The Little Grey Men

This book deserves to be better known. In many ways, it reminds me of The Wind in the Willows -- perhaps because it takes place in England, perhaps because the adventure takes place on a small-animal scale (the main characters are gnomes), perhaps because Pan appears in the book, or perhaps because it is so beautifully written. The story is an original version of the "quest," filled with beauty and peril, good and evil. Like all truly good children's literature, the book will enchant adults as well. It's really too bad this is so obscure; our library didn't have a single copy. I'll be purchasing a few and giving them away.

The Little Grey Men tells the tale of three gnome brothers who left their tree house in search of a more adventurous brother who left two years before. Dodder, Baldmoney and Sneezewort travelled up and down the Folly river gleaning adventures as if they were escaping lions in the African veldt or fighting malnutrition while marooned on a desert island, a la Robinson Crusoe. Will they ever find Cloudberry? BB paints the scenery of the Warwickshire countryside in such detail that one feels his love of this tiny patch of the world so powerfully. He ascribes this love to the gnomes, "being halfway between animals and our unhappy selves, they appreciated the world far more than a great many mortals. To them the whole year was lovely, ... and not an hour passed by but they found something to admire and relish." As in every good quest, the gnomes make new friends, battle formidable enemies (yes! more than one!), survive natural catastrophes and finally come home to a roaring fire and a good Elderberry wine. It is a good tale to follow as you walk along the banks of an English river, but it is just as good in the bedroom of your high-rise apartment.

This is a lovely little book. However, Julie Andrews is not the author, as another commenter noted. She loved the book as a girl, and wanted to make it available again via her Harper Collins imprint (and actually wrote the introduction). Although the cover cryptically lists the author as "BB", the man listed as the illustrator actually wrote the story as well as doing the woodcuts in the text. Reminds me a little of Watership Down....

This is a wonderful book. One can read this book over and over again and never become tired of it. Julie Andrews is a wonderful author, she just transports you into the story, very well written and a most enjoyable story for all ages.

I loved the details and the descriptions in this book. The author makes everything seem so real and beautiful. It is as if I were there. It gave me a tingly feeling.