Duncton Wood

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Self-Destructive Charge: Mandrake at the final battle on the Longest Night. Not so self-destructive, though, considering his sheer size. While the long setup and introductory section which covers at least the first 6 chapters is to be partly expected, and is interspersed with more than enough of Horwood's superb character portrayals and individual anecdotes to stop it being too much of an info dump, later parts of the novel can rather drag, mostly due to Horwoodd's often somewhat long winded passages of time skip, indeed sometimes when rereading the book now I do rather find myself waiting for the next significant incident to happen in betwene a long passage of generalized description. While Duncton wood's over all descriptive writing is more beautiful to read than most, and thus this pacing problem isn't quite as bad as in some series, undoubtedly it does exist rather more than elsewhere in Horwood's writing.

There is good, solid work from Robert Dalton (Burhead), Rachel Flynn (Caron), Sinead O’Callaghan (Rue) and amongst the committed, extremely talented ensemble there is particularly good work from Nadia Eide, Myles Hart and Hugo Joss Catton.

This is a very short review because I should be working, but I need to return a few books to the library today.... Though his characterisation of the daily and emotional life of the moles of Moledom is undoubtedly masterful (and remains so throughout the series), in Duncton wood the overall social structures and traditions that make up the society feel far less well emphasized and drawn than in later books. This is particularly of note since political power play by the manipulative Rune, and the decline of religious ritual are two major themes of the novel, yet neither feels as real here as later in the series. We are told for instance that the Duncton council of Elders did "business" at their meetings, but not of what nature that business is, or really what the elders did at all. I often get the impression in Duncton wood that the so called "tyrannical rule" of Rebecca's father Mandrake and certain other evil characters wasn't so much a rule as simply said moles going around beating up those who disagreed with them. This story is set in the countryside of England and will take you on a wild ride of enchantment. Follow this story into a world both mysterious and dark where the moles live. There is always a war that is going on between evil and good, and only the light or the dark can win.

What can I say about this book that will sufficiently warn people that they're about to experience a grown man imagining the feelings of a female mole in heat? Maybe just that. There is also undoubtedly a spiritual element in his work, indeed Horwood is one of the few writers I know who can accurately portray a religious experience without either following too far into one religious tradition, or turning it into a pure fantasy of angels and sudden ghostly lights. Those who have a sense of what it is to experience the divine will certainly find something to recognize in Horwood's work, neither however does he ram this down everyone's throat, (I have purely agnostic friends who read such things as simply the experiences of moles in nature and elements of the story).How would it be staged? In the style of Cats? Full Lycra outfits replete with fur trimming and big wigs? Or in the style of The Lion King? With humans as part-puppet or puppet operators? Or would there be full, furry animal costumes? How could you depict naked moles convincingly, (they wore no clothing in the books; they were not like the characters in Wind In The Willows) in a way which would not produce laughter?