The Box of Delights: Or When the Wolves Were Running (Kay Harker)

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I'd wanted to read this for a number of years - and finally got my hands on a copy, at just the right time, it seems - this is a perfect December read, lots of snow and carolers and such within! That phrase was the best part of this book for me. It stated immediate evil and drew me in, plus it kept me going when nothing else made sense. This John Masefield tale is a Christmas favourite for many and seems to have influenced the Narnia saga. I would also dare to say that it has some elements that may have influenced the Harry Potter stories as well such as the young hero, railway stations, snow-filled villages, hot drinks, and magic. It starts well with some very atmospheric scenes – the men on the train and Cole Hawkins magic show are particularly good, as are the trips to the fort – but as it goes on it has become very repetitive and convoluted. How many times do we have to have Kay 'go small' to spy on Abner talking to himself in exposition to reveal endless details of the non existent plot? At once a thriller, a romp, and a spellbinding fantasy, The Box of Delights is a great English children’s book and a perfect Christmas treat.

Our festive offering in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre this winter,Piers Torday’s magical reimagining of John Masefield’s much-loved festive children’s 1935 classic The Box of Delights will run from Tuesday 31 October 2023 until Sunday 7 January 2024. Kay Harker is returning from boarding school when he finds himself mixed up in a battle to possess a magical box. It allows the owner to shrink in size, to fly swiftly, to go into the past and to experience the magical wonders contained within the box. For it is a cliché. We can probably let Lewis Carroll get away with it in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as it’s a foundational example in children’s literature (and it becomes positively admirable in Through the Looking Glass when Carroll inverts it and Alice is told that she’s nothing but a thing in the Red King’s dream), but even there it’s an unsatisfactory rug-pull. The Box of Delights was first published in 1935, and achieved immediate success in Britain, where it is viewed with the same reverence as A Christmas Carol. It follows the adventures of Kay, who meets Cole Hawlings, a traveling Punch and Judy man, at a train station. Hawlings has a magical box, which is coveted by a gang of criminals disguised as clergy. Knowing he’ll soon be “scrobbled” by the gang, Hawling gives the box to Kay, who gets into adventures.

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I wanted to like it more than I did, but at the same time, I found it quite unique and interesting and have to give Masefield credit for that. His characters are surprisingly unemotional, which I found amusing. And there was food for thought - I've always tried to have my 3 wishes ready in case a genie should jump out of a lamp - and this book made me think - what would I want to see if I could see anything I wanted? Kay was asked that remarkable question. So now I've got that to think about. I wouldn't mind seeing the path the whales take as they migrate...or, or... The current owner of the box is an old Punch and Judy man called Cole Hawlings whom Harker meets at the railway station. They develop an instant rapport, which leads Hawlings to confide that he is being chased by a magician called Abner Brown and his gang, which includes Harker's former governess. For safety, Hawlings (who turns out to be the medieval philosopher and alleged magician Ramon Llull) entrusts the box to Harker. The schoolboy then goes on to have many adventures as he protects the box from those who wish to use it for bad deeds. Then the WORST happened. The WORST THING that can possible happen in ANY book EVER... happened in this book. The most horrible faux pas of ALL writing of all time! The last sentence of the book... "Kay woke up, and it was all a dream." The play’s director, Justin Audibert, said: “It’s a show that features trains, boats, planes, mythical creatures, a good and a very bad magician, and characters that magically turn into tiny versions of themselves, characters that transform into animals that fly through the air and swim in the sea. How exciting is that? What I admire most in other writers is originality of vision—books that work on different levels and hold something for any reader, child or adult. A book like John Masefield's Box of Delights, for example, published in the 1930s but startlingly innovative and subtly influential.

Le Père Martin" (1888) by Ruben Saillens and unwittingly plagiarized as " Papa Panov's Special Christmas" by Leo Tolstoy a b Kingsley, Madeleine (17 November 1984), "A Box Full of Magic", Radio Times, pp.101–103 , retrieved 14 October 2017 As an ending, that is; the book itself has plenty of faults along the way. It is a grab bag of early 20th century children’s book tropes, and some just don’t quite work, not at this remove. But some very much do, particularly the snowy, wintry, Christmassy bits. Mention is made of a "Boy" who apparently can tell the future. Who is this Boy? Where did he come from? Why is he working for, or in the clutches of, Abner? Is he there against his will? Is he a normal boy with magical abilities, or is he a magical fairy boy, or is he part of a mystical priesthood of fortune tellers? Who is this person? We don't KNOW! We will never know. Because this plot is crap and it doesn't explain anything.Caught up in a battle between two powerful magicians, Kay fights to save not just the people he loves but also the future of Christmas itself. Masefield has a way with a well-turned, memorable sentence: "And now, Master Harker, now that the Wolves are Running, perhaps you could do something to stop their Bite?"

This is a curious mixture of reality and fantasy: we have gangsters, magic, time travel. At times it was difficult to know just what was imagery and what was fantasy. It was interesting that, unlike in a lot of books, here we get children operating both on their own and with adults. I enjoyed the old-style British reality, such as the interactions with the police. I also liked the integration of religion into the essence of the book. Stephen Boxer is a genial Hawlings, Richard Lynch an increasingly comical Abner and Claire Price relishes the expanded role of witch Sylvia Daisy Pouncer. Tom Kanji as a conman (“ha-ha … what?” languidly ending his sentences) is one of several to capture the feel of the era. It is all deftly done, not so much scrobbling as gently leading us into Masefield-land.

The dream cliche' makes me feel like I've wasted my time somehow, ESPECIALLY because 'The Midnight Folk' was JUST as magical and hard-to-believe (if you don't use imagination), yet it was all proclaimed true. There was NO reason whatsoever to write this off as a dream. None. I'm disappointed. Masefield's novel, a plum pudding of strange adventures, English legend, and spiritual feeling, should be more widely appreciated” –The Washington Post Can there be a more Christmassy book, this side of old Ebenezer's adventures with his trio of spirits, than The Box of Delights by John Masefield? At the train station on his way home from school for the Christmas holiday, Kay Harker, the main character of The Box of Delights, encounters a mysterious Punch and Judy man named Cole Hawlings. The two hit if off so well that when Hawlings needs someone to hide and guard his box of delights he entrusts it to Kay. As Kay enjoys the powers given to him by the box - to move swiftly, to shrink, to travel through time - he also becomes aware of a strange series of disappearances around town. Not only have several local clergyman been "scrobbled" but some of Kay's houseguests, Kay's guardian Caroline Louisa, and Cole Hawlings himself have gone missing as well. Kay realizes all of these kidnappings must be attempts to gain access to the box of delights and in trying to protect it, he has a variety of thrilling adventures. In 1895, Masefield returned to sea on a windjammer destined for New York City. However, the urge to become a writer and the hopelessness of life as a sailor overtook him, and in New York, he deserted ship. He lived as a vagrant for several months, before returning to New York City, where he was able to find work as an assistant to a bar keeper.