(Original Review, 1981-01-05)

When I was 9 or 10 I loved reading about Sherlock, Father Brown, Pop Larkin, Billy Bunter, Bertie and Jeeves, Just William, etc., etc. Also E. Nesbit. At the same time there was a range of Puffin books that gave me Erik the detective, the dalmatians, One End Street and others. And there was the Children's Book Club -- a monthly hardback volume -- those titles seem to have disappeared, but I half remember them and would be fascinating to revisit them.

All these classic sources of children's literature contain, to a greater or lesser extent, the values of those days -- some of which we now regard as beyond the pale. But I don't see, despite the huge expansion of writing for children and young adults, material that is so memorable. So much of what kids read now is referential to their current situation, or is complete fantasy. The books I am talking about were about something real, but an escape from our suburban middle-class lives.

Is there a case for carefully re-editing some of these works to filter out the mostly unimportant references that are now unacceptable in our multicultural society? It is no different to what any editor would do to a new manuscript, should it be necessary. For an analogy, when a theatre company plays Shakespeare, the director invariably makes judicious alterations to the script to make it more acceptable and accessible to a 21st century audience (including children).

It is already widely done in children's books - for instance, the timeless appeal of Enid Blyton's adventures for Children (what used to bemuse me was that all Blyton's families had cooks and boxrooms, but most of the stories seemed harmless), have had their dated and for today's sensibilities, unacceptable edges, knocked off and tidied up. For adults, i think it is important to have their original format still available (e.g., “Titty in Swallows and Amazons” was renamed “Kitty” for a while. I don't know what she is now...)

If only we can restrict our reading to what's socially/politically/culturally acceptable as the status-quo today there would be no problem...certainly no Raymond Chandler.... nor Shakespeare, nor Conrad.... and certainly no Louis-Ferdinand Céline. I think our reading would be restricted to the side of packet of cereal.

Of course G. K. Chesterton's description of black people is vile -- so is Conan Doyle's. Yes, the culture of the past is deeply corrupt -- but so is our own. If we keep all the writing of the past in front of us -- including the worst things written by the best writers -- it might keep nudging us to keep watch for our own blind spots, our own hypocrisy. ( )

Father Brown is characterized by being little, nearsighted, and clever. He is an amateur sleuth, often solving mysteries that others cannot, simply by listening closely and reasoning through the obvious. The settings are mostly England before the second world war, although one story is in a South American country where Father Brown is a missionary, and one is in Mexico. The good father usually has a moral to impart in the stories, and some, like the story of the book that makes people disappear, very cleverly play on the gullibility of the characters and readers. All of the stories are short, and usually neatly wrapped up at the end. Enjoyable illustrations.
From the Folio Society website:
"Father Brown quietly picks his way through stories populated with vivid characters and problems. In ‘The Dagger With Wings’ he seeks out the last of three brothers, a man convinced that the creature murdering his family is an actual hell-hound. However, all is not as it seems in a tale of disguises, paranoia and a fateful fishbowl. ‘The Eye of Apollo’ has the priest investigating the mysteries surrounding a new religion, members of which have set up shop just above the office of his good friend Flambeau, a private detective and ex-criminal. With each story, Chesterton offers a neat package showcasing the particular pleasures of the mystery tale: solving puzzles, forming suspicions and falling for the occasional red herring." ( )