John Yeoman and Quentin Blake have created an entire village, filled with interesting, eccentric and endearing characters. It is essentially a book of descriptive poems describing each of the main characters in this village. There is Mr Crumb the Baker, Mr Pruce the Postman, Mr Henry Arkwright who loves his penny-farthing bike, Little Miss Thynne the school teacher, two elderly citizens...Lily Bins and Elsie Crumb and many others.
The use of rhyme keeps the readers walk through the village lively and anticipating the next character. Farmer Trotter is quite memorable:
Old Father Trotter has five pigs,
All fat and pink and white;
He scratches at their backs until
They're grunting with delight.
Quentin Blake is one of my favourite illustrators whose quirky and comical drawings I came to know well though his illustration of Roald Dahl's books. He also illustrates for more recent author, David Walliam's. The maps provided of the village on the end covers of the book make for useful reference points.
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