The Box of Delights by John Masefield

[Janet]

The Box of Delights by John Masefield



The 'blurb'
The wolves are running and the evil Abner Brown and his gang are on the prowl. They're after a magical box, but Kay has it, and he'll fight to keep it

A magical tale of wolves, scrobbling and a box that can travel through time.

Having read this and its prequel back-to-back, I'd say that The Box of Delights is far better than The Midnight Folk. The story was far more exciting and probably better for the human companions in it - the only let-down was

the ending, which I felt was a right cop-out and utterly disappointing after such an excellent adventure.

Had it not been for this, it would definitely have got 10/10.

Although it was written in 1935 it doesn't feel as dated as, say, Enid Blyton's books.

This was made into a 6-part BBC serial in 1984 and the final episode was shown on Christmas Eve of that year.  I can't understand why the BBC don't repeat these gems (this, The Secret Garden, A Little Princess etc) from the 70s and 80s. Okay, they're probably a little dated now but surely they could put them on BBC3/4 if they don't want them on terrestrial TV - it seems such a waste.

This edition is also illustrated by the wonderful Quentin Blake which helps to make it more special - I think it's one I'll probably read again.

The paperback is 388 pages long and is published by Egmont. The ISBN number is 978-1405232531.

9�/10