Figgie Hobbin Explained

Figgie Hobbin
Author:Charles Causley
Illustrator:Pat Marriott
Country:England
Language:English
Genre:Children's poetry
Publisher:Macmillan
Pub Date:1970
Media Type:hardback
Isbn:0-333-12078-7
Dewey:821/.9/14
Congress:PZ8.3.C3134 Fi
Oclc:22729750

Figgie Hobbin: Poems for Children is a children's poetry collection written by the Cornish poet Charles Causley and first published in 1970. Since then it has gone through numerous reprints, including a notable version published in the United States in 1973, with illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman. It is dedicated to the artist Stanley Simmonds and his wife Cynthia.[1]

The poems' subjects are fairly evenly split between gentle introspection and delighting in random nonsense. The poem from which the book gets its title speaks of the old King of Cornwall, tempted with all sorts of exotic dishes, who petulantly tells his servants to take it all away and bring him what he really wants—a humble dish of figgie hobbin. (Figgy hobbin:- plain pastry, cooked with a handful of raisins (raisins being "figs" and figs "broad raisins").[2]

Poems

Note: the following poems are printed in the U.S. edition of the book. The U.K. edition may contain a slightly different collection of poems.

Notes and References

    • Book: Green, Laurence. All Cornwall Thunders at My Door: A Biography of Charles Causley. Cornovia Press. 2013 . Sheffield . 152. 978-1-908878-08-3.
  1. Web site: Figgie Hobbin Recipe – Cornish Recipes. Mary Maddock. greenchronicle.com. 7 February 2015.