The Borrible books are urban fantasy; the Borrible people whose adventures they recount are something of a wainscot society. The three Borrible books, which were later published in one volume, are:
The Borribles (1976)
The Borribles Go for Broke (1981)
Across the Dark Metropolis (1986).
There are no metaphysical elements in these books and they don’t contain much material that is relevant to this blog, but they do inspire some commentary.
The Borrible books are intended for older children but have a much wider appeal. Although I discovered them only as an adult, I found them fascinating; they left an immediate and permanent impression on the first reading. A big attraction for me is that they are set in London; they mention many places and features that I know well.
The Borrible books are a very good read, but they should have a warning for the faint-hearted and squeamish! They contain some vile, cruel, dangerous and sinister characters, there is much violence and killing, and some of the action takes place in very filthy and squalid surroundings such as sewers and junkyards.
In addition to that, they are sometimes seen as subversive. Across the Dark Metropolis, the third book in the series, was originally scheduled to be released in 1985, but the publishers pulled out at the last moment because of the riots in London. They felt that its strong anti-police message and glamourising of lawlessness made it unsuitable for publication in the climate of the time. By coincidence, some of the riots took place in areas of London that are mentioned in the book, Brixton for example.
What are Borribles?
Borribles are feral runaway children who never grow into adults - so long as they remain at liberty and their pointed ears remain unclipped. Some of them are around one hundred years old, but they still look like children.
Borribles live in tribes; they are territorial. They are feral and streetwise. They are very tough indeed. They are squatters; most of them make their homes, hideaways rather, in derelict houses and abandoned buildings.
A Borrible’s main business is to stay alive.
They live by their sharp wits and on what they can steal. They refuse to have any dealings with money. They prefer busy streets, alive with crowds that they can get lost in and with markets and shops they can steal from, to empty and open spaces such as parks and fields.
Borribles love their independence; they live in fear of being captured by the authorities and losing their freedom. They fear being forced to lead boring lives with no more adventures, lives in which they will eventually grow up to become ordinary adults.
Names must be earned not given
A Borrible must win his or her name by taking part in an adventure:
“A Borrible name has to be earned because that is the only way a Borrible can get one. He has to have an adventure of some sort, and the name comes out of that adventure—stealing, burglary, a journey or a trick played on someone. That was the rule and Knocker was against it; it made it difficult, if not impossible, for a Borrible to join an adventure once he was in possession of a name. The first chance was always given to those who were nameless and this infuriated Knocker for he had a secret ambition to collect more names and have more adventures than any other Borrible alive.”
Knocker and his friends go on some special and very dangerous expeditions to earn their names.
Influences and connections
The Borribles remind me of Mary Norton’s Borrowers. Michael de Larrabeiti parodies some names in his stories - the Wombles of Wimbledon become Rumbles for example - so it is possible that ‘Borrible’ is derived from ‘horrible Borrower’.
Some of the information about the Borribles also makes me think of Robin Jarvis’s Fisher Folk in his Whitby Witches series, George MacDonald’s goblins, J. R. R. Tolkien’s Hobbits and even the rabbits in Richard Adams’s Watership Down.
Just as a few of Eoin Colfer’s imps never ‘warp’ into demons but become warlocks instead, a few human children never grow up but become Borribles instead. Just as the demons earn their names by warping, the Borribles earn theirs by taking part in an adventure. Just as Colfer’s demons have points on their ears, the more points the better, de Larrabeiti’s Borribles have pointed ears, the more pointed the better.
I have been wondering whether Michael de Larrabeiti ever read Joan Aiken’s alternative history series known as the Wolves Chronicles - Black Hearts in Battersea (1964) in particular - which mention many areas of London and which feature feral and orphan children. I can’t remember the details; I plan to re-read them to see if there are any influences and connections of interest.
The off-grid lives that the Borribles lead made me think of the underground lives of some of the characters in Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. I found that Neil Gaiman said that the Borribles were remarkable, and definitely were one of the streams that fed into Neverwhere.
Michael de Larrabeiti and south west London
Much of the action in the Borrible books takes place in areas in south west London, including Battersea and Wandsworth. The River Wandle and a stretch of the River Thames also play a part in the adventures of Knocker and his group of name-seeking friends.
The railway and tube stations, churches, parks, roads, streets and other features that Michael de Larrabeiti mentions can be found on a map of the area. He even gives the names of individual shops and blocks of flats. These very detailed descriptions can be attributed to his living in Battersea High Street as a boy. He later got a job in Battersea Park and another one in a library in Wandsworth.
Michael de Larrabeiti was born on this day, August 18th, in 1934 - by coincidence, Diana Wynne Jones was born just two days earlier and Alan Garner two months later - so this article marks the occasion of his birthday.
Michael de Larrabeiti died in 2008, but his Borrible trilogy lives on:
