The Borrible Trilogy is a series of young adult books written by English writer Michael de Larrabeiti. The three volumes in the trilogy are The Borribles, The Borribles Go For Broke, and The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis.
The Borribles' antagonists, the Rumbles, who play a significant part in the first book, are satires of perennial children's favorites, The Wombles.
The scheduled release of the third book coincided with the English riots of 1985, and because of the book's strong anti-authoritarian theme, the publishers decided not to publish. The books went out of print but have been republished as a single volume. In June 2002 the trilogy was printed in the UK by Pan Macmillan as a trade paperback with an introduction by China Miéville; in April 2003, the UK branch of Tor Books reissued the trilogy in a smaller paperback volume. Tor released the trilogy as three separate paperback volumes in the US in late 2005.
The world of the Borribles
The trilogy is set in the large city of London. Borribles are runaway children, who eventually become "Borribled," when they wake up and find their ears have become pointed. Visually very similar to the mischievous elves and pixies of English folklore, Borribles wear woolen hats pulled low over their ears to avoid being easily identified by the police "Woollies". The Woollies believe that the Borribles' freedom is a threat to the social order and will clip the ears of any Borrible in their custody. If their ears are not cut, Borribles will maintain the appearance of a child forever and cease to physically age. Being caught by the police is a prospect worse than death for Borribles, as it will signify the end of their lifestyle and they will become boring adults.
Borribles are skinny, scruffy, and tough; at least at first, they appear to have nothing to do with money and steal what they need to survive. They generally live in abandoned houses, though they will live wherever they can, existing on the edge of the adult world. Borribles aren't given their names at the instance they become Borribles; they earn them later through an adventure of some sort.
They have many sayings and practices such as "Fruit of the barrow is enough for a Borrible," "Never stand behind a door when someone is coming through the other side," and "It is sad to pass through life without one good adventure," and "It is better to die young than to be caught." How long Borribles can live is never made entirely clear. One character in The Borribles speaks of being Borribled in the time of "the old queen".
Book 1: The Borribles
The Borribles (occasionally known as The Borribles: The Great Rumble Hunt) is the first book in Michael de Larrabeiti's Borrible Trilogy. It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1976 by The Bodley Head, and in the United States in 1978 by Macmillan Inc., New York. It was named one of the Best Books for 1978 by the American Library Association and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Awards and the Other Award (an award from the now-defunct Children's Rights Workshop).
Plot summary
The stories begin with the discovery by the Battersea Chief-Lookout, Knocker, of a Rumble in Battersea Park. The Rumbles are rat-like creatures that live in an underground bunker in Rumbledom and are hated by the Borribles for their riches, power, and haughtiness. Fearing a full-scale invasion of Battersea, each of the Borrible tribes across London sends their best and brightest unnamed members to form an elite hit squad, known as "The Magnificent Eight" or "The Adventurers," to infiltrate the Rumble bunker and eliminate the eight members of the Rumble High Command.
Rumbles are a parody of the popular children's characters, the Wombles of Wimbledon Common. On the way, the Borribles also meet a particularly vicious parody of Steptoe and Son (which was one of the most popular shows on TV at the time) in the form of Dewdrop, a former Borrible, and his son Erbie.