Read by Clare Corbett
Written by Amelia Pond
Running Time: 1hrs 57min
Publisher: AudioGO Ltd
Number of CDs: 2
Kate Webster and her mum
have moved to Watchcombe, it’s a busy little seaside town with shops and cafes,
and a museum and railway station. The
bay is full of boats where day trippers row out a little bit then row
back. Kate thinks that the town of
Minehead was much better.
Kate is a youngster that I’m
putting at about 11 or 12 going by the way Clare Corbett portrays her in the
narration. She has made a new friend
called Armand Dass who lives next door to her, his father works at the local
pharmacy but he’s not a man to be trusted as far as the townsfolk appear to
think. He’s also keen to retrieve the
painting entitled 'The Lord of Winter' that Kate bought in a local charity
shop. It’s covered in mould and on
touching the painting, Kate’s fingers tingle.
From the moment she brings it into the house, the temperature in the
room drops, and strange things begin to occur inside and out.
The curator of the museum
she discovers after following a grey cat through a hedge, is a tall thin man
with the kind smile, who lives in the shed at the bottom of her garden. It has a striped canvas cover over it and
garden tools propped outside and prevents her going inside, telling her it’s
undergoing repairs.
The man also said he was in-between
names so Kate called him Barnabas after her old teddy bear. She thought everyone should be called that.
He talks about his museum
and also says he’d like to open a shop with an E “Love a little Shopp-e” he
said.
It’s 3rd of
September and when yesterday there was sunshine and people on the beach digging
sandcastles and rowing out to sea, today there’s several feet of white snow
coating the entire region and its ever so cold in the house. What could have
caused this? And why is the cat that doesn’t belong to the curator, nor to Kate
for that matter, concerned that Kate does as it asks? What does the cat know?
And why when she uncovers
the ring under the floorboards with the grey cat’s help must she after reading
a note tucked under the joists “Keep it safe.
He must not find what the old lady holds!” Who is it who must not find it? What is the
link with the painting and the ring, and does that mean that Mr Dass is the man
who wants the painting, or could it mean it’s the curator, who she showed the
painting to. And what danger lies in
wait for Kate and her two new friends?
The first time I heard the
story I couldn’t get into it, I couldn’t understand why a children’s story was
involved in Doctor Who. I looked at the
title again, I viewed the illustrations of the children, and I listened to it
again. Then it made sense.
The story was written by
Amelia Pond in 1954 and was when Amy was sent back in time, putting her in her 50’s
by then. It was the book that Clara had
in her bedroom, and it was one that she would read to the boy that she was
looking after.
There are many links
connecting Doctor Who to this story, and although the first book released by
the BBC about the detective novel, that had Melody Malone going to the
apartment in “The Angels Take Manhattan” that merely read as a detective novel
with no mention of the Doctor, this story does cover elements of Amy’s time
with the 11th.
But I’m not going to spoil
the book by pointing them out. You have
to listen to the story, and not solely to hear about the various telltale signs
that point you to a Doctor Who fact or moment. When you accept that this is a
story of a young girl on an adventure and many wonderful things happen on her
journey, and she meets some incredibly wonderful people along the way, you’ll
love it as much as I did.
And as Clara said. “Watch out for the 11th, it’ll
make you cry.”
Shh Spoilers!
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