Humourous Children's Book

[Danny McG]

It's not this perchance?

A seven-foot-tall man washes up naked on the Scottish coast with no memory of his past and no clue to his identity except the words “Gog” and “Magog” tattooed on his knuckles. Knowing only that he must somehow get to London, he sets off on foot on a four hundred mile journey across Britain. As we accompany him on his surreal quest and share his strange adventures – by turns hilarious, horrific, bawdy, and bizarre – unexpected truths gradually emerge not only about his own past but also the history of Britain itself.

A towering achievement that blends myth, history, epic fantasy, Gothic horror, and picaresque adventure, Gog (1967) was acclaimed by critics on both sides of the Atlantic, who compared it to the great works of Cervantes, Swift, Fielding, Dickens and Joyce. This new edition, the first in decades, joins two other classics by Andrew Sinclair also available from Valancourt.

Don't know if that was the one but it is now deffo on my 'to get' list!

 

[pambaddeley]

Read years ago so don't recall humour but Country Cock and City Dragon by Jessie Powell featured a London in which landmarks came alive and battled each other. Children's book published late 60s I think.

 

[Ursa major]

The book whose identity still escapes me wasn't in the least bit bawdy, and was almost certainly published before Gog.

 

[Danny McG]

Don't know if that was the one but it is now deffo on my 'to get' list!

And this afternoon I became the proud owner of 'Gog' as a ebook

 

[pambaddeley]

The book whose identity still escapes me wasn't in the least bit bawdy, and was almost certainly published before Gog.

Definitely not this one then? Published 1966.

 

[Ursa major]

I don't know.

As I mentioned up-thread, I think the book may have been illustrated, i.e. that it may have been a picture book. However, my memory is flawed, to the extent that I can't recall which school I was at when I saw it. (Note: I went to two infant schools and three junior schools... plus a nursery school for at least part of a year.)

 

[pambaddeley]

OK. The book is illustrated; black and white illustrations.

 

[Danny McG]

Note: I went to two infant schools and three junior schools... plus a nursery school for at least part of a year.

Expulsions I wonder?
Or travelling person?

 

[Ursa major]

Neither: we moved house a few times, then moved town (150 miles distant) when my father's company was merged with another and the other company's site** was chosen as the new location for the combined company.


** - Many years later, the division of the company I worked for (in a completely different industry) bought that very same site and I moved there.