed adult at the time and is far beyond the means of a mere schoolboy. Moreover, Nick is an orphan who lives with his aunt and uncle who have no children of their own; they resent the unlooked-for responsibility and do not treat him well. He has no means of paying himself and cannot face confessing to his aunt and uncle for fear of their reaction.
The other boys feel a sense of collective responsibility for their friend's actions, as they were all involved in the irresponsible football-kicking, and resolve to raise the money themselves to pay for the damage. To this end they devise various money-making schemes such as busking and shoe-shining, and spend the weekend on the streets of Otterbury putting these schemes into practice.
They indeed manage to raise a sufficient sum to pay for the damage but the money mysteriously disappears. Suspicion immediately falls on one of the boys, but the others soon realise that they are wrong, and instead suspect that the money has been stolen by local spiv
Johnny Sharp and his seedy accomplice known as "the Wart". They make a somewhat naive attempt to extract a confession from the Wart, who is much the weaker character of the two, but Johnny Sharp interrupts the proceedings, threatens the boys with a cut-throat razor, locks them in the tower of the local church and rescues his accomplice.
Johnny Sharp and the Wart are friends with a local merchant named Skinner and the boys suspect that they may have left incriminating evidence on Skinner's premises. Having escaped from the church tower, they stage a raid on Skinner's warehouse in an attempt to recover the evidence. Not only do they find the evidence they seek, they also find evidence of far more extensive criminal activities, including trading in black-market goods and production of counterfeit coinage. Skinner and his friends return unexpectedly while the boys are still on the premises, and a pitched battle develops between the boys and the criminals, which is terminated by the intervention of the police.
The book ends with the boys being simultaneously castigated for their illegal raid on Skinner's premises and their "disreputable" money-raising schemes, which are considered by the headmaster to be detrimental to the image of the school, and lauded as heroes for uncovering the criminals' operations.
The book is written in the first person
of George, a subordinate "officer" in one of the "armies" of the war games.
Day-Lewis's second and final children's book, the novel is an adaptation of a French screenplay, Nous les gosses (Us Kids) which was filmed in 1941. There is also a Swedish film adaption; Kvarterets olycksfågel from 1947, which takes place in Sweden.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
for children by Cecil Day-Lewis
Cecil Day-Lewis
Cecil Day-Lewis CBE was an Irish poet and the Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake...
first published in 1948 with illustrations by Edward Ardizzone
Edward Ardizzone
Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone, CBE, RA was an English artist, writer and illustrator, chiefly of children's books.-Early life:...
. Day-Lewis's second and final children's book, the novel is an adaptation of a French screenplay, Nous les gosses (Us Kids) which was filmed in 1941.
The novel is set in the immediate post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
period in the fictional English provincial town of Otterbury. The town was largely untouched by the war apart from one accidental hit from a mistargeted bomb which destroyed a few buildings near the centre of the town; the site of this "incident" is now known as "The Incident" - as in the title - and is used by boys from the local school for playing war games.
In celebration of a victory by one side in these games, the boys are wildly kicking a football to each other, and one of the boys, Nick, accidentally kicks it through one of the school windows, and is ordered by the headmaster - a character much feared by the boys - to pay for the damage out of his own pocket. The sum concerned amounts to several pounds, which would have been a reasonable weekly wage for an employed adult at the time and is far beyond the means of a mere schoolboy. Moreover, Nick is an orphan who lives with his aunt and uncle who have no children of their own; they resent the unlooked-for responsibility and do not treat him well. He has no means of paying himself and cannot face confessing to his aunt and uncle for fear of their reaction.
The other boys feel a sense of collective responsibility for their friend's actions, as they were all involved in the irresponsible football-kicking, and resolve to raise the money themselves to pay for the damage. To this end they devise various money-making schemes such as busking and shoe-shining, and spend the weekend on the streets of Otterbury putting these schemes into practice.
They indeed manage to raise a sufficient sum to pay for the damage but the money mysteriously disappears. Suspicion immediately falls on one of the boys, but the others soon realise that they are wrong, and instead suspect that the money has been stolen by local spiv
Spiv
In the United Kingdom, a spiv is a particular type of petty criminal, who deals in stolen or black market goods of questionable authenticity, especially a slickly-dressed man offering goods at bargain prices...
Johnny Sharp and his seedy accomplice known as "the Wart". They make a somewhat naive attempt to extract a confession from the Wart, who is much the weaker character of the two, but Johnny Sharp interrupts the proceedings, threatens the boys with a cut-throat razor, locks them in the tower of the local church and rescues his accomplice.
Johnny Sharp and the Wart are friends with a local merchant named Skinner and the boys suspect that they may have left incriminating evidence on Skinner's premises. Having escaped from the church tower, they stage a raid on Skinner's warehouse in an attempt to recover the evidence. Not only do they find the evidence they seek, they also find evidence of far more extensive criminal activities, including trading in black-market goods and production of counterfeit coinage. Skinner and his friends return unexpectedly while the boys are still on the premises, and a pitched battle develops between the boys and the criminals, which is terminated by the intervention of the police.
The book ends with the boys being simultaneously castigated for their illegal raid on Skinner's premises and their "disreputable" money-raising schemes, which are considered by the headmaster to be detrimental to the image of the school, and lauded as heroes for uncovering the criminals' operations.
The book is written in the first person
First-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
of George, a subordinate "officer" in one of the "armies" of the war games.
Day-Lewis's second and final children's book, the novel is an adaptation of a French screenplay, Nous les gosses (Us Kids) which was filmed in 1941. There is also a Swedish film adaption; Kvarterets olycksfågel from 1947, which takes place in Sweden.