The Dangerous Discoveries of Gully Potchard is about a 14-year old boy, Gully, who works as a delivery boy at Janner's printers. When he bumps into a childhood bully everything goes wrong. Soon he is in a right pickle, mixed up in a scheme of crime and trickery. How can he get out of this one?
Some of the main characters in this book are Imperia Barnicott or Impey, as everyone calls her, Gully Potchard (of course), Nathan Boldree & co.- the thugs, Whitby Marvel, Gully's cousin who dreams of being a dancer and Agnes Glass, a wealthy girl with a club foot. It is because of these characters that this book reminds me of The Secret Garden. Agnes is like Colin, never let outside because they have been told they are too delicate to budge from their pampered spot indoors. Impey is like Dicken, seeing the sunny side of everything, savouring her very existence even though she is reasonably poor.
This story is beautifully written, the words are extremely descriptive and it really gives you an idea of what it was like in London back in the late 19th and early 20th century. There are the poor people – forced to work from a young age, with no money spare for small luxuries like pencils and other brick-a-brack and then the rich people – who have servants and butlers with all the money in the world, but their children have no freedom of any sort.
I would recommend this book to readers who have enjoyed The Secret Garden and The Little Princess. I rate it 8/10.
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