ticklemouse's review
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
thecommonswings's review
4.0
I started a gnome project earlier this year before I was sidetracked by prog nonsense with Boggis! - I did a gnome issue a few years ago but felt it was a bit lacklustre, mainly because the high watermark of all gnomishness for me are the books of Denys Watkins Pitchford/ BB. This isn’t quite of the level of the Little Grey Men books, which are a strange sort of pastoral odyssey that occasionally detours into Arthur Machin territory, but there’s sort of a hint that those gnomes may well be the remains of the civilisation here. This is set many hundreds of years ago but just happens to have gnomes who have developed a steam engine
The plot is pretty basic - and has none of the weird melancholy that Little Grey Men and it’s story of a small family of gnomes, the last of their kind, making their way through a changing landscape - but as ever BB has two trumps up his sleeve:
1. World building. The gnome civilisation is really sketched out and although I suspect the women would have more of a role now, it’s probably as good as any utopian gnome civilisation written in 1955 is going to have. The elected head of the gnomes takes turns, as do all gnomes, in doing practical work by a lottery and there seems to be a pretty equal footing for all gnomes. They also seem to have a very keen idea of what is and isn’t creatures to befriend or, to be blunt, eat. Birds and fish are fair game but the strange Cowzies are equals. The Leprechauns see everything as fair game and the big reveal is that they’re effectively the weasels from Wind in the Willows but more murderous. They’re the lesser creature because they’re just not civilised and the gnomes are
2. BB has a very keen sense of the food chain as befits someone whose main writing and artistic career was in nature writing. As alluded to above, there’s a definite unsentimental sense of what is fair game to eat and what isn’t, but like in the Little Grey Men books that unsentimentality also means that death is a very real thing here. None of the gnomes are at risk but the Cowzies come to the rescue mainly because they are so appalled and horrified that they’re being eaten by the leprechauns. The final attack ratchets up to a leprechaun slaughter (and yes, we are told several die while the others escape utterly traumatised) when they see the remains of one of their kind on the dinner table. The big baddy is literally dashed upon rocks because of their fury and BB explicitly tells us this is a good thing. It’s nothing as chilling as the Machinesque passages in Little Grey Men but has ever a writer who creates such a warm and bustling fictional world had such an unsentimental glee at death?
So not top tier but I absolutely remember why I loved this as a kid. It asks a lot of the reader and you get just as much back in return. Brilliant
The plot is pretty basic - and has none of the weird melancholy that Little Grey Men and it’s story of a small family of gnomes, the last of their kind, making their way through a changing landscape - but as ever BB has two trumps up his sleeve:
1. World building. The gnome civilisation is really sketched out and although I suspect the women would have more of a role now, it’s probably as good as any utopian gnome civilisation written in 1955 is going to have. The elected head of the gnomes takes turns, as do all gnomes, in doing practical work by a lottery and there seems to be a pretty equal footing for all gnomes. They also seem to have a very keen idea of what is and isn’t creatures to befriend or, to be blunt, eat. Birds and fish are fair game but the strange Cowzies are equals. The Leprechauns see everything as fair game and the big reveal is that they’re effectively the weasels from Wind in the Willows but more murderous. They’re the lesser creature because they’re just not civilised and the gnomes are
2. BB has a very keen sense of the food chain as befits someone whose main writing and artistic career was in nature writing. As alluded to above, there’s a definite unsentimental sense of what is fair game to eat and what isn’t, but like in the Little Grey Men books that unsentimentality also means that death is a very real thing here. None of the gnomes are at risk but the Cowzies come to the rescue mainly because they are so appalled and horrified that they’re being eaten by the leprechauns. The final attack ratchets up to a leprechaun slaughter (and yes, we are told several die while the others escape utterly traumatised) when they see the remains of one of their kind on the dinner table. The big baddy is literally dashed upon rocks because of their fury and BB explicitly tells us this is a good thing. It’s nothing as chilling as the Machinesque passages in Little Grey Men but has ever a writer who creates such a warm and bustling fictional world had such an unsentimental glee at death?
So not top tier but I absolutely remember why I loved this as a kid. It asks a lot of the reader and you get just as much back in return. Brilliant
maeclegg's review
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
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