Two books about a one man band

[shewhomust]

One Man Wallopem to the Rescue* by Margaret Gibbs, illustrated by Lorna Adamson, was one of the cult books of my adolescence. Not in the sense that The Lord of the Rings was a cult book, a passion shared with a like-minded circle, because for all we knew, our copy could have been the only one in existence. I'm not sure where we came by it (must have been a book sale somewhere, and it's in my mind that it might have been a school fête). We loved it as an oddity: that title, and its age (it was published in 1947***) combined with the youth of its intended readership (we read books that were older - E.Nesbit, among others, but few picture books), the cheerful colours and art deco quality of its illustrations.

None of this would have mattered if we had not also loved the story, and the voice in which it is told. Kip the Goblin and his friend One Man Wallopem have met a Princess, and are helping her to find her way home to the Island of Carraway-Crumpet. Since none of them know where this is, their route is indirect, and in each chapter they try a different approach, or have an encounter, or an adventure, and by the end of each chapter they have gained another companion. This begins with a scramble onto the roof to beg a kitten from the Mowly Cat (because Princess Carina always has a puss cat) and builds up to an escape from the island where the Great Kaboo of Tootaloo ("King, Emperor, Ruler, Owner and Everything Else of this Island!") wants to put the assembled company into his otherwise empty zoo.

The Great Kaboo could be seen as problematic. "Like the Naggery he was black and shiny all over, but instead of a green eye flashing he had a black eye rolling, and instead of a black tail lashing he had a mop of woolly black hair. As for stamping on the ground with a noise like thunder - he did not stamp, he walked in a Here Comes ME kind of way." The Naggery to whom he is unfavourably compared is a very splendid beast, but a beast not a person; and while the Great Kaboo is by no means the least intelligent or least pleasant person they meet on their travels, and while the borderline between human and animal is hazy (the captain of the ship on which they reach the Great Kaboo's island is Solomon Seal, and he is, of course, a seal). But this was 1947, when they did things differently.

You either find this sort of language - the use of repetition, the use of capital letters for humourous emphasis, the odd wink to the grown-ups (Solomon Seal, indeed!) - irresistible, or you don't. If you do, it is perfect for reading out loud to each other, with a certain amount of joining in, for example on the incantatory list of the company which ends each chapter, starting with: "And there was Kip, and Princess Carina, and One Man Wallopem of course." and building up to: "And there was Kip, and Princess Carina, and Gamboge the Mowly Kitten, and the Weathercock of Goblin Town, and Ramper the Dragon and Hubert the Hound of Great Sagacity, and Scuttles the Very Small Crab, and the Naggery, and Matilda Cow Without Being Asked, and Captain Solomon Seal - and THE GREAT KABOO OF TOOTALOO, and One Man Wallopem of course." (Which allows for the immense satisfaction, when all have been returned to their several homes, of the very last line of the book: "And there was just Kip, and One Man Wallopem.")

That treasured original copy is in my brother's keeping, but from time to time I would look around the internet, looking for evidence that it really existed, and wasn't just some hallucinatory folie à deux. Very occasionally I would see it listed by booksellers, and towards the end of last year I found a copy I could actually afford, and bought it. Re-reading it, I had two thoughts: one was "Yes, this really is as good as I remember it being, " and the other was "There are several points where the text refers to earlier adventures; and the title One Man Wallopem to the Rescue could easily be the sequel to a book called One Man Wallopem."



When you put it like that, it seems obvious: One Man Wallopem by Margaret Gibbs, illustrated by Lorna Adamson, 1943. It was even harder to find, and the only reason I could remotely afford it (brother's Christmas present, and I was pretty pleased with myself) was because a previous owner had scribbled over the endpapers in coloured crayon.

And it's good, though I don't think it's quite as good (of course, that could just be a preference for the known and loved). It tells how Kip first met One Man Wallopem, and the two of them have a series of adventures which introduce in turn the various instruments of the one man band - which explains his name, for they are heavily biased towards percussion. Some of these do indeed match the references in the later book (and one of them explains the dénouement, making it not quite as arbitrary as I had always believed); others introduce characters who will reappear. Since I read the second book first, the result is to make the first appear to the the repetitive one - but then, as I said, the writing style makes a virtue of repetition.

I don't know anything about Margaret Gibbs, and the name isn't distinctive enough for the internet to be much help; Lorna Adamson illustrated other books, including some Enid Blyton, and something called Belindamay and her Sixpence (I can't decide whether this sounds promising or the opposite).

---

*You can see why I didn't want to make the book title the title of the post, can't you? I have enough problems with comment spam as it is.

**My brother and I

***As was durham_rambler; it was a vintage year)

Comments

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

If I've guessed at the right Margaret Gibbs, she seems to have written Simon the Tart-Eater (that sounds right) and the The Whispering Grass. One Man Wallopem To the Rescue sounds like lovely nonsense, though I fear that the Great Kaboo would not fly at all these days. And the pictures look charming.

Nine

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Oh, well found! Yes, not so much for Simon the Tart-Eater, who sounds entirely plausible, but some of the 'other plays' published in the same volume (http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsG/gibbs-margaret.html) sound spot on: The State Umbrella of the Great Hoo-Wi surely springs from the same imagination as the Great Kaboo.

One Man

[(Anonymous)]

Amanda Palmer (musician/singer) mentioned the word "gamboge" today and it tweaked a vague memory. Glad One Man Wallopem is remembered. A well remembered book of my childhood, which I once knew by heart, according to my father. Sitting in our living room one evening, he heard me "reading" the book to my brother - then saw it lying on a chair. "Do we have two copies of that book?" he asked my mother. "No," she said, "just one". And he picked up the book and followed me as I was reciting it. I had it word perfect, according to him.

A great shame I've all but lost that ability :)

Steve B

Re: One Man

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Always glad to meet a fellow enthusiast!

Re: One Man

[(Anonymous)]

Absolutely loved One Man Wallopem. A favourite bed time read. Very disappointed not to find my copy at home after Mum died. All my other books were there.
Thanks for the memory. Mine was 'One Man Wallopem to the Rescue' too.
Gillian

RE: Re: One Man

[(Anonymous)]

I love this book....my youngest daughter bought it for me after she grew up listening to her grandad read it ti her ...,as he read it to me ...the depth of my love for this book is bottomless....it had a great bearing on my 2 daughters future and gave them both a thirst for learning and enjoyment of fantasy writing and encouraged them to enter education..as teachers ......Thank you One Man Wallopem!