The Secret of Platform 13

Eva Ibbotsen (author)

Macmillan, UK: 1994, 1996; 185pp

ISBN: 0330489089

Genres: adventure, fantasy

Issues: identity, friendship, family, values

Through the door of the Gentleman's Cloakroom on Platform 13 at Kings Cross Station there is a gump. Most people in Britain these days have forgotten their myths and legends and so are completely unaware of the fact that a gump is a secret door to another world.

This door opens for only nine days every nine years. Those who pass through it move from the grimy, gritty London streets down a "long, misty and mysterious tunnel to a secret cove where a ship waited to take those who wished to an island so beautiful that it took the breath away." This secret island has many names in different myths, such as Avalon, St Martin's Land, or the Place of Sudden Mists, but the people who live there simply call it the Island. It is a place ruled by kindness and where many wonderful and magical creatures live.

One year, however, four peculiar figures appear at the London end of the gump and they are on a mission. Nine years before the Island's prince was kidnapped from his basket when his nurses were visiting their old home. Somehow these four very different characters must find the young prince and bring him back to his grieving parents, to rule the Island when his time comes. They don't expect to have any trouble - after all, the ghosts have been keeping track of the child for them, they know exactly where he is and what he is called. But when the rescuers finally set eyes on Raymond Tuttle, they are horrified. He is a spoilt, wilful, selfish, lazy boy completely unlike the kind and loving king and queen. How can an elderly wizard, an invisible giant, a fey, and a very young hag manage to convince such a self-centred child to leave the luxury of his London home to return to the simpler life of the Island? And what are they to do about Ben, who is everything they wanted the prince to be, but who is only a servant?

Another magical adventure from Eva Ibbotsen, this is, perhaps, my favourite, with a subtle subtext about the virtue of generosity, hard work and kindness, and the beauty of the natural world.