Willow Green School

Sometimes people ask me about a Jane Shaw book with the title of Willow Green School. "Is it any good and where can I get hold of a copy?" The answer is that you can't get it because this book does not exist. There are three books in the Thomas series: Looking After Thomas, Willow Green Mystery and The Tall Man. The first and third stories are set in Paris and Interlaken, respectively. Willow Green Mystery is set in Kent but there is no school called Willow Green School. The Waring boys attend a prep school called Bishop's and the girls go Ridgeways. But the book is in not a school story. So where did the myth of "Willow Green School" originate? The answer is that on the Collecting Books and Magazines website there is a Jane Shaw page with a partial bibliography, and one of the books listed there is Willow Green School, a misprint.

Willow Green Mystery

A "cleaned up" scan of the last illustration from Willow Green Mystery. David and Tish have come to rescue Thomas..

Willow Green Mystery illustration

A case of mistaken identity. Tish whacks Michael over the head with a huge branch in Lost Boy Number Two, the seventh chapter of Willow Green Mystery (1958).

Willow Green Mystery illustration

An illustration from The Chink in the Curtain, Chapter 4 of Willow Green Mystery. Thomas suspects that the house is occupied by "sinister Russians".

Quote of the Day

"Where shall I begin?" I said.

"Begin at the beginning," said my sister Clarissa, who can be rather nippy at times.

"But what is the beginning?" asked Tish. "Is it when we found the boy lying dead in the ditch?"

"Only he wasn't dead," muttered Thomas. (This seemed to be a disappointment that he wasn't going to forget in a hurry).

From WILLOW GREEN MYSTERY, Chapter 1, Boy in the Ditch.

Willow Green Mystery

A "cleaned up" scan of the frontispiece of Willow Green Mystery, the only one of the three Thomas books set entirely in England.

Willow Green Mystery illustration

A scene from Chapter 3, when David mistakes an elderly man in a wheelchair for Mr. Starky and loses control of the wheelchair, which procedes to hurtle down a hill. Much to everyone's surprise, the man enjoys the little jaunt!

Willow Green Mystery illustration

A scene from Lost Boy, the sixth chapter of Willow Green Mystery. Miss Woodward loses her patience with Bella the cow, who has trampled on her prize-winning garden.

Quote of the Day

Tish obviously thought this was rather a tame way of tackling the business, but she's very good-natured and usually agrees with me, so she said all right. We cautiously came out of hiding and went across to the house. Halfway down the little brick path between the flower-beds Tish suddenly grabbed my arm.

"Look!" she whispered.

Out of an upstairs window two little coloured birds had darted, flashing their bright wings in the sunshine.

With one accord we turned and dashed back again into the shelter of the yew hedge.

From WILLOW GREEN MYSTERY, Chapter 7, Lost Boy Number Two.

Quote of the Day

And then, old Mr. Starky went on, when he came out to Willow Green and he saw the jewels he got the fright of his life, because they were the most beautiful collection of jewellery that he had ever seen, and he knew then that there was something wrong - no woman with a collection like that would take them to an obscure little refugee jeweller in Maidstone if she wanted them re-set, she would take them to the best jeweller in London or Paris.

From WILLOW GREEN MYSTERY, Chapter 10, Exit Esmeralda.

Quote of the Day

I fastened the gate into the field with great care, went in and kicked off my muddy shoes in the porch, let the dogs out of the kitchen where they were barking like mad things and then padded upstairs to Michael's room. I could hear Mrs. Finch singing to herself in the study above the noise of the hoover. With any luck, I thought, I'll get some more elevenses when Michael gets his beef-tea at whatever time he wakens up.

I tip-toed into the room and stopped dead in amazement. Michael had wakened up; in fact, he had got up; the bed-clothes were flung back and the room was empty.

From WILLOW GREEN MYSTERY, Chapter 6, Lost Boy.

Quote of the Day

"Well?" he snapped, not very pleasantly.

Stan touched his helmet politely. "Beg pardon, sir," he said, "just making a few enquiries."

"At this time of night?"

Stan looked surprised. "T'isn't nine yet, sir..."

"Where I come from," said the man, "people are often asleep by nine."

Where did he come from? we wondered. Did grown up people go to bed at nine o'clock in Russia?

"Well, I'm sure I'm very sorry, sir," Stan was saying politely, "to have disturbed you so late like, but we have the matter of a missing old gentleman on our hands, and from information received we think that he might be in this house."

"In this house!" the man repeated in a voice of utter astonishment. "But I've only just got here myself and there was no old gentleman here when I arrived, I can assure you!" He seemed to have recovered from his earlier ill temper.

"Just got here, sir?" Stan was saying in his pleasant, low voice.

"Yes, I've just come from South Africa on a visit. I rented this place and moved in a couple of days ago. Haven't had time to get straight. Made up a bed and was only too glad to turn in early. But come in and look around for yourself."

Taking off his helmet Stan stepped into the hall. We stepped in after him. The man seemed to notice us for the first time. "This the source of the information?" he said, but quite pleasantly, grinning as a matter of fact. "Aren't you the kids whose dog fell in the pond?"

From WILLOW GREEN MYSTERY, Chapter 5, Blunder at Willow Green.