I’m sleepy
today, so very very sleepy. I’ve woken up at 5.15am every morning for like two
weeks and it’s slowly draining me of my very will to live. This is not a lie. I
am a person that needs ALL THE SLEEP in order to function and when I don’t get
that sleep, well, the results aren’t pretty. Seriously, so very very tired.
Not too
tired though that I can’t talk to you about Mrs
Armitage: Queen of the Road which I want to talk to you about because I
adore Quentin Blake and because I have a whole lot of love for Mrs. Armitage
and her kick ass no nonsense attitude and general utter loopiness, and because I don’t talk often about picture
books - which I should because I love them. Loooooove them.
Mrs Armitage is a totally bonkers book, wherein
Mrs. A and her dog (Breakspear) get an
old car as a present from Mrs A’s Uncle Cosmo and decide to take it for a
drive. Problem is, the old car is falling apart. I say ‘problem’ but it’s not a
problem, really because nothing gets in Mrs Armitage’s way, ever – an excellent
story then about making the best of things. It’s such a fun book – all the Mrs.
Armitage books are so much fun,
because Mrs Armitage and Breakspear are fabulous and you never know what’s
going to happen next, what else can possibly go wrong you wonder – they bump
into bollards and other vehicles and lose the bumper and the doors and even the
roof and then this little old lady who wears glasses and stripy pyjama’s winds
up making friends with a fizzy pop drinking motorcycle gang (who all think she's most excellent, obviously, because she is.) She’s so eccentric
and wonderful and the whole book is just a delight.
It’s the
kind of book you can’t not love – I am yet to meet a child, or even an adult,
that doesn’t love this book and all that it is. And of course it’s got that
trademark Quentin Blake touch. Oh,
Quentin Blake. I’d decorate my whole house with his work if I could. He is my favourite
and my best, whether he’s illustrating somebody else words or coming up with a
world all of his own, I just, I think he’s kind of a genius. The story here is a good story in it’s own
right, but like with everything else he ever puts his mark on, it becomes so
much better next to those illustrations.
He just has this knack of capturing the very essence of the story being told
and bringing it to life. Seriously, find a copy of this book and grab the nearest small friend or relation and read this book.
And now, I am going to go and continue to be working and not napping. I WANT TO TAKE A NAP.
