The stories of Malcolm Saville have been consistently popular with children since he began writing them over forty years ago. It is only in recent years, however, that his books have become popular with collectors, and now many of his adventure stories and lesser known non-fiction titles are rapidly increasing in value.

Malcolm Leonard Saville was born in 1901 in Hastings, Sussex. After a private education, he joined the publicity department at Cassell in 1920, before moving to work for the Amalgamated Press in 1922. Here he became Sales Promotion Manager and stayed until 1936 before moving to George Newnes, who were later to publish most of Saville's 'Lone Pine' series.

It was not until 1942, when Malcolm Saville was forty-one years old, with four children of his own, that he wrote his first book. "Mystery at Witchend" is an adventure story set in wartime Britain, centring round a group of spies who had set up their base in a cottage on the lonely Long Mynd in Shropshire. The spies are eventually exposed by a group of children who meet up and form a secret club at the base of a lonely pine tree on the side of the Long Mynd. And so the 'Lone Pine Club' was born, whose members were to share twenty adventures over the next thirty five years.

The Lone Piners themselves all had distinctive characters which were developed throughout the series. Much is made of the interplay between them, their loyalty to each other, and their occasional failings.

The original Lone Pine Club had just five members. The Mortons, who spent their holidays at Witchend, their old house in the country, feature in all the stories. David, at fifteen the oldest Lone Piner, is sturdy, reliable and athletic. His brother and sister, Richard and Mary, are twins aged nine in the first story, and their childish chatter and ability to irritate their adversaries is a popular feature of the stories. They also add interest for younger readers, for the 'Lone Pine' stories can be enjoyed by children over a wide range of ages.

Petronella Sterling is a few months younger than David, and lives on the Long Mynd with her father, who looks after the reservoir on the mountain. She becomes David's special friend, and their developing relationship comes to a happy conclusion in the final book.

The other original 'Lone Piner' is Tom Ingles, a Londoner who comes to work on his uncle's farm. He hates the countryside at first, but eventually comes to like it and to want a farm of his own. As the Lone Pine series progresses, further characters gradually join the club. In "Seven White Gates" (1944), the romantic and excitable redhead Jenny Harman appears. Her father runs the village shop on the further side of the Long Mynd, and she quickly becomes Tom's companion.

In the excellent "Gay Dolphin Adventure" (1945), set in Rye, the bookish Jonathan Warrender and his cousin Penny are introduced. This constant bringing in of new characters works well, giving readers a chance to follow the course of the characters' lives throughout the stories; it also gives a strong incentive to collect the complete 'Lone Pine' series. All the Lone Piners appear in the final story "Home to Witchend" (1979), which also contains a list of the characters from the stories, and the books in which they appeared.

The striking feature of "Mystery at Witchend" (1943), and all Malcolm Saville's stories, is his descriptions of locations. The Lone Pine series explores some of the hidden corners of England: the Shropshire hills, the Yorkshire dales, the Norfolk broads, Rye and Romney Marsh, and Dartmoor. This adds an air of authenticity to the stories, and all these, places can be visited and explored, unlike the nondescript settings of many children's stories. Indeed, it is possible to find (with the aid of the foreword of "Secret of the Gorge" and a good map!) the river bank where the Lone Piners camped in that adventure, and the old bow bridge and ruined cottage featured in the story. All three stories were serialised on 'Children's Hour' and soon established Malcolm Saville as one of the top contemporary children's writers.

The general standard of Malcolm Saville's books is very high. As with any children's adventure writer, there are limits to the contents of his books. There is little violence, and of course no murders; but the children experience more than their fair share of kidnappings, natural disasters and buried treasure. There is always a point, too, where the adults have to take over to 'wind up' an adventure. In the 'Lone Pine' books, Malcolm Saville gets around this problem several times via the character of James Wilson, a journalist with a keen sense of adventure.

The 'baddies' themselves sometimes seem a little caricatured, however. Many of them are easily identifiable by their habits of smoking, wearing dark glasses, or being foreign. But the female character of 'the Ballinger', a formidably large lady in~tweeds, is a memorable creation and appears in many of the 'Lone Pine' stories. The encounters between the twins and 'the Ballinger' are some of the highlights of the series.

The final 'Lone Pine' book was "Home to Witchend", first published by Armada in 1978. The first hardback edition, published by Severn House, is very scarce and, surprisingly, about the hardest title to find. The story is not a great one, but it brings together all the Lone Piners and many of their friends from previous stories. Malcolm Saville clearly knew that this was to be last of the series, and left the Lone Piners on an optimistic note with the twins taking over the club as the older children come of age.

The last Marston Baines story, "Marston Master Spy" was also published in 1978. Although there were a few more non-fiction titles published, these were the last of Malcolm Saville's adventure stories before his death in June 1982.

Ironically, it is since then that readers who grew up with his stories have started collecting his books, and now want to have a complete set of their own volumes. There is an increasing number of followers of the 'Lone Piners', and their popularity looks assured for years to come.