The Secret of Platform 13

Eva Ibbotson's The Secret of Platform 13

The Secret of Platform 13 is a children's novel by Eva Ibbotson, and illustrated by Sue Porter, first published in 1994.

The book has gained extra significance as many readers find it similar to the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, although the first book of that series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in 1997, three years after this book was published. (They both mention a platform on Kings Cross Station, in London, that leads to a different world.) As journalist Amanda Craig has written, "Ibbotson would seem to have at least as good a case for claiming plagiarism as the American author currently suing J. K. Rowling, but unlike her, Ibbotson says she would 'like to shake her by the hand. I think we all borrow from each other as writers.'"^[1]

Summary

Platform 13 of King's Cross Station in London has been closed for years. Changes to the platform always result in failure for mysterious reasons.

The reason is that the platform hides a gump, described as an "opening that opens once every nine years for nine days". The gump leads to the Island, a tropical paradise devoid of greed or harm and filled with both normal and magical creatures guarded by several ghosts.^[2] The three nurses for the baby prince of the Island wish to visit London when the gump reopens but on the ninth day the prince is kidnapped by a "beastly" woman named Mrs. Trottle who is desperate for a child. Nanny Brown, Mrs. Trottle's nurse as a child, is horrified by the kidnapping. Mrs. Trottle threatens to call police if Nanny dares to tell anyone and decides to name the baby "Raymond". The nurses only discover the prince is gone when it is too late to return.^[3]

To rescue the prince, the king and queen organize a group who will venture into London the next time the gump opens. The group consists of a giant, a "slightly batty" fey, a wizard, and a young hag named Odge (who joined because she was the same age as the prince would be and felt a sense of kinship to him as a result). When the gump opens, the rescuers are directed to the Trottle house by the ghosts that live in Platform 13. There they see Raymond Trottle, who has grown up to be fat, lazy, and very spoiled. They also meet the household servant, a boy named Ben. Ben is the exact opposite of Raymond and immediately feels comfortable with the group and befriends Odge.

The group begins to observe Raymond and after some time arranges for him to meet them in the park where they arrange for various magical creatures to perform a show for him. Though Raymond is unimpressed by the magical performance, he is delighted to discover that he is really a prince and agrees to return to the Island. Odge tries to convince Ben to come to the Island as well, but he refuses as Nanny (who raised him) is very ill and in the hospital.

Raymond mysteriously vanishes the next day however, and the group discovers that he told Mrs. Trottle of the plan. Believing that strangers intended to kidnap her child, she took him into hiding at a fancy hotel with several bodyguards. The group hatch a plan to take Raymond back, but everything falls apart when Ben is knocked out by one of the bodyguards. Given the choice of taking Raymond or rescuing Ben, the group chooses to save Ben. Raymond is abducted later by a swarm of harpies that the king and queen send and is successfully brought to the Island.

Shortly before the gump will close, Nanny dies and leaves a note for Ben. It reveals that Ben was really the kidnapped prince, however Mrs. Trottle had discovered shortly after abducting him that she was pregnant. Ben quickly leaves with Odge for the Island and later tells Odge that he arranged for her to stay with him in the castle.

References