Blurb from “THE PAPER DOLLS”, by L. P. Davies (1964)

When you have read this book you may never again be able to look at a group of schoolboys without a flicker of doubt... a fleeting moment of suspicion... a sudden nameless fear... For in this unusual and compelling novel of suspense the strange and tortuous mind of a schoolboy is explored - with chilling and terrifying consequences.

To the average adult a great many youngsters often seem like little monsters. These, though, are the normal children - noisy, boisterous, uninhibited; or maybe quiet and innocent-seeming but filled with devilment nonetheless.

There are others. The silent ones - strange and solitary, sullen and withdrawn. What thoughts and emotions seethe and smoulder within their slight and vulnerable frames?

Gordon Seacombe took it upon himself to find out when one of his pupils, an apparently ordinary lad, inexplicably flung himself to his death from the school roof. There was no logical explanation, and Seacombe hardly dared voice the sinister suspicions that started to form in his mind.

But having begun to probe, there was no turning back. He was caught in a current of incredible events that swept him remorselessly on to the final shattering truth - to a denouement that had an awful logic of its own yet defied all imagination.
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Notes on the Characters, Settings and Key Events of 'The Paper Dolls' by L. P. Davies (1964)

Spoiler Alert: If you haven't yet read this novel, you may prefer to stop reading at this point.

Time Setting:
'The Paper Dolls' opens 2 days before the end of the English school year, and the start of the 7-week-long [1965?] school Summer holidays (vacation).

Place Settings and Some Plot Details:
The action begins at a high school named Cookley Secondary Modern School, somewhere in England, and then shifts northwards to Northumberland.

Charidon, Northumberland.
Banford, Northumberland, not far from Charidon.
The Harvey-Gorton Nursing Home (pp 30, 35) now closed; had been run by Mr. & Mrs. Hulton (p 61) with the help of Nurse Martha Young (pp 61 - 62). The building is now the Banford Temperance Hotel (p 67).
Kendly, Northumberland, about 10 miles from Banford; Lawton Villa (p 72).
Breston, Northumberland. About 30 miles away from Kendly, as one had to drive back through Banford and Charidon to get there (pp 97, 99). ‘Toddidoc’ had lived at Toll House, Breston, with his housekeeper, Mrs. Biddle.
Stapley-on-the-Sea, on the Northumberland coast, 40 miles distant from Breston.
Haydon, Northumberland, 5 miles away from the Cathedral town of ‘Brayminster’ [Newcastle-upon-Tyne?], which itself was 50 miles from Stapley (p 132).
Werkley and Werkley Ridge, Northumberland. The Quads returned to their birthplace up on Werkley Ridge (pp 98, 158 - 160); ‘Tony-Me’ burns down the local inn, killing everyone inside (pp 179 - 181), and Gordon and his friends have to separate Roddy, Peter and Simon from him and get them down from the ridge and away (p 192).

CHARACTERS:
Some of the CSM School Staff:
Headmaster, Mr. Gregg - p 10
Schoolteachers:
Gordon Seacombe, 32 years, who taught English and History; Form-master of Form 4B which had 40 mostly 12-year-old pupils, minus the recently deceased 13-year-old class bully, Thorne. Gordon's career (pp 42 - 43).
Senior Master, Mr. Philby, 42 years, who taught Geography. Lodged in same boarding house as Gordon - p 8
Art Mistress, Miss Joan Grey, mid 20s, p 14; locked door of art-room before leaving (p 22).
Games Master, Mr. Upton
School Porter, Slater, responsible for mowing the school lawns and issuing the games equipment.
A few of the Pupils (Students):
Thorne, the class bully (pp 12, 18, 21), who had died after falling backwards off the school gymnasium roof on the previous day.
Rodney Blake - see below.
Tompkin
Watson

The Pulner Quadruplets:
Born on 15 August 1952; At first thought to be twins (pp 29, 37), then triplets (p 52), before it was realised that they were quadruplets (p 83); Joined at their arms (pp 87 - 88, 127), like cut-out paper dolls; Seemingly mentally-linked part of the time (pp 41, 146 - 147, 150 - 151, 171, 189); Possibly a single entity (pp 190 - 191); Likely consequences if Tony is killed (pp 192 - 193).
Rodney 'Roddy' Blake, adopted (p 29) in September 1953 (p 51) from the Harvey-Gorton Nursing Home at Banford (pp 30, 35); has just completed his year in Form 4B at CSMS; Described (pp 7, 15, 21 - 22), and has scars on both arms (pp 30, 31, 39); Periodically runs away from home (p 26); a solitary who talks to himself (p 27); Independent (p 28); his home (p 25). Good at English.
Peter Lathom of Charidon, Northumberland, who had been abandoned on the vicarage steps there on 5 September 1953, and later adopted by the sister of the vicar (pp 49 - 50). Good at Art.
Simon Brereton whose home was officially at Kendly, Northumberland, about 10 miles away from Banford (p 69); spends most of his life at boarding school (pp 76 - 77). Good at Physics and Chemistry.
Tony Gregory, adopted by a Mr. & Mrs. Gregory of Brownleas, Haydon (p 130). Tony disappeared right after the successive deaths of both his adoptive parents (pp 134 - 135). Good at Music.

Other Characters:
Stanislaw Pulcheknic, born in 1923 in Warsaw, Poland, the son of a shopkeeper. Forced labour for Germans 1940 - 1942; in the Belsen Concentration Camp from 1942, where he was experimented on by a doctor; Liberated by American soldiers in 1945; Arrived in the U. S. A. in 1948 and gained citizenship 1949, changing his name to Stanley Pulner; Exposed to radiation whilst working as a security guard at an atomic research centre; Dropped out of sight in 1950 (pp 166 - 167, 173). Married Emily, a daughter of a small-holder at Werkley Ridge in Northumberland (p 107); Died of a heart-attack (p 104); Quadruplet sons born after his death; their mother dying after they were born (p 104). Did Dr. Pringle separate them (p 105), or was it their great-uncle, ‘Toddidoc’?
Dr. Harold Ferris-Seacombe, 51 years, Gordon’s half-brother, a Consultant specialist at St. Vincent's Hospital.
Cookley Police: Detective-Inspector Fernley and Detective-Sergeant Dodd.
Mrs. Foster of Charidon, who had boarded art teacher Joan Grey during a previous Summer holiday.
Dr. Yarrow of Banford.
Mr. Bartholomew Ignatius ‘Bart’ Brereton of Lowton Villa, Kendly (p 69), the concerned grandfather of Simon (p 85).
‘Toddidoc’ of Breston, first mentioned as ‘Dr. Tidmarsh’ (p 65), but his surname was actually Todmarsh (pp 94 - 95); Uncle of Emily the mother of the quads; Had died 2 years ago (p 101).
The Chief Constable [of Northumberland] phoned by ‘Bart’ (p 125).
Mr. Chillon, an American security operative (pp 162-165).

Key Events:
# Incident 3 years previously at Brandbatch Primary School, then attended by Roddy Blake (pp 16 - 17).

# The bully Thorne’s death at Cookley Secondary Modern School (pp 12, 18, 21).

# Pictures drawn by Roddy Blake 1) of Charidon in the wilds of Northumberland (pp 13, 15, 21, 46); 2) of Mrs. Lathom of Charidon, who adopted Peter.

# Attacks launched (p 189) by ‘Tony-Me’ / Warnings from ‘Roddy-Me’:
Warning hallucination to Gordon (pp 31 - 32, 39); Actual attack on Gordon and Joan (pp 53 - 54, 58); warning (pp 58 - 59); the wrecking of the Banford hotel station wagon that Gordon and Joan were supposed to be passengers in (pp 80 - 83); Roddy and Simon visit at Lowton Villa (pp 115 - 116), followed by another attack (pp 116 - 117); Roddy visits Gordon at Lowton Villa again, whilst ‘Tony-Me’ was asleep (pp 137 - 143).

# Tracking down the other boys, Roddy’s siblings:
Searching for Roddy’s ‘twin’ believed to be named Tony (p 40). Gordon and Joan travelled by train to Darlington --> Durham --> Newcastle-upon-Tyne (changed) --> Hexham (changed p 44) --> Charidon (pp 46 - 48). Banford (p 59) was about 20 miles away, and could be reached by train or bus (pp 45 - 46).
Searching for Roddy and Peter’s ‘triplet’ believed to be named Tony (p 52); Located old Nursing Home records in the attics of the building, now the Banford Temperance Hotel (pp 68 - 69).
At Kendly, roughly 10 miles away, they interviewed Mr. ‘Bart’ Brereton at Lowton Villa but his adopted grandson was named Simon. Gordon and Joan still hadn't found Tony.
Searching for Roddy, Peter and Simon’s quadruplet brother who surely must be the missing Tony (p 83). The slatterny Mrs. Fox of Breston, the dying Mrs. Biddle’s daughter, admitted that what she believed was the one and only Pulner brat had been abandoned by her mother in a shelter on the promenade at Stapley (p 104); Gordon and Joan followed the trail to Haydon, but Tony’s adoptive parents were dead and he had promptly disappeared (pp 134 - 135).

The Pulner Quads were foregathering up on Werkley Ridge (p 98). Gordon, Joan, ‘Bart’ and the unfortunate Dr. Yarrow get as far as the Farmers’ Pride Inn at Werkely, and hear about the stand-over tactics and injuries inflicted on local people by the Black Boy of Werkley Ridge (pp 158 - 160). Gordon, Joan, and 'Bart' are then hauled back by the police to be interviewed by American security man Mr. Chillon, who is accompanied by Gordon’s half-brother, Harold (pp 162 - 165). While they are away the Farmers’ Pride Inn, and everyone inside (including Dr. Yarrow) are burnt to death (pp 179 - 181). The Werkley locals have had enough, and they now organize a posse to exterminate the Black Boy (p 182), not knowing that there are actually 4 identical boys. When Gordon, Joan and ‘Bart’ arrive back they find mob rule (pp 185 - 186); they now stay at the Grey Goose inn (p 185), where they plan how to get the other 3 boys safely away (p 192).

# After their first kiss (p 58), it is not unexpected that high school teachers, Gordon and Joan, become engaged (pp 121 - 122).

Plot Teasers:
Are Rodney and his brothers really mentally linked? If so, what does this imply?
If you had been Gordon or Joan, would you have been able to handle the whole business better?
Well before the end of this book, you will have thought of the M-word.

Quotes:
"Quite suddenly the whole purpose behind our visit to Charidon seemed unbelievable. It was impossible to imagine that an ordinary schoolboy in a far-off town should be possessed of powers bordering on the supernatural." - pp 48 - 49

You'll find the second quote beginning with the last paragraph on p 58, and taking up most of p 59.

Comments:
# This is the most complicated novel that Mr. L. P. Davies ever wrote, with over-many characters and locations, but it is still worth reading.

# The labelling of ''Tony-Me' as the 'Black Boy of Werkley Ridge' is not a racist slur, but arises from the fact that he hasn't washed since becoming feral. (Try to picture the face of a coal miner emerging from just one shift of working in an underground coal mine.)

(Page references are to the 1964 Herbert Jenkins edition of 'The Paper Dolls')

- added 31 July 2016. ( )

Well written for the most part, although it doesn't seem terribly original and certainly doesn't live up the the blurbs on the cover. Part of the problem is the insufficient characterization of the lead character. Very British in tone, so that's a plus, if you're looking for that sort of thing. ( )