posted on 11 Dec 2023

Ivor the Engine by Oliver Postgate, with pictures by Peter Firmin

What a team author, Oliver Postgate (1925 – 2008) and artist /puppet-maker, Peter Firmin (1928 – 2018) made. It’s not too big a claim to say that their creations – in books and television – shaped the childhood of a generation. Their characters have become legendary and are still enchanting young children now. The list of honour is extraordinary and includes: Pogles Wood, Bagpuss, The Clangers, Noggin the Nog (not forgetting Nogbad the Bad) and………..Ivor the Engine.

Now the good people at Candy Jar Books have done us all a tremendous service by bringing us a reprint of the very first Ivor the Engine book that was originally released in 1962. But this is no run-of-the-mill reprint because Candy Jar have done a really fabulous job of bringing us something that looks and feels entirely authentic. Beautiful crisp printing and colour reproduction, sumptuous heavy-grade paper and royal blue cloth board covers and a superb jacket to round it all off. 

Oliver Postgate was a fascinating man from a radical tradition of thinking – a conscientious  objector in the war and a supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament – his stories would always contain strong messages about the importance of community and mutual support. Ivor the Engine, set in a close community in North Wales (“the top left-hand corner”) very much illustrates all the values that Postgate so eagerly embraced.

There’s always a touch of the surreal about the Postgate-Firmin productions that set them out as special. In this case Ivor is a sentient train engine that – although it can’t speak – can communicate with drivers and engineers through a toot on its whistle. In fact, Ivor has aspirations to be more than your average train engine – it turns out he wants to join the local choir. Just how this is accommodated I’m going to leave for you to find out for yourselves.

The story that is magical, warm and cosy is only half of the enjoyment to be had here because you still have the fantastic artwork of Peter Firmin to enjoy. Firmin was, I think, by first instinct an artist and illustrator who found himself increasingly combining his artistic sensibilities with the practicalities of puppet-making for the television shows that he and Postagate took on. I think his illustrations for Ivor the Engine (alongside his work in the Noggin the Nog books) are some of his finest work. Slipping between beautiful watercolour and toned black-and-white, the drawings on every page make it easy for younger children who are not yet strong readers to reconstruct the story through the pictures.

There will undoubtedly be an adult market for this book because it’s such a beautifully produced volume and the nostalgia quotient doesn’t get higher. But a new generation of children will love it too because stories like this are timeless and parents will enjoy introducing them to it.

This is the very first Ivor story and a good place to start. I think Candy Jar Books may be planning to reissue more in the series – let’s hope so!

Available from your local independent bookshop – who will be happy to order it for you if they don’t have it on their shelves.

 

Terry Potter

December 2023