The Big House, by Naomi Mitchison

Originally published in 1950 as a children's book, The Big House might better be described as a Scottish fairy novel with two children as the protagonists. It is overly descriptive and wordy, using many unusual Scottish terms and representing the characters' speech in a Scottish dialect; it is hard to imagine children of today having the patience to read it through to the end. It is also a timeslip novel, with a critique of class structures. Set at the end of World War II, it tells of young Su (short for Susan) of the wealthy Big House in western Scotland, and her friendship with a fisherman boy called Winkie, who together, one Halloween night, befriend a piper Donald Ferguson who has just escaped from the fairies after being captive for two terms of seventy years. The piper is pursued by the Prince and others of the fairies, and Su and Winkie help him to be reborn among modern people, while they timeslip back twice (to multiples of seventy years) in history, first to recapture Su's stolen shadow, and then to restore baby Donald's purloined soul. If this sounds confusing, that's because it is. The book, which has many intriguing aspects, unfortunately fails to bring life to the story, and it feels more like an exercise than an entertainment.