Summer has arrived and the Cotteril children are looking forward to the Holiday. For Thea, Susan, Peter and Jane it's always a special time of year, as they escape their lives in the suburbs and visit the delights of the countryside with their mother and father. All sorts of exciting adventures await them as they explore unfamiliar surroundings and meet a collection of fascinating new neighbours. For Peter and Jane the magic of the Holiday is as alive as ever and they delight in discovery: exploring inside gardens, visiting a new sweet shop and finding plenty of places to play hide and seek. But for Thea and Susan, the two eldest, their experience of the Holiday starts to change. As they begin to move into the dizzyingly complicated sphere of the Grown-Ups, the Holiday becomes a journey of discovery into what it is to be an adult . . .
Author
Richmal Crompton Lamburn was initially trained as a schoolmistress but later became a popular English writer, best known for her Just William series of books, humorous short stories, and to a lesser extent adult fiction books. Crompton's fiction centres around family and social life, dwelling on the constraints that they place on individuals while also nurturing them. This is best seen in her depiction of children as puzzled onlookers of society's ways. Nevertheless, the children, particularly William and his Outlaws, almost always emerge triumphant.
