The Midnight Folk is a children's fantasy novel by John Masefield

John Masefield

John Edward Masefield, OM, was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967...

 first published in 1927. It is about a boy, Kay Harker

Kay Harker

Kay Harker is a fictional character, the young hero of the books The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights by John Masefield, and the BBC series based on The Box of Delights. The series ran in 1984, where the character was played by actor Devin Stanfield...

, who sets out to discover what became of a fortune stolen from his sea-faring great grandfather Aston Tirrold Harker (in reality, Aston Tirrold

Aston Tirrold

Aston Tirrold is a village and civil parish at the foot of the Berkshire Downs about southeast of Didcot. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire.-Origin of the name:...

 is a village in Oxfordshire). The treasure is also sought by a coven of witches who are also seeking it for their own ends. Kay's governess Sylvia Daisy Pouncer is a member of the coven. The witches are led or guided by the wizard Abner Brown.

Kay Harker is aided in his quest by various talking animals, most notably Nibbins the cat, who used to be a witch's cat but has reformed. There are two other household cats: the main antagonist is Blackmalkin, and he is aided by the mysterious Greymalkin

Grimalkin

A grimalkin is an old or evil-looking female cat. The term stems from "grey" plus "malkin", an archaic term for a cat, derived from a hypocoristic form of the female name Maud...

 who takes his name from the witch's familiar

Familiar spirit

In European folklore and folk-belief of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, familiar spirits were supernatural entities believed to assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic...

 in the opening scene of Shakespeare's Macbeth

Macbeth

The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

.

Kay Harker experiences various adventures-—sailing on the high seas, swimming with mermaids, flying on broomsticks. At one point in the novel he manages to see into the past. Many maternal characters appear in the book, one takes Kay on a nocturnal ride on a magical horse. She then reappears at the end of the book as Caroline Louisa, Kay's new governess. She tells Kay, "..I loved your mother...". It is possible that she represents Masefield's memory of his own mother who died when he was very young.

The Midnight Folk is written as one piece. There are no chapter divisions. Division within the text is obtained by moving from prose to verse or even song in some places.

Recurrences

John Masefield threaded a number of common themes through a series of his books; even those novels aimed at children shared places, people and storylines with some of his adult novels. One key recurring theme is the nautical visit of a member of the Harker family to the fictional islands of Santa Barbara. In The Midnight Folk, Kay’s great-grandfather is endowed with a great treasure there; in other novels the actual nature of the seafaring Harker’s relationship to Kay is less clear. A great many incidental characters and places are shared across Masefield’s novels, although the fine details of such recurrences are often contradictory from novel to novel.

Several characters from the book make return appearances in the sequel The Box of Delights

The Box of Delights

The Box of Delights is a children's fantasy novel by John Masefield. It is a sequel to The Midnight Folk, and was first published in 1935.-Plot summary :...

:

• Kay Harker
• Caroline Louisa is installed as Kay’s governess at the end of The Midnight Folk, having appeared earlier in the novel as one of Kay’s supernatural helpers. She remains Kay’s governess throughout The Box of Delights.
• Abner Brown is the principal villain in both novels, but plays a more prominent role in The Box of Delights.
• Sylvia Daisy Pouncer dishonourably leaves her role as Kay’s governess at the end of The Midnight Folk, only to return as Abner Brown’s wife in The Box of Delights.
• Ellen is the maid at Seekings House in both books.
• Nibbins the cat has a large role in The Midnight Folk but a mere mention in The Box of Delights
• The supernatural statue with powers of clairvoyance known as ‘Head’ appears in both books.
• The cellar rat appears to spy for the highest bidder. In The Midnight Folk, Kay pays for his services with sugar, raisins, bacon rind and (most appreciated by Rat) a "Naggy" (haggis). In The Box of Delights, Abner Brown buys information from him with brandy and mouldy cheese.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

There was a BBC radio version of the book made in 1958 and broadcast on Children's Hour

Children's Hour

Children's Hour—at first: "The Children's Hour", from a verse by Longfellow—was the name of the BBC's principal recreational service for children during the period when radio dominated broadcasting....

that year. Patricia Hayes

Patricia Hayes

Patricia Lawlor Hayes, OBE was an English comedy actress.Hayes was born in Streatham, London. As a child Hayes attended Sacred Heart School in Wandsworth....

 played Kay Harker and the narrator was David Davis

David Davis (broadcaster)

William Eric Davis , was a British radio executive and broadcaster. From 1953 to 1961 he was the head of the BBC's Children's Hour....

.

A new two-part production was broadcast on BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

 on Sundays 10 and 17 December 2006, repeated on the following Saturdays and on BBC Radio 7 in December 2008. It was dramatised by Christopher William Hill, produced and directed by Tracey Neale, with music composed by Neil Brand. It features: Sam Salter, Nickolas Grace

Nickolas Grace

Nickolas Grace is a British actor known for his roles on television, including Anthony Blanche in the acclaimed ITV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited and the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1980s series Robin of Sherwood...

, Charles Dance

Charles Dance

Walter Charles Dance, OBE is an English actor, screenwriter and director. Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains. His most famous roles are Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown , Dr Clemens, the doctor of penitentiary Fury 161, who becomes Ellen Ripley's confidante in Alien 3 ,...

 (as Abner Brown), Deborah Findlay, Andrew Sachs

Andrew Sachs

Andrew Sachs is a German-born British actor. He made his name on British television and is best known for his portrayals of Manuel in Fawlty Towers, a role for which he was BAFTA-nominated, and Ramsay Clegg in Coronation Street.-Early life:Sachs was born in Berlin, Germany, the son of Katharina , a...

, Liz Smith

Liz Smith (actress)

Liz Smith, MBE is a British actress, best-known for her roles in the sitcoms The Vicar of Dibley and The Royle Family. She also appeared in the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.-Early life:...

, Helena Breck, Jon Glover, Ewan Bailey, Ann Beach, Harry Myers, Graham Seed

Graham Seed

Graham Seed is an English actor.He trained at RADA and is best known for his role playing Nigel Pargetter in the BBC radio series The Archers from 1983 until January 2011, although actor Nigel Carrington briefly played the role when Graham Seed took a break in the late 1980s...

, Miranda Keeling, Bethan Walker, Mark Straker, Sam Dale, Ian Masters, Joseph Kloska and Christine Kavanagh.