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Baddies and Villians

February 05, 2009

News just in! A circus of Puffins (that's an official term) have come up trumps in a Penguin survey of characters and books with the power to . . . PETRIFY! Ooooh . . .
 
Just as we suspected, the oldies truly are the goodies - well, in this case the baddies - as the top ten characters and books are Classics which continue to scare the bejeepers out of readers many years after they were first published.
 
These are the characters and books that send shivers down your spine, make your flesh crawl or simply make your heart beat so fast you have to shut your eyes and take a few deep breaths before you can carry on reading.
 
To name a few - could there be a more formidable, more fearsome headmistress than Miss Trunchbull in Roald Dahl's Matilda? 'I don't give a tinker's toot what your mummy thinks!' the Trunchbull yelled, and with that she lunged forward and grabbed hold of Amanda's pigtails in her right fist and lifted the girl clear off the ground. Then she started swinging her round and round her head, faster and faster and Amanda was screaming blue murder . . .'
 
Eek.

Or how about Captain Hook from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan - the man has a hook for an arm, or the Grand High Witch of All the World from Roald Dahl's The Witches, with her 'foul and putrid and decaying' face, 'the skin all cankered and worm-eaten, as though maggots were working away in there.'
 
Ewwwwwww.

And if you climb aboard the Hispaniola, be prepared to meet Long John Silver, the most infamous pirate ever to sail the high seas in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

      
 
A few who didn't quite make it into the top ten but are still FRIGHTfully scary include the Witch in Hansel and Gretel (watch out for the oven, kids) and Mr Toppit from the Hayseed Chronicles - you're too young (and so am I, hurrah!!) to remember him but go on, ask your Mum or Dad if they remember Mr Toppit and see if they turn pale and run behind the sofa.
 
Well, just thinking about all these creepy characters has given me the shivers - if anybody asks I'll be hiding under my desk with a cup of tea. But still, at least we know now which book to give someone if they've got a bad case of hiccups.

Sarah Kettle
Puffin Creative Executive

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