British Reading Adventure: The Slowcoach

First there was a mysterious note:

"Dear Children,
It has long been my wish to give you a new kind of present, but I have hitherto had no luck. I thought once of an elephant, and even wrote to Jamrach about the idea -- but I gave that up. Chiswick is too crowded, and your garden is too small. But now I think I have found the very thing. A caravan. ...It should reach you this week, and can stand in the old coach-house until you are ready to set forth on the discovery of your native land..."

The note was signed from "Your friend, X."

Thus begins new adventures for the four Avory children -- Janet (age 14), Robert (13), Hester (9), and Gregory (7), accompanied by the neighbor boy, Jack, and the elderly gardener who works for their mother. They set off from their home just west of Kensington in London to explore Oxford, Shakespeare's Stratford-Upon-Avon, and venture northwest through little country lanes into places that sound right out of nursery rhymes. With their snug little wheeled house in tow, the group camps out, explores historic sites, and meets up with such interesting characters as a painter, Gypsies, a children's book author, and a real giant. They run (slightly) amok of the law, help the victims of a runaway horse disaster, find a lost baby, learn firsthand about charlatans, and more.

The Slowcoach, written in 1908 by E. V. (Edward Verrall) Lucas (1868-1938) is one of the treasures that turned up in Joan Bodger's book, How the Heather Looks: A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Children's Books. I wish I'd come across it during my childhood. I like this book very much now but think I would have adored it back then.

When I think back on my own childhood, I know that "setting up" was half the fun of the game of make-believe. My friends and I would have endless conversations straightening out the rules of play, mapping out imaginary places, and making such important decisions as whether pinecones were apples or potatoes. (You need to know that if you're going to make a mudpie or faux soup.) The Slowcoach satisfies the reader's interest in similar details. The first part of the book peeks at how the children help hire a horse, select a watchdog, learn to cook on a camp stove, and gather provisions. Lucas gives just enough that the reader feels satisfied the journey could be real -- and gives kids a world they can play in.

As an adult reader and self-admitted history geek, I also love those details. Throughout the book I found myself getting a kick out of the customs and lifestyles of the protagonists over a century ago.

Lucas seemed quite aware that times were changing and gives his young heroes peeks into an older English way of life. Reading the book so many decades after it was written allows the reader to glimpse the layered past.

The Slowcoach is now outside copyright, so thankfully that means a few print-on-demand companies are reproducing it. I've given it several times as a gift since it is sure to be something most folks these days haven't read yet. It can be found on Amazon.

I used an online out-of-print bookseller to find a hardback edition from 1910. I love the weathered look and feel of the book. It even has that old bookshop smell that I love. Older versions often have maps and illustrations that are left out of later editions.