We Couldn't Leave Dinah

We Couldn't Leave Dinah

Front cover of unknown early edition
Author Mary Treadgold
Illustrator Stuart Tresilian (first ed.)
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre Children's war novel, pony book
Publisher Jonathan Cape
Publication date
 1941
Media type Print (hardcover)
Pages 272 pp (first edition)
OCLC 41974333
LC Class PZ7.T6893 Le[1]
PZ7.T6893 We2[2]
Followed by The Polly Harris

We Couldn't Leave Dinah is a children's novel by Mary Treadgold, first published by Jonathan Cape in 1941 with illustrations by Stuart Tresilian.[3] It is a contemporary adventure story set on a fictional island in the English Channel during World War II and eventually during a German occupation. Treadgold won the 1941 Carnegie Medal recognising the year's outstanding children's book.[4]

In the U.S., it was published within the calendar year as Left Till Called For, with illustrations by Richard Flöethe (Doubleday, Doran, 1941), and under its original title in 1964, again with new illustrations.[1][2][3][5]

Plot summary

The setting is the summer holidays early in the Second World War. The Templetons are English residents on the fictional island of Clerinel in the English Channel. The children are all members of the local Pony Club. Caroline rides the spirited Dinah, Mick the more placid Punch, and their little brother the chubby Bellman.

Meanwhile, there are rumours that the Germans who have occupied the nearby Channel Islands may be planning to take over Clerinel too. The location and topography of the island are ideally suited as a platform for launching an invasion of the South Coast. Mr. Templeton discusses leaving with the children, prompting Caroline's horrified response: "We couldn't leave Dinah".

The Pony Club's chairman, Peter Beaumarchais, has surprisingly opted for a fancy-dress carnival as their Anniversary Day celebration in mid-September. Caroline decides to go as Elaine the Lily Maid of Astolat; Mick chooses to dress simply as a local fisherboy and borrows some clothes from Petit-Jean. During the celebration Caroline spots some unfamiliar riders in fancy dress. These riders turn out to be a party of German invaders taking advantage of the fancy dress to gain easy access to the Martello tower.

The English residents hurriedly evacuate, but in the confusion Caroline and Mick are left behind. Their home having been requisitioned by the German general, they camp in some caves which have been fitted out as stables. With the help of Peter they manage to survive and stay hidden while planning their escape.

After Mick stumbles across a hidden message and decodes it, they realize there are spies on the English side working on the island. Believing he can help discover some useful information, Mick volunteers to coach Nannerl, the German general's granddaughter, in riding. Nannerl joins the Pony Club, and when Caroline leaves the island she feels Dinah is safe with the German girl until they can return.

Characters

The English
The French islanders
The Germans

Sequel

Caroline and Mick Templeton appear again in The Polly Harris (1949), without ponies. Sent to summer school to improve their grades, they dread being cooped up in London, but they soon find Prettyman's Hard, a little community hidden away on the edge of the river in a very old part of the city, which is anything but dull. Mick and Caroline are thrilled when their new friends the Gotchkisses plan a trip to Australia on the Polly Harris. They also uncover a case of fraud.

Origins

Although itself far more than a conventional pony book, We Couldn't Leave Dinah had its origin in Mary Treadgold's dismay at the many "quite frightful" examples of horse and pony books she saw as children's editor at Heinemann. "This was September 1940 and not being a knitter or caring for the sound of falling bombs, I occupied myself relatively painlessly in the air-raid shelter with trying to implement my own verdict, 'I could do better myself!'"[4] It was her first book, and won the Carnegie Medal. The award has been called "premature", as the book does not contain her best writing, and she may have befited from poor competition during the war,[6] but the novel remained in print for over four decades.

Allusions to other works

Having read Tennyson's Idylls of the King, Caroline chooses to go to the fancy-dress as the romantic heroine Elaine.[7] Later Caroline compares their gloomy attitude unfavorably to the adventurous spirits of two sets of children in popular books of the time, the Arthur Ransome children (of the Swallows and Amazons series of books) and M. E. Atkinson's Lockett family (from August Adventure, Mystery Manor etc.): “each child brooded upon those fascinating, incredible spirits of the nursery bookshelf, each the irresistible magnet of adventure”.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 "Left till called for" (first U.S. edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
  2. 1 2 "We couldn't leave Dinah". LCC record. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
  3. 1 2 "Formats and Editions of We couldn't leave Dinah". WorldCat. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
  4. 1 2 (Carnegie Winner 1941). Living Archive: Celebrating the Carnegie and Greenaway Winners. CILIP. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  5. ↑ Literature for Children (1941).
  6. ↑ Marcus Crouch, The Nesbit Tradition, Ernest Benn, 1972, p. 218.
  7. ↑ We Couldn't Leave Dinah, Chapter II.
  8. ↑ We Couldn't Leave Dinah, Chapter V.

Left till called for in libraries (WorldCat catalog) —first US edition, retitled

Awards
Preceded by
Visitors from London		 Carnegie Medal recipient
1941 		Succeeded by
The Little Grey Men
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