Authors Electric

Jan Needle - Baxter Ferret or Boddington Stoat? * Reposted from 9 May 2014 * In memory and appreciation of Jan Needle, 1943--2023 When I was making  plans for a party to celebrate the new edition of Jan Needle's Wild Wood  I began to fantasize about asking all the guests to arrive dressed as the character who most closely resembled their secret self.  The male guests would have had a generous choice: the Big Four from Wind in the Willows -- Rat, Mole, Badger and Toad ( and perhaps Otter for the more elusive spirits) and then Wild Wood 's dour ideologue Boddington Stoat, flamboyant champagne  socialist,   O.B.Weasel, geriatric Harrison Ferret and any number of old sea rats and enthusiastic volunteers. I would be Wild Wood 's Daisy Ferret, the tyrannical illogical mother, always ready to lash out with her ladle at any furry offspring within range while dimpling at O.B.Weasel's waistcoat and raising ...

     My old father, sadly, got to be quite a grumpy old git in the years before he succumbed to seventy years of constant smoking (he started at eight; I leave you to do the sums). But even as a younger man he wasn’t keen on such foolishness as Christmas. He once acquired a miniature costermongers barrow as a surprise present for me, and when I found it hidden at the bottom of the yard, sold it to someone else. Didn’t tell me, and when I’d spent most of the festive morning happily hunting for it, was quite surprised when I burst into tears on hearing the sad truth. Come to think of it, maybe he was always a grumpy old git. Who knows? The point is, when I got children of my own – and mindful of the old saw that we all turn into our mums and dads – I was determined to be the Christmas party animal par excellence. My greatest triumph was when I got a local handyman to run me up a sit-in perambulating railway engine for Hughie when he was about five. I’m...