| Title | : | The Ghost of Thomas Kempe |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1405225424 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781405225427 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 243 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1973 |
| Awards | : | Carnegie Medal (1973) |
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe Reviews
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The Ghost Of Thomas Kempe was written in 1973 by Penelope Lively, an English author of both children’s and adult’s books. This one can certainly be enjoyed by adults, although it is aimed at readers of around nine and over, and the protagonist is a young boy.
The Harrison family have recently arrived in the village of Ledsham, to live in a traditional stone cottage called “East End Cottage”. They are having some renovations done, to open up one of the children’s bedrooms. James, whose bedroom it is, is a naturally scruffy, clumsy, roguish sort of character, who reminds me very much of Richmal Crompton’s delightful “Just William”. Much of the book’s humour comes from James’s exploits. He has a dog, Tim, a stray who just arrived at the cottage, one day shortly after the Harrison family moved in. Tim:
“looking pathetic and homeless, had been fed, and within days had installed himself firmly within the house, establishing his rights and ingratiating himself with Mrs Harrison who he was quick to identify as the source of food.”
James makes a mess in the kitchen, digs tunnels in the garden and conducts “studies” on interesting insects, all with Tim’s “help”. Tim is just as appealing in these adventures, rather like the dog “Gnasher” in the Beano comic - a sort of canine equivalent of his owner “Dennis the Menace”. Their combined exploits always seem to end in James getting into trouble, and feeling either indignant or resigned about it. He’s just a typical inquisitive, creative and bright child, who doesn’t enjoy slotting into the well-behaved role his parents wish for him. We root for him all the way; he sounds a great kid.
James’s life is really just the same as of any happy-go-lucky child of that time, who has a stable home life. It’s not quite as if the sun is always shining in story-land, but there is definitely that feeling about it. It also conjures up those long school holidays in the summer, which seemed to go on for ever when you were a child. Everything is looking rosy. Until …
The spooky events begin when a strange new message appears in chalk on the blackboard outside their cottage. James’s father had put the blackboard there to advertise the sale of apples. But this message reads, bafflingly: “Sorcerie, Astrologie, Geomancie, Alchemie, Recoverie of Goodes Lost, Physicke.” Furthermore, the writing is in such a peculiar hand, that James can’t make head or tail of it.
A few more mysterious messages like this appear, and with the help of Simon, (his new friend, and the equivalent of Ginger in “Just William”) the two manage to decipher the old script and spelling. But unfortunately, his friend thinks that James is writing the messages himself, out of mischief. James is very indignant about this, especially as who or whatever is haunting him seems to be getting more and more reckless, and James is always getting blamed for its capers.
Pretty soon ornaments are being smashed, doors are being slammed and James is just as much in the dark as everyone else about why and where the next puzzling mishap will occur. He begins, despite his misgivings, to suspect a poltergeist - but if so, why does this ghost seem to have it in for him personally. The finger soon points at him,
Penelope Lively is well-named. The episodes are described in an hilarious way, and the story is a roller-coaster of a ride. One memorable episode concerns a pompous vicar’s visit. Doors slam, chairs are moved out from under him, clown-fashion, and tea is made to spill over onto his trousers. All of it is considered by his family to somehow be James’s fault. The “accidents” continue … a barometer is smashed, and the vicar’s head somehow collides with a roof beam. Why? The answer is obvious.
You don’t have to be a child to find this book funny. If you are an adult looking for a light read, this may prove just the ticket. The descriptions of boyhood, and a time now passed will bring nostalgia to the surface – yet it does not dodge what might have been a difficult ending. Whatever your beliefs about poltergeists, for the purpose of this story, the reader has to “buy into” the concept, and the ending has to be authentic, believable and sincere. This one is.
It is up to James and Bert to work out how to facilitate this, and the answer is surprising. It is both believable in the terms of the book, and shows a good deal of strength of character, intelligence and compassion from James. This child has made great strides, and completed a journey of his own, in his maturity.
Penelope Lively writes effectively for children. She never patronises, or talks down to her younger readers, as some authors do. Instead she assumes her readers are sensitive and intelligent. Neither are the children portrayed as heroes, whereas the adults are ignorant imbeciles, as is the convention in many children’s books. In The Ghost of Thomas Kempe we see both perceptive attitudes, and closed minds, across both adults and children. This is perhaps why the book is more profound even than some written for adults. And despite its delicious humour, at the end it is imbued with a rare air of sadness and regret.
In a way, this sadness is ever-present in the sub-text. There is a lovely description of small-town libraries, which even in 1973 were becoming more rare:
“A valiant effort had been made to cater for the many and varied tastes of Ledsham readers. Cookery books and books on ‘How to Grow Better Chrysanthemums’ jostled for space with ‘The Cathedrals of England’ and ‘The Origins of the Second World War’. Love and crime were rampant on the fiction shelves. In the children’s section every book had the appearance of being well and truly read, or even in the case of very young children, partially eaten. It was a satisfactory place: familiar yet inexhaustibly surprising, homely yet exotic in its offerings. To plunge into its gloomy entrance was like opening a grocery box and finding it full of Christmas presents.”
And near the start we are aware of an ugly reality. Modern life was looming: fast encroaching on the cosiness of the past. Ledsham was:
“a very old place, half way between a village and a small town, and had somehow, the air of being dwarfed by the present. New housing estates were mushrooming now on two sides of it, but the centre remained as it must always have been with the houses and streets a size smaller than the houses and streets of a modern town. Lorries, and even the tops of cars, rode parallel with the upstairs windows of the terraced cottages.”
In fact the entire book seems to indicate the marching on of time, and James himself becomes aware of this. He is losing his innocence, but gaining in wisdom with sudden insights:
“Somewhere deep within stout, elderly Mrs Verity, with her rheumaticky hands that swelled up around her wedding ring, and her bad back that bothered her in damp weather, there sheltered the memory of a little girl who had behaved outrageously in Sunday School. And that when you stopped to think about it was a very weird thing indeed.”
Thomas Kempe is the most obvious indication of the time being out of joint. He is of a different age, and time is working against him. Yes, we are entertained by his bluster and antics; he is funny,
An interest in history, the passage of time and local change is a running theme in many works of Penelope Lively. In telling this tale, the author invites us to reflect and perhaps realise that James’s childhood summer is not really very long, given the larger picture. No childhood summer ever is.
“The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there”
wisely observed L.P. Hartley. Our imaginary retreat into childhood inevitably brings a shade of melancholy. We can never properly revisit our childhood, from an adult perspective. We always remember what we have lost as much as what we once had. James is beginning to learn this for himself.
This is a bittersweet tale, with more depth than at first appears. We have lovely descriptions of James’s idyllic holidays, long empty days when the skies are always blue. We see him messing around with his experiments, climbing apple trees, meandering by the river, and comforting memories are there in abundance. Yet in the end The Ghost Of Thomas Kempe’s underlying message seems to be one of the pain of mortality - and that is an extremely unusual and profound message to be conveyed by a children’s book. -
Strictly speaking, my rating for this light and enjoyable read would be three and a half stars, if Goodreads allowed fractional stars. But I rounded up, in tribute to Lively's skillful writing and the unexpected depth of thought in the ending.
The fact that this book was picked (on my suggestion) as a "Terror Tribe Buddy Read" in the Reading for Pleasure group on Goodreads is misleading. Yes, the supernatural element here is quite real. And the premise could allow for a horrific use of the supernatural, if that had been Lively's intention: newly arrived in a large village/small town in the Thames Valley, ca. 1973 (the author's present) young protagonist James Harrison and his parents and sister are newly settled into a centuries-old cottage --in which workmen, preparing the dwelling for occupancy, accidentally broke an old bottle in the room that would be James.' That released the titular ghost of one Thomas Kempe, a long-dead, self-described sorcerer; he has an agenda, and it doesn't entail much respect for the agendas of the living. But while Kempe can command traditional poltergeist phenomena (moving and breaking objects, slamming doors, generating drafts, etc.) and can also write messages in archaic script, his activities aren't --usually-- life-threatening, and Lively's tone is humorous, in a wonderfully dry, understated fashion that's typically British. That didn't bother me (though I'd expected more of a scare factor when I suggested the read); I enjoy well-written fiction of the supernatural whether it's scary or not. But if it has to be genuinely scary to please your taste, you'll not find that here.
What Lively does offer, instead, is an engaging story, well told; a palpable sense of place; and a realistic, likeable protagonist who's very fully realized, as are the supporting characters. James reminds me, allowing for differences in nationality and century, of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer; they both have that type of rambunctious, mischievous and willful personality that's typical of a lot of boys --though James has more intelligence and genuine intellectual curiosity than Tom, which makes him easier for me to relate to. (His age isn't actually stated, but from internal indications, I'd say it's 10-11.) His sibling rivalry with his sister is actually pitch perfect for that age (yes, I've raised kids and have grandkids!). Not all of his attitudes and behaviors are ones I'd encourage (though he's actually a pretty good kid) --but he's real enough to walk off the page. Lively also subtly critiques the narrow-minded, ingrained materialism of many moderns, who discount any possibility of the paranormal, not because they're particularly "enlightened," but because they're too intellectually lazy to think on their own. What really elevated my rating, though, was the insights James achieves near the end --you'll have to read the book yourself to understand.
This is "children's" fiction, in that it's suitable for kids to read, without objectionable content, is pitched to their reading level (though the prose style isn't pablum, either --the vocabulary and diction are actually quite comfortable, IMO, for most serious readers of all ages, except the very youngest), and has a child protagonist. But, as I've often said before, if fiction can be recognized by young readers as good fiction, it can be appreciated by older readers on the same basis; we respond to the same literary qualities, which are universal in their appeal. (I enjoyed it, and I'm 67.)
British author Dame Penelope Lively (b. 1933) is an acclaimed and prolific writer of fiction for both adults and children. This is one of her earlier works, and earned her the Carnegie Medal from the British Library Assn. (the UK equivalent of the Newbery Award in the U.S. --she's also won the Booker Prize, the British equivalent of the Pulitzer). But so far, this is the only work by her that I've read. -
Annual re-read. First encountered at the age of ten, in primary school (in fact I still have Mrs. Halsall's own copy, sorry, Miss) and loved since. Lively's enduring ghost story tells of James Harrison being haunted by a bad-tempered C17th poltergeist whose distaste of the modern world manifests itself in vandalism and arson as well as writing angry notes.
Entertaining and engaging, although much of the language is probably, and sadly, beyond a lot of today's ten-year-olds - phlegmatic for example. Beautifully written, with some lyrical descriptions of the Oxfordshire countryside, the ending of this, is, possibly one of my favourite pieces of fiction. Lively captures the atmosphere of James, drained after what has occurred with Kempe, walking home to tea, with time stretching both ahead and behind, perfectly.
This was my introduction to Lively's other supernatural themed children's novels and an awakening of a taste for the gothic which has never disappeared. I even wrote my PGCE dissertation on it.
Have to add that the old adage of never meeting one's heroes rings true in this case. Several years ago, I met Penelope Lively at a conference and asked her what did she think made Thomas Kempe such a favourite. Her response? 'I don't know.' Exit one very crushed former ten year-old. -
In Penelope Lively's 1973 Carnegie Medal winning novel The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, the Thomas Kempe of the book title is the spiritual manifestation of a seventeenth-century British (Oxfordshire) apothecary whose final resting place has been unintentionally disturbed by renovations (by builders) when a new (and of course 20th century) family moves into his former home. And after Kempe reemerges, his written messages (penned in 17th century spelling, which I for one have majorly enjoyed) and increasingly violent and impatient (but often also often rather humorous) shenanigans and behaviours become a serious problem for nine-year-old James Harrison (the main protagonist of The Ghost of Thomas Kempe) who inevitably (and like in general with tales regarding Poltergeists) starts getting the blame for everything that is happening (and both from family and from most of the residents of Ledsham). But with the help of a local builder who believes in ghosts and thus also believes that James is telling the truth about Thomas Kempe (and also a wee bit from James' still a bit doubting but pretty loyal friend Simon) and using a discovered diary from a young boy previously visited by Thomas Kempe in the 19th century, James finally finds a way to put Kempe to rest once more and stops the Poltergeist rumbling and roaring.
Now on the surface Penelope Lively has The Ghost of Thomas Kempe follow a pretty simple and straight forward plot trajectory (basically that Thomas Kempe appears, starts acting as though James Harrison is his assistant, becomes increasingly problematic and badly even sometimes a bit violently behaving when James does not or cannot adequately do Kempe's bidding and is finally returned to his final resting place by James, Bert the Builder and Albert's 19th century diary). But yes, there is indeed oh so much textual magic to be found in The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, and with James (and also to a point his friend Simon) totally capturing the essence of preadolescent boys (and that even if James is for me of course kind of the wrong gender, his curiosity, his hunger for knowledge and that James tries hard to both do research on Thomas Kempe academically using library books and to find a way to exorcise the ghost and to return Kempe back to his grave) this all makes James for me totally a kindred spirit so to speak, so that the simplicity of the general set-up of The Ghost of Thomas Kempe is not only totally unproblematic but also really quite deliciously delightful and wonderfully penned. And furthermore, the intrusion in The Ghost of Thomas Kempe of a spirit from the distant past, causing havoc and upsetting the usual order of things for James (and actually for everyone in Ledsham), this allows Penelope Lively with to not explore the mind of a child on the threshold of adulthood, but also shows that the history of our respective nations is always with us as well.
A delightful reading experience The Ghost of Thomas Kempe has been for me (and I truly do regret that I never encountered this novel as a younger reader, when I was the age of Penelope Lively's intended audience). And indeed, the only reason why my rating for The Ghost of Thomas Kempe is not five stars is that I do wish that the ghost, that Thomas Kempe himself would be a bit more in depth and nuanced, as he does come across a bit one dimensionally for me (and feels at least at times as though Penelope Lively is using Kempe as a kind of narrative device rather than an actual person (for a bit more information presented on Thomas Kempe's own life make his character more developed and more rounded and would also render The Ghost of Thomas Kempe not only very very good but truly spectacular. -
James has recently moved to an old house. Soon mysterious writting appears and James starts to uncover the past. In parts this book has a lovely sense of hunour and the main character is reminiscent of Just William.
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Such a complex, comic ghost story in which a truculent and bullish spirit from the 17th century is accidentally unleashed upon the lives of the Harrison family - notably, young James. Revisiting this again as an adult allowed me to enjoy all the subtle connecting threads which exist between Kempe and James and I would love to consider the parallels there. Again, Lively's capturing of place, community and the historical threads are masterfully done. It is interesting to note that, having spent some of her early childhood in Egypt, Lively returned and eventually ended up living in a 16th century house in Oxfordshire (Eynsham?). This prompted her fascinating with the stories that reside within the landscape and what is meant by 'roots'. Fascinating and perhaps lends a glimpse into why this book is so wonderful and true.
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Despite an irksome beginning I enjoyed this novel’s uniqueness, a protagonist who was eventually relatable, and a tour of archaic crypts. In a typical English village: the parish and school have run for eons, residents have traversed those generations, and so have the houses. Thus when workmen renovate an attic for the son of new homebuyers, they uncork a pest. Many would relish acquainting a ghost but this was an egocentric sorcerer.
A drawback to children’s literature, from whence much of my ghost fare must be quenched, is that authors sometimes dwell on family bickering. I for one have no taste to read that. I was relieved Penelope Lively did not persist in this and that focus was mustered on her tale’s task. I understand it suited these circumstances to illustrate that James, by design or by accident, had borne responsibility for a few gaffes and that his word was not sacrosanct automatically. When Thomas manifests, first subtly in James’ room, than by attempts to force him into servitude; boldly denouncing the entity to his parents isn’t feasible. I disagreed with this because much of the pestering was demonstrable. However his Father is presented as the worst kind of closed-minded clod.
Something else that rang falsely is workmen discarding historic papers. I think of no crew who would be granted this liberty, none who would undervalue epistolary artifacts, nor any occupants whose intrigue wouldn’t be peaked. Their resurrection from a trash heap was a rub. However the warmth of the story spiked thereafter. A diary acquaints James with a darling Aunt and visiting nephew, who endured Thomas long before and she believed him implicitly. They truly felt like allies and brought James solace. A pleasing twist is the Harrisons’ neighbour. Far from being sour, she helpfully clued James into mysticism. -
3 Stars.
The boy was annoying. -
Many books I read as a child gave me unrealistic expectations for what I might find in old attics or when digging in the garden. In novels written 60s and 70s, particularly, children seemed to find fascinating diaries, haunted dolls, magic carpets, rubies, stuffed birds, paintings, or historical archives by simply poking around a bit on a wet morning at home. The Ghost of Thomas Kempe is another such book, relying on finds a diary from 1865 in a rubbish tip in the garden, as well as 17th century spectacles, and various other curios. I remember as a child, on being disappointed by another futile poke around an attic, thinking that this, like Narnia, wizard school and phoenixes, was the kind of thing that only happened to English children. If you lived in Ireland, you had no luck. Now I realise that this was a plot device rather than a realistic portrait of English attics!
Although The Ghost of Thomas Kempe brought up my old frustrations around never digging up anything interesting from the past, I still enjoyed it. James's family move into a very old cottage - certainly pre-17th century - and Thomas Kempe, the ghost of an apothecary and sorcerer has been disturbed by their move. He haunts James, believing he can mould him to be his apprentice. Mostly funny and rarely actually chilling, this is a ghost story in the vein of Oscar Wilde's Canterville Ghost, and is kept afloat by Lively's exact and evocative prose. She is wonderful at capturing the sense of the past continuing to live on in the present, and that we only ever exist during a snapshot of time. This book is uneven, with a rushed ending, but it's fun to read, and Bert, the builder-cum-exorcist, is an inspired touch. -
This children's novel centers on a young boy, James and his family. They've recently moved into an old stone cottage in Oxfordshire, and the attic room has been fixed up for James' bedroom.
Besides James there is his sister Helen and their parents. Shortly after they moved in, a dog appeared and joined the family, and James named him Tim.
Strange things are happening around the house and James is getting the blame, but he isn't responsible. Gradually James begins to realize that there is a ghost that seems to be behind it all, and he looks for more information about ghosts, and how to get rid of them.
It is only when he learns more about his ghost's circumstances and tries to communicate with it that he begins to have success. But first there is much trouble, not only for James, but for his community as well.
It is interesting to watch this young boy problem solve, looking for information, finding allies, and being open to different options. A great story. -
A fantastic ghost story that follows the relentless haunting of James Harrison. Originally strange and mysterious, happenings in the family home quickly become troublesome and inescapable, as the reader follows the protagonist’s conundrum of how to be rid of the malevolent spirit.
In terms of character, Thomas Kempe was quite the enigma. His transition from being bold and humorous to hostile and unrestrained completely ricocheted, and I found that the lack of balance in his actions created such a compelling tension. Scrutinising his character with children would offer some really rewarding learning opportunities because the reader is so reliant upon what lies between scrawled messages and movement in the air. Lovely for inferences and prediction.
This is a story I genuinely feared and failed to finish reading when I was a child because of being utterly terrified of ghosts. I can only say that I am so glad to have picked this novel back up as an adult. The Ghost of Thomas Kempe is a truly stunning book. Lively’s timing is so apt, both in generating the havoc and horror of the ghost, and in contorting and connecting an elaborate plot. The links made between the past and present, both in the Harrison house and that of the village, are beautifully crafted, building a rich tale that left me clinging to each word.
I will say that it was so interesting to read this story through a different set of eyes. For me, the menace of Thomas Kempe felt extremely threatening as a younger reader, but was darkly humorous as an adult. Whilst my earlier fears point towards over sensitivity as a child, there is something to be said for having an awareness of children’s tastes and vulnerabilities before putting a story in their hands. As a teacher I can see that this book has the potential to captivate a class,
but would note that selecting it needs to be under the circumstances where children are comfortable with ghosts- you cannot walk away from a class read. -
I found the story engaging and a page turner. I could see my ten year old self reading this book and turning the pages as fast as I could read them. I found myself smiling at the antics of this ghostly poltergeist who plays mean tricks on people, mainly on James, though; but he doesn’t really hurt anyone …yet. Thomas Kempe is driving James crazy. Poor James is getting blamed for everything the ghostly Thomas Kempe has done. This ghost has become a thorn in Jack’s side. What can he do? No one is going to believe him. Then one night something awful happens, something that could have been devastating and it’s up to James to find a way to put a stop to all of these ghostly shenanigans before someone gets hurt or worse.
The characters of James and Thomas come to life from the very first pages. We meet Arnold a school friend, Mrs. Verity a neighbor and Bert Ellis the town handyman. All of these play a role in the story as we discover that the past affects the present, memories are distorted and places echo through time. I’m so glad I read this children’s ghost story. It’s a classic.
A Ghostly 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ -
I really want a 3.5 rating.
For me, that would mean "this book is good at what it does but it has not completely engaged me."
This is a ghost story that plays it straight; in other words, it takes the idea of ghosts seriously.
When James and his family move into an old house, all sorts of strange disturbances plague them. James attributes their cause to the ghost of Thomas Kempe, who quickly reveals himself to the boy; everyone else, too rational for ghosts, believe that James is to blame for all of the mischief. James has a problem, then. How to get rid of a ghost?
Lively is a wonderful writer, and I enjoyed this story, but this is a book that should be read by the audience it was intended for (ages 9-12). I definitely wasn't the ideal reader! This is a Carnegie Medal winner from 1973. All things considered, the book has held up well and there aren't too many details that would be lost on the modern child. I'm including it as a "classic" book in the series that I'm doing on ghost stories. -
This was a great little page turner. Not at all scary - the ghost is more obnoxious and annoying then frightening. It's a strong story well told.
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One of my childhood faves. Love a good, old fashioned ghost story!
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Part of my reading this year includes the challenge to read books aimed at KS2 , around nine years old and proficient readers . This is my first such book of 2024 and I admit I chose it because I dimly remembered it.
It’s a very different story however that I found myself reading - oh the ghost is still there with his tricks, writing , and fervent belief in himself as a sorcerer who should be listened to, the ornament smashing, witch finding and general mayhem he causes is still there.And James is there , recently moved to an ancient cottage in what was once a small village , taking the attic bedroom with its links to the past, while enjoying the freedom of childhood to roam with or without his friend Simon, dig holes, climb trees , tease his sister and take Tim the dog under his protection. I’d not linked James to Just William before but now I do see him as his 1970s counterpart, innocent and aggrieved at adult misunderstandings of life. As an adult reader this is tinged with a sadness that wasn’t there before - a sadness at the fleeting nature of that childhood freedom - although James would certainly have something to say about the treatment of children by adults…
James, and a cast of characters from the village, become embroiled in Thomas Kempe’s mischief - although that’s probably not really the best word as there is an undercurrent of anger here that James sees only too clearly . An enlightened teaching headteacher helps James unlock history - and glimpse how time works.
Time and people , both past and present , are the key to James trying to enable Thomas Kempe to find peace away from the vagaries of modern living which are driving him to anger and violence. Lively captures village life and characters in a natural unfolding - from Mrs Verity who transforms from a somewhat tedious old woman to a person, as we with James, share her story of childhood misbehaviour , to the large pompous but kind vicar - whose visit made me laugh out loud , and the village police officer, not to forget the village exorcist without whose help James would surely not succeed .
James’ discoveries of diaries from the 1800s , which link with his history project at school , and the memories of Mrs Verity lead him to action. Is he successful - that’s for you to find out. And while you’re there take a look at the life which was being lived and ponder time in all its guises.
It’s still a good story for a thoughtful child. -
It’s strange reading this after Samuel Stokes, because Stokes is clearly meant to be the lighter and funnier companion to this. Not that Kempe isn’t funny, because it very much is at times - Lively has such a good ear for children’s dialogue, and particularly the subtler elements of prickly sibling relationships, that it’s frequently very funny indeed. And if Stokes is at times a little broad, the side characters here have a sadness and melancholy around the edges of their lighter moments. Kempe is a more complex antagonist than Stokes, who’s simply a snob but one with a begrudging respect for the hero’s grandad. Kempe is angry, paranoid, bitter and clearly a little lonely - it’s a surprisingly complex characterisation for someone who we never actually see, but we only know from his actions and his written messages.
Far more interesting for me is our hero’s relationship with his long since departed comrade in haunting, Arnold. For what is essentially a relationship entirely within James’ imagination, although Lively beautiful and carefully suggests there might be a bit more to that (and I love that Tim and Palmerston are essentially the same character), it’s got a real emotional heft to it. Similarly, James’ friendship with Simon is one of the most realistic expressions of that awkward sort of semi friendship we’ve all had but you rarely see in fiction. It’s a believably tenuous and slightly fragile friendship, giving a rather nice motivation for James and Arnold’s peculiar relationship. It’s a surprisingly complex novel under the haunting plot, and has a nicely low key conclusion. I adore Stokes but, yes this is very clearly the masterpiece -
James and his family move into an old cottage, in which James gets the attic for his bedroom. It's been closed off for years, and when the workers open it up to renovate, they unwittingly let loose the spirit of a sorcerer, Thomas Kemp, from the 1660s. The spirit is moody and demanding, and tries to get James to help him re-establish his business in the village. When James resists, Thomas gets testy and starts breaking things, for which James gets blamed by his parents. He finds a local carpenter who is also a bit of an expert on spirits on the side, and together they try to put the ghost to rest.
This is a great ghost story for kids - it's fun and well-written, and the characters are interesting and easy to become friends with, plus the story isn't scary really at all. Definitely recommended. -
(Cover for this edition doesn't match what I have. My Piccolo is red-bordered and has a silhouette of James entering the local church as viewed from between gravestones with golden sycamore leaves falling and two ravens keeping watch)
Another charming Oxfordshire / Cotswolds village location, and another lovely Penelope Lively book. This one has become one of my favourites. The subject matter (a haunting, to be vague and avoid spoilers) was not really as much to my interest as those of
The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy,
The Whispering Knights or
Astercote, but I found the characters in this story to all be highly engaging. Lots of funny bits, loads of character-full dialogue and colour to the tale.
A few little points I would have liked to read more about:
Favourite part was definitely the sideshow of James v. Helen. :) -
Wonderful book from beginning to end!
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this was one of my favourite penelope lively books as a child, & it holds up; it has the warm, mellow, slightly dated cosiness, it has the history & memory & things out-of-time or between-times theme, it has the wholesome, fresh air mischief. it's just a v lovely little book that i've read & had read to me a v silly number of times !
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I read Penelope Lively's 'A Stitch in Time' a few years back and loved it. I read up a little bit about her and that is how I discovered 'The Ghost of Thomas Kempe'.
I want to say something about the author Penelope Lively here. Penelope Lively wrote stories both for children and for grown-ups throughout most of her writing career. Other writers stay on one side of the divide and occasionally experiment on the other side, but Penelope Lively's backlist on both sides is huge and very impressive. She was a true all-rounder. She won the Carnegie Medal for this book and the Booker Prize for 'Moon Tiger'. I think she is the only writer ever to win these two prizes. It gives me goosebumps when I think about that.
Now on to the story.
James moves with his parents and his sister to a new house. Then one day strange things start happening in his room and in the house. Notes start appearing in his room in a strange cursive handwriting in archaic spelling asking James to do one thing or another. When he doesn't do the requested things, strange things happen inside his room and even a gale blows. His family suspects that James is responsible for all this. The strange secrets which stumble out after that and how James handles the situation is told in the rest of the story.
'The Ghost of Thomas Kempe' is a ghost story. But it is also a story about memory and imagination and time with some surreal elements. Penelope explores some of these themes related to memory and time and the surreal elements in more detail and in more sophistication in her later acclaimed novel 'A Stitch in Time'. The ghost in the novel is a cool, unusual character. I loved the main character James. He is cool and inquisitive and adventurous and made me remember one of my favourite characters Nicholas from the story 'The Lumber Room' by Saki. James becomes friends with an older person called Bert, who is a decorator and a builder, and Bert is a cool person too and was one of my favourite characters from the book. The ending of the story was very beautiful.
I loved 'The Ghost of Thomas Kempe'. I think 'A Stitch in Time' is a more sophisticated book, but 'The Ghost of Thomas Kempe' was very enjoyable. I want to read more of Penelope Lively's books now.
I'm sharing a couple of my favourite passages from the book below. They both made me smile 😊
"James introduced Simon to a game he sometimes played. You walked along quite ordinarily except that you pulled your face into the most extravagant expression you could manage – horror, or fear or joy or anything you fancied. The game was to see how many people noticed. Very few did. You could walk the length of the High Street looking like a zombie and the odds were that no one would bat an eyelid. This, James had worked out to himself, was because as far as most grown-ups were concerned, children were invisible, unless the grown-ups happened to be school-teachers or to have a particular reason for being interested in the child concerned, such as being its parent. For most people, children were something they were so used to seeing around, like lamp-posts or pillar-boxes, that they never really looked at them. Just like dogs pay no attention to people, only to other dogs. Simon was impressed with this theory : he put it to the test, and found it to be true."
"If you have something important to say there is no point, he'd learned from experience, in saying it during the most active part of the day when people are coming home and getting meals and eating them and whatever you are trying to say gets lost in a commotion of doors opening and shutting and crockery banging and people asking where the newspaper is. He'd tested that out before now : he'd stood in the middle of the kitchen and said, 'I broke my leg at school today,' and his mother had turned the hot tap on and put another pile of plates in the sink and said, 'Yes, dear I'll see about it tomorrow, dear.' No, it would be better to wait till later, when the household had subsided a little, come off the boil, so to speak, when his parents would be relaxed and more receptive."
Have you read 'The Ghost of Thomas Kempe'? What do you think about it? Which is your favourite Penelope Lively book? Do you prefer her fiction for children or for grown-ups? -
This was a very enjoyable, rather short and intriguing read. It’s a children’s/middle grade third person ghost story set in the 1970s following the Harrison family, with the son James as our main character, who move into an old little cottage in the little Oxfordshire town of Ledsham. From the start, messages written in a strange writing and oldy-worldy dialect start to appear and it’s James who is is to blame. But who is really leaving these around the house, the town and causing other sorta of havoc? James discovers it is the ghost of the 1600s sorcerer Thomas Kempe who is the cause but who’s going to believe him? Over time, the actions and accusations of this malevolent being seem to get worse and it’s up to James to find a way to get rid of Thomas.
The characters are slightly flawed but the MC is mostly loveable and a nice person, the rest Yhh alright - obviously the ghost is unlikable, does bad things buutttt he is in limbo, in another time and stuff so you can somewhat feel for him but overall he’s the worst. The neighbour Mrs Verity, Tim the dog, aunt fanny and Arnold (whom we come across in a diary James discovers who too dealt with the ghost), Bert, and other were all likeable and just overall quite developed. The writing is not *that* eloquent or amazing but it’s no way bad, a bit simple being for a children’s audience but definitely had descriptive passages. The plot follows a logical path, some things are a bit repetitive but I was hooked and intrigued throughout. A decent read that I would recommend and I would like to read more of Lively’s work. -
Just finished a reread after the longest of gaps; I see I must have read it when it first came out. James, troubled and a troublemaker, is latched onto by the bullying ghost of Thomas Kempe, a seventeen century apothecary/sorcerer in a small town near Oxford - the identification with Eynsham is pretty inescapable. Like a good stalker horror, the ghost becomes more and more insistent, and becomes a destructive presence for the whole community.
I enjoyed it, of course: a good build up, clever humour and some brilliantly atmospheric description of the increasingly malevolent force of the ghost. For all that, the ending was poignant but a little weak, the exploration of friendship and siblings realised well but lacking in resolution...
Still a sound four stars - but I felt there was a bigger and more intricate story to be told in the rediscovery of a family’s trust and their settling into the life of their little town. -
A good read on a sick day! Thomas Kempe is an entirely appealing poltergeist- not good, not evil, just a grumpy old man ghost. I think if I was a child I’d be both amused and terrified at how the mischief created by Kempe gets blamed on 10 year old James. And I liked the matter of fact builder with a sideline in exorcism. There were some similarities with Tom’s Midnight Garden (magic, virtual time travel) and like that book, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe can be recommended to any age.
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A thoroughly enjoyable children's classic, if a little predictable in places. Lively's sumptuous writing compensates for the simple plot, though, and there are some deft touches along the way. Ultimately, I was left wanting more - but that's no bad thing. A genuinely worthwhile read for both adults and children.
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Nice, quick read. I enjoyed the story, particularly the thoughts and reactions of 10-year-old James. But the ending was anti-climatic.
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4.25 stars
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Loved by myself and my son. A joy to read together.
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Fab. Great way to deal with possible fear of ghosts. Well written easy to read. progresses naturally from one stage to the next.
