The Vicar of Nibbleswicke

This is truly one of the funniest children's book I've ever read. I usually pick it up whenever I'm feeling blue and it never fails to elicit a giggle from me.

Imagine what would happen if a nervous young parson were re-afflicted with a peculiar strain of his childhood dyslexia, so that he unknowingly pronounced backwards only the most significant word in every sentence.

In the fiendish hands of Roald Dahl, the parishioners must not only suffer the offense of praising Dog, but when the unsuspecting vicar attempts to compliment a group of little old ladies on the fact that each of them knits, his actual words incite chaos.

Written for the benefit of the Dyslexia Institute in London, this slight book employs a host of jocular (though show more sometimes vulgar) malaprops to accentuate the beleaguered parson's condition. He exhorts women at their First Communion to pis ("sip") along the wine from the chalice, and requests that parishioners not krap ("park") along the front of the church. Finding the naughty jokes was incredible fun, and the lighthearted approach to solving the vicar's problem by walking backwards so the words come out frontwards is charming.

Blake's daffy illustrations have long captured the outrageous humor of Dahl's text, and this collaboration proves no exception.

Book Details:

Title The Vicar of Nibbleswicke
Author Roald Dahl
Reviewed By Purplycookie show less

Roald Dahl + cartoonish illustrations doesn't mean it's a children's book. Luckily, my 8-year-old wasn't reading along so i was able to think quick and alter the lines that would have been problematic.

The story is about a Vicar who has a unique form of dyslexia, just saying some words backwards. That causes problems among his congregation especially when it comes to telling them not to park on the street in front of the church...

Amusing and very short... extra funny when reading it with kids and realizing you have to alter the story on the fly!

I have to preface this by saying that I can by on-the-fence about Dahl and in general I find his works to be a bit harsh and violently cruel, though I suppose that by today's standards he'd probably be viewed less harshly as Dahl-style cruel adults seem to be more and more commonplace. But this book was hardly of typical early Dahl. This is a story with the gentleness found more often at the later end of his career where the people were of a small town and were kind and understanding of each other's faults and worked as a community to solve them or tolerate them. I like later Dahl much more and this is no exception. The story of a dyslexic vicar who must take the rather absurd measure of walking backwards to make his words come out show more forwards is far more palatable and pleasant than the treatment the tormented James got from his own aunts before they were crushed by a giant peach.
This is a far shorter and less developed story though and can be read in a single setting. Also, the preface shares that all proceeds of the story will be used charitably at Dahl's request. It's very nice and I enjoyed the story a great deal. show less

Robert Lee wanted to be a reverend when he was older but his dyslexia seemed to be standing in his way. With some hard work though and the advice from the Dyslexia Institute in London, he was able to overcome his dyslexia and become a reverend.
Unfortunately upon being appointed his the role as vicar of Nibbleswicke, he became so stressed and anxious over his abilities he undid all his hard work, developing Back-to-Front Dyslexia. Thankfully the people of Nibbleswicke love the eccentricity the vicar brings to his sermons.

Written for the benefit of the Dyslexia Institute in London and littered with Quentin Blake's lovely illustrations, this short tale is a standard Roald Dahl tale with quirky ridiculousness and silly solutions. I did show more like the reference to Esio Trot though. 3 stars, 3.5 stars, rounded to 3 for the target audience.

In the end it was the local doctor who guessed what was wrong.
“What you’ve got,” he said, “is a very rare disease called Back-to-Front Dyslexia.
It is very common among tortoises who even reverse their own name and call themselves esio trots.
Fortunately," went on the good doctor, "there is a simple cure."
"Tell me!" cried the vicar. "Oh please tell me!"
"You must walk backwards while you are speaking; then these back-to-front words will come out frontwards or the right way round. It's common sense."
The cure worked miraculously. There were problems, of course. The main one was that the poor chap couldn't see where he was going without twisting his head over his shoulder, which was painful. But by attaching a small rear view mirror to his forehead with an elastic band, he overcame this difficulty.

Dahl, Roald. The Vicar of Nibbleswicke (p. 20-21). Puffin. Kindle Edition. show less

Typically I do not enjoy scatological humour. But this quite short story was so funny I laughed out loud while reading it.

I was a big Roald Dahl fan as a child, but this story missed my purview until today, so I couldn't help but give it a read with its mere 30-something short pages.

It comes across very dated; the humour seems to be aimed at children but the archaic language and vocabulary would be difficult for any child to read.

I wondered if a plot focused on poking fun at a humorous disability would offend. However, as the rights for this book were auctioned off for charity, I can only take it in the spirit it was intended: a whimsical, tongue-in-cheek, amusing, and charming little story.

Este cuento no tiene la mala leche que rezuma normalmente la obra de Dahl, pero no deja de ser divertido y tierno (además de ir muy bien acompañado de las ilustraciones de Blake)