Queen of Stones by Emma Tennant (1982)

[Calenture]

Queen of Stones by Emma Tennant

Cape 1982

A group of 11 year-old English schoolgirls is lost in a sudden fog, and quickly a power struggle begins between two of them. Bess Plantain is a tall red-haired girl from a middle-class background, known for her common sense; Melanie Ayers is from a dysfunctional family, and has a history of behavioural problems. Allegiances are further divided by Bess's sister Jane, and the
curiously mystical French girl, Laurie.

Tennant writes less about fantasy than the way we fantasize. The book has a documentary feel, with a social worker's case-notes, and other pages by a child-psychologist, included. The book has obvious parallels with another 'fake documentary,' the Australian Picnic at Hanging Rock, about some schoolgirls who disappear during a picnic at Ayers Rock, clearly acknowledged by Tennant through Melanie Ayers surname. The book's other obvious comparison is with Lord of the Flies.

The end is shockingly unexpected. One girl meets her death at the hands of the others, but not all of her body is recovered. A short and very powerful novel, made more accessible by Tennant's viewing of events through the eyes of the children.

Fantastic Fiction wrote:

On the weekend of October 17,1981, a party of girls who had set out on a sponsered walk walk from Beaminster became seperated from their leader and disappeared into the worst fog ever recorded on the west coast of Dorset. For days search parties of anxious parents and police failed in their efforts to trace them. The eldest girl was thirteen, the youngest six. None of those who did return could describe coherently what had occurred during the strange exile from their home..