Review: Old Man of Lochnagar, The

The Old Man of Lochnagar

Written by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales

Illustrated by Sir Hugh Casson K.C.V.O.

Publication date: 1980
Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Children's Books
ISBN: 978-0374356132

Summary/Back cover:
The old man of Lochnagar leaves his comfortable cave after many years to make some adventurous expeditions into the surrounding Scottish countryside.

Review:
This book, written by Prince Charles, is one I had when I was a child, and remembered loving it, so I hunted out a copy of it on Trade Me to read to my boys. And I have to say, it's a little stranger than I remember it being! Quite a wordy story (averaging somewhere close to 200 words per page), it's not a picture book as such, but a longer story suitable for children slightly older than mine (aged 3 years and 17 months).

It's a nonsense tale of what happens to an old man who leaves a cave he's lived in forever, and involves such escapades as visiting the (underwater) Scottish Neptune (named "Iagopus Scotius"), being shrunk and visiting Gorms, and seeing London, among other adventures. It's written in a humourous style, and includes gems such as:

He whizzed up so far that he landed on the top of Lochnagar and narrowly missed hitting his wrinkled bottom (because he was an old man, don't forget) on a sharp rock

and

The actual mechanism of the 'loo was very cunning. The old man had found an antique pair of bagpipes and rigged them up so that when he pulled on a cetain part of it, it not only flushed the lavatory, but played his favourite Scottish tune as well.

It's one I'll always have on my bookshelf, but not one I'll read to my boys for a few years yet. I think it will appeal to them in a few years, when they're old enough to read to themselves, but want Mum or Dad to read them a bedtime story still. Great imagery and lots of little bits to laugh at. This was written in 1980, which is the year Charles and Diana were born, but before Prince William was on the way. I guess it's one that William and Harry grew up reading - so if you've got a bit of a royalist streak in you, it's worth owning!

My rating: 3.7 out of 5 for kids, 4.2 out of 5 for adults.

Review written by Bronwyn