Adventure Stories for Boys - Various

Published by The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited: Middlesex, England, 1977 (1967).

After a few 'heavier' or 'denser' books, I felt the need for something a bit 'lighter', and so pulled an older anthology off my bookshelf where it has been sitting for years. This is definitely an older-style book as well - very English and mildly dated, though not distractingly so (the most notable example is one character who keeps saying "I dig it"). There are eight stories within, and although they are all fairly straightforward, I was surprised that some took a slightly darker turn!

High Quest by Donne Avenell stands out to me as the most unexpected of the stories. We follow John Killick as he travels to the Alps, retracing the footsteps of his grandfather, Henry Killick. Henry and his climbing companion Albert Blythe were killed trying to climb the north face of  'the Henker', which so far no climbers have successfully scaled. When Killick arrives in the region, he learns that he is staying in the same hotel his grandfather stayed in, and that the descendant of Albert Blythe, who is only ever referred to as 'Blythe', has also joined him there. The coincidences begin to mount as Killick and Blythe meet the descendants of the same guides who took their grandfathers up the mountain, and eventually the story begins to turn somewhat supernatural... the earlier Killick and Blythe seeming to be spurring their descendants on to an unknown end. 

Aside from this tale, we also get a short story about mining, one set at a boys school, one involving journalists and football, one following an experimental speed-boat, and a few that lean more into the James Bond or Scooby-Doo style genre - small groups or talented individuals trying to solve some sort of far-fetched mystery. These latter ones in particular are a bit over-the-top and unbelievable, but they still manage to achieve the goal they are setting out to do - providing a relatively entertaining and vaguely exciting diversion for your stereotypical 1960s young male reader.

Nothing mindblowing, but enjoyable none-the-less.

Completed 13 October 2022.

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