Synopsis: The New Cut Gang are on the trail of a glut of forged shillings, but the culprit may be a little too close to home. Thunderbolt's dad is working on something secret and it isn't just the gang who wonder if his latest money-spinner isn't a little too literal. Meanwhile, their pal Dippy Hancock, the hot chestnut seller, has an ambition to become a waxwork. Is there perhaps a way to solve the crime and get Dippy in the waxworks at the same time.

Review: The adventures of the New Cut Gang - who made a brief appearance in The Tiger in the Well - are for younger readers than much of Philip Pullman's work, aimed at the same general age range as the likes of I Was a Rat and Clockwise. Thunderbolt's Waxwork is a slight yet robust tale with a substantial cast, and the characters are rich and distinctive despite the number of them crammed into the short page count.

They lack the fantastical element common to other entries in the Pullman canon, but in its place there is an absurd reality. In the world of the New Cut Gang it makes perfect sense for a Cock-er-ny lad's treasure trove to contain several pounds of ambergris or for an inebriated chestnut seller to infiltrate a department store dressed as a mannequin. This whimsical air is quite enchanting and the great strength of the book is the way that it draws the reader in to this childlike millieu. Thunderbolt's Waxwork is a childlike fable told by a master storyteller and, in its own small way, rather remarkable.

2006-10-29