The Guardians

 

Published :

London, Hamish Hamilton, 1970

New York, Macmillan, 1970

 

Book Details :

Book Details:

Hardback edition published by Hamish Hamilton, London, 1970. First edition.

Sleeve notes:

The Conurb and the County--the one a seething mass of humanity living on synthetic food and ready-made entertainment, the other a stretch of rural countryside, stately homes, and horse-drawn carriages. An impenetrable barrier divided one from the other, a barrier that neither side could, or even wished to, cross. Until the day when Rob Randall made a desperate bid for freedom from the State Boarding School in the London Conurb to the forbidden County where his mother had been born.

The County seemed like paradise after the crowded, brutal Conurb, and, for a while, Rob, living with the Gifford family as a visiting "cousin" in their huge, comfortable mansion, felt safe and secure, There was a barrier, Rob discovered, yet not a physical one. The Conurbans stayed in the Conurb, and the Gentry in the County, each content with their lot, each despising the other. Life was good, so why try to change it? But there were rumblings of discontent within the County, and what seemed at first to be merely schoolboy talk erupted suddenly into violent action.

Rob found himself faced with a difficult decision, but his path of action became only too clear when he discovered the terrible truth about the County's rulers --the Guardians.

Once again John Christopher has, with great conviction, created a world of the future, a world of terrifying reality which could be just around the corner...

Book source:

Terry Jenkins

 

Book Details:

Paperback edition published by Puffin, London, 1984 reprint.

Sleeve notes:

ACCIDENTS HAPPEN, THEY SAID - BUT WAS HIS FATHER'S DEATH REALLY AN ACCIDENT?

On the run after the tragic death of his father, Rob Randall risks capture, punishment and even worse when he crosses the Barrier into the open fields of the County. Life there is idyllic, almost feudal, and as long as Rob can hide his secret past, then he is safe. Or so he thinks...

A chilling story of life in the not-too-distant future, when power is held by a few and rebellion crushed · mercilessly.

Winner of the Guardian Award for Children's Literature.

Book source:

Terry Jenkins

 

Book Details:

Paperback edition published by Collier Books, New York, 1972. First impression.

Sleeve notes:

What happens to a thirteen-year-old trying to "pass" in an alien society?

The year is 2052. The place is England, a nation divided into the Conurb, a sprawling, crowded megalopolis whose masses are entertained with controlled riots and bloody sports events, and the County, a serene bucolic world where the landed gentry seem to have turned the clock back to pre-automotive times.

After his father's mysterious death, Conurban Rob Randall is sent to a grim state-run boarding school. The only escape is to cross the forbidden Barrier into the unknown County --where Rob discovers the price of true freedom in a society secretly conditioned and manipulated from behind the scenes.

Book source:

Terry Jenkins

 

Book Details:

Paperback edition published by Puffin Books, London, 1973. First impression.

Sleeve notes:

Another brilliantly convincing story of future history by the author of The Lotus Caves. Left alone at his father's death, Rob Randall escapes through the strong wire fence that divides Conurb, the conformist city society into which he was born, from the idyllic almost feudal 'County', only to find that this happy, harmonious life is preserved by horrible and inhuman means. 

Book source:

Terry Jenkins