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THE GREAT GEORG |
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by Martin Ridd |
This is a playful story for children aged 9-12 about The Great Georg (pronounced 'Gay-Awg'), a German conjuror of prodigious powers who specialises in a variant of the Indian Rope Trick. When he climbs the rope he disappears in a clap of thunder and then reappears a couple of minutes later.
But one day he doesn't reappear! Was it an accident? Did he do it deliberately? Has he been kidnapped?
A gang of five boys - the Whizzers - get drawn into the mystery. They're all about 12 years old. There is Martin Morton - who wants to be a civil engineer, building tunnels, when he grows up; there is Aslam Patel - the school wheeler-dealer who aims to be a millionaire by the age of 30; there is P-Patterson Popplewell - (he stutters a bit) who is a brilliant computer freak and hacker; there is Maurice-Badingley-Bloomfield - who is a car enthusiast and would-be racing driver (and who is embarrassed by his hyphenated name) and there is Pete Whitlock - a farmer's son who knows everything there is to know about fieldcraft and wildlife.
Together these five boys grapple with Ganges O'Riordan, The Great Georg's resentful assistant, with Augusta Grindle, his boy-hating secretary, with Slim Stillwell, his scrounging nephew and with the thuggish Minders.
After many adventures they track down The Great Georg, rescue him and foil the evil plan of the arch-villain Cuthbert Blundell in a dramatic confrontation at the Stonebury pop festival.
