Reviews: Simon Weston

-
Simon Weston: A Nod from Nelson
Pont, 2008, hb, £7.99

Simon Weston: Nelson to the Rescue
Pont, 2009, hb, £8.99

Having a quick look back at my lastest reviews, I see they're almost all historical fiction: I promise you I do read other things (though I have a couple more historicals waiting in the wings to be reviewed), and here are two.

The Nelson books are by Simon Weston, a soldier who overcame appalling injuries sustained during the Falklands War. He has written several books about his experiences, but these are his first excursions into children's fictions. The books are written with David FitzGerald, and are illustrated by Jac Jones.

These are tricky books to review: I normally end a book with a few comments charging about in my brain, but I finished the first one of these not entirely certain what I thought about it. I then read the second, hoping that would clarify what I thought, but I'm not certain that it did.

Both books are larky fantasies about Nelson, a just-retired Shire horse who used to pull a milk float. If I tell you that the other characters in the book include Flight Lieutenant Pigeon and James Pond the frog this perhaps gives you an idea of what you're up against: plenty of puns, and masses of references to popular culture: the horses send hay-mails, and experience saddle-lite broadcasting. The stories are certainly wacky, and full of energy, but for me they didn't quite come off: I liked the puns; the authors do a good job of making talking animals seem entirely normal, and yet... and yet.... the wackiness is maybe a little too concentrated. There's a sense of rushing pell-mell off to the next amazing episode, and the next joke. I think, at the end of the books, I felt whirled through Nelson's world, without having had time to appreciate it. I'd have liked a slower unfolding of some of the jokes.

The illustrations do a great job, and have some of the subtlety the stories lack.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rollkur and the blue tongue

-
I've been meaning to write about this all week, but reading the exclusive in Horse and Hound about the controversy tipped me over the edge. For my non-horsy readers, rollkur is a training/warming up technique used by some dressage riders. It basically involves riding the horse with its jaw pulled in virtually to its chest, in order to increase suppleness. Patrik Kittel , a Swedish competitor in Odense was videoed riding his horse in this way. If you watch the video , you'll see the horse's tongue hanging out - blue. It takes a while before the rider notices this. When he does, he stops, puts the horse's tongue back in, and carries on. There are two things which bother me about this. Firstly, I am fully aware large sections of the dressage world, and some of its brighest stars, consider rollkur perfectly ok, but the FEI guidelines state this practice should only be for short periods, allowing the horse to rest. Patrick Kittel apparently rode the horse for two hou...
Read more

Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes

-
Image
My friend Louise sent me this picture today. It's from a children's book with the rather wince-making title For The Wee Ones. I thought, when I read that (because I read the message before I looked at the picture) that the picture was going to be a typical winsome production from the school of artists who think (or who are paid to think) that the child is a thing sent from God and a blissful thing. They had obviously never met a child, and certainly not mine. I should have known Louise better. The artist responsible for Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes slipped this one past the editors. Just look at the poor, broken Mother Rabbit. She knows she has not the faintest chance of being listened to, and poor thing, she is stooped in the way of a mother to whom this is just the lastest in a long line of horror; with nothing good to come. And Archibald is obviously the spawn of the Devil. Just look at those eyes. He'll have the bed after he's finished the bedclothes...
Read more

Dick Sparrow - 40 Horse Hitch, and Neil Dimmock's 46 Percherons

-
Image
Here's a clip of Dick Sparrow driving 40 horses. It's an amazing sight, particularly when the shot changes to show the team from the rear and you get the great incongruity of modern American corporate architecture as a background to the wagon and horses. I love the anticipation in the video: the sense of something amazing being just round the corner is palpable. Thanks to Christina Wilsdon for telling me about this world record 46 Percheron hitch (alas just stills) but you get the idea.
Read more