C. DAY-LEWIS was born in Ireland in 1904, and grew up in England. He was educated at Sherborne School and Wadham College, Oxford. On leaving Oxford in 1927 he taught at various schools in England and Scotland until 1935 when he became a full-time writer and poet. From 1951–6 he was Professor of Poetry at Oxford and two years later he became Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature. He was also Poet Laureate from 1968, until he died in 1972. Throughout his career C. Day-Lewis published numerous volumes of poetry as well as many adult detective stories written under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake. He wrote two novels for children – Dick Willoughby (1933) and The Otterbury Incident, first published in 1948.

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First published by Putnam 1948; transferred to The Bodley Head 1966

Published in Puffin Books 1961

Reissued in this edition 2017

Text copyright © C. Day-Lewis, 1948

Illustrations by Edward Ardizzone

Illustrations copyright © Edward Ardizzone, 1948

The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted

Cover illustration by Edward Ardizzone

The Otterbury Incident is an adaptation of the French film Nous les Gosses, which was shown in England under the title Us Kids, and I am greatly indebted to the Academy Cinema Ltd and Messrs Pathescope for their kind permission to use the plot of that delightful film as the starting point of my story.

C.D.L.

ISBN: 978-0-241-32070-9

All correspondence to:
Puffin Books
Penguin Random House Children’s
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL

To

Jonathan Fenby

and

Richard Osborne

Contents

1. The Ambush in Abbey Lane

2. Hell to Pay

3. How We Signed the Peace of Otterbury

4. Operation Glazier

5. Black Sunday

6. The Detectives Get to Work

7. The Clue of the Bitten Half-crown

8. Shadows and Shocks

9. The Secrets of Skinner’s Yard

10. Grand Assault

11. General Salute

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