Philip Womack
A Rum Affair
Silver: Return to Treasure Island
By Andrew Motion
Jonathan Cape 404pp £12.99 order from our bookshop
Treasure Island, that cornerstone of adventure stories, ends with a note of alarm. Though the ever-resourceful Jim Hawkins – so much better and braver than all his adult companions – has returned to England bearing gold, there is still a lot of bar silver and weaponry left behind. But he doesn’t mind: ‘certainly they shall lie there for me. Oxen and wain-ropes would not bring me back again to that accursed island.’
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