Saturday, February 21, 2009

David Morton refused permission to hold folk festival in Shropshire hills


The Shropshire Star tells us that David Morton has been refused permission to hold a folk festival at Wentnor.

Not much of a story, you will say, even if this is the village where Archbishop Tutu once had lunch.

It's just that David Morton was the captain of the Lone Pine Club in the adventure stories that Malcolm Saville set in the Shropshire hills. Between the first Lone Pine book in 1943 and the last in 1980, he aged from 14 to 18. For most of the series he was 16.

He is described as follows in the preliminaries to Wings Over Witchend:
David Morton aged sixteen was elected captain of the club when it was first founded ... He is a good leader but steady rather than impetuous and never loses his head in a crisis.
When I was a child I assumed I would feel that grown up when I was 16.

I didn't. And to be honest, I don't feel that grown up now.

Thanks to John Allsup for the illustration. It shows David Morton with Peter (she's a girl) and Sally the pony. Young people did not feel the cold in 1956.

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