Observations on Grimble

After the death of someone famous, the late Miles Kington would usually begin his column: “In all the tributes, I have seen no mention of his deep and abiding love of cricket.” A cast of unlikely characters would then reminisce about cricket-related incidents that had never occurred, as: a) Miles had made them up and b) their absurdity was the point. He even wrote one about Saddam Hussein.

I immediately thought of Miles when news came of Clement Freud’s death, not because he was a notable cricketer, but because I was sure that, amid the gallimaufry of anecdotes, one aspect of his life would be lost: his marvellously strange children’s books about a boy called Grimble.

J K Rowling is not alone in considering Grimble, as the first was called (the second was Grimble at Christmas), “one of the funniest books I’ve ever read”. It begins:

'This is a story about a boy called Grimble who was about ten. You may think it is silly to say someone is about ten, but Grimble had rather odd parents who were very vague and seldom got anything completely right.

For instance, he did not have his birthday on a fixed day like other children: every now and then his father and mother would buy a cake, put some candles on top of it, and say, “Congratulations Grimble. Today you are about seven”, or, “Yesterday you were about eight and a half but the cake shop was closed.”'

First published in 1968, and later illustrated by Quentin Blake, the book tells of how Grimble comes home from school one day to find that his parents have gone to Peru for a week, a departure they indicate with two pins stuck in a globe, one in England attached to a piece of paper saying “Grimble” and the other in Peru saying “Us”. He then has to fend for himself. Not surprisingly, given the author’s association with food, many of Grimble’s trials revolve around his supper. His parents arrange for him to visit friends’ houses, but their occupants are all out when he turns up, and Grimble inevitably mangles the recipes they have left for him.

After Freud read the stories on the BBC’s Jackanory, he received more than 20,000 letters, including quite a few from domestic science teachers who thought that Grimble’s cooking set a very bad example. For many years these delightful books were out of print, however – until last November, when Jonathan Cape republished Grimble at Christmas. Our hero’s first adventures will also finally be available again in August in a McSweeney’s compendium, Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs and Some Other Things. Hurrah.

Time for new generations of children to learn why if you cut a potato into eighths it won’t boil in two and a half minutes.

Post your comment

Please note: you will need to login or register before you can comment on the website