I don’t think I ever mentioned properly how much I love Jill Barklem‘s Brambly Hedge, so I think I’ll start this round of winter tales, while we wait for Christmas, with her and her Winter Story.
There are four “seasonal” books in the series, Winter Story being the last one, and other four “adventure” stories: “High Hills”, “Sea Story”, “Poppy’s Babies”, and “The Secret Staircase”. There’s also an animated series from 1996.
The story opens in the middle of winter: the sun hangs low and it’s really, really cold outside, with a crispy wind blowing from East. The lights are lit and by the time Mr. Apple closes his grocery store, the first flakes of snow are starting to fall.
The households of Brambly Hedge are highly similar to the ones of The Wind in the Willows: luxurious halls with fireplaces, sofas, carpets, long rectangular tables, cupboards, vegetables and herbs hanging from the ceiling. There’s also a social ladder, just as in Grahame’s delightful set of tales: alongside the burgoise Mr and Mrs Apple, you find the Toadflaxes, from where springs young Wilfred who’s often the main character of the tales, and then you have Lord and Lady Woodmouse, who live in the Old Oak Palace.
The snow falls all night and, after heading to bed with the belly full of hazelnut soup, the little mices wake up to find a bush all covered in snow. In fact, the snow is high enough to block all ground level doors and windows. Is this a problem? Well, the other way around. Adults start wondering whether there’s enough snow for a Snow Ball.
What’s a Snow Ball, you might ask.
Well, you won’t get to know that for a while. What you get to see is that it involves people digging up maps and shovels in order to get to Mr Apple’s store and, after that, you need an Ice Hall to hold it.
When the snows are lying deep,
When the field has gone to sleep,
When the blackthorn turns to white,
And frosty stars bejewel the night,
When summer streams are turned to ice,
A Snow Ball warms the heart of mice.
While the children build a Snow Mouse, adults build the Snow Hall and have their kitchens going for hot soups, punch and puddings, roasted apples. The fireflies are hired to provide lighting, after Mrs Apple gives them a nice meal.
The finished Ice Hall is something worthy of Elsa’s palace: an amazing place with a shiny ballroom floor, decorated columns, mices holding the gothic arches of the upper gallery and a whole ceiling of shining stalactites. And then, the ball can begin.
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