Abigail's Reviews > The Gauntlet

Thrown back in time from the mid-twentieth to the fourteenth centuries, English schoolboy Peter Staunton becomes Peter de Blois, eldest son and heir of Sir Roger de Blois, the lord of Carreg Cennan Castle, and one of the South Wales Marcher Lords who occupied that country after the Norman conquest. Soon deeply enmeshed in the life around him, Peter learns many things about medieval life, from the duties expected of him as a page to the art of falconry, the life of the Cistercian monks at nearby Valle Crucis Abbey to the finer points of jousting. When the native Welsh rise up in rebellion, he is in the thick of things, and his acts of bravery turn the tide of the battle...

Originally published in 1951, The Gauntlet was one of Ronald Welch's first books for children, written before he began his marvelous Carey Family series, which chronicles the adventures of members of the same landed Welsh family through many centuries of history. In many ways, I think it shows the author finding his feet, in terms of writing historical fiction for children. I enjoyed the story immensely, and think I would have really loved the book as a child reader, although the author's didactic purpose, when it comes to teaching young readers about various aspects of medieval life, does come through. This is natural of course, as Welch was also a history teacher, and the headmaster of a boys' school, and it didn't particularly bother me, as I took the "infodump" aspect of the narrative as a natural outgrowth of Peter's own unfamiliarity with the information in question.

My main critique of the book would be that I thought there was a missed opportunity to give the narrative a deeper emotional resonance, by creating a relationship between Peter and Glyndwr Llewellyn, the son of the local Welsh lord, and an unwilling page at Carreg Cennan. I was rather surprised that this didn't happen, as I was expecting something of the sort: a friendship that must be cut off when the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. But then, perhaps doing this would have distracted from Welch's purpose in writing the story: namely, informing young readers about medieval life. I did find Glyndwr's name interesting, as it immediately reminded me of Owain Glyndŵr, the great Welsh prince who led a revolt against the Norman/English during this same period. It's hard not to think that that choice was deliberate, on the author's part.

In any case, despite not being the equal of Welch's later books, this is one I would recommend to young readers who enjoy historical fiction and/or time-slip stories. If half stars were available, I would have given it a 3.5-star rating.