Granny the Pag

Nina Bawden (author)

Puffin Books, UK: 1995,1997; 153pp

ISBN: 0140380612

Genre: realistic fiction

Issues: family, identity, relationships, separation

‘Other people's grandmothers are soft and powdery and gentle and kind... But my Granny is a Pag.'

Catriona Brooke's parents are actors. She was born in a star's dressing-room in the middle of a play.

Once she gets past the age of being useful to wrap in a blanket and carry on as the baby in a play, her parents find that she is more of an inconvenience than anything. And her mother definitely has no intention of allowing the responsibility of raising a child to interfere with the more important things in life, such as becoming famous, and enjoying a good party. So Catriona finds that she is to be raised by her grandmother.

As she rides a Harley Davidson motor-bike and is a retired psychiatrist who still sees some rather odd clients, Granny is rather intimidating to the young Catriona. So sometimes Pag means a pig, and sometimes is means a very important person, depending on the day and how Catriona is feeling. Mostly, however, it is the private name she uses for someone she loves very much, someone she can trust, and who can always be relied on to be there when she is needed.

Until, that is, her now famous mother decides that she wants her daughter back. Catriona is horrified. She doesn't like her parents. They often forget her birthday. They don't know her favourite colours. And her mother never seems to stop acting, even when she's off stage. But the Pag doesn't feel she can fight her own daughter for possession of Catriona. So Catriona takes it into her own hands and finds a lawyer who is prepared to believe that despite her oddities, and despite their unconventional relationship and lifestyle, it is the Pag who is her family and it is with the Pag that Catriona wants to live.

Nina Bawden is a gifted writer who has a talent for creating powerful novels that explore difficult issues in a way that is both entertaining and moving. Narrated by eleven-year-old Catriona, Granny the Pag is a wonderful expression of the way that children are so often torn between the adults in their lives. The Pag, although eccentric, is well aware of the pain and anxiety that the conflict causes her granddaughter but also knows that there is little she can do to alleviate it, except to support Catriona in whatever decision she makes. Bawden avoids the stereotypical characters that are so often found in issues-driven novels. Her adults are real people with strengths and flaws. Catriona is an ordinary child, who through her experiences with her parents, grows to better understand her own weaknesses and recognises mistakes she has made.

Bawden has created a story that is both an indictment of neglectful, self-absorbed parents and a compassionate portrayal of the children who are affected by their behaviour. That she manages to express such a serious theme in a funny, whimsical and thoroughly readable novel is indicative of her skill.

Same Author: The Peppermint Pig; A Handful of Thieves; Carrie's War