Aunt Victoria's Monster

Welcome to Sally's book-a-day-for-2017 blog. If unfamiliar with the blog, scroll down.

Aunt Victoria's Monster (2001) Post 158

Aunt Victoria's Monster is one of two stories about Toby Juggins, his dad an Dad's sister, Aunt Victoria. Dad is sane, Toby is logical and Aunt Victoria is eccentric. In this story, Aunt Victoria's monster paintings are a hit. When she is invited on to Mimi Maxwell's talk-back show, Aunt Victoria tells the host and viewers that the monsters are real. Ridicule follows, and a developer finds a clue in one of the paintings and sets off to develop Monster Valley. Aunt Victoria and Toby set off to rescue Painty, the Paintbrush Monster, before the developer gets there. Things go from bad to worse when Painty refuses to be relocated because he's developed a taste for peppermints and Aunt Victoria's company... This story, now sixteen years old, is another in which the internet plays a part. Despite the problem of a camera which Aunt Victoria hasn't bothered to replace since Nessie ate it, this book hasn't dated as badly as some from that period. It has a nice little moral dilemma (is truth as important as safety? Should one tell the truth when it will do no good and indeed cause trouble?). It also appears to be a closet Bandinangi story. Bandinangi is never mentioned, but the name of the mayor, Mr Broggen, makes it probable that this is the same person as Villijicacki Broggen, the Hungarian Irishman from that series. Mind you, if it is him, he is hardly the person to bother about a monster in the garden. He owns a Great Dane cross called Hans Broggen and associates with the Archer family who are very odd indeed.


About the Blog 

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. If you enjoyed a post, or want to ask about any of my books or my manuscript assessment service, leave me a message.