If you were to accuse Mr. Mayne of being 'uncompromising', he would probably stare back at you blankly as one who, despite a formidable vocabulary, has never encountered the word. If, in a given situation, little girls choose to behave petulantly and kick Dad on his bare shins then the narrator must record the sorry fact;… [matters like this], however odd, must take their place in the narrative. To compromise by wrapping them up in large dramatic statements would somehow make them incredible; to water them down with explanations would make them look like crude inventions. All Mr. Mayne can do is tell it the way it was.

Royal Harry, therefore, has all the characteristics—impossible to summarise—of a typical Mayne curiosity. Although one may discern a greater obliqueness of manner and even conciser refinements of dialogue and the portrayal of places, it is a book that...