Bagpuss rag doll called Madeleine. The wooden woodpecker bookend became the drily academic Professor Yaffle (based on the philosopher Bertrand Russell, whom Postgate had once met), while the mice carved on the side of the "mouse organ" (a small mechanical pipe organ that played rolls of music) woke up and scurried around, singing in high-pitched voices. Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner provided the voices of Madeleine and Gabriel respectively, and put together and performed all the folk songs. All the other voices (including the narrator and one out-of-tune mouse) were provided by Postgate, who also wrote the stories. The toys discussed
A Son Called Gabriel A Son Called Gabriel A Son Called Gabriel is the 2004 debut novel by author Damian McNicholl. It was a finalist for a Lambda Award in 2005. Set in Northern Ireland in the sixties and seventies, this novel describes the coming-of-age and sexual awakening of Gabriel Harkin. Gabriel, a working class Catholic boy, writes in the first person and talks about his life from the age of six to sixteen and there is a dark family secret involving his Uncle Brendan who is a priest in Kenya. Gabriel’s story is set against the backdrop of the Troubles and the religious