'What's sealing wax?' Or, More Borrowing - Anne Rooney

Borrowers are in the the zeitgeist, it seems. I came here this morning with the intention of writing about The Borrowers by Mary Norton, only to find that Paul May had beaten me to it two days ago with his excellent critique. Luckily, I wasn't going to attempt anything so erudite and analytical. This is more a companion piece, about reading it afresh with a new reader, MB, who will be seven in a few days.

When I finished reading all the Arabel and Mortimer stories (by Joan Aiken) to MB, she turned to the advertising pages at the back and chose The Borrowers as her next book. I duly went to Heffers and bought it. It's a roaring success. She sees, so far, none of the threat that Paul identifies and that is clear to adults. To her, the dangers are excitements. I'm not sure how it will be when we get to the end with the prospect of the rat-catcher, but she can see there are more books in the series so Arrietty clearly isn't going to be eaten. That's an advantage to advertising pages that I hadn't thought of. (And, to be fair, a source of solace not available to the very first readers of Norton's first book in the series.) Homily's remark that woodlice 'smell like old knives', which I find one of the most chilling similes in children's literature, MB responded to only with indignation. 'They do NOT!' She is a fan of woodlice. I could actually write a whole post on just that simile. Maybe one day...

Reading The Borrowers now is a bit of a challenge in that the things borrowed are almost entirely unfamiliar, as are most of the details of the setting. The Borrowers live behind the wainscot ('What's a wainscot?') Arrietty seals her letter with sealing wax. ('What's sealing wax?) She finds 'reels and reels of coloured thread'. (What are 'reels and reels?') Pod uses a hat pin to climb the curtains. ('What's a hat pin for?') Other things pass her by, obviously easy to accommodate — the flicker of gas lamps, even when turned down to a blue flame, seems OK. 

Last night she was comparing the size of the figures in the nativity set to Borrowers, trying to work out which were bigger. Borrowers are part of life now, outside the book. 'Where is your school shoe?' 'I don't know. Maybe Borrowers took it?' Therein lies the appeal. They are both a useful scapegoat and a group a small child can identify with. A child, too, is blamed for things whether they did it or not, and has no course to redress. A child is relatively powerless in a world dominated by much larger people. But there is a spark of joy, defiance and autonomy in the way the Borrowers, like a successful child, can appropriate, manipulate and re-purpose the human/adult world. Arrietty defies her parents and her parents defy the human beans. Borrowers and children alike make their world, real or imaginary, in the gaps and with the detritus of adult life. 

I have already tried to source the next Borrowers book as we're more than halfway through, but the lady in Heffers tells me that PRH hasn't reissued all of them yet. There is the compendium (we had to buy a compendium to get all the Arabel stories — two volumes, many hundred pages each). A compendium is not as easy for a small person who wants to read ahead. It's heavy. And besides, we have the first one. But there might be no choice. I don't think the craving for more Borrowers will wait while Puffin republishes so we might have to go for the 900 pages. As MB says, 'It's become one of my favouritest books in the world.' (I just asked her about the 900 pages. She says 'That's the one I wanted in the first place.' Small person unintimidated by large book.)

Anne Rooney

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Miles Kelly, 2020