Blistering barnacles! Hergé's Tintin adventures are the perfect mix of cozy and thrill
Blistering barnacles! Ten thousand thundering typhoons! Is there anything better than one of Hergé’s Tintin books? I certainly didn’t think so, aged ten, when my idea of heaven was lying on my bed, devouring a Curly Wurly and a Tintin book. And I went on reading them all through my teens; at one point, I covered my ugly wardrobe doors with pages from King Ottokar’s Sceptre. A friend pronounced it as sacrilege. More recently, I bowed to formidable family pressure to get our dog Tatty, mostly because she looks like a black version of Snowy and so I thought she might lead us to adventures.
For me, Tintin books are the ultimate comfort read. They combine incredibly satisfying illustrations with rip-roaring adventures that are the perfect mix of cozy and thrill. The language is brilliant, particularly the colourful swearing – and of course the characters are wonderful. Dependable, plucky Tintin is surrounded by a crowd of eccentric goodies and dastardly baddies: batty Professor Calculus, the bumbling Thomson twins, dreadful Bianca Castafiore, evil Dr Muller and of course, the marvellously cross Captain Haddock. With his fondness for whisky, fighting and swearing, he’s not the kind of character you would now find in a children’s book. But to me in the 1970s, when being a grown up did appear to involve a good deal of smoking, drinking and shouting, he was perfect!
And of course, the other winning aspect of the books are all the countries that Tintin travels to. Children are the ultimate armchair travellers and the books give them all the fascination of exploring new countries without the complications of actual travel. Hergé was so clever at picking the aspects of each country that would most capture a child’s imagination. Scotland, for example, has never looked more inviting than when a kilted Tintin investigates the beast of the Black Island. The books instilled a wanderlust in me and I couldn’t wait to be old enough to go to Tibet to scale mountains, find a Yeti and levitating monks, or to explore the jungles and Aztec ruins of South America, where everyone said Caramba!
Tintin: Hergé's masterpiece – in pictures
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When I was thinking up the Violet books, I envisaged her travelling around the world solving mysteries, like Tintin. So, in the second book, Violet and the Hidden Treasure, Violet’s adventure starts in a Maharajah’s Palace in India. In Violet and the Smugglers, the story shifts from a sailing boat bound from Corfu to Venice, to the city itself. And in the fourth book, which I am busy completing now, Violet and the Mummy, she will travel to Cairo and the Valley of the Kings. Lucky Violet!
I wanted Violet’s adventures to be the kind of books that a child could sink into like a warm bath, that were going to amuse them, rather than challenge them (except for the odd long word). The illustrations are crucial too, and I think that Becka Moor’s drawings are delightful. So, I hope that there are some children out there, lying on their beds (hopefully with a Curly Wurly), reading Violet’s adventures and smiling.
Harriet Whitehorn grew up in London, where she still lives with her husband and three daughters. She has studied at Reading University, the Architectural Association and The Victoria and Albert Museum and has always worked in building conservation. She previously worked for English Heritage. Violet and the Pearl of the Orient was her first children’s novel, followed by its sequels, Violet and the Hidden Treasure and Violet and the Smugglers. Follow her on Twitter @deedeederota2.