The Devil's children is the third book in which the Changes in a near-future Britain are described through their effect on certain individuals and places. In this book we are at a point not long after the mysterious antipathy towards machines has exposed Britain to a new ideological tyranny. In Shepherds Bush a girl of twelve has been separated from her parents in a panic evacuation of the disease-ridden city. Nicola is adopted by a band of Sikhs looking for somewhere to settle; because of their race they are immune to the Changes and regard Nicola in the light of a "canary" able to warn them of danger…. The progress of the story is a dual one. The journey through Surrey is meticulously plotted and the hillside farm where the Sikhs settle is described so well that you feel you are present at every conference, at the meeting with the giant Barnard, ex-farm worker, who keeps the village under his thumb, and through the terrible days when thugs wearing armour fashioned from beaten tins occupy the place and persecute the inhabitants. Through this action, logically developed and utterly absorbing, runs the parallel journey of Nicky's heart—for this, sentimental though it may sound, is just what it is. Quite rightly the story does not end with the victory over the invaders nor with the village festival (described with sly humour) in which brown people and white celebrate their better understanding; it ends with Nicola's departure to France to look for her parents and to try to become human once more. Using the Changes to illustrate the growing-up of a girl, the author has given them an emotional dimension deeper than that of the earlier books. (pp. 1559-60)
Margery Fisher, in her Growing Point, July, 1970.
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