Derek Perkins

The Fifth of November Derek Perkins

Uncle Edward was shocked. Of course he remembered! He knew all about Guy Fawkes and his gang of violent and dangerous criminals. Mr Spence, however, was not so sure: what had been the rights and wrongs of that famous plot? Yet it was to Uncle Edward that Time played the trick, carrying him back to the comings and goings of Catesby, Guy Fawkes (alias Mr Johnson), and the other conspirators.

Viewing the events close to, Uncle Edward's convictions were shaken: the men he had thought hard-hearted and violent criminals were perhaps after all honest men driven to desperation by oppression and persecution.

For Dick the experience of going back in time was different: a few, scattered facts learnt at school took on a new, exciting reality as he witnessed the perilous risks run by Guy Fawkes and his friends in a great cause. To his surprise too, he learnt that he himself was a descendant of one of the participants in that famous drama: indeed it almost seemed as if for a moment of time Dick was himself that very person.