Uncle and the Battle for Recognition

This is a blogpost about a set of books that were my absolute favourites when I was a boy. They're anarchic, surreal and very very English. And hardly anyone knows about them. 

They are the Uncle books by J P Martin and Quentin Blake. 

I bought the very first Uncle book when I was in short trousers. Published in 1964, Uncle told the story of an immensely rich elephant – the Uncle of the stories – and his adventures. Aided by his man-servant (simian-servant?) The Old Monkey and a cast of bizarre characters with even more bizarre names, Uncle strives to keep the peace and to protect his many friends and residents. 

His home, a strange place called Homeward, is described wonderfully by writer David Langford as ‘Half Gormenghast and half Disneyland. Scenic railways abound; there are museums with entire floors devoted to flamingo bird-baths or treacle bowls through the ages. Most of Homeward's inhabitants are alarmingly eccentric, and would pass unnoticed in the Goon Show.' 

Homeward consists of hundreds of skyscrapers, towers and tower blocks all squashed together and surrounded by a high wall. All of the buildings are connected by railways and rope bridges, slides and ladders. And there are thousands of residents - dwarves, badgers and many other animals and quirky, eccentric characters. They include Dr Gleamhound, a chemist whose drugs have the opposite effect to that intended, and Noddy Ninety, a nonagenarian who pretends to be a schoolboy and passes through every year in a week or so before going back and starting as an infant again. It's all deliciously bonkers..

But facing the glory of Homeward is the filthy stronghold of Badfort, ruled by Uncle's arch-enemy Beaver Hateman. The Badfort crowd spend their days lounging around dressed in unclean sacking, swilling Black Tom and Leper Gin, writing down bad thoughts in their Hating Books, and jealously hatching terrible schemes against Uncle.

Uncle appeared in just six books: Uncle (1964), Uncle Cleans Up (1965), Uncle and His Detective (1966), Uncle and the Treacle Trouble (1967), Uncle and Claudius the Camel (1969) and Uncle and the Battle for Badgertown (1973). All were riotously illustrated by the then pretty much unknown Quentin Blake and all are now horribly collectible. The books were published in hardback in the UK by Jonathan Cape but never enjoyed a paperback release. Consequently, they are something of a rarity and regularly sell on e-bay and rare book sites in excess of £150-£600 per book. 

Meanwhile, the fact that the entire series had such a limited life means that J P Martin has not enjoyed the success and recognition given to other children’s ‘nonsense’ authors like Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll and Roald Dahl. And this is a crime, it truly is. Martin’s books are hilarious, touching, almost Pythonesque in their surreal humour. They're worthy of reading for the names alone. 

J Hawkins Flabskin. Jellytussle. Isadore Hitmouse. Cowgill. Firlon Hootman. The author was a wizard with names, my favourite being Butterskin Mute, a farmer who has spades mounted into his boots. 

The other reason why the Uncle books have been so hard done by is good old political correctness - but not because of any racism (the books are uncommonly cosmopolitan for the times they were written in), nor sexism nor ageism. It was Classism. Because Uncle is rich and often pompous, some claimed that the books championed the elitism of the Upper Classes. Well, all I can say to these people is try reading the books instead of making assumptions.

Uncle is constantly sent up by his friends and enemies and frequently suffers for his pomposity. David Langford again: ‘The hilarious libels they print about him in the Badfort News all have a regrettable element of truth. It's not only the Badfort mob who are sick to death of hearing about his great deeds of benevolence, like the Opening of the Dwarfs' Drinking Fountains. Also, ever-guzzling Uncle isn't terribly bright: the third novel features a hunt for buried treasure described by the enigmatic code-word dlog, the gag being that everyone except our hero cracks this cipher at first glance.’ 

Uncle's pomposity is funny. It is certainly not a trait that is celebrated nor valued. Except maybe by author Will Self, a long-time fan of the series who says: ‘I think Uncle stuck with me because of its combination of excess, gadgetry and eccentricity – all of which are modes of being I have attempted to emulate in my adult life. I blame J P Martin.’

Ultimately, it is Uncle’s philanthropy and kindness of heart that win the day, not his money or his class. Oh, and there are some mighty battles too which has led to further anti-Uncle protests that the books are ‘over-violent’. This is also nonsense. Yes, Uncle may ‘lay about himself' with a stone club or two and kick the bad guys 50 feet into the air, but this is cartoon violence of a kind far exceeded by Itchy and Scratchy, Rick and Morty or even Tom and Jerry. There’s no blood or gore or death in Uncle’s world. It’s madness that the books were held in some kind of republishing Hell for fifty years because of these silly allegations. 

I wonder what J P Martin himself would have made of the all the fuss? 

John Percival Martin (1880-1966) was not a soldier of the class war at all. He was neither a rabid Socialist nor a member of the landed gentry. He was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire and became a Methodist minister in 1902 before serving as a missionary in South Africa and as an army chaplain in Palestine during the First World War. After the Second World War he lived in the village of Timberscombe in Somerset until his death in 1966. He made up the Uncle stories for his children and was persuaded to write them down in his final years. The latter three books were completed by his daughter from notes he left after his death.

 

I consider myself lucky. I recognised the genius of J P Martin early and got myself copies of the books. Consequently I have read them all many times. 

And now, finally, you can too. 

In 2016, a chap called Marcus Gipps - also a long-time fan of the books - managed to obtain the rights to the books and, with the blessing of J P Martin's family, started a Kickstarter campaign to fund a reprint. He set a target of £7000 and asked us fans to contribute. The money came pouring in, eventually reaching the extraordinary total of £29,177. 

This meant that Marcus was able to produce a much higher quality linen bound hardback and an additional paperback biography of Martin complete with some unpublished chapters. He also made a CD available of recordings of J P Martin reading some chapters from the books. Meanwhile. Quentin Blake dug out the original artwork and spruced it up and the finished book is a complete joy.

Sadly, the book was a limited run and it's now hard to find copies of these too. 

However the books are now available as reasonably inexpensive e-books for the first time, so now everyone can enjoy these wonderful stories.

And the time is right for Uncle to take his place among the giants of quality British children’s imaginative fiction.

Get yourself a copy and join a sillier, happier world.

 

All illustrations are Copyright (c) Quentin Blake and the estate of J P Martin. Colouring by Tony Bannister.