Interestingly, early on in the book, Kay reads the names of his long-lost toys ('The Guards') and among them are the names Jemima, Maria, Susan and Peter which of course are the names of the Jones children in The Box of Delights written years later.

The Midnight Folk (Kay Harker): Masefield, John, Hilder

We are even invited to empathize with the book’s chief villains, the three generations of Americans all known as Abner Brown. Discover the joy of reading with us, your trusted source for affordable books that do not compromise on quality. Kay's governess and Mrs Tattle have a session of complaining about what young people these days are coming to, and how none of them are "what we were when we were girls". First printing (Same date on TP and CP; states Published November, 1927 with no additional printings listed). If this book is over 5 years old, then please expect the pages to be yellowing or to have age spots.Hilder’s black and white illustrations, from the 1930s, hark back to the era of 19th century boys’ adventure stories. His Herefordshire childhood was idyllic; he delighted in the landscape, its sense of place and history, its folklore and its myths.

The Midnight Folk - Media Centre - BBC The Midnight Folk - Media Centre - BBC

Soon Kay is engaged in a thrilling quest that begins each night as the clock strikes twelve, taking him into the enchanted and dangerous world of the Midnight Folk: pirates, highwaymen, talking animals, and a gang of witches led by none other than Sylvia Daisy (in cahoots, as in The Box of Delights, with the arch-villain Abner Brown). Finally Found the Body: The discovery of Twiney Pricker's body, near the end of the book, is what finally leads Kay to the treasure. The effect is mesmerizing; it captures better than anything I know the strange, hypnogogic state between sleep and waking when the world itself feels woozily pliant to the near-conscious mind. Narrative Profanity Filter: Whenever Roper Bilges uses a profane verb, which he does often, it's obscured by verbing the nearest relevant noun. Cunning Like a Fox: One of Kay's allies is Rollicum Bitem Lightfoot, a fox who relies on his wits to keep one step ahead of the local gamekeeper.There are the layers of the treasure story, folded around three generations, but other histories are interleaved everywhere: great floods and storms, the druids, the Wars of the Roses, the reign of Henry VIII, the Battle of Naseby, the plague and so on. Illustrated by Rowland Hillier, with pictorial endpapers, six colour plates and lots of line drawings. For younger bookworms – and nostalgic older ones too – there’s the Slightly Foxed Cubs series, in which we’ve reissued a number of classic nature and historical novels. For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password. Blue cloth boards, bumped, clean, light shelf wear, 327 pages, lightest use wear and marks, binding tight and square.

BBC Radio 4 Extra - John Masefield - The Midnight Folk BBC Radio 4 Extra - John Masefield - The Midnight Folk

S. Directed by Gabe Polsky, the film stars Nicolas Cage as the frontiersman Miller and Fred Hechinger. I was sure that a greater life was near us: in dreams I some­times seemed to enter a part of it, and woke with rapture and longing.Your Size May Vary: The relative sizes of Kay and the various Midnight Folk is never nailed down, and seems to vary according to convenience.

The Box of Delights by John Masefield, Quentin Blake The Box of Delights by John Masefield, Quentin Blake

Caroline Louisa is installed as Kay's guardian at the end of The Midnight Folk, having appeared earlier in the novel as one of Kay's supernatural helpers. Kay's toys (known as "the guards") have been taken away from him at the start of the book, apparently because they will remind him of his parents; there is a strong implication that Kay's parents are deceased. Roper Bilges the gamekeeper shares the name of his grandfather, one of the mutineers on Captain Harker's ship. The book is not merely a fantasy for children, but an embodiment of a child’s capacity to dream – and, ultimately, an argument for the emotional importance of fantasy, of story, itself. Wicked Witch: Mrs Pouncer and her colleagues, complete with familiar felines, flying broomsticks, tall pointy hats, wrinkled faces, hooky noses, etc.It is the prose equivalent of a painting by Marc Chagall; remarkably, it even does away with chapters, the narrative slipping like water through the fingers of convention. First published in 1927, John Masefield's book was described by The Times as one of 'the greatest children's books ever written. And the book is also concerned with the passage of time itself: with the cuckoo clock striking in the night, with church bells and dinner bells, with a repeater watch, which Benjamin hid and Kay now finds, with the decayed clock in the harness room.