Custard comes to Deadwood
The Custard Kid. By Terry Deary. Adam and Charles Black. 54 pp. $4.60.
The Custard Kid and Calamity Kate have identical travelling-bags with identical initials on them. When these bags get confused in the waiting-room for the Hollywood stage-coach there ensues an improbable train of events which provides the “first piece of excitement the town (Deadwood) had known since the saloon dog had. fought Barnaby’s cat — and lost.”
As this parallel suggests, the excitement is not really all that intense. For example, the Custard Kid ends up in court only because he is too
much of a gentleman to tell the truth when the truth will hurt a lady. And he gets a 30-year sentence commuted to two years’ probation not by any ingenious device, but by melting his judge’s heart with the sad story of his childhood. In short, the book works by irony rather- than by sheer excitement. In this respect (and in others — e.g. the conversion of the “quick-draw contest” into a good old-fashioned duel) it betrays its author’s Englishness. So if you have a child anywhere between about eight and 12 who prefers English irony to American action this book just may be for him or her — PENNY CORBALLIS.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19781202.2.103.7
Bibliographic details
Press, 2 December 1978, Page 15
Word Count
207Custard comes to Deadwood Press, 2 December 1978, Page 15
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.