As a child I was besotted with the works of Roald Dahl, there wasn’t a book I didn’t love, and of course I spent many a day imagining I was the real incarnation of Matilda. The enthrallment of Dahl’s mischief-making, magic-creating and gruesome-eating characters (among other icky things) having stayed long in the mind and stirring alive any bored imagination. But there’s one book that cries out the loudest to be read – George’s Marvellous Medicine.
Eight-year-old George is an adventurous boy, whose exploits have never done any real harm, and yet his miserable Grandma seeks to bring him down into her pit of self-induced grumpiness.
‘When George’s mother or father were home Grandma never ordered George about like this. It was only when she had him on her own that she began treating him badly.’
You instantly side with George in his upcoming choice, especially if you’ve had a not so pleasant relative – damn you cursed bloodlines!! He’s tried to be nice and it’s failed, so the temptation is all too much when his grandma tells him not to forget her medicine, but it might not be quite what the doctor prescribed, for George starts making his own medicine to give her. This is where the book really takes on a life of its own, the settings of justification already created by Dahl’s grouchy and unpleasant Grandma, and so you forgive George for everything he puts into the pan; the shampoo, red nail varnish, dandruff cure and much more all boiling away. This might cause a difference in the readers; for a child this assortment of ingredients is the best bit, they’ll be laughing away as they imaginatively join George in his moment of devilishness, but as an adult you might cringe at one or two items that are added, such as the anti-freeze.
The medicine however doesn’t kill Grandma, Roald Dahl’s not so dark – or at least here he isn’t – but something else happens instead, and from this the lives of the whole family are transformed, as are the animals on George’s farm – much to the encouragement of his father, who almost skips and leaps between the pages with as much excitement as the reader.
As with any good Roald Dahl book there’s the accompanying ink drawings by Quentin Blake – the quirky, humorous and simple illustrations providing the foundations of the day-dreamed worlds, while giving the readers room to add to it. The writing of George’s Marvellous Medicine is easy to follow and each page filled with an unexpected turn. Although aimed at children, it would be hard for any adult not to enjoy having a wicked smile here and there, especially as you see George’s medicine become more than a bit marvellous.
Other Notable Works by Roald Dahl:
- Matilda 1988
- Roald Dahl’s Autobiography
+ Going Solo (2) 1986
+ Boy: Tales of Childhood (1) 1984 - The Witches 1983
- Revolting Rhymes 1982
- The BFG 1982
- The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More 1977
- Danny the Champion of the World 1975
- Fantastic Mr. Fox 1970
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 1964
- James and the Giant Peach 1961
Book Edition Information:
Publisher: Puffin Books
ISBN: 0-141-31134-7
Cover Art: Quentin Blake
Presented Edition: 2001 Paperback
Background image courtesy of Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
