Welcome to my nifty Dreambook, a free guestbook service from New Dream Network and the DreamHost!If you have a minute, please add your entry to those below by signing my Dreambook!
| Name: | S.Johnson |
| E-mail address: | smjjbj@blueyonder.co.uk |
| Comments: | I loved this book so much a child, now my son has started enjoying reading books I've given him the book i kept from childhood which i must add had a better cover than the modern one. I still hope one day this will be made into a film and not ignored because of its Communist appeal.This book was a true original idea even though people com-pair the characters to the wombles which i didn't see as a child.Unlike the Harry Potter books that steel ideas from Tolkien and others, the borribles book is a modern masterpiece and completely rip-off free. |
| Name: | Kit Ellis |
| E-mail address: | ellis_kit@hotmail.com |
| Comments: | I was very young when I first read The Borribles - strangely it was on the school reading list, which shows how long ago we are talking! I was immediately borribled by the experience, and have been a huge fan ever since.
I met Michael when he came to my school, and I still have the signed copy of book 1, which at the time was the only one published, though I remember him mentioning that book 2 was on the way, and a film was being discussed. Throughout the remainder of my life, I've re-read the trilogy hundreds of times, and it has never diminished in perfection and grit. I grew up in South London, in the heart of Borrible country - spent much of my best years in Battersea - and so these books are added nostalgia as well as a bloody good read. I have always dreamed of making these books into a movie trilogy, since I am the only one I trust to do them justice. However, they seem to be pretty much constantly in development, so I'm obviously not alone in the desire to get them to the screen. Nobody's managed it yet though, so maybe there's still a chance... Great site, and such a joy to see so many other borribles out there. I always thought I was the only one! |
| Name: | Kirsty |
| E-mail address: | kirsty.whitman@adelaide.edu.au |
| Comments: | Howdy,
I first read these books nearly 23 years ago when I was ten. Recently I found a copy of the trilogy on ebay and on re-reading it is just as funny, emotive and exciting as it was way back then. What has struck me this time round is the fantastic Marxist undertones - great stuff in our commodity obsessed, big buisness, money orientated, consumerist society. The Borribles are the perfect antidote with their genuine affection, anarchistic way of life, and their rejection of social values that prize things over people. Plus, they're bloody great books! Can't wait to pass these on to my kids, and love the site! |
| Name: | Alan |
| E-mail address: | alansmith23@ihug.com.au |
| Comments: | I have only just discovered the Borrible trilogy - in Brisbane (Australia) public library. I grabbed it since there was nothing else there that looked interesting on the day, and it proved one of the best coincidences of my reading life!
I was so hooked I read the entire trilogy in a few days. This has got to be one of the greatest books (not limiting to childrens' books) ever written. It has some of the most interesting characters (the villains. Dewdrop,Sussworth and Hanks are three of the greatest bad guys ever conceived), a great story, and a fascinating "fake culture" built up around the various Borrible tribes. A lot of critics are saying the work is a kind of "anti-children-lit", satarizing things like "Watership Down" or "The Hobbit". I say it's up there with them as a genuine classic. Ah, if only he'd written some more books in the series, "Borribles" might be as famous as Thomas the Tank Engine or Bilbo Baggins. btw I am London born (Croydon) and used to throw sticks into the river Wandle as a child, so knew the locations well. I was still living in London in the early 70s (I'm now 49) so the area described is pretty familiar to me. I won't rave on any more. Your site is brilliant, and I've bookmarked it. Don't get caught! |
| Name: | emma |
| E-mail address: | emma@momotheatre.co.uk |
| Comments: | I stole the borribles from my school. It seemed fitting. THat was when I was 15. 3 years ago my partner and my 4 year old son gave me the trilogy for christmas. All feelings of belonging to the borribles are stirred up.
The borribles are a great political book for young people. Now i'm turning it into a stage show for my local theatre. If you are my friend follow me round the bend... |
| Name: | Paul Warawi |
| E-mail address: | hobbystop@btconnect.com |
| Comments: | I played 'Spiff' in the 1981 production'The Borribles:The great Rumble hunt' at the 'Young Vic' Theatre in London. It was a youth theatre production and I have a signed book by Michael de Larrabeiti and all the cast. I had a fantastic time! |
| Name: | shane hennah |
| E-mail address: | sonoficeman@hotmail.com |
| Comments: | i fell in love with these books when i took them out from the school library at the tender age of 8 y/o. My friends and i imagined ourselves as borribles (we had catapults n all lol)its great to see so amny fellow borribles on here and i totally agree a movie would be amazing.
kind regards to all borribles everywhere |
| Name: | Pr |
| Homepage URL: | http://www.praesto.ru/ |
| Comments: | News online |
| Name: | Emma |
| E-mail address: | Krisma55500@yahoo.com |
| Comments: | I love this site!! I love the books, and they are totally underapreciated. |
| Name: | Nikki |
| E-mail address: | nixsticks@gmail.com |
| Comments: | Awesome site. :) I've been looking for a Borribles fanpage for ages and this one is great. |
| Name: | Donald Wicks |
| E-mail address: | draeden@sbcglobal.net |
| Homepage URL: | http://groups.msn.com/solanocountypagans |
| Comments: | I love your site, it's brilliant! The books are incredible, and it's good to see that there's people out there who love them just as much as I do. I just hope that one day there's a movie made from the books.. |
| Name: | Me |
| Comments: | Yup, I've been to the site. His other books look interesting but, oi, the plot of the Borribles can blow any other book to pieces. I hope he's not one of those authors who spends his entire life trying to escape the "curse" of a book that becomes synonymous with his name. If I'd written a book like the Borrible trilogy, I'd just quit writing after, because I couldn't possibly do better. |
| Name: | JayBee |
| Comments: | Just found this:
http://michaeldelarrabeiti.com de Larrabeiti's official site. Looks like he's written more than just the Borribles! You can download sections of his other books, and they look pretty neat so far. |
| Name: | drat... |
| Comments: | Dang, I double-posted. Oh well, now I can add something:
There probably hasn't been a movie made because nobody's heard of the books! At this point, I'm glad they haven't made one, because they'll screw it up, I'm sure. Plus, you'd need a whole cast of amazing child-actors, and they're hard to come by. I was thinking about it, and I think that Brit kid Harry Eden (Dodger in the new Oliver Twist) would be a freaking awesome Spiff). Also, how come on the Borribles official site, the first book in the trilogy (in one volume), they call "The Great Rumble Hunt"? It's just called "The Borribles", isn't it? It is in my book. |
| Name: | And it's me again... |
| Comments: | Tag, Frank! Ich spreche ein bischen Deutsch, aber nicht sehr gut!
I'm so ticked off because I wrote an email to de Larrabeiti, and got a reply, which I was planning on keeping, but stupidly never printed off a hardcopy, and then somebody hacked my hotmail account and I can't get back in. Donnerwetter! (That's the closest equivalent to "frigging heck" that I can remember from German class...) |
| Name: | And it's me again... |
| Comments: | Tag, Frank! Ich spreche ein bischen Deutsch, aber nicht sehr gut!
I'm so ticked off because I wrote an email to de Larrabeiti, and got a reply, which I was planning on keeping, but stupidly never printed off a hardcopy, and then somebody hacked my hotmail account and I can't get back in. Donnerwetter! (That's the closest equivalent to "frigging heck" that I can remember from German class...) |
| Name: | frank sator |
| E-mail address: | fsator@arcor.de |
| Comments: | hi- my name´s frank from germany-
15 years ago i read the first book--from the borribles- and still i read it--once a borrible ever a borrible- my question--why nobody makes an movie about it akira |
| Name: | Jye |
| Comments: | Great site, just finished reading 'The Borribles' for the second time,the first time was as a pubescent teenager 15 years ago! I enjoyed it even more this time! Wasn't aware that there was a trilogy back then, imagine my delight when I typed 'Borribles' into Google and Ebay to find two more books had been written! Great to read comments from other Borrible fans.
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| Name: | Chris |
| Comments: | Thank you for this site!
These books were my childhood obsession! I read them over and over again! So nice to see them remembered, and with such detail! Keep up the good work Chris |
| Name: | Hans |
| Homepage URL: | http://www.borrible.de |
| Comments: | Very nice site. I like it since I saw it first a few years ago. Especially the maps are very interesting. |
| Name: | Derrick |
| E-mail address: | derrick@doleary.net |
| Comments: | Wicked! I tend to save things like The Borribles or Terry Pratchett for rainy day moments, when life needs a bit of magic. I shut out the world, make a pot of tea and sit in the armchair to vanish into someone else's world.
I recently convinced my girlfriend to read The Borribles, she was a little disappointed at the ending, and refuses to accept it. She told me that she imagines different endings. I had to smile, because now she , like me, will never forget these books! Derrick |
| Name: | me for the gazillionth time |
| Comments: | Good news for anyone who happens to read this and/or care! I finally bought The Borrible Trilogy. Yes, you may well faint outright, and after I douse you in water I can continue my story. *sticks reader's head in a bucket of water*
Yes, so it's not in Canada's bookshops (or, at least, not in my part of Canada), which was a major inconvenience considering I don't have a credit card because I'm Young And Don't Want One. So I nagged Chapters (our major chain of bookshops) to start selling it in the actual shops but they ignored me. So then I finally decided to borrow my dad's card and order it from amazon.ca, but it would take 2-3 MONTHS to deliver, and do I have that kind of patience? No, I do not. So with a brilliant brainflash I went to the Chapters site, and found it only took about 2 days to ship, and ordered it from there. So now I've got it, and I can finally return the library's copy after having renewed it continuously for at least a year, because I didn't want to give it back. Huzzah!! Only thing is (and I realize I'm probably talking to myself here, but who cares), reading the Borrible books tends to remind me that Working Sucks, and so I get lazy. Which really screws me over in school. Which is why reading these books is best left as a holiday/week-end occupation, although I seldom listen to my own advice. Speaking of working, I've got job interviews. I hate job interviews. Oh, crap, I'm procrastinating right now. |
| Name: | very good friend |
| E-mail address: | 666mausi@gmx.at |
| Comments: | a very good friend of mine gave me a book, which looked really awful.
but she is a very good friend of mine, so i read it... first of all: thank you for writing a book like this! second thing i have to say: kathi, you´re my bestfriend, and yo will ever be!! yours L. |
| Name: | me again |
| Comments: | You're telling me, dude. I think I should direct it, b/c unless the director is someone as dedicated to the original as say, Peter Jackson was to LOTR, then they'd mess it up and there'd be HELL TO PAY! |
| Name: | ian gold |
| E-mail address: | iangold90@gmail.com |
| Comments: | there needs to be a movie
|
| Name: | jodie |
| E-mail address: | jodielampert@hotmail.com |
| Comments: | these have been my favorite books since i was a kid growing up in new york and i am finally embarking on a journey to London. I am going to live there for 7 months and no one knows that the real reason i am going is to find all the Borrible spots described in the books. It is going to be a dream come true!!!! It may be too late to be borribled but i will damn well try. I'm packing my catapult right now. |
| Name: | Me again |
| Comments: | I just read the review by Philippa Pearce of the Borrible books. I used to think she was an okay author, but now her taste seems highly questionable. How can you take someone seriously when she doesn't even get the quotes right? Humph. I don't like her. The Borrible books are the imagined adventures of childhood made real. The kinds of adventures the Borribles had are a lot like the ones we had as little kids, the heart-pounding ones that got you in trouble when you got back home, where you came back with the actual cuts and bruises to show where you'd been. We had sort of inter-tribal wars in which no one really got hurt but the danger felt real. The violence in the Borrible books is kind of like that, like how kids felt when they were playing pirates or spies, though they'd never act out on it in real life. Peter Pan's violent too, but it's been Disnified, for goodness' sake. In the whole review, I don't think she ever said what exactly she didn't like about them, she just didn't like them. So without needing to state exactly why, I don't like her. |
| Name: | free virtual slot machines |
| E-mail address: | otard3611@yahoo.com |
| Homepage URL: | http://www.juris-net.com/free-virtual-slot-machines.html |
| Comments: | You can also visit some relevant pages dedicated to pot o gold keno secrets |
| Name: | Derrick |
| E-mail address: | derrick@doleary.net |
| Comments: | Stuart, welcome to the underworld. Check your ears. Sheila, lack of credit card is a bit of a problem on the net alright. Mind you, it's a blessing in every other respect!
I wonder how a Borrible could survive in my city. There's a lot of vicious competition on the streets. |
| Name: | stuart |
| E-mail address: | smunroe1@mac.com |
| Comments: | wow! i've spent ages trying to remember details of this fantastic book we read at school fifteen years ago. hazy memories of gangs of children in the sewers of london and finally i find the name - the borribles! of course! and now this site - i'm going to have to buy the books now.
i've not read the site yet, i just wanted to say thanks first! |
| Name: | Sheila |
| Comments: | Yeah, I could if I had a credit card, which I don't.
That's part of what makes The Borrible books stand out - the accuracy of the setting. If you know that you could go and see the places mentioned in the book, it makes the books seem a lot more real. I watch for Borribles in my own city as well. There are a lot of possible ones with long shaggy hair and woolen hats. |
| Name: | Derrick |
| E-mail address: | derrick@doleary.net |
| Comments: | Sheila, you can find the books to buy online. Amazon.com and Alibris.com both have them. Alibris is usually my first choice, they often have good second-hand books for sale and the shipping costs are not too great, I've found books I thought were long out of print and paid sod all for them . I presently live in South Africa and have had little problem getting books sent to me. Try them!
Hmm. Last time I was in London I remember going to Battersea and looking about the park. It was an odd experience, being in a place that I'd read about from childhood. Of course, de Larrabeiti was fictionalising his own childhood experiences in places that were as intimately familiar to him as the places I played in as a kid were to me. |
| Name: | Sean Kennedy |
| E-mail address: | zaddikim@gmail.com |
| Comments: | I had forgotten about the Borribles book for such a long time, until I found a completely random link that jogs my memory. Imagine my shock when I found out it's a trilogy!
Consider this site bookmarked, you've brought back some good memories. |
| Name: | Sheila |
| Comments: | I've signed the guestbook so many times, pretty soon they'll ban me.
The books really are difficult to find. I emailed Michael de Larrabeiti, and he said they're available to buy in my country, but they aren't, at least not in my city. I got the trilogy from the library, and I just keep renewing it over and over, so no one else gets a chance to read it either. Actually, it seems kind of appropriate that the books are underground. I'm reading the trilogy straight through again, and somehow, though he seems even more cunning the more times you read the stories, I still like Spiff. I wonder if he really was sorry for getting Knocker shoved down the mine. And I wish I knew the story of why him and Flinthead ran away, and why Flinthead was once called "flower" (and what made him so evil). I imagine being a borrible as well, Derrick. Sometimes I think I might have been a Wendle. Who'd want to go to school and have teachers yell at you all the time when you could be free on the streets? Dunno. |
| Name: | inger |
| E-mail address: | nemi_575@hotmail.com |
| Comments: | I have just read the book and now I have to write a resume for my english teacher. I don't think it would be any problem to write about souch a marvelous book=)
Borribles are ruling the world! |
| Name: | Derrick O'Leary |
| E-mail address: | derrick@doleary.net |
| Comments: | I was probably twelve or thirteen when I saw "The Borrible" sitting on the shelf of our tiny classroom library. It came home with me and never left again. I wanted to be a Borrible with all my heart, and made up fantasy stories in my head about how Knocker and the others had survived. Nobody else had ever read them it seemed (me stealing the first book form the school library didn't help!). Imagine my joy when, browsing in a library two years later, I found the second book! A world I'd never forgotten was reopened for me. Information was hard to come by, and I stumbled across the third book by an equally fortuitous accident when I was about twenty.
Sheila, just like you I decided long ago that Knocker escaped and got himself re-borribled. I've recently bought the trilogy, as my own orginal books are gathering dust in my parents house far away. It's good to know that I'm not alone in my obsession. Hard to find they may be, but Borribles never die. |
| Name: | Sheila |
| Comments: | Here I am again. I'm not from London or even England, but I'm planning on going to London to go to all the places the Borribles were in the books and follow their trek across London in "Across the Dark Metropolis." Ah, I can't wait! I'll be on the lookout for Borribles as well. |
| Name: | katester |
| Comments: | I love the borribles. I ALWAYS wanted to be one. I am from up North but whenever I visited my auntie in London I was excited that i might meet borribles.... Even going to wandsworth when i was 23 I was looking for wendles. hahahaha |
| Name: | Sheila McCullough |
| Comments: | And here's some more stuff I forgot:
I wish Michael de Larrabeiti would make a book of name stories. I want to know how Knocker got his name. This trilogy will inevitably make its way into movie format at some time, and they better not make it suck. I think The Clash's "London Calling" would be the perfect soundtrack for a Borrible movie. They even have a song with the lyrics "Cut off his ears and chop off his head." Perfect. Could have been made for the books. |
| Name: | Sheila McCullough |
| Comments: | Hey, some people get to sign three times. Then here's my second:
I wish I was a Borrible as well. If being Borribled were really possible, then it would actually be a good thing to have crappy parents, because then you'd run away. I refuse to believe Knocker would grow up. It's not possible. If a grown-up (Scooter) can become Borrible, then surely Knocker could grow his ears back, right? Anyhow, that's my theory and I stick by it. My favourites are 1) Knocker and Chalotte, 2) Vulge, 3) Spiff and Napoleon. I wonder how they translated all the Brit slang into other languages? Dunno. The pages are falling out of my Borrible Trilogy. Why, oh WHY do Borribles not really exist? Maybe they do and people are trying to keep it under wraps... |
| Name: | Kathi Heyse |
| E-mail address: | zauberhaftessternche@gmx.at |
| Comments: | I LOVE THE BORRIBLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And I really wish Iwas a borrible (Thanks for this great side!) ..........I'm just sad about the dramatically end................ :-( so it's true: THERE'S NO MEETING WITHOUT LEAVING- KEIN KENNENLERNEN OHNE ABSCHIED NEHMEN!!! Verdammt! You have to read it! Yours Kathi |
| Name: | Kathi Heyse |
| E-mail address: | zauberhaftessternche@gmx.at |
| Comments: | I LOVE THE BORRIBLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And I really wish Iwas a borrible (Thanks for this great side!) ..........I'm just sad about the dramatically end................ :-( so it's true: THERE'S NO MEETING WITHOUT LEAVING- KEIN KENNENLERNEN OHNE ABSCHIED NEHMEN!!! Verdammt! You have to read it! Yours Kathi |
| Name: | Kathi Heyse |
| E-mail address: | zauberhaftessternche@gmx.at |
| Comments: | I LOVE THE BORRIBLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And I really wish I was a borrible (Thanks for this great side!) .........I'm just sad about the dramatically end.......... :-( so it's true: THERE'S NO MEETING WITHOUT LEAVING - KEIN KENNENLEHRNEN OHNE ABSCHIED NEHMEN Verdammt! You have to read it! Yours Kathi |
| Name: | Sheila McCullough |
| Comments: | De Larrabeiti is a bloody genius, and the sooner people realize that, the better. |
| Name: | Herne Oakshield |
| E-mail address: | herneoakshield@gmail.com |
| Comments: | I loved the books as a kid but recently could find nothin about them. Thanks for an excellent site....
keep up the good work |
| Name: | Patrick |
| E-mail address: | patrickr@wellesleynet.school.nz |
| Comments: | awesome books write more michael |
| Name: | Neal Wenk |
| E-mail address: | fafhrdmouse71 |
| Comments: | I came across this in a nostalgic search of "The Borribles" trilogy. I am glad to see that the love of the books has not died. They had a huge impact on me when I first saw the cover (which I can no longer find), and then read them under the covers when I should have been asleep. These books have been passsed on from me to all my brothers. Michael, if you're out there reading, thank you from all of us borribles at heart!
Neal Dallas |
| Name: | George Donaldson |
| Comments: | Cor gov ner that guy is a retard |
| Name: | Anthony Wiseman |
| Comments: | The borribles is a great series I wish that he would continue the trilogy. I found the Borribles 1 year ago and since than I have been entraled by them I am completely obsessed with them I my self am 12 years old and wish I was a borrible. Recently I bought a exspensive metal catapault I have been practicing and am quite a good shot. I am amazed by how futeristic the books are they seem to be modern although they were made in 1976.
IF YOUR MY FRIEND FOLLOW ME ROUND THE BEND. |
| Name: | Anthony Wiseman |
| Comments: | The borribles is a great series I wish that he would continue the trilogy |