"Gang"
6 primary works
Book 2
Have you ever been blamed for something you didn't do? Have you ever been caught up in a minor incident that grew into a major conflict? An orphan, evacuated from the World War II bombing of London, comes to live with his pious aunt in an English village. A bag of sweets is knocked out of his hand in the school playground. This trivial incident has devastating consequences. The villagers become increasingly quarrelsome. The tension reaches a climax at a fund-raising fete to buy a Spitfire aircraft. This ends in a riotous fight which causes the funds collected for the Spitfire to be last seen floating gently down the river in the twilight and a barrel. In the wake of this disaster will the villagers be able to resolve their differences? Although this book follows-on from the previous 'Gang Territory', it can stand as a complete story in its own right.
Book 3
Would you like to go on a treasure hunt? Here's one with a difference - A barrel of money, collected at a village fete to raise money to help buy a Spitfire aircraft, has been lost in the river. Rival gangs compete with each other, and the authorities, to recover it. Three of the gangs are composed of children, but a fourth is made up of adult gangsters. A school boy, recently evacuated from a bombed-out London orphanage, becomes involved because of his love for one of the village girls and a promise he has made to her. He lives with a pious spinster aunt, a strict church-goer, who disapproves of his chapel-going girlfriend. Who can get to the barrel first? Is the hero's promise to his girlfriend fulfilled? Join in this wartime treasure hunt where air-raids, rationing, and a shot-down German bomber, add excitement to a fast-moving plot.
Book 4
There is consternation in Widdlington village when the girls, fed up with constantly playing second fiddle to the boys, decide to set up their own gang. The new gang is called the 'Go-Getter-Girls'. Its leader believes that anything boys can do, girls can do better. The boys, alarmed at this threat to their formerly secure superiority, do not intend to stand idly by while the girls usurp their traditional supremacy. Will the girls succeed in imposing a new-found authority or will the boys overcome this impudent challenge to their masculinity? The gauntlet is flung down by the girls in the wartime summer of 1941. Britain is facing an epic challenge launched by those who sought to impose a repressive regime aimed at world domination. The two challenges are not entirely unrelated. We know now the outcome of the Second World War, but what was the result of the contemporaneous conflict of loyalties that went on in Widdlington?
Book 5
The Women's Land Army takes over the Widdlington allotments for a training school, but why should this stir up trouble in the village, especially for the kids? How did the diocesan Bishop get involved, and even Prime Minister Winston Churchill? Who committed the midnight act of wartime sabotage? Why is Peter confronted with ghastly terror in an unlit midnight church, and why must Dummy be shut so often in the village lock-up? All turns on a secret visit to bomb-menaced London; and the vicar gets his come-uppance. "Cripes, it were a real ol' barney...!" as Jenno would say.
Book 6
During World War II, posters were put up everywhere warning against spies. They carried slogans such as: 'Walls have ears', or 'Careless talk costs lives', or 'Be like Dad, keep Mum'. The danger of careless talk was even reflected in Tommy Handley's popular radio show ITMA (It's That Man Again) where a menacing German spy would frequently appear with his heavily-accented catch-phrase, 'Dis ist Funf speakink'. Because of all this, newcomers to a community were often treated with reserve, not to say suspicion. We, the children of the epoch, were certainly impressed and we sometimes indulged in excited bouts of patriotic spy-hunting. This book describes one such comically cockeyed episode.
Book 7
It is the summer of 1942. The mighty United States Army Air Force enters into the battle of the Second World War in Europe.The coming of the Americans to war-torn Britain is welcomed by most of the inhabitants, but for the children of the village of Widdlington it is a catastrophe. A new airbase for B17 Flying Fortress bombers deprives them of crucially important territory.The children accordingly gang together in a series of raids and skirmishes against the Americans in an attempt to regain their rights.