Fattypuffs and Thinifers

Product Information

There have been many reprints and different editions and even (anathema from my point of view) new sets of illustrations but there may still be some of you who have not come upon the book before, so I had better explain. I realise, incidentally, that the whole notion of the book would probably be greeted with horror by the health and safety (and discrimination) brigade – almost as much as some of the other favourite books of my childhood which I do not even dare to name!

On the flyleaf there is written “Nicolas, from Ruth, Christmas 1942”. That would make me five years old. Great-aunt Ruth had never enjoyed children of her own but was really expert in seeking out the very newest and best books to give her many young relatives for birthdays and Christmas. She was really good fun, too – which I think is implied by her use only of her first name when corresponding with a boy of about 70 years her junior. Very sadly she did not survive many years into my life and the flow of wonderful books, at least from that source, dried up all too soon. The gloriously entertaining tale tells of two countries at war: the Kingdom of Fattypuffs, populated by fat people, and the Republic of the Thinifers, inhabited by the skinny. The capitals of each are Fattyborough, not far from Mount Bulge, and Thiniville. The two countries then go to war over the disputed island of Thinipuff.The book is marvellously prescient about the modern division in life between the obsessively fit and the self-indulgently fat. The Thinifers spend all day in the gym, like 'mechanical figures which never stop moving': 'They scarcely eat anything, they drink nothing but water and they even work without being made to.'

Ocr tesseract 4.1.1 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 1.0000 Ocr_module_version 0.0.6 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA19866 Openlibrary_edition Basically its the story of 2 boys, 1 fat and 1 thin who find a tunnel that leads them off to an underground world peopled by 2 distinct cultures of the Fattypuffs and the Thinifers. The Fattypuffs live lives of leisure and love eating and relaxing where the Thinifers love exercise and eating little. Sadly there are no jokes about lean manufacturing, but the old line about generals always preparing to re-fight the last war is deployed in a kind of Maginot line situation the full figures of the Fattypuffs mean they cannot swiftly get out from their special curved trenches, but as can be the case defeat in war allows for victory in defeat... . To The Times Literary Supplement on 27 December 1941, 'This most amusing fantasy' won pride of place in a review of many juveniles, but purely as comedy..." [1]The consequences of this annexation are unexpected. Many soldiers of the occupying army of the Thinifers begin to marry Fattypuff girls, and return to their homeland with affection for the country that they conquered. The Thinifers begin to adopt Fattypuff cuisine, habits, and attitudes. Consequently, the Thinifer president proclaims that the two peoples form a new nation, the United States of the Underground. King Plumpapuff of the Fattypuffs is made constitutional sovereign, while the Thinifer president is made his chancellor. All distinctions by weight are abolished. A toponymic compromise is reached: the island of Fattyfer-Thinipuff is called Peachblossom Island.