Having said that I'm not sure the one I found time for this trip can properly be classified as being written for children, though it's generally marketed as such. The title in question was Jan Needle's Wild Wood (the edition in question being wonderfully illustrated with cartoons by Willie Rushton). It's a cunningly wrought, splendidly subversive take on the world of Wind In The Willows, being a re-telling of the events in the lives of Mole, Rat, Badger and Toad from the perspective of the Wild-Wooders. The villainous weasels, stoats and ferrets of the original become the valiant, exploited underclass of Wild Wood, struggling to survive a bleak English winter and we find out how Toad really came to escape from the dungeon, amongst other revelations concerning the plot of the original. Even Ratty's being tempted to seek for adventures on the open sea is given an unexpected twist.
The idea of recasting a beloved classic in what I suppose is a broadly class-conscious politically-correct light sounds quite dreadful - but here it works completely because Needle obviously loves the original and its characters and, against the odds, manages to stay true to them. The only thing that didn’t work for me was the highly contrived frame story which sets up the central narrative of Baxter, an amiable weasel (or ferret, can't recall now) who was witness many years previously to the take-over of Brotherhood Hall. This frame seemed quite unnecessary, just getting in the way of getting the story going. I can't imagine even quite a sophisticated child having the patience to sit through it. Which leads me back to the question of whether this is a children's book at all. (Mind you, the same is true of its (almost) inimitable original.)
4 comments:
Tough luck, our England. We'll never know what would have happened if the karmic burden of Geoff Hurst's 1966 was-it-a-goal (digital evidence suggests not) had not suddenly landed on the Three Lions tonight.
But I have to say I thought Germany looked more fluid, more fluent, and displayed better teamwork.
As for The Wind in the Willows, I remember reading it to death (of a broken spine). I hear there was a sequel by William Horwood. But now I'll have to track this one you've mentioned down. Thanks!
Absolutely right about Germany, except I think they were even better than you suggest.
Was William Horwood the chap who wrote the Duncton Wood stuff? THe name seems oddly familiar.
Yes, that's the chap! Oh heavens, on further research, I've discovered that he wrote FOUR sequels, sometime in the mid-1990s.
Post a Comment