Mandragora (novel)
Encyclopedia
Mandragora by David McRobbie
(ISBN 0749712651) is a contemporary novel with links to a historic shipwreck, the sinking of the Dunarling. Adam and Catriona have found a cache of four small dolls made from mandrake
roots. The dolls were left in the cave by two other teenagers, James and Margaret, who had survived the wreck of the Dunarling. Transcribing a diary from that same voyage, Adam and Catriona learn the power of the cursed mandrake roots, power that destroyed the Dunarling in 1886 and that is resurfacing in the town of Dunarling today.
to South Australia
, but also four dolls, each named and cursed: 'Swith' was cursed with fire (bleeze), 'Agley' with mischance, 'Smeddum' with foulness, and 'Snell' with the final destruction (otherwise referred to as All fa' doon!). These mandrake dolls were set upon the Dunarling by Marie Catherine de Lairgo because she is jealous and wants to get revenge, which she bids the mandrake dolls to do: she was the former 'wife' of one of the passengers, Adam Colquhoun.
100 years after the shipwreck
of the Dunarling, two youngsters, Adam Hardy and Catriona Chisholm, discovered the dolls. Along with them were the school bullies, Richard Vernon and Mike Carter, but they did not seem to care much about the finding of Jamie Ramsay's cave, where the dolls were secretly hidden. Richard Vernon and Mike Carter then took two of the dolls.
Adam and Catriona form a bond with each other as time unfolds and Adam starts having visions of the past and realised that Catriona looks just like Margaret Colquhoun, the fiancée of Adam Colquhoun. Adam tracks down two of these dolls that were held by Mike Carter and Richard Vernon. These dolls made Mike and Richard insane, saying that they had failed their masters in destroying the town. The dolls possess Mike and Richard into setting fire to the hardware store, crashing a bus and also poisoning a water system with white ant killer. Tam Dubh, the fifth mandrake doll, warns Adam what is going to happen, so he manages to stop the last two events from completely unfolding. Adam then destroys all of the dolls by throwing them over a cliff into the ocean.
David McRobbie
-Biography:McRobbie was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1934. In 1958 he moved to Australia and worked as a teacher in the 1960s in Papua New Guinea. He is currently a full-time writer but has previously worked as a television and radio producer, a ship's engineer, and a college lecturer...
(ISBN 0749712651) is a contemporary novel with links to a historic shipwreck, the sinking of the Dunarling. Adam and Catriona have found a cache of four small dolls made from mandrake
Mandrake
Mandrake may refer to:* Mandrake , a plant of the genus Mandragora* Mandragora , in occultism* Mandrake Linux, former name of Mandriva Linux, a computer operating system...
roots. The dolls were left in the cave by two other teenagers, James and Margaret, who had survived the wreck of the Dunarling. Transcribing a diary from that same voyage, Adam and Catriona learn the power of the cursed mandrake roots, power that destroyed the Dunarling in 1886 and that is resurfacing in the town of Dunarling today.
Plot summary
These dolls have been around since 1886. According to the novel, a ship called the Dunarling was carrying 85 passengers wanting to migrate from ScotlandScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
to South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, but also four dolls, each named and cursed: 'Swith' was cursed with fire (bleeze), 'Agley' with mischance, 'Smeddum' with foulness, and 'Snell' with the final destruction (otherwise referred to as All fa' doon!). These mandrake dolls were set upon the Dunarling by Marie Catherine de Lairgo because she is jealous and wants to get revenge, which she bids the mandrake dolls to do: she was the former 'wife' of one of the passengers, Adam Colquhoun.
100 years after the shipwreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
of the Dunarling, two youngsters, Adam Hardy and Catriona Chisholm, discovered the dolls. Along with them were the school bullies, Richard Vernon and Mike Carter, but they did not seem to care much about the finding of Jamie Ramsay's cave, where the dolls were secretly hidden. Richard Vernon and Mike Carter then took two of the dolls.
Adam and Catriona form a bond with each other as time unfolds and Adam starts having visions of the past and realised that Catriona looks just like Margaret Colquhoun, the fiancée of Adam Colquhoun. Adam tracks down two of these dolls that were held by Mike Carter and Richard Vernon. These dolls made Mike and Richard insane, saying that they had failed their masters in destroying the town. The dolls possess Mike and Richard into setting fire to the hardware store, crashing a bus and also poisoning a water system with white ant killer. Tam Dubh, the fifth mandrake doll, warns Adam what is going to happen, so he manages to stop the last two events from completely unfolding. Adam then destroys all of the dolls by throwing them over a cliff into the ocean.