Pineapple Island (which, despite its name, won’t be found in the warm waters of the Caribbean or the South Pacific, although you might find it on a map of Cumbria if you look through a large magnifying glass) is the Scarrot family’s new home, at first just Fred and Alice and their four children, Poppy, Jack, Jenny and Tommy. But then little Charlie comes along, and later Grandma and Grampa arrive laden with goodies from the grocery store they’ve just sold. And then there’s the ever-silent Uncle Arthur and his wife, former dancer and pub landlady Aunt Mabel, still glamorous despite her varicose veins.
As if a family of eleven isn’t enough, this small island is also home to 24 Rhode Island Red chickens, an increasing colony of New Zealand White rabbits and, who knows, perhaps a cow or two in the future if Fred can find a way to rope them securely to his home-made raft for the crossing.
It’s 1959, a time when a car journey from Cornwall to Cumbria took a whole day, when television still had only two channels, when entire rooms were required to house computers, telephones weren’t mobile and the internet was unknown. But the Scarrots are far too busy to miss any of those pleasures of the future, even if they had known about them.
When Fred can take time off from growing vegetables for the mainland shops he delights in building extensions to the family’s little wooden house. Alice (who has a Grade 6 certificate) delights in her piano, is a splendid cook and an expert in making do and mending. Jack is practising hard to become a world famous rock star, Jenny is addicted to the competitions that appear in newspapers, magazines and on the back of cornflake packets, and the others … well, read the rest in this warm hearted, humorous story. If you enjoyed The Waltons, The Darling Buds of May and the Durrells, let the Scarrots introduce themselves.
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