Fattypuffs and Thinifers

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Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-12-10 09:23:57 Associated-names Wegner, Fritz; Denny, Norman, 1901-1982 Boxid IA1998705 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Sadly there are no jokes about lean manufacturing, but the old line about generals always preparing to re-fight the last war is deployed in a kind of Maginot line situation the full figures of the Fattypuffs mean they cannot swiftly get out from their special curved trenches, but as can be the case defeat in war allows for victory in defeat... .

The idea is that two squabbling brothers, one fat and one thin, discover an underground world divided into two states, that of the plump Fattypuffs and that of the scrawny Thinifers. Written in 1930 the two nations are apparently based on France and Germany and are no less antagonistic, but are also shown to be complimentary, even symbiotic. I read it when I was 8 or 9 then spent another 20 plus years trying to remember what it was called, who wrote it and getting hold of another copy. On the flyleaf there is written “Nicolas, from Ruth, Christmas 1942”. That would make me five years old. Great-aunt Ruth had never enjoyed children of her own but was really expert in seeking out the very newest and best books to give her many young relatives for birthdays and Christmas. She was really good fun, too – which I think is implied by her use only of her first name when corresponding with a boy of about 70 years her junior. Very sadly she did not survive many years into my life and the flow of wonderful books, at least from that source, dried up all too soon. Although I understand that a copy of the first English edition of this book is now rare and somewhat valuable, even without a dust wrapper, the book in my hands at the moment is, quite simply, one of my absolute favourites from a very early point in my life.

To The Times Literary Supplement on 27 December 1941, 'This most amusing fantasy' won pride of place in a review of many juveniles, but purely as comedy..." [1] The consequences of this annexation are unexpected. Many soldiers of the occupying army of the Thinifers begin to marry Fattypuff girls, and return to their homeland with affection for the country that they conquered. The Thinifers begin to adopt Fattypuff cuisine, habits, and attitudes. Consequently, the Thinifer president proclaims that the two peoples form a new nation, the United States of the Underground. King Plumpapuff of the Fattypuffs is made constitutional sovereign, while the Thinifer president is made his chancellor. All distinctions by weight are abolished. A toponymic compromise is reached: the island of Fattyfer-Thinipuff is called Peachblossom Island. Basically its the story of 2 boys, 1 fat and 1 thin who find a tunnel that leads them off to an underground world peopled by 2 distinct cultures of the Fattypuffs and the Thinifers. The Fattypuffs live lives of leisure and love eating and relaxing where the Thinifers love exercise and eating little.

The conflict is eventually resolved with their help and some members of each society choose to explore the other and they discover that a combination of Fattypuff & Thinifer can work together. It's a very clever story about mans intolerance to man and how opening the mind to new ways and ideas helps to break down barriers.The Irish Independent chose Fattypuffs and Thinifers as one of the top 50 books for children, [3] while Anthea Bell chose it as one of "her top 10 favourite books in translation that she would recommend for children." [4] Meanwhile, the Fattypuffs live off chocolate éclairs 'as fat as motor-tyres and cream buns as big as bath sponges'. Their trains and houses are bulging and rounded while the Thinifer trains are much narrower 'because four Thinifers only took up as much room as one single Fattypuff'. There have been many reprints and different editions and even (anathema from my point of view) new sets of illustrations but there may still be some of you who have not come upon the book before, so I had better explain. I realise, incidentally, that the whole notion of the book would probably be greeted with horror by the health and safety (and discrimination) brigade – almost as much as some of the other favourite books of my childhood which I do not even dare to name!