Author | Philip Ardagh |
---|---|
Illustrator | David Roberts |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Series | Eddie Dickens Trilogy |
Genre | comedy |
Publisher | Faber and Faber |
Publication date
|
2000 |
ISBN | |
OCLC | 44562795 |
LC Class | PZ7.A6776 Aw 2000 |
Followed by | Dreadful Acts |
Awful End (published in the US as A House Called Awful End) is a 2000 children's novel by Philip Ardagh and the first book of the Eddie Dickens trilogy, which was followed by The Further Adventures of Eddie Dickens.
It was shortlisted for the 2002 Stockton Children's Book of the Year Award. The German translation by Harry Rowohlt won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 2003.
The book is essentially a comical adventure about Eddie Dickens who has to go live with his Great Uncle and Great Aunt at Awful End as his parents have the yellow fever. Philip Ardagh uses clever puns and uses ambiguity of sentences to create a situation comedy. One paragraph of interest is as follows, 'Eddie took a seat next to Aunt. "Put that seat right back into its place!", screamed Aunt. So Eddie put the seat back in its place and sat down.'
Even Madder Aunt Maud (full name: Maud MacMuckle; also known as EMAM) is one of the principal characters in Philip Ardagh's best-selling books 'The Eddie Dickens Trilogy'. Even Madder Aunt Maud is Mad Uncle Jack’s wife, making her Eddie’s Even Madder Great-Aunt Maud. She is to be seen anywhere and everywhere accompanied by her pet stoat, Malcolm. Although she is a bit mad, she always has perfectly reasonable explanations for things, or at least they are reasonable in her mind.