The reissue
of this marvellous novel must rank as a Literary Event. First published in 1981
by Andre Deutsch with unforgettably brilliant illustrations by William Rushton,
Wild Wood should have been widely
recognised for the classic book it undoubtedly is instead of going out of print
early. Well, to some of us, it always has been a classic and its reissue, revised
and even improved, after nearly forty-five years is an occasion to celebrate.
The new Golden Duck edition
It’s not a
sequel to The Wind in the Willows.
It’s not a retelling in any but the vaguest sense. It’s a complete re-imagining,
a companion piece, almost a concordance to the original, as Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is
to Hamlet.
Not even the original hardback, but it will still set you back £197 on Amazon Marketplace
Oh, in Wind in the Willows, how disturbed Ratty, Mole and even Mr Badger are by
the Wild Wood. It’s a place of evil, fear, intimidation and danger which we as
readers, feel tangibly with Mole as he nervously traverses it. Stoats and
weasels are threatening, nightmare creatures who disturb dreams. They are, if
you’ll excuse the word, oiks. It doesn't occur to the privileged upper class Riverbankers that the Wild Wood may contain a viable, relatively comfortable and
unthreatening society – unthreatening unless they themselves feel threatened.
Well, they do feel threatened. We’re seeing Wind
in the Willows from the Wildwooders’ point of view and it’s not hard to
realise that this is a novel about class and revolution and a valuable social
document about Edwardian society.
The tale is
told by Baxter Ferret, an unassuming animal, a sort of wide-eyed Everyman who
stands slightly apart from the main action with an engagingly critical
semi-detachment. He loves his cars, his machinery, his family and his beer. Old
cars and home brewing are among the novel’s main preoccupations and part of the
warm, protective, though often cold and hungry, world of the Wood. Concealed beer jokes abound. For example, the
professional agitator who arrives to spark the Wildwooders into revolution is
Boddington Stoat, who is ‘peculiarly yellow, a little lacking in body,
extremely bitter but one of the best.’ Anyone who has spent time in a
Manchester pub will know exactly what Jan Needle is talking about. Baxter’s
first ‘gaffer’ on the farm has a petrol wagon, a Throckmorton Squeezer ‘with
…six cylinders each big enough to boil Cider in.” Cedric Willoughby, the
ancient journalist, drives an ‘Armstrong Hardcastle Mouton Special Eight. 1907
with the whirling poppets…’ Such madly exaggerated machines populate the story.
Yes, it’s
full of loving detail of a tightly-knit working class society. Yet the
Riverbankers are not entirely excoriated. Baxter may dismiss Ratty as a poetic dreamer but there’s a
measure of affection for them all, Ratty, Mole, Mr Badger, even, occasionally, Toad..
However, it’s much more than that. As a satire, Wild Wood is on a par with Animal Farm. Both recount flawed
revolutions. Yes, the Wildwooders do take over Toad Hall, rename it Brotherhood Hall, and the egregious
Toad - a creation as gross as the Toad Grahame creates, still funny but also a
symbol of repression - is driven out. But, unlike Orwell’s revolution, this is
one is not entirely successful. Grahame’s narrative cannot be tampered
with. The revolutionaries settle for
less than domination. Boddington’s fanaticism is tempered as he marries
Baxter’s sister Dolly. We know that Mr Toad will return and so do the Wildwooders. The true identity of the Washerwoman would be a big surprise to Grahame. The revolution peters
out rather good-naturedly with a sort of rapprochement
between Riverbankers and Wildwooders, upper class and working
class. We can look round us nowadays and
say ‘If only it had lasted!’
Funny,
profound, superbly written, deeply satisfying, Wild Wood has so many qualities. Perhaps the book didn’t make the
impact it should in 1981 because staunch Grahame supporters thought it
disrespectful. Far from it. As with all
good satires, there is a strong element of homage to the original. The Wind in the Willows is a quintessentially British book. So is Wild Wood, even though it springs
from a radically different social and political perspective. Read it, cry with laughter
and close it knowing that the two books together have provided you with a
conspectus of a whole society in a particular age but still relevant for all of
time.
Wild Wood by Jan Needle. Published by Golden Duck 2014. ISBN 978 189926221 2 £9.99.
Available also as an Ebook on Kindle.
This review first appeared in the review section of An Awfully Big Blog Adventure, the blogspot of the Scattered Authors Society. I thought it worth sharing with readers who might not have seen it.
This review first appeared in the review section of An Awfully Big Blog Adventure, the blogspot of the Scattered Authors Society. I thought it worth sharing with readers who might not have seen it.
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