I've not read this book yet, but on the basis of picking at it while filling in the LT Common Knowledge, it feels as good as the prequel, 'The far-distant Oxus'. The title and many (if not all) of the epigrams come from Matthew Arnold's narrative poem 'Sohrab and Rustum : an episode' (1853). Like Katharine Hull and Pamela Whitlock in the 1930s, my generation was still studying this poem for GCE O-level English Literature in the 1970s. I bet it's disappeared without trace by now. It's a charming juvenile quirk of the authors that they felt every chapter had to have its own epigram.

As a child, 'The Far-Distant Oxus' was one of my favorite books - one I read and re-read. I had no idea until quite recently that the two authors had also collaborated on SEQUELS! Although the books are long out-of-print, interlibrary loan came to the rescue. 'Escape to Persia' is the second book in the series.

This holiday, the siblings we met in the first book are spending their holidays visiting their aunt. However, they'd much rather be at the Exmoor farm (with ponies!) that they had stayed at during the events of the previous book. Not the sort of children who hesitate to take matters into their own hands, they concoct a plan to run off to the farm. Taking the age-old idea to heart that if you don't directly ask, you can't actually be forbidden, they put the plan into action (and, remarkably, don't get shipped right back or punished!)

Another idyll is underway, hanging out with the neighboring Clevertons and the enigmatic Maurice on the moors...

Honestly, there isn't that much of a plot here. But I didn't much care. I was just delighted to be able to spend more time with these characters... ( )