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The novelist’s children’s book, When the Stammer Came to Stay, is a beautifully written tale inspired by O’Farrell’s own speech impediment
5/5
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In her memoir I Am, I Am, I Am (2017), the novelist Maggie O’Farrell writes about growing up with a stammer, which she describes as “the single most defining experience of my life.” When the Stammer Came to Stay – O’Farrell’s third children’s book – is an attempt to convey that experience to younger readers through the story of two sisters, Bea and Min.
The story opens on a note of domestic lyricism. The sisters “had always lived in the same tall, narrow house with their parents, some cats, a hamster and three lodgers”, which is illustrated enchantingly by Daniela Terrazzini. The sisters are very different. Bea “was a child who always kept her shoes polished and who folded her clothes every night”, whereas Min “was not interested in order of any kind”, and is happiest wearing torn trousers, and wading into ponds to collect frogspawn. Above all, Min loves to talk. But one day, she finds herself unable to speak: “The words forming in her mouth never made it out. Her tongue seemed to be suddenly locked. Instead, the only sound she could make was: ‘S-S-S-s-s-s …’”
Farrell offers no kind of authorial explanation. Instead, she brilliantly captures Min’s confusion as words become a daily battle – be it asking for porridge (“Porr-porr-po-po-po-”), or trying to assure her friends that she is okay (“I’m f-f-f –”). Then Min starts to convince herself that a magical creature whom only she can see is stealing her words. (“The thing appeared in full, floating out from behind her, then swooping forwards through the air, seizing the words as they rose to her lips.”) But when Min entrusts her sister to help, she realises that Bea is going through private struggles of her own.
O’Farrell is best known for her adult novels, including The Hand that First Held Mine (2009), and her bestseller Hamnet (2020), which imagined Shakespeare and his wife’s grief following the death of their son aged 11. Her children’s books have tackled similarly robust themes. The first, Where Snow Angels Go (2020), told the story of a girl who is repeatedly saved from death by an angel: in one scene, she nearly drowns (“All she could see were water and bubbles and confusing splinters of light”); in another, the angel rescues the girl when her bicycle veers out of control.
Her latest book, by contrast, has nothing to spook the horses – and the story’s mix of cosy domesticity and gentle suspense will find much wider appeal. O’Farrell acknowledges that the book turned out to be more personal than she had intended. (“Fiction sometimes has a way of playing a sleight of hand on the writer,” she concedes in an author’s note.) But the result is a touching, beautifully written story which will resonate with readers well beyond its target age group of five-plus.
When the Stammer Came to Stay is published by Walker at £14.99. To order your copy for £12.99, call 0330 173 0523 or visit Telegraph Books
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4/5
4/5
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English