Calling Home
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Cover Story
This issue’s cover is from the gift edition of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory illustrated by Quentin Blake and with design and typography by Peter Campbell. The successful collaboration between Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake has played an important part in the popularity of Dahl’s work over the last fifteen years. Blake’s unmistakable artwork truly complements Dahl’s writing. His economical, amiable, illustrative style balances out Dahl’s often expansive language. And the liveliness, humour and pathos of the drawings offer a softer side to Dahl’s sometimes gloriously grotesque, sometimes cruel descriptions of his characters.
Thanks to Penguin Children’s Books for their help in producing this July cover which commemorates the thirty years anniversary of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s first UK publication.
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Calling Home
I am a committed Cormier fan and so I was easily seduced by this icy novel. Cadnum layers his story in a strikingly surreal way. Peter, a teenage alcoholic, kills his best friend Mead with one thoughtless, drunken punch. Unable to admit to his crime and anxious to allay the fears of Mead's invalid father, he rings Mead's home, impersonating his dead friend. The plot writhes like smoke: Peter's attempts to maintain a normal life are clouded by his drinking and his submergence in Mead's personality. He edges around confession like an uneasy boxer, advancing when in the company of his trusted friend Lani and retreating when pursuing meaningless intimacy with his brittle, shallow girlfriend Angela. The novel ends in classical American tradition, with Peter poised to take his next step after the confession, punishment and rehabilitation cycle has been completed. A masterly, eerie work which must be read.
