There must be something about taking to the high seas – and writing for children – that has brought Alexander McCall Smith back to his best.
Normally a fan of, shall we say, the darker side of fiction, I surprised myself by very much enjoying pretty much every single instalment of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency when McCall Smith burst onto the scene in the late 1990s.
The charming moral tales of the Botswana-based agency were almost an aside to McCall Smith’s particular way of bringing colour and life to the African landscape and its inhabitants.
Others like his Scotland Street tales open the door of a non-existent tenement (there is no 44 in real life) in Edinburgh’s New Town, but this book is a reminder of why he is best abroad.
The Sands of Shark Island is the latest episode in the story of siblings Ben and Fee MacTavish and their remarkable education on the school ship Tobermory. A cross-section of students – from orphans with wicked aunts and uncles to essentially “scholarship kids” who could not afford to be there otherwise – spend their term-times sailing around the world and learning history and maths alongside knot-tying and night watchman skills.
The book bounces along charmingly – the good kids are still likeable, and they overcome the bullies (even on a school ship, they exist) admirably while avoiding full-out priggishness themselves.
It even has a lively ending, and that is where Shark Island’s name plays its part in the adventure and a family reunion. A talented author regardless of age, McCall Smith might just have found his spiritual home in these tales for younger readers.
Published by Birlinn Books
