I thought I'd write a review to bring attention to a very obscure, classic witchy children's book, even a highly flawed one.
I had never heard of it at all - and I am very much into witchy fantasy media, particularly on the lit front - until I saw it in the children's section in a Waterstones bookshop whilst on holiday in Birmingham recently. It's the 2015 'A Puffin Book' edition. The cover looked so cute, and the premise sounded exactly like my thing, especially since I was satiating for something like 'Kiki's Delivery Service' (there was even a leatherbound classics' version of it at the bookshop!), that I had to buy it.
After reading 'Carbonel', I don't regret it, and I did enjoy most of it. It's about a young English girl, Rosemary Brown, and a talking black cat, Carbonel, who's an exiled prince amongst his alley cats, and who has been cursed to be a witch's slave. There is a sentient broom, a cauldron, and magic spells and rhyming words. Teas, snacks, dinners, luncheons, and cafés are had in practically every chapter. It is extremely British.
It all sounds delightful and charming, and it is.
Sadly, it has too many mistakes in its writing and storytelling for me to want to keep it.
Some of it can be attributed to it being written in the fifties. The children's book is easy and breezy enough to read in one day; however, it contains baffling phrases I had genuinely never heard of before.
Examples: "I'll stand you a go at the coconut shy," (page 230), and saying "I bags" in the middle of a sentence. I'm sure there are other old fashioned sayings I'm missing. Probably the most bizarre is when Rosemary's male friend (of course she has one of those, and seemingly no female friends her own age), John, says, "My jolly boys" (page 227). I refuse to believe that any ten-to-twelve-year-old boy has ever said, "Jolly boys", even in the 1950s. Especially when he is referring only to Rosemary and Carbonel the cat! Then again, John is rich, so maybe he unconsciously picked up on that pomposity from the foppish adults around him. He once calls Rosemary, "Whacko" (page 276), and apparently calling someone an "owl" (page 304) was considered an insult way back when.
These phrases jolly well took me out of the book a fair bit!
Perhaps it is not fair for me to criticise a classic novel for its language of its time that hasn't caught on and aged well. But I can rightly criticise it for clunky sentences such as:
'They bought a little tin of sardines from a stall which was a jumble of all kinds of tinned foods which had a large placard over it which said SMASHING REDUCTIONS! A PENNY OFF THE SHILLING!' - pages 195-6
How did something like that get past the editing stages? Three times the word 'which' is used in this small sentence, with no commas or anything.
Maybe this would be better:
'They bought a little tin of sardines from a stall, which was a jumble of all kinds of tinned foods. It had a large placard over it, saying, SMASHING REDUCTIONS! A PENNY OFF THE SHILLING!'
There's also:
'She [Rosemary] hurried through the door into the kitchen. The waitress passed her coming out with a dustpan and brush, and only the one she had referred to as Maggie was there.' - page 167
I had to read the above line several times for it to make sense to me.
It should have been:
'She [Rosemary] hurried through the door into the kitchen. The waitress came out past her, carrying a dustpan and brush, and only the woman the waitress had referred to as Maggie was there.'
But that's simply my opinion, I'm no English teacher or editor.
At one point Carbonel is described as stirring the cauldron with a rung from a broken chair (page 176). It is not explained how a cat can do that without apposable thumbs. Him using his nudging head, or his mouth, isn't described, either. Prince Carbonel talking (heard by people who hold the witch's broom) is the only extraordinary, supernatural thing about him.
Also, it is revealed near the end that the black cat has, "three royal, snow-white hairs it the end of his tail." (page 284), and Rosemary says, "I've often noticed them!" (page 285). This is despite the fact that this is the first time the white hairs are mentioned in the book. I've got to ask, WTF?
Oh, and at the beginning, the start of the potentially darling little Puffin Book, it is strongly implied that Rosemary has no friends. No school friends, anyway, as a couple of girls come up to her after school to boast where they're going on holiday, then, 'the two friends hurried off, giggling, together.' (page 2). Rosemary's good mood is instantly shattered at the thought of them being able to go anywhere for the holidays, unlike her. BUT, literally one hundred pages later, Rosemary, arriving back home from John's house, 'rather hoped that one of her friends would see them [her and her mother]'. Um, what friends? She just left John's place, so she can't be referring to him. Nor to any adults living near whom she isn't that close to. Again I ask, WTF?
Then there's the 1950s casual sexism, and children playing Cowboys and Indians, and the hero worshipping of historical authoritarian men like Napoleon.
SPEAKING OF RETROACTIVITY, we have this... nugget:
'After the first surprise of Carbonel's appearance he [John] seemed to have accepted the whole story [Rosemary's talking witch's cat story], as unquestionably as you accept the fact that the world is round, when apparently it is so very flat.' - page 99
Oh dear sweet gods and goddesses, think of how that could have been worded simpler and clearer, with no room for misinterpretations! It's a line in a children's book!
I probably would have forgiven the dated stuff that, to put it mildly, has not aged well, if 'Carbonel' were written better. Unfortunately, it needed another edit or two.
On that note, I come to its biggest fault, in my opinion:
Slight spoilers ahead:
Its last few pages, which could have easily wrapped up a few forgotten story details and characters in little, throwaway sentences. And quite a few characters are forgotten entirely, such as Rosemary's landlady, Mrs Walker, and the nameless, poor, kindly old man at a market stall who helps Rosemary and John a few times on their adventure. On pages 199-200, the children decide to give him a present, a sweet from a sweetshop, for being so helpful, and they almost do the good deed. But then this idea is dropped, completely forgotten about once the witchy stuff gets in the way.
Poor old man, indeed
Finally, there's the cauldron.
What happens to it?
Seriously, where is it?!
Last we read of it, it is put into the trunk of John's chauffer's car, and then it is never mentioned again. Does Rosemary keep it? But she doesn't keep any of the other magic witch things, and she insists she isn't a witch (despite being good at casting spells from an "evil" witch's book). Everything in her and her mother's flat gets moved and refurbished at the end - does that include the cauldron?
WHERE IS IT?! IT'S MISSING!
Did the author honest-to-goddess forget about one of the most important MacGuffins in the story?
Is it in the sequel? I'm not sure, it might be.
#WhereIsTheCarbonelCauldron?
'Carbonel' is ultimately anti-witch and adheres to the 'all witches are evil' idea, even though there is only one witch in it, Mrs Cantrip, and she is harmless, incompetent, useless, and sulky (yes, really, that is what her character is reduced to). Rosemary's inexplicable, exasperating declaration that she's not a witch herself further exemplifies this. Even 'Little Witch' by Anna Elizabeth Bennett, which came out two years before 'Carbonel', is more witch-friendly.
The fifties were fervently into selling anti-independent woman--I mean, anti-witch propaganda to children, weren't they? Despite how witches are a huge part of said published works - baked, brewed and bubble bubble toil and trouble'd into their premises and selling points.
Now for a few select positives in 'Carbonel':
Rosemary has a very nice, positive relationship with her widowed, overworked seamstress mother.
The climactic battle (yes, there is a battle in this pre-"cosy fantasy"), which involves an adorable abundance of cats, is exciting, and it contains a twist I did not see coming.
I like the café scenes, and the magic spell scenes. Rosemary Brown is a competent and charming little witch, worthy of Kiki, Minx Snickasnee, Molly Utterback, Tiga Whicabim, and Moth Hush. Less so Mildred Hubble, but she counts in the witchy roster, at least in the classic sense. And Rosemary is a witch, don't lie to me, book.
'Carbonel' is slightly better than 'How to Catch a Witch' by Abie Longstaff, as well.
(I knew I was a witch fantasy media expert.)
That just about covers everything I want to say about the most obscure of classic witch lit, 'Carbonel', aka 'Carbonel: The King of the Cats', aka 'Carbonel, the Prince of Cats'.
While I don't think it lived up to its full potential, and some instances of its writing are off and odd, I don't want it to fade into obscurity absolutely. I do recommend checking it out. Any witch media that's average or above average, even ones stubbornly not 100% pro-witch, deserves to be saved and preserved for future generations.
As a last sell: fans of 'Kiki's Delivery Service', Studio Ghibli films in general, and 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch' might enjoy 'Carbonel'.
A Waterstones in Birmingham has done a commendable job in selling and showing off the 2025 edition, with the cute cover.
Final Score: 3/5
