Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl was read to me by Fantastic Mr Payne at Highfield Priory School, Preston when I was seven years old during the Autumn term of 1977. He had also read Danny Fox to us, but his fox-theme turned into a Roald Dahl romp as he then read James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and Danny Champion of the World before the summer holidays came along and spoiled everything.
Typical Dahl? The hero faces colourful, grotesque, Dickensian adversaries, ie: farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean. Then there is the anarchistic view of norms that Dahl puts forward. I am thinking about the chapter where Fox explains to Badger that it is almost a moral duty to steal from the three foul farmers simply because they are so nasty and deserve the revenge of the animals. In the early 1990s, one dad told me that he would always hop over that chapter when he played a recorded version in the car for his three daughters.
I was entranced by the world Fox creates under the ground. I loved drawing places like that as a child such as rambling houses or underground hideaways. As an adult, things get a bit spoiled by what you've learned along the way. For example that the ground is not made of a nice thick cohesive layer of soil perfect for forming into an underground village, or that foxes and rabbits do not live together in harmony united against the common foe. Another thought: what did they do with all that soil that they dug through? Maybe it just got erased like a pencil-drawing.
So what? All these thoughts could just ruin a good story. James Bond could never happen if adults could not suspend belief, sit back and allow themselves to be entertained. Harry Potter is full of holes, questions and inconsistencies. It's pedantic to point them out, too late and probably a bit jealous!
By the way, as conservative little boy, I preferred Faith Jaques illustrations to those of Sir Quentin Blake. I preferred the details and intricacy of her drawings to the (apparently) sketchy nature of the later drawings - but now I can see the merits of both. I think that my own illustrating style (see
www.andrewashcroft.net ) owes more to Blake.
The illustration is the cover of the version that I have owned from being seven years old. The version is illustrated by Faith Jaques. I have read my own old copy to many
classes and my own three sons.
It is great to read aloud. I love giving the three farmers Lancashire accents. Bean becomes growly and guttural, Boggis self-assured and drawly, Bunce squeaky and spiteful.
I have also read it aloud in Swedish to classes in Sweden. Great stories can have a world-wide appeal. Themes that translate to other cultures make for world-classics. Hooray for Roald Dahl!
