Fun In The Harbour

FUN IN THE HARBOUR is the fifth book in the series where Laura and her friends meet Mystic Marge, the barge lady, at the local canal festival. One of Big Sue's llamas becomes ill, and Blackjack, the travellers' horse doctor, is called into action to save him. The bad-tempered canal lock keeper gets more than he bargained for when Laura and her friends get their revenge in the dark, cold waters of the harbour. And what ghostly phantom lurks above the organ in the village church.

Simon Dudley's beautifully written and charmingly portrayed, adventure series is a pleasure to read. The lost and nearly forgotten years of 1950's childhood can be experienced within these pages as the author cleverly immerses you into their world. This is a real treat for any reader, young or old, who fancies a bit of time-travel back to when kids could literally be kids. The books can be read in any order as the stories stand alone.

The main character in the series is Laura McBean, and because of her mischievous behaviour, in her younger years, was nicknamed Laura McNaughty. The stories are set in England in the 1950s which was probably the last decade where kids could safely play outside and roam around to their hearts' content.

Laura lives in the middle cottage of three, which used to be owned by the Railways, with her mother, her brother, Johnny, and their dog, Trudy. Her Nanny Conks lives in the first cottage, and "Neverin" (her Aunty Nancy) lives in the third. Their garden backs onto Stokey's woods, and the beach is a fifteen-minute walk through the woodland. A group of travellers set up camp in the woods during the summer months, and this where you meet "Blackjack" the travellers' Horse Doctor and his old horse Lightning. The empty railway buildings and platform are a stone's throw from the cottages; and the disused, and heavily overgrown, track is still in place all the way down to the village.
So come along and join Laura and her friends on their many adventures.