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Title: The Strange Affair of Adalaide Harris

Author: Leon Garfield

Narrator: Ron Keith

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-05-13

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

When two British schoolboys decide to test the truth of the ancient Spartan tale of Romulus and Remus, they are soon stuck with the task of recovering a missing baby and making up ever-more elaborate lies to cover their tracks. This highly imaginative madcap farce could only have been crafted by Leon Garfield, the award-winning author of Black Jack.

Members Reviews:

Alarums and excursions

Leon Garfieldâs stories of 18th-Century England are generally Dickensian thrillers, but this one is more like a Shakespearean comedy (without the poetry, but filled with characters working at cross-purposes to one another). Bostock and Harris, lifelong friends, might be called the Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer of Brighton, a town just transitioning from fishing village to seaside resort. Harris is the son of a local physician and has grown up the only boy in a houseful of sisters; Bostock is the sole child of a retired sea captain who has become a Justice of the Peace. Bostock is strong but not exactly the sharpest knife on the table when it comes to thinking; Harris is a brilliant schemer whom his friend admires as a genius. One day in Ancient History class at Dr. Bunnionâs School for the Sons of Merchants and Gentlefolk, their teacher, Mr. Brett, explains how the Spartans were wont to âexposeâ babies who were considered physically unfit. Inspired by this and by the legend of Romulus and Remus and the she-wolf, Harris conceives the notion of âexposingâ a baby (his seven-week-old sister Adelaide) and watching to see if âa vixen with full dugsâ may come along and suckle it (since of course there are no wolves left in England). But then the arithmetic masterâs daughter, Tizzy Alexander, and the school directorâs son, ladiesâ man Ralph Bunnion, out for a moonlight stroll, happen upon the child and bear her off before the boys can stop them. Thinking sheâll be left on the church doorstep, Bostock and Harris go there and find, indeed, a babyâa Gypsy boyâwhich in desperation they smuggle into Adelaideâs cot, a substitution thatâs quickly discovered. Before the friends quite know whatâs happened, Dr. Harris has fetched in Mr. Selwyn Raven, a clubfooted âinquiry agent,â to find out what has become of his youngest child. There follows a succession of erroneous assumptions as Mr. Brett, whoâs desperately in love with Tizzy, is sucked into a duel between her father and Ralph, Bostock and Harris discover Adelaideâs whereabouts and scheme to get her back, and Mr. Raven somehow gets the idea that the infantâs fate (whatever it may be) is tied up with a plot to commit murder! Like all Garfieldâs work, this novel is filled with the flavor and language of its place and time (and is therefore best suited to youngsters 11 and up), but will also leave them gasping with laughter as they see how the two boysâ more or less innocent experiment in natural history brings on unlooked-for consequences that threaten to engulf the entire town.

Leon Garfield at his funniest

The two boys at the center of this plot are unlikely heroes: âHarris was as weak as a kitten and Bostock was as thick as a post.â This farce revolves around their plan to leave Harrisâs infant sister Adelaide outside in a field to see whether she will be adopted by foxes (the area doesnât happen to have any wolves).