In my effort to read more children’s literature from Ted Hughes, I found this short story that has been published as a separate book for the first time by Faber. 

This is a little gem and quite unlike a typical children’s story. I say this because I’m listening to Enid Blyton audiobooks simultaneously, and there could not be a starker contrast! I love that Hughes obviously considers children, intelligent, unafraid and analytical, quite capable of dealing with ‘adult’ themes. It mirrors my own experiences with children. 

Fred, a young, ordinary, normal boy living an ordinary, normal sort of life, knows he’s different. It’s a closely guarded secret he keeps to himself. He thinks about existential questions that I identified with - why was he in this body? Why was he himself and not somebody else? What had happened to him before he became Fred?  He also has an energetic imagination that quite unexpectedly helps him concentrate in school, where he’s otherwise a daydreamer. As an adult and a paediatrician, I wonder whether his learning difficulties are because he’s on the ‘spectrum’ or because he’s just uninterested and therefore bored by academics. 

The dreams he has are vividly described and feel very real! The fact that Peter the dog, becomes unfriendly to Fred was strangely unsettling. It gave the narrative a twist that left me confused and wondering about reality versus imagination. The ending too was abrupt and posed more questions than answers. I wonder what happened to Fred?!

I think this is a fascinating way to address existential questions with children who are into that sort of thing and not averse to self-exploration.