Customer Reviews

The Painted Tent

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There must have been a time warp of about fifty years between North Devon and the rest of the UK if this book is to be believed. The protagonist, Samuel, behaves more like one the characters in a John Buchan novel or from Swallows and Amazons. As I read it I kept going back to the copyright page to check if it really had been written in 1974 and not 1924; which is how it felt. But it did renew my curiosity about birds of prey which had laid dormant since I saw the movie 'Kes', released in 1969 and much more in synch. with the times than this book.

Victor Canning's "The Painted Tent" is a so-so mystery story. Not much of a plot and the characters, although likeable, are strictly cardboard (some of them seem to a have strayed out of a Charles Dickens novel).

It seems as if a quarter of the book is a diversion into the lifestyle of peregrine falcons. More about falcons than I ever wanted to know. In any case if you want to read about falcons, try the short story "Hook" (can't remember the author); it's better.

As I was reading, I felt a odd sense of familiarity. Finally I caught on that the "The Painted Tent" reminds me of many of the scores of "juvenile" or "young adult" books I devoured in my early teens -- teenage protagonist, plodding mediocore plot, simplified characters, educational asides (the falcons), morality lessons, etc.