IF you didn't already, the author of this book, Clement, is on the radio in Britain (where he lives), regularly on the BBC game show radio programme 'Just a Minute'. Basically you've got to talk for a set topic for a minute without repeating words, deviating from the subject or hesitating. IT's often quite hilarious and Clement is one for the drole tone.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/justaminute.shtml
It's not available online at this moment but if you look at the site, there's a link to BBC 7 site which, repeats the show sometimes. It's a great station, rarely listened to. You might just find a gem..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/comedy/index.shtml?Today

Cory -- Do you know about "Uncle" by J.P. Martin? Has some similarities, and is at least as subversive, and if possible more surreal.

Also to be recommended: Freud's wonderful what's-wrong-with-restaurants book, "No One Else Has Complained".

Best! D.

Hadn't heard of it -- I'll check it out. I just ordered "Molesworth" from Amazon UK and I'm really looking forward to it.

Edited by author 04-04-2003 01:37 PM
Magnificent. I had been trying to find this for ages. I always felt that the family were based on a friend of mine and his parents, he was a rather anxious and serious child and his parents who had him as their only child rather late in life having been told they couldn't have any were rather distant.

The bit I remembered was the announcement in Grimble At Christmas - as in 'no soup, no announcement' (I hope that doesn't count as a spoiler!).

Just a warning about "Uncle", BTW. The first book is somewhat available in various used editions (there was one US publication in the 70's), but you may have trouble finding a reading copy. The series as a whole is very collectible because of the Quentin Blake illustrations. (It took us sixteen years of searching to get the whole series in hardcover.)

If you can find a copy of "Uncle", though, you'll soon know if you're interested in tracking down any of the others. But by my lights, it's hysterical. (So is Molesworth...you're in for a treat.)

You know, something tells me that if the author of these books is still alive and doing radio shows in the UK, they're probably not legitimate e-book releases.

Edited by author 04-04-2003 10:08 PM
Given that the illustrations are clearly scanned from discoloured cheap paper, with the text on the other side showing through... RM is right, this is blatant copyright violation.

It's also not the original text (which was released in 1968 and therefore pre-decimalisation; 'ten p' is 'tenpence' in the original edition) nor the original illustrations, which were by Frank Francis. It's a bad pirate of the early-70s Puffin edition with the Quentin Blake illustrations.

Clement Freud (now Sir Clement Freud) is a former member of parliament. J K Rowling describes Grimble as one of her favourite books, and has asked for it to be brought back into print. Neil Gaiman is also a fan, as is Graham Norton.

Grimble deserves better than this shoddy treatment. Are you really in favour of the works of still-living authors being released on the net without their permission, Cory?

Unfortunate about the illegality, but the surreality of a children's book by Clement Freud is unsurprising... his daughter Emma once described how she would cringe with embarassment whenever schoolteachers asked if she was related to Sigmund Freud - Clement had brought her up to believe her great grandfather had invented the toilet.

Edited by author 04-05-2003 10:26 AM
wow. what a find. i'd never heard of Grimble, and i consider myself well read in the children's book department. can't wait for it to get back in print -- recognized those dahl-ing Quentin Blake illustrations immediately.

JW, i guess i wonder what's the harm in introducing a few hundred people to Grimble via the net, and letting Grimble fans get back in touch with the book in the absence of the book being in print.

i also wonder how far we will get if the debate over copyright and the web is framed in black and white terms. it seems we're in the midst of great change in our conceptual understanding of copyright and distribution, and i'd argue that the field is shades of grey, rather than just being right and wrong. we are still at the beginning of a major conceptual shift regarding these issues.

nothing is perfect in the current scenario, that’s for sure. and there’s a lot of experimentation and boundary pushing going on. but sometimes i wonder what would have happened if the horse-breeding industry had the political clout to stop automobiles and other forms of modern transportation.

fans like Robin and Cory do Clement Freud a favor by showing their love for his work on the web. they do readers like me a favor in helping me to find more books to enjoy.

who knows? maybe Freud would be tickled to know that folks are still chuckling over Grimble’s charming predicaments. could he be glad that fans are promoting his work in the absence of the book being in print?

perhaps Freud would be glad to know that the chorus of readers who say those stories should go back in print has grown louder and wider. count me among them.

You have your argument, and Cory has his. I have mine. It goes like this:

In 1998 I simultaneously published two similar RPGs: "Violence" and "Puppetland". Both were by authors of similar stature, both had covers by the same artist. "Violence" was slightly longer and slightly more expensive; "Puppetland" was a double-cover, incorporating two games in the same book. Both were targeted and marketed at the same market and got similarly high reviews.

"Violence" outsold "Puppetland" by roughly 20%.

One of them had been available on the web for two years prior to release. Hint: it wasn't "Violence".