Guardian on The Box of Delights
Dec. 6th, 2010 09:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylI've mentioned this before, but John Macefield's The Box of Delights, currently up for discussion on the Guardian books blog, is probably my favourite Christmas novel.
I first got into it after watching the fantastic BBC adaptation back in the 80s, but when I re-read it a few years ago, I found that it had stood the test of time extremely well. I was impressed both by the characters — the amoral, tomboyish Maria Jones was a particular favourite — and by the strength and drama of the set pieces, especially the great night fight at Arthur's Camp and Kay's incursion into Abner's headquarters. My only real problem remained with the ending which, as Alan Garner suggests, may not be authentic and can safely be replaced with the assumption that the events of the book really did happen as described. Far more satisfactory.
But what really sticks in my mind from the BBC dramatisation is Victor Hely-Hutchinson's fantastic setting of The First Nowell from his Carol Symphony (here in a slightly low-fi recording by the BBC SSO):
The very essence of all things Christmas.
I first got into it after watching the fantastic BBC adaptation back in the 80s, but when I re-read it a few years ago, I found that it had stood the test of time extremely well. I was impressed both by the characters — the amoral, tomboyish Maria Jones was a particular favourite — and by the strength and drama of the set pieces, especially the great night fight at Arthur's Camp and Kay's incursion into Abner's headquarters. My only real problem remained with the ending which, as Alan Garner suggests, may not be authentic and can safely be replaced with the assumption that the events of the book really did happen as described. Far more satisfactory.
But what really sticks in my mind from the BBC dramatisation is Victor Hely-Hutchinson's fantastic setting of The First Nowell from his Carol Symphony (here in a slightly low-fi recording by the BBC SSO):
The very essence of all things Christmas.
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Date: 2011-01-18 10:04 am (UTC)