As you (should) know, it was The Birthday recently and I’m
still receiving belated gifts. In fact,
pretty much every gift I’ve received this year has been belated. Which is fine by me. It just means that it is still The Birthday.
I like presents.
Feel free to give me presents.
Today this present arrived:
The Church Mice Adrift
written and illustrated by Graham Oakley, 1976.
‘They were really feeling quite hungry because it was at least ten minutes since they’d finished their seventeen-course breakfast in the vestry.
After the thirty-fourth helping the rats felt a bit better, and ready for a little after-dinner revelry. This was the moment the waiters had been waiting for. They quietly crept ashore and if Humphrey hadn’t chosen that moment to improve the rats’ minds with a lecture on Etiquette in the Court of Louis XIV and Arthur hadn’t waited for him, they too might have escaped.’
This brings The Collection up to EIGHT, meaning I only have
FOUR more to go.
In this, the fifth Church Mice book, Sampson and the mice
are unceremoniously chucked out of the vestry by a bunch of homeless rats and
have to come up with a plan to take back their home.
‘When he had got the mice together and explained his plan they admitted it was not bad considering he was only a cat. Anyway everybody was sick of being soldiers. So Sampson who was good at scavenging was put in charge of finding provisions and Arthur who was practical was put in charge of construction and Humphrey who was not very good at anything was put in charge of the artistic side of things.’
It is, as usual, beautifully illustrated and very witty.
YAY!
…
So let’s celebrate this two-thirds completion of a life goal
with a musical number. And not just ANY
musical number:
Johnny B. Goode from Back To The Future
Song performed by Mark Campbell and Tim May, scene performed by Michael J Fox
Written by Chuck Berry
I've heard about this series from your blog, but have never come across one of the titles. I love this cover, and I'm already a fan after only having read "seventeen course breakfast." I'll have to check them out. Speaking of mice, how's yours?
ReplyDeleteThat is the problem with books going out of print. The first book The Church Mouse was re-released a few years back, although all the pictures were sort of framed and smaller than originally and it didn't look as good, but the others haven't been re-released recently, which is silly, because they're the best pictures books ever. So unless you grew up in England between the 70s and early 90s, you're not so likely to have come across them. We used to get them from the library when I was little.
DeleteI do recommend seeking them out.
The cover of this book is a fictitious scene, not to be found inside the book, as the covers are always an original drawing summing up the theme of the story. However, the very next book in the series, and possibly The Favourite, The Church Mice At Bay does include a scene in which they all run for their lives - I wonder if the plot of The Chuch Mice At Bay was somehow inspired by the cover of The Church Mice Adrift...?
Mouse is still evil. Had hoped for new one for birthday. This did not happen. Will have to buy one soon if I want to continue The Important 'Paint Doodle' Work.