 The first edition of the book was illustrated by Eileen Soper.It has been suggested that the book was influenced by L. T. Meade's 1892 book "Four on an Island", which also recounts a story of four related children including a tomboy along with a dog living on an island with a shipwreck.When siblings Julian, Dick and Anne cannot go for their usual summer holiday to Polseath, they are invited to spend the summer with their Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin at their home Kirrin Cottage, in the coastal village of Kirrin.