Stig of the Dump

This book was published in the year that I was born, and was one that I read at school when I was about the same age as Barney.

It has stayed with me for my whole life, and to this day I can't walk past an old quarry or the like without imagining it as a home for Stig.

Probably more than half a century since I last read it, I thoroughly enjoyed Stig of the Dump. The prose is beautiful and the half remembered narrative evokes a young person's world view that feels perfectly realised.

I am so glad I re-read this book, both for itself and as a reminder of my childhood.

Initially the low stakes, slow paced ambience of this book was a shock in comparison to contemporary world-saving, thrill-ride, kids' books but having accepted it for what it is, I found this book to be charming and by the end, delightful. It's heavily episodic, with no discernable through-plot, but Barney and Lou's adventures with Stig when they visit their grandmother are successively more extravagant and the last two chapters are particularly surprising and fun.

I don't think this has aged as well as some think. But I do think I would have loved it as a child, so I let my inner child read it, and she was interested in the inventions & in the language-free communication. Even so, I think three stars is enough. Especially because the boy is only 7 & 8 years old and given this much freedom to get into this much mischief! I don't believe in helicopter parenting but that's too much!

But I did bookdart a couple of passages:

"'Granny, have you got any things you don't want?'
'Things I don't want, dear?' Grandmother repeated. 'What sort of things? Chilblains? Grandchildren?'"

"A blackbird turning over dried leaves in search of worms was making a noise much too big for itself."

A charming story about eight-year-old Barney who spends holidays with his grandmother, explores a local chalk pit and makes friends with the cave-boy Stig who lives in a shelter at the bottom and makes tools and weapons from the accumulated detritus. Many adventures ensue, and there's also some midsummer magic.

Didn't I love this book as a kid? A dump full of useless junk which Barney and Stig turned into furniture, weapons and .. a neat glass jar window. The battle with the three bullies makes me laugh out loud every time I read it.

A delightfully little story about a eight year old boy, Barney. He is a curious boy, with a desire to explore, and is told not to go too close to the edge of the quarry. He does get too close though, and falls down to the bottom. He lands in a cave cut into the chalk, and there looking at him is a short hairy man, with sparkling black eyes, and wearing animal furs. The start to communicate using gestures and grunt, and barney decides to call him Stig. And so begins a series of adventures with his new friend. They raid the rubbish dump at the bottom, disturb a fox hunt, and capture an escaped animal from a circus amongst other scrapes.

Part of a challenge where you had to read a book from your childhood, this was one that I had fond show more memories of, and amazingly I could still remember details of the story several decades on. Timeless storytelling at its best. show less

I read this when I was little and in school and I was fascinated by it. Aside from being one of the best books that I got to read in school as a young child, I loved that Stig and Barney made all sorts of things from rubbish. It made me want to go out and make my own inventions, or to build a den to hide in. It really is a wonderful book, brilliant for adventurous children and adults alike.