The children learn from a Pictish man called Giric why the curse of a dragon descended on the land and how every seven years a brave man tries to kill this massive dragon. First though, there is going to be a dragon-fight. He explains that every year on Beltane/May Eve, the King of Summer must defeat the King of Winter. They are greeted by a bright-eyed little man who turns out to be the good magician Borrobil. After Jean impulsively leaps through the flames, the children are transported back into ancient magical times.
When the children enter the wood they see two bonfires burning at the entrance to a circle of nine standing stones. Most people avoid this wood but Donald and Jean decide to visit it one moonlit night in the hope of seeing something magical. They are fascinated by the Eldritch Wood – `a dark mysterious ring on the crest of the far-off hill’. None of Croft Dickinson’s fiction seems to be available online but it certainly should be.ĭonald and Jean are a young brother and sister spending a holiday in the British countryside.
Very cheap copies of this edition are quite easy to find. It was reissued as a Puffin paperback in 1964 with a wonderful cover by Pauline Baynes. “Borrobil” was first published in 1944 with black and white illustrations by John Morton-Sale. Professor Croft Dickinson was a renowned expert on Scottish history who also wrote ghost stories and Fantasy novels for children. “Borrobil” by William Croft Dickinson is a kind of `missing link’ in British Fantasy. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers.As we are now into May, I’ve decided to recommend an almost forgotten story which begins on May Eve, traditionally the most magical night of the year. Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. This tale of hobgoblins and dragons is his first work of fiction. William Croft Dickinson was a leading scholar of Scottish history who also wrote children's fantasy novels and ghost stories. Complete with the good only original illustrated dustwrapper which has loss to the spine tips, tears and chips with associated creasing to the edges, the front flap presumable has been repaired with multiple pieces of tape at the fold. The contents, with a contemporary ownership inscription to the front free endpaper, are otherwise clean and bright throughout. A very good copy, the binding square and firm, the extremities of the cloth a touch rubbed, the top corners with very minor bumping. Illustrated with a colour frontispiece and black and white in-text drawings throughout by John Morton-Sale.
Original blue cloth with titles in black to the spine and a motif in black to the upper board, in dustwrapper.
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