Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."
—Albert Einstein

Small-town teen, Cathy Wray,
finds herself in the family way.
(I'm a poet, yet didn't know it).
She is also desperate to escape her parents, who want her pregnancy kept secret and the baby given up for adoption.
But then a serendipitous moment occurs; a highlighted ad in a newspaper’s situations vacant column: a position at a toymakers� store, Papa John's Emporium, in London.
As if guided by a deity, Cathy hightails it to the capital with a swollen belly and a runaway's dream of motherhood. She discovers the joint to be every bit as magical as she'd hoped; a place where saluting tin soldiers rub shoulders with eager Russian dolls, and where a pyramid of ballerinas stand en pointe, hoping to be bought.
The emporium is out of step with the outside world and the toys therein burst wonderfully to life in the imagination of customers, and readers, alike. To make the toys work, their creators, Emil and Kaspar, retain a child's perspective and I was lapping it up - a cynical adult once more flying the magic carpet of his childhood, or Robert Loggia dancing on a giant piano keyboard with Tom Hanks.

The book was subtly magical and so beautifully written.

In fact, up until the 40% mark, I was already declaring it to be my best read, thus far, in 2018.

Sadly though, like a toy bear that has lost much of its stuffing, the story began to sag in the middle.
The character development required fresh batteries and the slow pace of the story would have benefitted from a new winding mechanism.
This began as an epic tale of sibling rivalry; two brothers competing for their father’s (view spoiler)[(and Cathy’s) (hide spoiler)] affections in a Legends of the Fall/Twelfth Night kind-of-way but, by the end, it had morphed into a Willy Wonka/Chitty Chitty Bang Bang piece of nonsense!
Such a shame, as it was initially so-o good, and promised much.

It’s only Dinsdale's exquisite prose that has stopped me from slinging this novel into three-star jail!