Under Plum Lake
novel by Lionel Davidson
Under Plum Lake is a children's adventure novel by Lionel Davidson, first published in 1980.
Plot
A young boy, Barry, explores a cave on the Cornwall coast and discovers a highly advanced subterranean civilization called Egon. Located somewhere deep beneath Earth's oceans, Egon is unknown and inaccessible to humans unless an Egonian chooses to bring them there. On all such occasions, the human being's memories of Egon are erased and replaced with false memories before being returned to the surface.
In Egon, the author imagines all of our social ills and fears have been quieted, health care and education have been vastly improved, and energy and other resources have been better managed. Egonian youth (who are about 100 years old) spend much of their time enjoying extreme sports, taking in intense immersive films, and studying to make their world a better place. Barry gets a tour from a boy named Dido who at first treats Barry like a dog — why can't he just relax and enjoy things? — but later begins to understand Barry’s fear of pain and death.
Like Barry, the reader is ultimately left with a vision of what our lives could be if we didn't spend all our time terrified of poverty, pain, and lost chances. It's a statement in favor of pleasure, intimacy, and risk-taking.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Under Plum Lake” as novel by Lionel Davidson. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as novel by Lionel Davidson. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7883141. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Under Plum Lake”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Under Plum Lake primary sources, Under Plum Lake archive and Plum research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Under Plum Lake”?
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- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Under Plum Lake” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.