10 Books…With Context - Fungus The Bogeyman

As unlikely as it was that I was going to let this list go past without a choice from Terry Pratchett, equally unlikely was the possibility that I would not include a book that didn't have a selection of pictures alongside all the wordy goodness. And I’m going to go with this one.

Fungus The Bogeyman
By Raymond Briggs
First published in 1977

What’s It About?
The book follows a day in the life of a bogeyman, Fungus, a member of underground dwelling race of people whose average working day involves coming out at night to frighten the mundane human types who live above ground.

Background
Briggs was originally planning on doing an alphabet-based illustrated book - A for apple, etc… - but, after wondering why the alphabet books have to be so blandly nice (“...why does it have to be so perfect? Why can’t the apple have a maggot sticking out of the top?”), the world of bogeydom was instead born.

Why’s It Good?
Briggs is most famously associated with The Snowman - the perennial Channel 4 Christmas special based upon his 1978 picture book - but, somewhat downbeat ending aside, that doesn’t really represent the gloominess that permeates Briggs’ work. His Father Christmas book follows a grumpy version of Santa who hates Christmas, while When The Wind Blows is as bleak and chilling a warning on the dangers of nuclear proliferation as you’re ever likely to read / watch.

That dour outlook on life seeps through every aspect of Fungus The Bogeyman but it still doesn't stop the book from being delightful. It’s not really much of a narrative - we merely follow Fungus as he goes about his working “day” - but where it comes alive is in the world building. The sheer wealth of detail packed into every page, forming a mini encyclopedia on the world and lives of the bogeys is what I loved most about it. I would pore over every tiny little detail contained in the book and spend hours taking it all in.

As with many of the books I have loved, word play and a love of language is front and centre in this book. Briggs clearly loves playing with language, whether it be dredging up old obscure English terms / bits of dialect to press them back into use (“hodmandod” being the bogey word for snail, for example; very pleasing to say) or filling the background with literary jokes and allusions (the bogey library, for example has books like Far From the Madding Bogey and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bogeyman).

It’s a book that’s ostensibly for kids but has much to offer adults as well. Kids will love the strange new world lurking under our familiar one while adults will empathise with the working man plodding his way through just another day. If you’ve not read it before, give it a go. It might well surprise you.

[I would add a picture of my own copy but the eldest nephew borrowed it before lockdown (good call)...]