The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis

Rating:
Summary: A Rousing Cheer For The Borribles!
Review: After stumbling across 'The Borribles' while browsing a local book store, I found these adventuresome little people so interesting I read it twice and wished the imaginative author, Michael De Larrabeiti, would write a sequel.

When I happened across 'The Borribles Go For Broke' a few years later, I was again enthralled by these captivating hooligans.

It was not until over a decade later that I discovered 'The Borribles: Across The Dark Metropolis' while prowling the internet. After obtaining an out-of-print copy of this third borrible book, I was soon engrossed in their latest adventure.

Through the soot and grime of a London that tourists never see, the borribles attempt to lead Sam, the horse, to Neasdon where it could live in peace. During the exhausting journey through old buildings and junk yards the compact crew are forced to dodge the likes of Inspector Sussworth, a dapper power monger, and the obnoxious Sgt. Hanks. The determined little people persevere even when they encounter the dregs of society such as the so-called "meffos" who worship alcohol and drugs. Through it all the band of borribles trudge on to their distant destination.

If anyone has any biographical information on Michael De Larrabeiti, I would appreciate it if you would enlighten me. All I know about this British author is that he was born in 1937 and there was some controversy over releasing 'The Borribles: Across The Dark Metropolis' in hard cover.

Rating:
Summary: AT LAST! GOOD NEWS
Review: anyone who reads the reviews of de Larrabeiti's books can see how much they are loved. Instead of just lamenting the fact that he is out of print, it is time for some action. Does anyone have an address we can write to? Who was de larrabeiti's agent? Who was his primary publisher? Does de Larrabeiti know how much we love his books, and how much we would love to see sequels? Even if he no longer wishes to write, these should still be in print. These are true classics, and we should start some form of lobbying with publishers. Any ideas? ADDENDUM: 11/04-He is back in print! Buy! Read! These are wonderful!

Rating:
Summary: The Borribles Trilogy
Review: It's really weird ... for the last few months, I'd been remembering bits of the "Borribles" though I couldn't remember what they were actually called or who the author was. It was driving me mad, I remembered reading these 2 books (the first 2 in the trilogy) about fifteen years ago, and all of a sudden the stories came back to me and I couldn't remember enough to find out who had written them or what they were called ... after months of trawling through second hand bookshops and Amazon, I walked into the local shop and discovered - to my immense and somewhat stunned delight - that all 3 had been reprinted in one volume. Needless to say I purchased it on the spot .. about a week ago. I've now reread it all and THEY'RE AMAZING. Forget the lord of the rings, harry potter, forget dickens, forget shakespere, Mr de Larrabeiti is a writer of no small talent. Across the Dark Metropolis is the conclusion of the trilogy and better than the first two... not that they were bad, at all. Each just gets better. I'd almost wish for a fourth but I think that would spoil the beauty of them, one follows so well onto the next, yet each is stand alone. I can't praise them highly enough: I've got a stack of books, historical, fantasy, murder mystery, all waiting to be read, and they jumped the whole queue. My memories of these books weren't wrong. If you haven't already, go out and buy them yourself.
Steve

Rating:
Summary: Here's what I read about him...
Review: Michael De Larrabeiti (1937): British author: * the "Borribles" series of elf-like folks in a dark London: * The Borribles [1976] * The Borribles Go For Broke [1981] * The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis [1986] * The Provencal Tales [1988] story collection (according to "The Encyclopedia of Fantasy", John Clute & John Grant, St.Martin's, 1997, p.263)

Since he was born in 1937, its unlikely we'll see any more books...

Rating:
Summary: A Subversive Cult Classic
Review: The Borribles is a truly subversive piece of children's literature. The trilogy takes all the epic fantasy elements of Tolkien: adventure, clansmanship, codes of honour, and inverts them against a backdrop of urban decay and social entropy. Borribles are children who run away from home, scavenge for food and would live forever were it not for the adult world's constant attempts at dragging them jealously back into the madness of workaday mortality. De Larrabeiti is obsessed with the geography of a London that he depicts as a city of near total squalor. The Thames is black and cholera ridden, warehouses crumble, schools lay in ruins and mindless commuters shuffle blindly to work each morning whilst the wily Borribles steal fruit from markets, carry catapults for protection and attempt to live outside of the rat-race. As the story progresses, so does Larrabeiti's vision, shifting from the relatively whimsical sparring of rival subhuman groups -Borribles versus the strange, rat-like Rumbles- to a more serious depiction of a highly moral youth culture where money is an evil temptation, corroding the Borribles' scruffy, communal utopia, forcing them out of hiding and into battle with the adult world; a world teaming with sadistic policemen, hysterical civilians and degenerate alcoholic child-snatchers. A world where the only friendly adults are tramps, wasters and circus freaks. Not hard to see then, why the books never made it onto school reading lists. Yet the characterisation is mature and moving, the plotline ingenious and thrilling. But perhaps most impressive of all is the whole Borrible mythology: a coherent world complete with proverbs, songs, rules, lore and ethical codes, thriving beneath the grimy, menacing mess of modern London. Arguably one of the greatest works of children's fiction and almost certainly the darkest and most morally ambiguous, The Borribles is a fantasy saga ripe for comic-strip and film adaptation, yet it appears to have slipped into near obscurity...