Paperback review: Silver, By Andrew Motion

All back to Treasure Island, with lashings of yo ho ho

Motion's rather wordy beginning soon gives way to a less cumbersome narrative style once the appealing offspring of Robert Louis Stevenson's Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver head out on their mission to recover the rest of the loot left behind on Treasure Island.

This is a pacey tale with an appropriately feisty young heroine for modern readers, in the figure of Natty Silver, who is given her own share of the narrative once their ship lands on the island and she becomes involved in the rescue of slaves held there. Stevenson was a supreme stylist, whom Motion cannot hope to imitate here, but one senses a great deal of pleasure was had in the writing of this enjoyable enough sequel.