Just So Stories

Masefield was the Poet Laureate from 1930 to 1967 and his two children’s books, The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights, were both great favourites of mine as a child. I was hugely excited when The Box of Delights was adapted by the BBC into an absolutely marvellous TV series and even moreso, when I was able to get a copy on DVD – you can now access episodes on YouTube, so put that on your viewing list.

The Box of Delights, or When the Wolves Were Running, is the sequel to The Midnight Folk. The central character of both, young hero Kay Harker, comes home from school for the Christmas holidays and experiences another round of adventures involving witches, characters from myths, talking animals and a gang of criminals who can only be stopped by Kay, aided by the magical box. The narrative has a dream-like quality to it and the whole vibe of this mythical, magic-laden Christmas makes it an absolutely classic for this time of year.

Leading the forces of evil are a couple of witches familiar from The Midnight Folk: Abner Brown and Kay’s own former governess, Sylvia Daisy Pouncer. The box of delights, depending on what you do with it, can take you back into the past, make you very small, or transport you instantly to any place you wish to go.

Abner wants this box desperately. He wants it to exchange for the Elixir of Life, the owner of which has been ‘scrobbled’ [kidnapped] along with Kay’s guardian, his friend Peter, and the entire staff of the Tatchester Cathedral. The cathedral is about to celebrate 1000 years of Christmas and it appears that the special midnight service will not happen, with Abner’s dark sorcery threatening the entire surroundings.

It is still possible to buy 2nd hand and definitely worth a search. My childhood copy would have been the Puffin edition pictured (no longer have it, though I do still have The Midnight Folk) and one of my favourite Book Week dress-ups was as Sylvia Daisy Pouncer – red ‘7 league’ boots and all. Among all the top-sellers of kids lit lists today, so many classics are forgotten but so worth a re-visit. It would be super to see titles such as these in re-print editions.

The Box of Delights is a true Christmas classic