Ancestral Name: Several characters pass their names down through the generations:. Nibbins also used to be a familiar, but is now a household cat who sides with Kay. All Witches Have Cats: Blackmalkin and Greymalkin serve the coven as familiars. Abandoned Area: The brewery and stables at Seekings, obsolete in the age of mass-produced beer and motor cars, now slowly falling into ruin. The two books also have links, in terms of shared settings and characters, with a series of adventure stories for adults which began with Sard Harker in 1925. He is aided in his quest by the Midnight Folk, an association of Talking Animals, Living Toys, and other fantastic creatures.īut not all the creatures that haunt the night are friendly: a coven of witches is also after the treasure, led by the scheming Abner Brown and the sinister Mrs Pouncer, and woe betide anyone who gets in their way.Ī sequel, The Box of Delights, was published in 1935. Young Kay Harker has a variety of adventures in search of the truth about a famous treasure that his great-grandfather, a merchant captain, was given for safe-keeping then lost when his crew mutinied. Lewis’s Narnia tales and Joan Aiken’s Wolves of Willoughby Chase-not to mention the Harry Potter series- The Midnight Folk is a wonderful and enthralling contribution to the great English tradition of children’s literature, beloved by adults and children alike.The Midnight Folk is a children's fantasy novel by John Masefield, first published in 1927. In the end, it is that ragtag team of old toys that rallies to support Kay and save the day.Ī book to set beside C.S. Soon Kay is engaged in a thrilling quest that begins each night as the clock strikes twelve, taking him into the enchanted and dangerous world of the Midnight Folk: pirates, highwaymen, talking animals, and a gang of witches led by none other than Sylvia Daisy (in cahoots, as in The Box of Delights, with the arch-villain Abner Brown). Life seems very dull, until out of an old family portrait steps Kay’s great-grandfather, a sea captain, who, if legend is to be believed, made off with a fabulous treasure. In her zeal to educate Kay on the finer points of Latin grammar, Sylvia Daisy has even taken away all of Kay’s toys. Kay lives in a vast old country house, and is looked after by an unpleasant duo: the oily and egregious Sir Theopompous and the petulant and punitive Sylvia Daisy Pouncer. 
The Midnight Folk introduces readers to Kay Harker, the orphaned boy who is also the hero of John Masefield’s classic Christmas fantasy, The Box of Delights.
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