Most of my Friday phrases are relatively cheery; silly, even. A little light relief is no bad thing, at the end of a long week.
Now and again, other phrases carve their way into my brain. They are not as light in impact, though they are crafted in a light-handed way.
The Selfish Giant is one of those books, and it contains one of those phrases – more, in fact. It is utterly beautiful. I suspect it is another of the ones that appeared through the children’s book club my parents signed up for.
We talk glibly of journeys in stories. But the Selfish Giant’s journey from aggressor to defender of children is a significant one.
Almost like an Old Testament hero, he spends much of his life waiting: hoping for the return of the little boy he met only once. When they do meet again…let’s just say that I find it hard to complete the story if reading it out loud.
When looking for a link for this piece, I was particularly pleased that the version I knew appeared: this is the version illustrated by Michael Foreman.
Foreman is famous for many beautiful illustrated stories now, but this may have been an early introduction to his work for me, without me realising it.
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The Selfish Giant (final section)
   “…’Who art thou?’ said the Giant, and a strange awe fell on him, and he knelt before the little child.
And the child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, ‘You let me play once in your garden, to-day you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise.’
And when the children ran in that afternoon, they found the Giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms.”
[I only chose the last section, but you can read the whole story through the link above.]