Puffin have celebrated the 40th anniversary of this enduring children’s classic by issuing it in a new edition which also contains a story of the young Tom and lyrics Magorian wrote for the musical adaptation. I had always thought I had read this book before but I hadn’t. I have also never seen the acclaimed TV version which starred John Thaw. It was one of those books where my vague ideas about it had cemented into what I believed was fact but I was often wrong. I knew it was a tearjerker but what I had always thought occurred never actually happens. The twists and turns of the plot were quite a revelation for me.
Will is sent from Deptford, South London, just before the outbreak of World War II, as an evacuee to the rural environment of Little Weirwold where he is allocated to Tom Oakley, an elderly widower who lives a very self-contained life with his dog Sammy. Will’s arrival disrupts this but the malnourished, poorly treated Londoner wins Tom over from the start and the youngster begins to thrive under his care.
The country scenes have a direct line to earlier children’s classics such as “The Railway Children” where nothing much happens but it is still a ravishing read. It’s a boy finding his feet amongst a new environment and new friends and the challenges he faces, a common enough theme in junior fiction but it is when the book reverts to London with a grimness which is shocking compared to what we have read before that it is elevated to another level. Following this, with the war established in both town and country Magorian pulls no punches and conveys the sense of not knowing what is round the corner brilliantly. As the war disrupts the lives of those in the country there’s a tension between adapting to the new events and wanting their lives to go on as before.
I loved this book. I loved the characters and the plot. I enjoyed the short story “Rachel And The Paintbox” which would be a lovely back-story read for long-standing fans of this book. The song lyrics were inessential but there again would be appreciated by those who have had this book in their lives for decades.
I cannot believe it has taken me this long to get round to it. My advice to you is to celebrate its special birthday with me by discovering it for yourself, re-reading it or buying a copy for a younger member of the family. This is a great read.
Originally published by Kestrel in 1981, the first Puffin paperback edition arrived in 1983 and this edition with the additional material was published in the UK on May 6th 2021. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the review copy.
Whilst in the stacks of withdrawn-from-the-shelves books at Library HQ the other week I discovered a set of Willard Price which took me back over 40 years. When I was 10 or 11 in the mid 70’s these books were very popular. As friends raced to read the whole series I don’t think we realised they stemmed from the generation before us. Paperback editions were given thrilling contemporary covers but the most evocative were the hardback editions we borrowed from the library with cover art and inky illustrations by Pat Marriott.
I can remember being asked to bring in a book for my first day at secondary school. I took in one of these (not sure which one) as did, it turned out, a significant section of the class, all new to me from my junior classes. It gave me an immediate sense of belonging and it felt like secondary school might not be so alien after all. (I might have judged this too early!)
Over the years the Willard Price Adventure series have been in and out of favour. I remember a resurgence in popularity when I started teaching, probably from the next generation whose parents had fond memories and recommended them. I’m not sure if there haven’t been revised editions to tone down some of Price’s ideas but I’m pretty sure the edition I have just read, in hardback from 1978, would have been as the author wrote it.
A later edition
Canadian born Willard Price (1887-1983) published this first in the series “Amazon Adventure” in 1949 (it must have taken a couple of years to arrive in the UK) and finished the 14th book in 1980 which illustrates the continuing appeal this series must have had. This debut, as could be anticipated by the title, was very much of its time and I did wonder how I would feel on re-reading it.
What struck me most was considering how the 10 year old me would have responded. Putting Price’s viewpoints to one side- that the white Americans have a right to pillage the Amazonian rainforest to collect wildlife for zoos, I’m not sure how the me who couldn’t watch TV/films with animals in them without feeling anxious and tearful in case they die (still can’t) would have responded to these tales of hunting and plunder. Price actually deals with some grim perils which suggest we must have been made of sterner stuff back then.
The extraordinarily capable and knowledgeable teenager Hal accompanies his father on an expedition to the Amazon to collect animals. Little brother Roger comes too, only a couple of years younger but obviously a victim of second son syndrome as all the expertise father has passed on to Hal hasn’t got to Roger, whose predilection for pranks is often downright foolhardy.
It is so implausible but Price knows how to grip his young audience and despite all my objections to the motives behind this I found myself as drawn in as probably the 10 year old me was. I would never recommend certainly this first in the series to a young reader, (I’m not sure if they become less controversial) but I liked the amount of difficulty Price heaped onto his young characters, not everyone comes out of the experience alive and the plot device of the raft of animals sailing down the Amazon was at times reminiscent of “Life Of Pi”. As an exercise in nostalgia I was very involved, enough to consider borrowing the next in the series “South Sea Adventure”.
Amazon Adventure was first published in the UK in 1951. I read a Jonathan Cape hardback edition.
On the strength of the two novels by Markus Zusak that I have read I would count this Australian author in any list of significant living writers. I waxed lyrical here about his “The Book Thief” (2007) one of my all-time favourite novels and his latest “Bridge Of Clay” (2018) is sat cosily at 8th place in my current end of year Top 10.
This book I have had on my shelves for some time. It is an earlier work aimed at the YA market (although like all Zusak it works well for an adult readership) and my reluctance to read it was because I did not want it to diminish the author’s reputation in my eyes. It does come with a pedigree, although something of a protracted one. Gaining much critical acclaim in his homeland where it is known as “The Messenger” it picked up a Children’s Book Council Of Australia Book Of The Year For Older Readers Award in 2003. Three years after that the US edition won the American Library Association’s Michael L Printz Award for Teenage Fiction and in 2007 it gained a major German children’s literature award. This is a slow burner of a book which has taken its time to get its presence felt.
I don’t think it has diminished Zusak’s reputation but it does feel very much a minor work compared to his others I have read. It is the work of a young author still learning the skills which will allow him to publish an all-time classic five years later. This is not a classic but a less polished entertaining read which shows once again Zusak’s skills as a story teller.
Its quirky opening places the main characters bang in the middle of a bank raid where whilst prostrate on the floor there’s much banter between 19 year old cabdriver Ed Kennedy and his three mates. A surprising act of heroism brings about media attention for Ed who soon afterwards is sent playing cards with cryptic messages for him to work out and deliver.
This is the story of how (not so much the why which I’m still slightly puzzled by) Ed carries out what is asked of him and learns much about himself along the way. Zusak’s writing style is chatty and endearing as Ed, in a first-person narrative, faces some difficult decisions, some disturbing violence and a spattering of praise working out his tasks. Some seem trivial, others life-changing for those involved but from each Ed, whose future had seemed mapped out due to a lack of ambition, a fractured family, unrequited love, a fondness for card games with his friends and caring for his elderly pungent dog, The Doorman, sees his life change.
Plot-wise there’s not the richness and depth I have come to associate with the author but in his creation of Ed as an everyday superhero Zusak is touching on very appealing YA themes. I’m not sure that the resolution was what I was expecting or hoping for but here we have a memorable character in a likeable work.
I Am The Messenger was first published in 2002. I read an American 2005 paperback edition published by Knopf. In the UK the most readily available version seems to be a paperback published by Definitions in 2015.
The three volumes of Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy have a permanent place on my bookshelves. All three have featured in my end of year Top 10s with “Northern Lights” (1995) being my second favourite book of the year both times I’ve read it (1998 and 2001). I last read the whole trilogy 18 years ago but I know I’ll be revisiting them again.
From this you might have thought that I would have snapped up “The Book Of Dust” when it was published in 2017. I didn’t, not even when it came out in paperback. The copy I’ve just read I borrowed from the library. My selection was motivated by two things- the publication of the second volume this month and the impending and much heralded BBC adaptation of “His Dark Materials” which begins this weekend.
But why was I put off from reading this before now? I think it’s because it’s a prequel to the main series. Prequels- they are never that great are they? Immediately coming to mind was CS Lewis’ “The Magician’s Nephew” published five years after “The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe” which certainly, I feel, if read before the more famous book diminishes the reader’s introduction to Narnia because it is greatly inferior. It’s more common for a different author to write a prequel (as in Jean Rhys’ 1966 “Wide Sargasso Sea” linked to “Jane Eyre” which is an acknowledged modern classic but also left me cold). Because this is by a different author, however, it doesn’t influence my view of the Bronte novel which I love. When you look at prequels to movies you’re in the realms of “Psycho IV – The Beginning” and “Oz; The Great & Powerful”, I’m not at all sold on this prequel idea.
In this first volume main trilogy character Lyra is a baby who is being cared for by nuns. She becomes a source of fascination for 11 year old Malcolm Polstead who helps out at his parent’s pub and spends free time in his canoe (La Belle Sauvage) mainly bridging the watery gap between The Trout pub and the priory on the opposite bank. When he observes a strange occurrence on the riverside a chain of events opens in which he has to take direct action to ensure Lyra’s safety. The Oxford area is threatened by heavy rain and broken river banks making a proficient canoeist significant. His interest in Lyra leads to his introduction to a couple of shadowy organisations. Plot-wise this is all good, I love the presence of individual’s daemons, an idea which so enhances the trilogy. This time around, however, I did find the pace slow in places as if Pullman is fully prepared to take his time over his narrative thread and stretch it out over a sequence of novels. Malcolm is a very good central character and there is no doubt that this pre-teen protagonist would appeal to a quite young audience as would the structure of the adventure story which harks back to a modern take on children’s classics such as “Swallows And Amazons”, yet a couple of scenes, the language (there is the odd outburst of swearing by one particular character when pushed to the edge, which even despite this context still feels unsettling within the framework of the novel) and certainly the scientific principles demand greater maturity. It’s probably a case of the reader taking from it what they can and letting the rest wash over, which, let’s face it, is how many of us read Victorian classics.
I did enjoy this book and will read the next volume more quickly than I got round to this one (I have already reserved a library copy) but it is unlikely to make my Year End Top 10 and that fact alone makes me feel a little disappointed by it, and I would very much urge readers discovering Philip Pullman for the first time to read “His Dark Materials” and approach this as a separate introductory and related series.
The Book Of Dust: Volume 1 – La Belle Sauvage was published by David Fickling Books in 2017.
On the strength of the four novels by Irish writer John Boyne that I have read to date (2 for adults and 2 for children) he is one of my very favourite writers, scoring four five star reads and appearing in my 100 Essential Books strand. Both his children’s novels “The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas” and “The Boy At The Top Of The Mountain” are subtly complex, emotionally charged novels where a child outsider is thrown into extraordinary circumstances and where their lack of communication with the world of adults lead to misunderstandings and confusion which only make things worse for them. In neither of these (nor in the two adult books I’ve read) do you know what you are going to get from the title. Boyne, as a writer, is excellent at leading the reader into a journey which he/she is initially unprepared for. With his latest title for the older children/young teenage market you pretty much know what is in store from the title.
In a contemporary setting Boyne tackles the issue of the transgender child, here facing mid-teens knowing he was born into the wrong body. This seems to be very much an issue for out times which we all should know more about but it is not Jason/Jessica’s path we follow here. Boyne has given the first- person narrative to younger brother Sam. This gives everything a new perspective as the emphasis shifts onto the effects of such a situation on the family.
Issues are compounded by the Wavers being in the public eye. Mum is a senior politician with an eye on the big job, Dad her secretary and there are the views of the electorate, press and colleagues to consider. Jason makes his announcement very early on in the proceedings but the parents want it all suppressed. I can see what Boyne is doing here. Mum has achieved in what is a male dominated field and Dad has the more passive role already challenging traditional gender stereotypes. But they cannot accept this new challenge. Mum seeks to lead the country yet cannot offer support to her own child. This adds dramatic layers to the narrative but it does feel a lot less subtle than his best work.
I very much like the focus on younger brother Sam who reaches his already insecure early teens with his family history uprooted. His brother is the school star football player (nice touch Mr Boyne), Sam has always been the dyslexic not popular younger sibling and discovers that his brother’s announcement turns all that he has had in his past upside down and makes him vulnerable to bullying and tension both at home and at school.
Reading through the bare bones of the story it might seem that the author is box-ticking sensitive areas and producing an issue-laden work (and he certainly would not be the first writer of young adult fiction to do this by any means) were he not so good with character, dialogue and the day-to-day communication situations which feel universal and a step away from a mother angling to be Prime Minister, which is the aspect of the novel I’m not totally convinced by.
So no five stars this time but this is a valuable resource for those questioning identity or anyone who wants to know more about how these kind of issues would pan out. It is a marvellously empathic work and a very involving read.
My Brother’s Name Is Jessica was published in hardback by Puffin in April 2019.
This is the book which made his name and although I have had it on my shelves for some years had never got round to reading it, despite my partner telling me it was one of the best books he has ever read. I have seen the 2008 film adaptation and it’s taken me quite a while to get over it!
This may very well be one of the saddest books ever. I knew what was going to happen because of the film and yet I consciously chose to read the ending in the public place of on the bus, thinking I would be less likely to break down in tears but it was a close run thing!
Boyne adopts an impassive narrative style making his writing reminiscent of a fairy tale or something within the oral tradition with its matter of fact sentences and fair amount of repetition for emphasis (for both the listener and the main character). This is a book which would read aloud extremely well. (Philip Ridley also did this very successfully with his much lighter tale “Krindlekrax”- a huge favourite of mine). This oral feel is powerful and draws the reader in but also provides some emotional distance from the action which may initially protect from some of the horror but it also carefully and cleverly informs the plot making it all very believable. The narrator sees everything from nine year old Bruno’s point of view but allows us to read between the lines with ever-mounting trepidation.
Like Pierrot in “The Boy At The Top Of The Mountain” Bruno is forced to relocate to a home very different from what he has been used to. For Bruno this means with his family but away from his beloved grandparents left behind in Berlin. In this new place which he pieces together is called “Out-With” there is no one to play with and instead of the view of Berlin from his bedroom window he sees groups of men and boys in pyjamas behind a wire fence. His decision to go exploring to combat his loneliness cannot end well.
Also like Pierrot in the later novel at times Bruno’s interpretation of events feels insufferable but perhaps more comprehensible because of the lack of communication with his family, which allows such a distorted picture of his environment to be developed. His view of the world is formed solely through his ignorance, there is not much that he gets right and that is a powerful thing to take from this novel.
Despite John Boyne’s development as a writer in the 9 years between this and the unofficial companion piece of “The Boy At The Top Of The Mountain” this eclipses it in terms of power and importance. It is a book which works well in the Children’s, YA and Adult sections of the bookshop. Frankly, everyone should read it. The film version, although good lacks the power of Boyne’s words and style.
Of those novels I have read which gives a child’s perspective of wartime only “The Book Thief” is better and that is arguably my all-time favourite novel. John Boyne continues his ascent as one of my all-time favourite authors.
The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas was first published in 2006. I read the 2008 Definitions paperback version.
I’m more than happy to delve into the back catalogue of the writer of my current Book of The Year “The Heart’s Invisible Furies”. This book choice was thanks to me drawing from the Sandown Library Russian Roulette Reading Challenge: “Read A Book With A Red Cover”. I do have John Boyne’s newest adult title “A Ladder To The Sky” lined up to read next, thanks to Netgalley, but I thought I’d explore his writing for a younger audience first.
I am still to read “The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas” but I know enough about it (and I’ve seen the film version) to realise that there are parallels here. We begin in Paris in 1936 with 7 year old Pierrot living with his widowed mother. In the first few pages we get shell shock, domestic abuse and suicide all related to his German father unable to adapt to living in post-World War I France. Tragic circumstances pile up forcing Pierrot to leave France for Austria and a home at the top of Obersalzberg.
I actually didn’t know where this book was going (I read nothing about it beforehand) so I’m determined not to give away much plot for there are twists a plenty to satisfy its intended audience.
This is a great novel for an enquiring developing mind. It is a complex book, emotionally speaking. Perhaps elements of the plot might seem contrived if written for the adult market but it would all make sense for a younger audience and has a moral depth that I’m certainly unused to in Junior Fiction. Pierrot develops from being an extremely likeable character to something of a monster and this feels unusual and chilling. His actions become increasingly difficult to explain away even in a society where the old rules no longer apply. All this would resonate with every reader, child or adult.
There are throughout references to a children’s classic of an earlier generation “Emil And The Detectives” which I certainly loved as a child and Boyne’s novel should have an equally long life for future generations. He has written a powerful, compelling novel which I found difficult to put down and read in a day (which is unusual for me- even for a children’s book) and as in “The Heart’s Invisible Furies” he brought me close to tears on a number of occasions. The characters are memorable and the plot, as in “The Boy With The Striped Pyjamas” would be impossible to forget- and nor should we. It would be a great and lasting purchase for a sophisticated child/young adult. This is a children’s book now in its third year after publication and its reputation should continue to grow.
The Boy At The Top Of The Mountain was published by Doubleday in 2015.
I’ve come to the conclusion with children’s literature that the books you read at just the right time in your development as a reader are the ones that really stay with you. I recently saw an article in the Telegraph ( I think) on children’s fiction where the writer (not sure who… sorry) had picked out 10 Books every child should read. I had heard of Diana Wynne Jones but not of this book which was claimed to be a novel suffused with magic and superior to Harry Potter. My interest was piqued, especially as this is a book which dates from the mid 70’s and so I sought out a copy. (My library service had it available as an E-book). I think the author of the article (which could have been Lucy Mangan who has just produced a book on children’s fiction which Netgalley have just approved me for review, so if it is I’ll let you know) must have read this book at an impressionable age as given the build-up this was all a little disappointing for me.
This is the first of seven volumes in the Chrestomanci series. In this book Chrestomanci is an enigmatic Willie Wonka type character, who may be an enchanter of great power and who certainly has the habit of turning up as soon as his name is said. He takes on the upbringing of two charges, Gwendolen and Cat, after their parents are killed and the children go to live at Chrestomanci Castle with his own two offspring. Gwendolen has precocious powers of witchcraft and thinks very highly of herself; her younger brother Cat struggles with self-doubt and is the endearing central character. It is a tale of magic and parallel worlds as the children come to terms with their new lives in the Castle.
Books for children of this vintage and older do not seem as plot-driven as modern fiction and once the children are in ensconced in their new home the pace gets a little slow and there are quite a few scenes which ramble a little and are not especially eventful, particularly meal times between the four children, who do not see eye to eye. It is, however, quite entertaining throughout and may appeal to those who have got through the first couple of Harry Potter novels and are not yet ready for the demands the later instalments of the series place on the reader, but I do feel that many Potter fans will find Jones’ style dated.
Diana Wynne Jones was a prolific writer who died in 2011. She is most revered for her Chrestomanci novels (I still don’t know why I have not heard of these before) and “Howl’s Moving Castle”. “Charmed Life” was the winner of the 1978 Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. She is held in great esteem by many fantasy writers for both her children’s and adult novels. She did suggest that the 4th book of the series, the Carnegie Medal commended “The Lives Of Christopher Chant” (1988) be read as the follow-up to this. I would be interested to see where she goes with the characters she introduces in this series opener. This book alone does not attain the status of children’s classic as far as I am concerned, but as a whole the series may still have potential.
Charmed Life was originally published by Macmillan in 1977. I read the Harper Collins edition which was republished in 2007.
Studio album number 6 from the Pet Shop Boys missed out on a UK Top 3 chart position, something which the other five had achieved. It’s an extraordinary fact because it was, as far as I was concerned, their fifth essential studio release in a row, and may just very well be my all-time favourite of their albums.
It had been three years since the release of the chart-topping “Very”. In the meantime we had the second album of club dance remixes of tracks in “Disco 2” which reached number 6 and the fairly splendid if a little patchy double album of B-sides “Alternative” which reached number 2. A tour of South America after the release of “Very” provided inspiration for this new release as many of the tracks are infused with a heavy measure of Latin flavour which gives them an extra joyfulness which always makes this CD a pleasure to listen to. In 1996 its early autumn release brought back a little bit of fiesta sunshine into our lives. Unusually, for the album’s original release all of the songs are written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe. The reinvention of a song not associated with them had been around since they hit chart pay-dirt with “Always On My Mind”. (A deluxe edition of the CD was released the following year which contained the boys’ take on “Somewhere” from “West Side Story” which had given them a Top 10 hit single. I don’t think Tennant doing battle with Bernstein’s melody and Sondheim’s lyrics really fits into the concept of the album so we will stick with the original twelve tracks). The album is produced by the Boys with assistance on some of the tracks from Chris Porter, US DJ Danny Tenaglia, and Paul Roberts and Andy Williams who better known as K-Klass had scored a Top 3 hit of their own in 1993 with club classic “Rhythm Is A Mystery.”
Danny Tenaglia & K-Klass
Much of this South-American influence can be found in opening track “Discoteca” in its Spanish chant “Hay una discoteca por aqui?” and complexity of multi-layered rhythms which with its keyboard refrain gives it a real richness of sound. Neil is in questioning self-analytical mode which comes back to the repeated chant and which makes for a haunting, impressive opener. The “Hawaii-5-O” type drums thunder their way straight into the next track which is one of the finest of all PSB singles and my favourite track on the album, the exciting “Single” which begins with its “I’m Single/Bilingual” refrain and eases its way into a song about the lone traveller on international business. A tale of expense accounts, lonely hotel rooms and fax messages waiting at reception – “I come to the community from UK PLC “. It has a great depth of sound to it, and with its musical references to the previous track provides a kind of flow which is unusual for a PSB album. As a single the appropriately titled “Single” was the third released from the album and reached number 14 in the UK. Neil’s still looking for that disco as the track ends and moves into the house-influenced “Metamorphosis” which features sterling vocal work from Sylvia Mason-James. It’s feels like an old style track as Neil delivers one of his impassive raps, which echoes tracks from the previous decade such as “Left To My Own Devices”, his “all about love/it’s a metamorphosis” does give me the same feeling of delight I had when he heard the distant feet of Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat. This is the track that had production duties shared between Pet Shop Boys and K-Klass.
“Electricity” is a slinkier track with its sampled female voice “What does it mean/What are you doing in San Francisco”. It delightfully refers to one of the great neglected acts of the disco era “the greatest show with the best effects since Disco Tex and the Sex O Lettes”. Flamboyant DJ Monti Rock III became Disco Tex in 1974 and scored with two odd-ball extravaganzas of Top 10 singles “Get Dancin’ “ (UK#8,US#10) and the even campier “I Wanna Dance Wit Choo (Doo Dat Dance) (UK#6, US#23). The whole enterprise was a knowing nod towards self-aggrandisement, there was a lot of style (of a fashion) and not much real substance to the act. I can’t imagine they had the greatest show and best effects so I’ve always taken that line ironically, although I’m sure that Disco Tex would have thought that he had the greatest show and best effects. It’s a great line, but to be honest, like the best of the Sex O Lettes there’s not a great deal behind this track other than that repeated refrain.
More joy follows and whoever says the Pet Shop Boys are just miserable needs a dose of “Se Vida E (That’s The Way Life Is)” which continues the feel of the first two tracks, a Mardi Gras of a track, yet always more mid-tempo than I remember. Single wise it was a top 10 hit (UK#8) released in August 1996 a month or so before the album. It certainly gave us an appropriate taste for the album and who can’t warm to lyrics such as;
“Why do you want to sit alone in gothic gloom surrounded by the ghosts of love that haunt your room? Somewhere there’s a different door to open wide. You gotta throw those skeletons out of your closet and come outside.”
Pass me those maracas, Neil! It’s no surprise it was a Top 5 hit in Spain and also got the thumbs up in Finland, where the Boys were used to scoring high chart positions. Things cool down for “It Always Comes As A Surprise” which starts off a little sounding like early Jamiroquai before turning into a pretty love song. There’s none of the conflict of relationships in the previous albums. It’s the sound of contentment in the early days of relationship “You smile and I am rubbing me eyes at a dream come true”. Reading between the lines this may not be the most balanced of partnerships. There’s evidence that the other half is questioning and unwilling to be rushed into “love all night in your bedroom”, but at the moment things are all good for Neil. Nice cool sax solo and the sophisticated Latin elegance is enhanced by a subtle sample from Brazilian bossa nova legend Astrud Gilberto’s “Corcovado”.
“Red Letter Day” is another of the anthemic “Go West” PSB tracks with a drum intro into the male choral voices. I always like these sort of tracks from the Boys and this is up there with the best of them. It was released as the fourth single from the album and it caused its own red letter day making chart history. It probably isn’t the record they would have been hoping to break as it scored the biggest fall of a chart single on its second week in the chart to that date. It came in at a respectable number 9 but the next week suffered a 33 place drop to fall outside the Top 40. Bigger drops have been recorded since then but it seems that this single release was perhaps of real interest to the fans who bought it in the week it came out. Despite this unfortunate occurrence it is still a great track and fits in well on the album.
“Up Against It” combines clever lyrics with a danceable tune, with once again the Latin feel percolating underneath. “The Survivors” feels like it is taking us back to a wintry London in an unshowy ballad. This leads into the track that was the biggest hit from the album “Before”. Released over 4 months before the album it was good to hear it again in this new context. It reached number 7 in the UK charts and made the Top 10 in Finland (again) and Sweden, amongst others. It also scored the duo a Billboard Number 1 as it topped the US Hot Dance Club Play charts. Major commercial US hits had eluded the duo for over 8 years since the heady days of “Domino Dancing” (US#18 1988) their last big hit there to date. This is the first of the two tracks that had been worked on alongside Danny Tenaglia, the other being the disco joy of “Saturday Night Forever” which closes the album in magnificent style. Before this there’s “To Step Aside” which benefits from a sample of what sounds a little like Native American singing, speeded up. Another track which still sounds good twenty-one years later.
“Bilingual” was the last PSB album I would consider to be essential. It’s not that they went off the boil from this point but this unprecedented run of five classic albums came to an end for me with their next release “Nightlife” (1999) which despite the storming “New York City Boy” and great titles such as “I Don’t Know What You Want But I Can’t Give It Anymore” and “You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk” didn’t feel quite as relevant as everything that had gone on before. Albums such as “Fundamental”(2006) and “Elysium” (2012) were solid rather than inspirational but they did notch up another first-class release with their 2009 CD “Yes”. Their last album to date has been 2016’s hopefully titled “Super”. As far as I am concerned any one of the albums I have featured as essential would have cemented the PSB’s place in pop music history but the twelve tracks they put out in 1996 might just inch ahead of the greater commercial success of “Very” as their best.
Bilingual is currently available from Amazon in the UK for £4.14 and used from £0.01. It can be downloaded for £4.99. In the US it is currently $10.38 new and used from $3.08 and as a download for $9.49. In the UK it is also available to stream on Spotify.
Is this the perfect back to school book? A collection of 47 poems and a quiz would seem to be the best antidote for back- to -school blues for both junior school pupils and teachers.
Paul Cookson is a prolific children’s poet and editor of collections with school based poems being a major focus in books such as “Crazy Classroom” (2013), “The Truth About Teachers” (2013), “The Works; Every Poem You Will Need At School” (2014) as well as anthologies on monsters, football, Halloween, disgusting poems and families, so a child-centred poet if ever there was one. He often collaborates with David Harmer with whom he set up a “Spill The Beans” school based show. Harmer is one of the poets enlisted for this collection. There are a couple of very well-known names in Roger McGough and Brian Patten but it’s very much the lesser known poets here who have given me the most pleasure.
There’s a number of over-riding themes in the embarrassment of teachers- practical jokes, wigs and secrets known about the teacher dominate. The blur between the “teacher” and the private life of the individual provides a rich vein of humour and this works splendidly in Cookson’s own “Mum Goes To Weight Watchers With Mrs Donohue”, an evocative title which just sums up the predicament as Mum is keen to share her knowledge of the teacher with her offspring;
“What she eats and how last week she gained a pound or two
Gossip from the staffroom, who cannot stand who”
The sheer joy of mum’s information comes across strongly as does her retelling of the aerobics class where Mrs Donohue’s leotard gives way;
“Bursting open to reveal her knickers old and blue”
The narrator’s lips may be temporarily sealed but only until the time is right.
The delight of finding something unexpected about teachers comes across very well. In two poems the summer break provides an escape from machismo for two male teachers in Claire Bevan’s “The Rugby Teacher’s Holiday” and Gareth Owen’s great character study of “Oh Mr Porter”. This is also evident in Celia Gentile’s deliciously naughty “Skimpily Red” where a pupil witnesses the purchase of a sexy undergarment from Next.
“Miss Nixon’s rather strict and prim
She teaches us RE
The knickers she was purchasing
Were silk and r-e-d.”
A visit to the cinema with Miss canoodling with her boyfriend in the seat in front provides great excitement in “Did Miss Enjoy The Movie?” by Richard Caley;
“This was great, two things to watch
The film and Miss Smith too
Perhaps I should have turned away
But then again, would you?”
Classroom jokes can be practical as in David Harmer’s strongest effort on show “Tricks With My New Rubber Mouse” with its great depiction of a prank played on “dear trembly Mr Taut” or can be used to just pass the time such as in the game played by the pupils every time “Miss Fidgetbum” sniffs and coughs in Trevor Millum’s poem. Double standards are always a cause for classroom outrage as evidenced by Marian Swinger’s “Good Manners” and school life is depicted in its technicolour awfulness in moments provided by the overzealous caretaker in the poem by Trevor Harvey and the school fete where the kids can’t get to throw sponges at the Headteacher in the stocks because the teachers are all there first in the poem by Andrew Collett.
Most of these poems rhyme, have quite simple forms and read aloud beautifully. If I was still teaching this book would form part of my “emergency pack” in my bag. Not as essential as Michael Rosen whose “Quick! Let’s Get Out Of Here” would be pulled out of my bag regularly but it would certainly get a new class on the teacher’s side even if it might just give them undesirable ideas.
How To Embarrass Teachers was published by Macmillan’s Children’s Books in 2008
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