J. P. Martin (1879-1966) was born in Yorkshire into a family of Methodist ministers. He took up the family vocation, serving when young as a missionary to a community of South African diamond miners and then, during the First World War, as an Army chaplain in Palestine and Egypt, before returning to minister to parishes throughout the north of England. He died at eighty-six from a flu caught while bringing pots of honey to his parishioners in cold weather. Martin began telling Uncle stories to entertain his children, who later asked him to write them down so that they could read them to their own children; the stories were finally published as a book in 1964, when Martin was eighty-four. The jacket to the first edition of Uncle notes that "the inspiration for these stories seems to come from the industrial landscape that [Martin] knew as a child....He still likes to take his family and friends on walks through industrial scenes. He also enjoys painting the wild and beautiful landscape where he lives. It is not enough to say he loves children; he is still continually visited by them." »

Uncle

By J. P. Martin
Illustrations by Quentin Blake

If you think Babar is the only storybook elephant with a cult following, then you haven't met Uncle, the presiding pachyderm of a wild fictional universe that has been collecting accolades from children and adults for going on fifty years. Unimaginably rich, invariably swathed in a magnificent purple dressing-gown, Uncle oversees a vast ramshackle castle full of friendly kooks while struggling to fend off the sneak attacks of the incorrigible (and ridiculous) Badfort Crowd. Each Uncle story introduces a new character from Uncle's madcap world: Signor Guzman, careless keeper of the oil lakes; Noddy Ninety, an elderly train conductor and the oldest student of Dr. Lyre's Select School for Young Gentlemen; the proprietors of Cheapman's Store (where motorbikes are a halfpenny each) and Dearman's Store (where the price of an old milk jug goes up daily); along with many others. But for every delightful friend of Uncle, there is a foe who is no less deliriously wicked. Luckily the misbegotten schemes of the Badfort Crowd are no match for Uncle's superior wits.

Quentin Blake's quirky illustrations are the perfect complement to J.P. Martin's stories, each one of a perfect length for bedtime reading. Lovers of Roald Dahl and William Steig will rejoice in Uncle's wonderfully bizarre and happy world, where the good guys always come out on top, and once a year, everybody, good and bad, sits down together for an enormous Christmas feast.

Reviews

A reprint of the British children's classic Uncle by J.P. Martin, a writer who makes Roald Dahl look restrained, would make a great gift for literary eccentrics of any age.
— Favorite Children's Books of 2007, The Los Angeles Times

The Times Literary Supplement called the books‘spellbinding'...while the Times Educational Supplement likened the books to Alice in Wonderland...The books contain many of the elements of the best English children's literature...And the books are illustrated by the wonderful drawings of Quentin Blake.
— The Economist

Also see:

Uncle Cleans Up By J. P. Martin Illustrations by Quentin Blake Uncle and his friends defend the labyrinthine regions of castle Homeward from the Badfort baddies. "A classic of British nonsense.... And a most elegant nonsense it is, utterly silly and deeply sophisticated at the same time." —Newsday

Sign up for our free email newsletters for updates and special offers on NYRB books.