Ex-lib. Geneva Free Library. ( )

Notes on the Setting and Characters of “Adventure Holidays, Ltd.” by L. P. Davies (1970)

Place Setting:
This novel for young adults is set mainly in north-central Wales (Cymru).

The action begins just outside Chester, in England, when teenager Peter Cullimore boards the 10.20 train from Chester Station to Dolgelley, via Wrexham, Corwen & Bala → he is met at Dolgelley Station by Ianto Pugh and driven in a farm truck for his 'adventure holiday' at Ty Mawr Farm (pp 16 - 18), in the Cwm Caregog [Stony, Glaciated Valley] up in the mountains near Llandwy, about 20 miles north of Dolgelley [Dolgellau]. This Caregog Valley is described (pp 15 – 16, 18 – 20, 31), including the closed railway line, with the abandoned Bryn Golan Station (pp 56 – 61) reputed to be haunted by the ghost of Yatty Poddo, the tramp.

The lake in the Caregog Valley is named Lyn Dryth. The Caregog Valley road is described on pp 106 – 108, 113 - 114

Rhos Farm, home of the Vaughans, is about a mile from from Ty Mawr Farm.
Other farms in the valley include: Gilfach Farm, run by the Beynons, Meifod Farm, and Banog Farm (p 27).

Two high-security government institutions are nearby, firstly the Trawsfynydd Nuclear Plant, and secondly the Meifod Research Establishment, where research into pesticides and insecticides (and maybe also bacteriological warfare?), was carried out by Dr. Serge Polenski, and a staff of 4 scientists, aided by some 20 assistants.

Characters:
Peter Cullimore (p 3), aged 16 but looked older, who lived most of the time with his Aunt Moira, just outside Chester, because his mother had died 6 years previously, and his father was working in the middle-east.
Peter is wary of a nosy 'travelling salesman', Clifford Blake, who joins him in his railway carriage compartment (pp 2 – 7). Mr. Blake later fell (or was he pushed?) to his death from Moel Golan on the edge of the Caregog Valley (pp 31 – 32, 112). Clifford Blake was later alleged to have been an explosives expert (p 132) but he turns out to have been a journalist.

The Pugh family run Ty Mawr Farm. Ianto Pugh, the 19-year-old son, is a Manchester University student currently on holiday [vacation].

John Maltby, another Adventure Holiday client, was staying with the Vaughans at Rhos Farm. Beth Vaughan was the daughter of the family.

From their caravan base, Clarke , 'Betson', and 'Romney', are supposedly surveying the Caregog Valley (pp 11 – 12) for what locals fear will be a new reservoir, drowning the valley, though Clarke later acts as if he was either in MI5 or the police Special Branch.

'Loamy' the tramp (Donald Lomax) appears. - pp 92 - 98

Plot Teasers:
Is the Free Wales Army responsible for certain strange goings-on in the Caregog Valley?

Who is trying to scare Peter away – or, pehaps, even to kill him? An 'adventure holiday' indeed!

How and where does the mysterious fawn-coloured car hide during the daylight hours?

(Page references are to the 1970 Doubleday edition.) ( )