Mrs Flannagan's Trumpet

By Catherine Cookson

Book Overview

There were plenty of shocks in store for young Eddie Morley when he and his sister went to stay at Old Granny Flannagan’s. He is very quickly caught up in some very strange happenings indeed. When... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0330253239
• ISBN13: 9780330253239
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Macmillan Education Australia Pty Ltd
• Weight: 0.23 lbs.

Customer Reviews

That terrible deaf grandmother!

This book is set in England, on the North East coast, in the year 1890. Eddie is a teenager, but like most youths of the time he is already hard at work earning money for his family. He is very proud of his father, who was a strong man and who worked in the town's harbor. Two years ago, however, his father died. Now Eddie's mother is also sick and she must go away for three months to get treatment. Eddie's life is full with work in the shipbuilding yards and evening study so he can eventually be an engineer. His sister Penny, however, is only twelve and cannot be left alone in the evenings as the family lives in a bad area of town. So Eddie and Penny must go to stay with the Flannagans, their mother's mother and father. The Flannagans live out of town at Rock End, right on the coastline. This means an extra long journey for Eddie to work and to study, but most of all he hates to have to live with his Grandmother. Mrs. Flannagan is a gruff woman, not easy to get on with. She is deaf and uses a black metal ear-trumpet. But what upsets Eddie most is that Mrs. Flannagan holds his father in contempt, as being a man of too low a birth to have married her daughter. Soon, however, dire events will overtake the whole of the whole household, and Eddie will be faced with the biggest challenge that he has yet faced in his life. Catherine Cookson is of course a master of historical fiction, and this book is no exception. Cookson manages to evoke the era by including details such as horse drawn travel, but the story, rather than history, is paramount in this novel. The author has managed to create a tale which is interesting from beginning to end. Each new chapter has some new element, such as a new character, a new revelation, a new location or a new event, so the story is constantly kept rolling along in an interesting manner. The story is full of adventure and excitement. It also has interesting characterization. Eddie grows, learns new things and is changed as he rises to meet life's challenges. Responsibility is a strong theme and Eddie demonstrates maturity as he looks after his sister and holds his tongue with his Grandmother in order to make the visit go smoothly. Also the book emphasizes the idea of not being too quick to judge people, especially those who seem 'difficult.' This is a fine book and I am glad to award it one of my rare five stars.