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The Complete Uncle
The complete set of Uncle books, by J.P Martin and illustrated by Sir Quentin Blake, has being re-published in a deluxe high-quality hardback, with a wealth of extra material – including articles by Neil Gaiman, Will Self, and Kate Summerscale.
Uncle is an kind-hearted elephant who lives in an endlessly massive castle, accompanied by his motley crew of companions and employees, including the Old Monkey, Goodman the Cat, the One-Armed Badger and many more. Near his castle sits Badfort, home of Uncle’s enemies, a disreputable group including Hateman, Jellytussle, Hitmouse and other unpleasant characters. Over the course of the books, Uncle and his followers find themselves mixed up with camels, dwarfs, treacle, bears, ghosts, a walrus, a singing flower, wizards, Respectable Horses and much, much more.
Although the books were intended for children, they are loved by an adult audience for their wordplay, subversive and surreal humour and wonderful drawings. They are one of the great forgotten treasures of children’s literature, and this is the first opportunity to buy the complete set since the early seventies.
This deluxe 800-page hardback edition contains the full text of all six books, and all of the illustrations from Sir Quentin Blake. There are also articles by famous fans, contemporary reviews, an eight-page colour section showcasing the original cover art and much more. The anthology includes: Uncle, Uncle Cleans Up, Uncle and His Detective, Uncle and the Treacle Trouble, Uncle and Claudius the Camel, and Uncle and the Battle for Badgertown.
Uncle is an kind-hearted elephant who lives in an endlessly massive castle, accompanied by his motley crew of companions and employees, including the Old Monkey, Goodman the Cat, the One-Armed Badger and many more. Near his castle sits Badfort, home of Uncle’s enemies, a disreputable group including Hateman, Jellytussle, Hitmouse and other unpleasant characters. Over the course of the books, Uncle and his followers find themselves mixed up with camels, dwarfs, treacle, bears, ghosts, a walrus, a singing flower, wizards, Respectable Horses and much, much more.
Although the books were intended for children, they are loved by an adult audience for their wordplay, subversive and surreal humour and wonderful drawings. They are one of the great forgotten treasures of children’s literature, and this is the first opportunity to buy the complete set since the early seventies.
This deluxe 800-page hardback edition contains the full text of all six books, and all of the illustrations from Sir Quentin Blake. There are also articles by famous fans, contemporary reviews, an eight-page colour section showcasing the original cover art and much more. The anthology includes: Uncle, Uncle Cleans Up, Uncle and His Detective, Uncle and the Treacle Trouble, Uncle and Claudius the Camel, and Uncle and the Battle for Badgertown.
- GenresChildrens
800 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2013
10 people are currently reading
137 people want to read
About the author
J.P. Martin
21 books12 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
J.P. Martin (1879-1966) was born in Yorkshire into a family of Methodist ministers. He took up the family vocation, serving when young as a missionary to a community of South African diamond miners and then, during the First World War, as an Army chaplain in Palestine and Egypt, before returning to minister to parishes throughout the north of England. He died at eighty-six from a flu caught while bringing pots of honey to his parishioners in cold weather. Martin began telling Uncle stories to entertain his children, who later asked him to write them down so that they could read them to their own children; the stories were finally published as a book in 1964, when Martin was eighty-four. The jacket to the first edition of Uncle notes that “the inspiration for these stories seems to come from the industrial landscape that [Martin] knew as a child….He still likes to take his family and friends on walks through industrial scenes. He also enjoys painting the wild and beautiful landscape where he lives. It is not enough to say he loves children; he is still continually visited by them.”
J.P. Martin (1879-1966) was born in Yorkshire into a family of Methodist ministers. He took up the family vocation, serving when young as a missionary to a community of South African diamond miners and then, during the First World War, as an Army chaplain in Palestine and Egypt, before returning to minister to parishes throughout the north of England. He died at eighty-six from a flu caught while bringing pots of honey to his parishioners in cold weather. Martin began telling Uncle stories to entertain his children, who later asked him to write them down so that they could read them to their own children; the stories were finally published as a book in 1964, when Martin was eighty-four. The jacket to the first edition of Uncle notes that “the inspiration for these stories seems to come from the industrial landscape that [Martin] knew as a child….He still likes to take his family and friends on walks through industrial scenes. He also enjoys painting the wild and beautiful landscape where he lives. It is not enough to say he loves children; he is still continually visited by them.”
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 27, 2013
As a small boy I think I had one or other of the Uncle books out on loan from my local library more or less constantly. The stories have a slightly improvised feel to them, as befits tales originally told at bedtime. I always loved the wonderful flights of fancy, and the endless schemes of the Badfort crowd. What Marcus Gipps discovered as he set about getting these books reprinted was that Uncle has a sizable following, all eager to rediscover those childhood wonders. The resulting omnibus edition is a pure delight, beautifully produced and finished to a very high standard. Preserved for the next generations of Uncle fans, these timeless tales are pure joy, from start to finish.
March 7, 2015
There are not many books that I read as a 12 year old that I am still avidly reading, in fact, this is the only one.
Hilarious, hypnotic and hallucinogenic all at once, it relates the tales of a wealthy elephant, his motley crew and the fabulous castle of Homeward. Uncle's pomposity is nicely punctured by his nemesis, the Badfort crowd.
Explore Homeward with the one-armed badger, the old monkey and re-awaken your dormant inner child.
Uncle was inexplicably out of print until a massively over-subscribed Kickstarter campaign raised enough to bring out the complete works in this beautiful volume.
Thanks again Marcus Gipps for this - Take a bow sir.
The authors life also rewards exploration- what an amazing chap he was.
Hilarious, hypnotic and hallucinogenic all at once, it relates the tales of a wealthy elephant, his motley crew and the fabulous castle of Homeward. Uncle's pomposity is nicely punctured by his nemesis, the Badfort crowd.
Explore Homeward with the one-armed badger, the old monkey and re-awaken your dormant inner child.
Uncle was inexplicably out of print until a massively over-subscribed Kickstarter campaign raised enough to bring out the complete works in this beautiful volume.
Thanks again Marcus Gipps for this - Take a bow sir.
The authors life also rewards exploration- what an amazing chap he was.
January 6, 2014
As my family was coming together for Christmas, we were discussing our favourite childhood books over some wine. I talked about my love of Uncle and the battered copy of the first book I bought from my local library (after borrowing to read and re-read for many years) in their 'too old to lend anymore' book sale! Although we were supposed to be discussing childhood reads, I'm not ashamed to admit I have reread it many times as an adult but I had never been able to get my hands on the other episodes of Uncle's adventures. Our conversation inspired me to look online again to see if they were anywhere to be found for a reasonable price. And lo and behold, I find Marcus Gipp's story on the guardian website and the kick starter site and then see the finished product available to buy.
I bought a copy of the book as a New Year gift to myself, and have spent several happy days ignoring household chores and preparation to return to work by sinking into the comforting splendour of Uncle and all his friends!! Thank you Marcus and all those who supported the kickstarter project to return Uncle to our shelves.
Buy this for yourself. Buy it for your friends. Buy it for your children. You won't regret it and neither will they!!
I bought a copy of the book as a New Year gift to myself, and have spent several happy days ignoring household chores and preparation to return to work by sinking into the comforting splendour of Uncle and all his friends!! Thank you Marcus and all those who supported the kickstarter project to return Uncle to our shelves.
Buy this for yourself. Buy it for your friends. Buy it for your children. You won't regret it and neither will they!!
December 12, 2013
I grew up loving these books, but could never find my own copies (at least affordably). So I had to back this as a Kickstarter. Now my copy has arrived, and it's a most beautiful book - well designed, and full of extra material around all six books.
If you've not read Uncle, then the surreal fantasy of the world's richest elephant and his many friends will enthral and amuse, and if you have, well it's a welcome journey Homeward.
If you've not read Uncle, then the surreal fantasy of the world's richest elephant and his many friends will enthral and amuse, and if you have, well it's a welcome journey Homeward.
July 10, 2020
This book is absolutely AWESOME! Probably my favorite book of all time.
February 7, 2014
As a child in the early 1970s I discovered the anarchic madness that is J.P.Martin's 'Uncle' in our local library. If Spike Milligan had teamed up with Roald Dahl to re-write 'Babar' then I presume it might have turned out something similar to this. Although perhaps not as funny.
Uncle is a well-educated, fabulously wealthy and hilariously pompous and vain elephant who lives in a massive, Gormenghastian castle called Homeward full of hidden towers, haunted houses, swimming pools, dwarfs, waterfalls and secret passages.
Uncle has a number of helpers and friends including (amongst others) the Old Monkey, Butterskin Mute (a gardener with shovels on his shoes who can grow anything except watercress), Alonso S. Whitebeard (a miser),Cowgill (an engineer who drives Uncle around in a traction engine), the one-armed badger, the Muncle (the old-monkey's footwear-fixated uncle) and Noddy Ninety (an extremely old man who still goes to school and is a train driver in his spare time).
Unfortunately not everything is rosy for Uncle. Directly opposite Homeward's main gate is Badfort, a sprawling, dilapidated castle which is home to the abominable, sack-suited Beaver Hateman and his associates who include various relatives, Jellytussle (a huge thing covered in blue jelly), the wooden-legged donkey and Hitmouse (a scurrilous dwarf 'journalist' who stabs people with skewers, lives in a nissen hut and hates washing dishes).
Hateman and his gang lay traps for Uncle, extract money under false pretences, write hilariously skewed newspaper articles about Uncle and generally get up to all manner of nefarious mischief which usually ends in a massive fight and Uncle kicking them up in the air into a swamp or a pond full of vicious fish.
There are more laugh-out-loud moments per page than even Terry Pratchett, and I can give no higher praise than that.
And, if the stories themselves weren't reason enough to love these books, the scratchy illustrations by the sublime Sir Quentin Blake are a perfect fit for the slyly subversive text.
Apart from 'Uncle' and the sequel 'Uncle Cleans Up', none of the other books have ever been reprinted. Second hand volumes sell for astronomical amounts due to, it seems, a wealthy collector who has been buying up any copies which come on to the market. Last year a kickstarter campaign to publish all the Uncle books in one volume was started by Marcus Gipps and was massively oversubscribed, resulting in this beautiful volume. The book itself includes all six stories plus a short biography of J.P.Martin (who, astoundingly, was a Methodist minister) and a selection of unpublished illustrations for the books by Quentin Blake.
A lost classic of British children's literature which deserves to be mentioned alongside the likes of Alice In Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Hobbit.
Uncle is a well-educated, fabulously wealthy and hilariously pompous and vain elephant who lives in a massive, Gormenghastian castle called Homeward full of hidden towers, haunted houses, swimming pools, dwarfs, waterfalls and secret passages.
Uncle has a number of helpers and friends including (amongst others) the Old Monkey, Butterskin Mute (a gardener with shovels on his shoes who can grow anything except watercress), Alonso S. Whitebeard (a miser),Cowgill (an engineer who drives Uncle around in a traction engine), the one-armed badger, the Muncle (the old-monkey's footwear-fixated uncle) and Noddy Ninety (an extremely old man who still goes to school and is a train driver in his spare time).
Unfortunately not everything is rosy for Uncle. Directly opposite Homeward's main gate is Badfort, a sprawling, dilapidated castle which is home to the abominable, sack-suited Beaver Hateman and his associates who include various relatives, Jellytussle (a huge thing covered in blue jelly), the wooden-legged donkey and Hitmouse (a scurrilous dwarf 'journalist' who stabs people with skewers, lives in a nissen hut and hates washing dishes).
Hateman and his gang lay traps for Uncle, extract money under false pretences, write hilariously skewed newspaper articles about Uncle and generally get up to all manner of nefarious mischief which usually ends in a massive fight and Uncle kicking them up in the air into a swamp or a pond full of vicious fish.
There are more laugh-out-loud moments per page than even Terry Pratchett, and I can give no higher praise than that.
And, if the stories themselves weren't reason enough to love these books, the scratchy illustrations by the sublime Sir Quentin Blake are a perfect fit for the slyly subversive text.
Apart from 'Uncle' and the sequel 'Uncle Cleans Up', none of the other books have ever been reprinted. Second hand volumes sell for astronomical amounts due to, it seems, a wealthy collector who has been buying up any copies which come on to the market. Last year a kickstarter campaign to publish all the Uncle books in one volume was started by Marcus Gipps and was massively oversubscribed, resulting in this beautiful volume. The book itself includes all six stories plus a short biography of J.P.Martin (who, astoundingly, was a Methodist minister) and a selection of unpublished illustrations for the books by Quentin Blake.
A lost classic of British children's literature which deserves to be mentioned alongside the likes of Alice In Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Hobbit.
February 6, 2014
I don't think I read Uncle as a child (shocking that I can't remember, I know) but I enjoyed reading the series as an adult. I'm afraid that Uncle's pomposity stood out for me (would I have noticed this as a child?) and the irrepressible Beaver Hateman. Of the goodies, The Little Lion and Goodman are my favourites. This is an impressive volume and the wonderful illustrations have been reproduced outstandlingly well. Expensive but well worth it.
August 5, 2014
I'm trying to express how gleeful the mere existence of this makes me but it just keeps coming out as 'EEEEEEEEEEEEE'. Tremendously excellent. Stupendously imaginative. As a young person there were many places I wanted to go; Villa Villekulla, The Magic Faraway Tree, Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, The Hundred-Acre Wood. But I'd have given up visits to all of those for just a day exploring Homeward. Still would.
May 3, 2015
I loved these books when I was younger, but for many years most of the series has been available only through second-hand shops (though there have been various reprints of the first two books: 'Uncle' and 'Uncle Cleans Up'). This hardback volume contains all six volumes together with the original illustrations by Quentin Blake.
March 6, 2014
brilliant to have all these back in print and not £400 from Abe books. for anarchic children of all ages...!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews