The Adventures of Harry Rochester by Herbert Strang (1944) OUP

'Herbert Strang' is the one name for two men who from 1903 for forty years wrote books for boys.

Each page of this book has a title referring to the content below it on the page. I didn't even notice this until I had nearly finished the book. You don't look at the space at the top of each page, do you, when you read? It is usually an empty space. But not in this book. Once I found this page title I realised its usefulness. It is a summary that guides you to skip a page here and there without missing much. Writers are only human. Not all of their tens of  thousands of words are needed to understand and enjoy the story. And, of course, readers are also only human. An episode in a story may be interesting to one reader but not to another. You don't have to read every word to enjoy a book.

Early on in the book,

Harry and Sherebiah Stand-up-and-bless (known as 'Sherry') frighten away highway robbers threatening gentry in a coach passing near their village. The gentry turn out to be Godolphin, Queen Anne's trusted minister, and Marlborough, the successful general. The latter promises to help young Harry if he ever needs a position. Soon after the incident the vicar, Harry's father, dies, and Harry finds that there is not enough money to go to Cambridge to study to become a vicar. He goes to London with 'Sherry' to present himself to Marlborough in the hope of a preferment. But there is an evil force working to prevent Harry from succeeding. Squire Berkeley, back in the village, arranges for Harry to be kidnapped and shipped under the name of another, a debtor, to labour on a plantation in America.

A neat ruse, eh? Such people were unlikely to ever return. An early death or lack of funds for a return journey usually were enough to guarantee it.

However, a Dutch businessman and Sherry jointly rescue Harry from the ship and he ends up in Holland working for the businessman to supply the armies of Marlborough and others as they march about Europe. Inevitably, Harry leads a bit of fighting himself with the redoubtable Sherry by his side. He does eventually meet Marlborough again, and is gallant to a certain young French girl and her mother. The reader may guess the reason for the Squire's hostility but there are more twists in the plot before all is revealed to Harry and he becomes ...............



This story of derring-do is an enjoyable romp. The characters are either totally wicked or totally good and true with the exception of Marlborough himself who is more complex. Should I have read the book as a lad rather than as an adult? Perhaps not, as I would have wanted someone like Sherry knocking a few heads together and looking out for me as he did for Harry throughout his life. It would have been marvellous but impossible.
Footnote

Despite what I said above about skipping pages as an option for the reader, I  am sure that the best writers are already elliptical. They leave the reader to image: to draw his own conclusions. Alan Furst, Ian McEwan but most of all Patrick O'Brian come to mind.