The Bolds

Title: The Bolds
Author: Julian Clary
Illustrator: David Roberts
Publisher:  Andersen Press
Published: 2015
Format: Paperback
Source: My own copy

Two English speaking hyenas leave the Masai Mara to take on the identities of Fred and Amelia Bold, a young couple from Twickenham. Fred gets a job writing jokes for Christmas crackers and Amelia makes hats from unusual items such as egg boxes. They have two young children Bobby and Betty and are very happy with their new life in the suburbs. The children have a human friend, Minnie, who knows their secret, but can be trusted not to let on to anyone else. The only problem they have is their grumpy next door neighbour, Mr McNumpty, who is extremely unfriendly. One day the Bolds visit the local safari park so that the children can see the wild animals and get a taste of what life in Africa was like for their parents. Whilst there they make friends with the park's hyenas and hatch a plan to rescue Tony, an elderly hyena at risk of being put down by the vet.

The story is told in such a way that you can imagine Julian Clary reading aloud to you. The style is very chatty with plenty of asides from the narrator which makes it very easy to read. I think that this book would be great to read aloud. An audio book read by Julian Clary would be brilliant except for one small problem; you would miss out on David Robert's fantastic illustrations. The book is packed with illustrations which complement the text perfectly and really bring the story to life. I particularly liked the way that the pages are black with white writing when the story takes place at night or in the dark. Mr Bold's job writing jokes gives Julian Clary the excuse to include plenty of Christmas cracker type humour, which can make you groan, but in a good way. The story itself is really funny and made me laugh out loud a lot. I was particularly amused at the thought of Mr McNumpty dating Joan Collins and living the high life. The book is quite thick for one aimed at younger readers, but that is because there are so many illustrations which will appeal to children making the move to longer books. It is really easy to read and the story races along. I am really looking forward to the publication of The Bolds to the Rescue in March 2016. It sounds as if it will be another brilliantly funny book.