The Midnight Folk (Kay Harker)

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Flynn, Simon: "A Magic Curiously Suited to Radio?": The BBC and The Box of Delights. The Journal of the John Masefield Society, No. 12 (May 2003), pp.21–35. Mr. Masefield has written the sort of book that grown-up people like to give a child for Christmas, and then enjoy reading for themselves. The Midnight Folk is a story to be read aloud in the traditional Winter fireside setting….The style is imaginative and glamorous…Children will like to hear their elders read the tale.”– The New York Times There are three treasures (smuggled goods, a highwayman's plunder, and the aforementioned Spanish gold), three principal hidey holes (caves, the highwayman's lair, and under a hearthstone), three prime locations (Seekings, Trigger Hall in the North of England and Santa Barbara in South America), not forgetting three groups of friends for Kay (his old toys, the animals at Seekings, and Arthur's knights); there are even three generations of the truly sinister villain, each one called Abner Brown. In 1895, Masefield returned to sea on a windjammer destined for New York City. However, the urge to become a writer and the hopelessness of life as a sailor overtook him, and in New York, he deserted ship. He lived as a vagrant for several months, before returning to New York City, where he was able to find work as an assistant to a bar keeper. Re-reading The Midnight Folk on kindle as an adult I was finally able to decode the arcane references to the classics and Latin grammar early on in the story but still feel I am somehow missing the point. The weird dislocations of the story, which constantly jumps between reality/ dreamworld/ nightmare/ magic / past and present etc , just don't make sense to me any more now, than as a child. I mean to say... I can follow them.... But I don't like the confusing jumble. Of course that is the whole point of magic....it doesn't make sense and transcends the real world, but personally I prefer more structure and less confusion in my stories. Many times Masefield tells the reader through Kay... Oh it must have been a dream.... To account for the confusion ... But then after all it's not a dream....

Interestingly, early on in the book, Kay reads the names of his long-lost toys ('The Guards') and among them are the names Jemima, Maria, Susan and Peter which of course are the names of the Jones children in The Box of Delights written years later. Kay Harker is returning from boarding school when he finds himself mixed up in a battle to possess a magical box. It allows the owner to shrink in size, to fly swiftly, to go into the past and to experience the magical wonders contained within the box. Too many characters, too many shifts in time and place, too many dreams, or dreams which turn out not to be dreams, and despite almost constant movement from our protagonist, no sense that any of it is really directed or intentional, the plot seemed to happen all around him, despite him. Lots of scenes of people telling other people what other people had done, were doing, or were going to do. The current owner of the box is an old Punch and Judy man called Cole Hawlings whom Harker meets at the railway station. They develop an instant rapport, which leads Hawlings to confide that he is being chased by a magician called Abner Brown and his gang, which includes Harker's former governess. For safety, Hawlings (who turns out to be the medieval philosopher and alleged magician Ramon Llull) entrusts the box to Harker. The schoolboy then goes on to have many adventures as he protects the box from those who wish to use it for bad deeds. You must be the master in your own house. Don't let a witch take the charge of Seekings. This is a house where upright people have lived. Let's have no Endorings nor Jezebellings in Seekings." -- Grandmamma Harker's message to Kay.

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The Midnight Folk is written as one piece. There are no chapter divisions. Division within the text is obtained by moving from prose to verse or even song in some places. Hely-Hutchinson: The BBC man who created the ultimate Christmas music". About the BBC. 13 December 2016. His teenage experiences as a naval cadet and then in the merchant navy provided the seafaring subplot in the novel, though his maiden voyage in 1894 to Chile, when he was not yet 16, was ruinous to his health. Nevertheless, on his return home to recuperate his authoritarian aunt insisted on him pursuing this career, to his dismay. John Masefield adapted an opera libretto from his book, also incorporating elements of The Midnight Folk, which was eventually set to music in the late 1980s by the British composer Robert Steadman. He has written a book which will be a source of delight to children of future generations well as his own, one that ranks with such masterpieces in this genre The Water Babies, Alice in Wonderland and Sylvie and Bruno. — The Northern Whig, 1927 [1]

Don’t you have any fear, Kay. We’re the guards, we are. We hear that the house has gone all to sixes and sevens since we left it, but that’s going to be remedied now’ I’m told that this was written by John Masefield, a well-known and highly respected poet in his adult years. Perhaps so, but I’m pretty sure that in addition to channeling his inner child, he must have had a willing collaborator of tender years to help him work the magic, follow the merry chase and find his way home. Twas the Night Before Christmas: Edited by Santa Claus for the Benefit of Children of the 21st Century" (2012) being Pamela McColl "smoke-free" edit of Clement Clarke Moore's poem At seventeen Masefield was living as a vagrant in America. He found work as a bar hand but eventually secured employment at a carpet factory. Thinking that journalism might allow him to write for a living, Masefield returned to England in 1897. The Midnight Folk alludes to Kay's companions whom he meets around and after the witching hour, but there is much more to enjoy here than talking animals: there are some fine descriptions of the delights of nature, of the fun to be had cataloguing objects, of the slow realisation of who exactly the chief witch Sister Pouncer is, of the truly dastardly character of Abner Brown -- all three of them.

Abner Brown is the principal villain in both novels, but plays a more prominent role in The Box of Delights. John Masefield threaded a number of common themes through a series of his books; even those novels aimed at children shared places, people and storylines with some of his adult novels. One key recurring theme is the nautical visit of a member of the Harker family to the fictional islands of Santa Barbara. In The Midnight Folk, Kay's great-grandfather is endowed with a great treasure there; in other novels the actual nature of the seafaring Harker's relationship to Kay is less clear. A great many incidental characters and places are shared across Masefield's novels, although the fine details of such recurrences are often contradictory from novel to novel. In 1930, due to the death of Robert Bridges, a new Poet Laureate was needed. King George V appointed Masefield, who remained in office until his death in 1967. Masefield took his appointment seriously and produced a large quantity of verse. Poems composed in his official capacity were sent to The Times. Masefield’s humility was shown by his inclusion of a stamped envelope with each submission so that his composition could be returned if it were found unacceptable for publication. Sylvia Daisy Pouncer dishonourably leaves her role as Kay's governess at the end of The Midnight Folk, only to return as Abner Brown's wife in The Box of Delights.

Funny little cat takes funny little boy on all sorts of funny adventures. This is a funny dream of book. And this is a funny, dreamy cat named Digsy: When freed from lessons he explores and investigates the surroundings of his ancestral home of Seekings, uncovering a nefarious plot to steal some long-lost treasure, thus following up family traditions and living up to the family name. The Harker shield displays three oreilles couped proper (that is, three disembodied flesh-coloured ears) and so, true to form, Kay eavesdrops, harkening to conversations and learning from what he overhears. In 1885 orphan Kay Harker finds himself under the guardianship of the distant Sir Theopompous and the stern tutelage of an unnamed governess. His former companions, a collection of stuffed toys, have evidently been removed, their place taken by the declension of Latin adjectives for 'sharp', and by exercises in French, Divinity and the like. On a more sober note, this is admittedly very English and very 1920’s in flavor, presenting an additional challenge to readers a full century later. But that may in fact be part of its charm — it takes one into another world altogether, leaving disbelief far behind.Caroline Louisa is installed as Kay's guardian at the end of The Midnight Folk, having appeared earlier in the novel as one of Kay's supernatural helpers. She remains Kay's guardian throughout The Box of Delights. Piers Torday (30 November 2017). "Long before Harry Potter, The Box of Delights remade children's fantasy". The Guardian . Retrieved 7 January 2018. Masefield the children’s writers is unbeatable… The Midnight Folk is a truly remarkable book.”– Daily Telegraph (London) When Masefield was 23, he met his future wife, Constance Crommelin, who was 35. Educated in classics and English Literature, and a mathematics teacher, Constance was a perfect match for Masefield despite the difference in age. The couple had two children (Judith, born in 1904, and Lewis, in 1910).

Masefield’s first volume of oetry, Salt-Water Ballads, was published in 1902, however, it was not until the publication of The Everlasting Mercy in 1911 that he made his mark on the literary scene. The success of his second book was followed by the publication of several long narrative poems, including Dauber (1914) and Reynard the Fox (1919). A disappointment (so why 3 stars rather than 2? Bumped up for historical importance and author's literary qualities ... but for sheer pleasure it gave me, it's really a 2). Even Madeleine L'Engle, who wrote an afterword for it, damned it with faint praise (paraphrasing, but basically "it's over-complicated and confusing but kids ought to be able to figure it out nonetheless). Masefield doesn't put any distance between Kay, his surreal adventures, and the reader. They just happen, don't question it. Don't overthink it either: channel your Inner Rich Orphan and indulge in some dream logic. There aren't even any chapters to break it all up, so when you're in, you're in. In 1958, John Keir Cross wrote a radio adaptation of the book for the BBC. It was broadcast on Children's Hour in five parts during the lead up to Christmas that year. Patricia Hayes played Kay Harker and the narrator was Richard Hurndall. [4]As has been pointed out to me, at times The Midnight Folk feels like a mash-up between Treasure Island and Halloween, what with ecclesiastical gold and South American settings and a clandestine witches' coven meeting at at dead of night. But it is much more complex than that: the three ears of the Harker arms underscore several trios of themes. Kay's toys (known as "the guards") have been taken away from him at the start of the book, apparently because they will remind him of his parents; there is a strong implication that Kay's parents are deceased. The guards play little part in the main narrative but have a critical role in the final recovery of the treasure. I thought it was interesting, but as a historical artifact, "fancy, that used to be the sort of book one would give a child and expect them to enjoy it!" Will still try the next book ( Box of Delights) which is apparently more of a classic and perhaps the author learned lessons from book one and applied them to book two. Fingers crossed!