THE LINNET’S TALE

A bird’s-eye view (literally) of life among the field mice of Rottenest Burrows, narrated by Waterford Hopstep, a linnet.

Although he would be known as a finch in America, Hopstep is the product of a resolutely English world, a place of cottages and tea cozies and strong Cheddar cheeses, and country life in England would not be complete without its linnets. Hopstep came to know the charming rodents of Rottenest Burrows quite well, and he manages to bring to life their once-thriving, now sadly deserted village. Like all English villages, it is a place of strange eccentricity snugly contained within well-ordered patterns of behavior. There is young Lord Greystreak, for example, who was raised by insects after his entomologist father died of the grippe and can barely speak mouse as a result. The village intellectual is one Glendower Fieldpan (who runs the Bookish Mouse bookstore and contributes the occasional poem to the local paper), while the town visionary is the inventor Opportune Baggs. The wealthy Merchanty Swift is a successful businessmouse whose great riches cannot completely heal his broken heart, mortally wounded when the beautiful Pleasings Tattersham ran off with the debonair Henri de Rochefoot. In the end, however, it is Merchanty who raises the alarm and warns the townsmice that their very existence is threatened—not just by the Cat, but also by the Humans who are settling nearby. He and the Mayor and General Random Chewings take counsel together to find a way of saving their way of life—but what was it that Burns said about the best-laid plans o’ mice and men?

A bit too cute for comfort, but saved by the author’s light touch: a debut that should amuse the most childlike adults—and the most grown-up of children.