Boy on Platform One - aka Memory Boy Author:Victor Canning Also published as Memory Boy. — Readers of The Boy on Platform One will find themselves fascinated by the subtle way Victor Canning weaves international espionage around an innocent teenager with a unique gift for effortlessly memorizing long passages of prose or poetry -- even in languages he does ... more »not understad. His father, Frank, allows himself to exploit fourteen-year-old Peter Courtney's special talent in order to supplement the income from his small bookshop. Unfortunately, the head of British Intelligence attends one such exhibition and realizes Peter's gift can be used to prevent an imminent security disaster.
A rendezvous in France creates, unknowingly for Peter, a situation of mortal danger from which there seems no possible means of escape.
Victor Canning writes of impending violence in his usual subdued and ingenious fashion. His characters are alive and appealing, and so is the English countryside he knows so well.« less