The Land of Right Up and Down by Eva-Lis Wuorio
I like this book: there’s a warmth and delicacy here. But it and almost all of the books by this Finnish emigre to Canada are now out of print. It was published in 1964 and illustrated by the prolific and foxy Edward Ardizzone. Foxy, because for me there’s a mystery about his work; it is so seemingly simple and yet he conveys a depth of feeling and mood. His own childhood was not always easy and he developed a stammer that stayed with him into adulthood. Perhaps this contributed to the natural sympathy he has for the child’s viewpoint. Then again, he worked. He wanted deeply to bring more happiness to the world. And my, how he worked at it! In the last few days of his life his daughter recalled him saying, ‘I think I have made it. I do not need to do another drawing again.’
As for the author, such a delightful simple style. She tells the story of a small girl and her friend and her family living in a high Andorran village where everywhere is either up or down. It is a time when cars are very few and always black, until an American lady arrives in an astonishing blue car. She is making a book about butterflies and to paint them, she kills them. For Maribelle who loves the butterflies that follow her everywhere, this is too terrible to contemplate. But she discovers the American lady has her own sensitivity and finally Maribelle is persuaded to find the rare butterfly the artist has still not painted. Triumphantly, Maribelle manages to do so without causing a death.
Such a vivid picture of life in a mountain village a while ago. And such a gentle and wise exploration of a clash of two ways of looking at the world, where one says ‘the end justifies the means, and the other says ‘perhaps, but it is not my way.’
The book was published by Dennis Dobson, who ran a small independent publishing house. He died young, suffering a cerebral haemorrhage as he travelled home from the Frankfurt Book Fair. His wife bought a castle, initially to store all their unsold books. Shortly after I visited two friends were dog-sitting for her in that castle. All unknowing then, now I discover with pleasure a very tenuous thread connecting me to a collaboration of author, artist and publisher to bring more kindness to the world.
