Reviews

The History of Sandford and Merton by Stephen Bygrave, Thomas Day, Stephen Bending

flappermyrtle's review against another edition

2.0

The History of Sandford and Merton goes off to a fairly slow start, but once Tommy and Harry are at Mr Barlow's, the story picks up pace. I can really see the attraction of the book to children in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as it includes stories about historic people, faraway countries and much more exotic extraordinary stuff that would speak to the mind of a middle-class British child. The dynamic between the two boys is perhaps a bit simplistic, and I got slightly fed up with Harry's utter and complete goodness at times, but it portrays growing up, learning to acknowledge your own faults and attempting to amend them quite well. Unfortunately, I did feel the book was too long - a hundred pages less would probably have prevent my finding the book slightly tedious in the end.