posted on 10 Mar 2021

The Troublesome Pig by Priscilla Lamont

What is it about pigs in children’s books that makes them so irresistible? Fat, lazy pigs; studious, academic pigs; big-hearted pigs; dim pigs: pigs in waistcoats; pigs in wellingtons; pigs in every conceivable state of being: they all work and they all make any story a pleasure.

Priscilla Lamont’s storytelling and artistic skills have taken this traditional tale of the pig that won’t move and given it a new breath of life. When an old woman buys a pig at market, it’s not long before the fat, lazy beast just can’t be bothered to climb a stile blocking the path home and the new owner has to try and find something that will get the animal up off its fat backside.

She hits on a plan to get a dog to bite the pig but how can she get the reluctant canine to co-operate. Perhaps if stick will beat dog then dog will bite pig - but how to persuade stick to do the job? Maybe fire will convince the stick…….? And so it goes until, finally, she finds cat who breaks the log-jam: cat chases rat, rat gnaws rope, rope whips farmer, farmer harnesses horse … Well, you get the idea. Eventually dog finally bites pig and off the porker runs with the old lady in trail. The two run all the way home and, too tired to even eat, they drop into a deep sleep in front of the fire.

As is usually the case with these books based on retelling a traditional tale, it’s the illustrations that have to do all the heavy lifting. Lamont has illustrated over forty children’s books and has worked with some very big names indeed -  Harry Secombe, Adrian Mitchell, Julia Jarman, Michael Rosen and Hilary McKay – but The Troublesome Pig was her first publication in 1983. Speaking in an interview given to Faversham Life in 2018 it turns out that:

“Listening to Radio 4’s Listen with Mother led to her first book, The Troublesome Pig, a reworking of the old nursery tale. She explains the tendency for children’s books to feature animals more often than humans: ‘If humans are involved it automatically makes it trickier and judgemental. Best to remove them altogether. Illustrations in children’s books are the first pictures a child will seriously consider. They have the potential to help that child make sense of the world.’”

Hers are gentle, subtle watercolours that remind me of a more reserved, more ‘proper’ Babette Cole – and that’s not a comparison to be ashamed of by any stretch of the imagination.

I can’t find any paperback or current in-print versions available but second hand hardbacks can still be picked up for about the price of a new hardback – so not too punishing.

 

Terry Potter

March 2021