Mr Mullett Owns a Cloud

Angela Locke
�9.95

The magical story of a Cumbrian farmer and his adventures with the mischievous cloud, Napoleon.
Zeus, King of the Gods sends a cloud for a year's free trial on Mr Mullett's fell farm after an act of kindness. But nothing is ever for free.....

Published by :	Cumbria Life Books
Published Date :	October 2006
Pages :	130
Format :	210mm x 150mm small paperback
Illustrations :	some coloured drawings
ISBN :	0952574292

Quantity:

Review

Book Review by Steve Matthews of Bookends.
Mr Mullett Owns a Cloud by Angela Locke. Cumbria Life. £9.95

Having the great god Zeus come down to Carrock Fell is not an everyday occurrence. In fact it reeks of misplaced fancy, a potentially excruciating little piece of whimsy.
That is until Angela Locke gets hold of it and produces a contemporary myth all of her own.
It all begins after a violent thunderstorm when Farmer Mullett, as regular a Cumbrian farmer as you could hope to hear grumbling on a rainy day, finds a greenish, glowing, pulsing rugby-ball-shaped object. It turns out to be Zeus�s thunderbolt. The god himself makes the requisite appearance � broad-brimmed hat of brightest blue, rainbow cloak and waist-length snow-white hair � and in gratitude offers a reward to Mr Mullet.
In his quizzically facetious Cumbrian way, our disbelieving Mr Mullet asks for, �A mite of rain when the land�s thirsty and a good patch of sun when the crops want harvesting.�
And, amazingly, he gets mostly what he wants. The Greek gods themselves were never up to satisfying human requests in the expected way.
Napoleon, the cloud, is sent to be Mr Mullett�s peculiar guardian. He is a disappointed cloud: �I was a general once in charge of a cold front� and now he�s demoted to doing something about the Cumbrian weather, or more specifically the weather in and around Carrock Fell and the personage of Mr Mullett.
Once the get used to the damp, Mr Mullett agrees to give Napoleon a year�s trial. Mrs Mullett reckons,�He�ll be worth his weight in gold,� but Mr Mullett is somewhat more cynical, �Since he weighs all but nowt, that won�t make us very rich.�
You get the picture. The gods are brought down to a distinctly Cumbrian earth � Mungrisdale in fact though not in name - and the scene is set for a series of watery misfortunes and mistakes and some cloudy redemptions.
Angela Locke�s book was originally published in 1982. It deserves to see the light of day again. It�s a good story, told with fine observation and a strong sense of place, a sharp humour and a nice ear for the local dialect. And the pictures in a light and witty watercolour add to the pleasure of the book.
On a dull grey day, when the clouds lour heavily over the fells, Angela Locke�s Cumbrian myth-making should over some rays of sunshine.

Signed copies of Mr Mullett Owns a Cloud are available from Bookends, 56 Castle Street, Carlisle, and 66 Main Street, Keswick, and from www.bookscumbria.com.

Angela Locke will be reading from �Mr Mullett Owns a Cloud� at Bookcase, 19 Castle Street, Carlisle, at 7.30 on Monday, 11th December. All welcome

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