Is anyone out there who remembers the ITV dramatisation of KM Peyton’s Flambards books? In Malaysia, the mini series was shown on RTM1 in the 70s and clashed with the weekly Chinese drama on RTM2. Therefore, I didn’t get to watch all episodes from start to finish. I had the books though and loved them. I still do and got this one, by Linda Newbery, because of the link to Peyton’s series.

In Key to Flambards, fourteen-year-old Grace Russell moves into the Victorian manor when her mother gets a contract to market Flambards as a creative arts retreat. They’re excited as they know that the place belonged to their ancestor Christina Russell.

It’s a clever and modern premise, a believable way to get the characters where the author (who knew Peyton personally) wanted them.

However, I wasn’t quite convinced as, in the first place, I couldn’t work out why Grace and her mother were Russells given how the British typically inherit their surnames from the father’s side of the family.

I knew one of Peyton’s original characters had had an illegitimate son. However, Grace and her mother were supposedly descendants of Isobel, the daughter of Christina, heroine of the Flambards books.

If I don’t believe in what I’m reading then I can’t get into the story, but OK, I eventually accepted the fact that Grace and her mother had chosen to use the Russell surname.

Personally, I’d have made the illegitimate son the key ancestor. However, I think Newbery wanted Grace to strongly identify with great great great (I can’t remember the number) grandmother Christina.

I wasn’t too keen on a little detail about Grace (no spoilers) that acts as an echo of a feature in Peyton’s books. It seemed heavy-handed to me and just one of too many links that Newbery creates between her story and Peyton’s.

I did end up enjoying some aspects of the book though, for example the blossoming of various friendships between Grace and the other characters. And the way she falls in love with the natural world and finds herself through it. The scene at the cemetery in France was also moving, but then Will was always my favourite of Peyton’s characters.

I don’t know if I will keep this book. I don’t find it a vital or particularly interesting continuation of Peyton’s story. It felt like too many boxes were being ticked to ensure that the story would be up to date in terms of addressing mental health issues and questions of sexuality. I have no objections to these attempts but I do think that Newbery might have gone somewhat overboard. It felt somewhat forced.

Peyton doesn’t have the fame or popularity of Austen so I doubt there will be other sequels to Christina’s story. I will just have to come up with a more satisfying one, in my head.