Dirty Beasts
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Cover Story
Graham Oakley is this issue's Authorgraph with Henry's Quest (0 333 40841 1, £4.95) on our cover (with a little help from Macmillan). The book is a real treat.
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Ideally tailored to cater for the macabre humour favoured by so many of today's youngsters is Roald Dahl's menagerie of 'dirty beasts' in verse. The cast of creatures includes the lion, 'the meat I am about to chew is neither steak nor chops. It's You;, the scorpion, who 'wants to make a sudden jump and sting you hard upon your rump', and the crocodile who 'on Saturdays likes to crunch, six juicy children for his lunch'. There's even juvenile philosophy and basic monetarism from the pig, who works out that 'they want my bacon slice by slice, to sell at a tremendous price'. All this and Quentin Blake's illustrations in colour too, for £2.50. 'By gosh, that's jolly steep!' 'No, it's very cheap.'