Because of the Tinies, we’ve obviously started watching a lot of Disney films, especially the classic Disneys from the days of hand-drawn cartoons. 101 Dalmations is a particular favourite.

Of course, I also enjoy the 1997 remake with Glenn Close as Cruella and the delightfully inept Badduns played by Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams (possibly now better known as Dr House and Arthur Weasley respectively). Tubs of molasses and raccoons in Norfolk? Why not? What could possibly be incongruous about that? And was there a skunk, another such well-known British creature?

To be fair, I think that rather captures the eccentricity of Dodie Smith’s original in a way the 1961 cartoon doesn’t. Cruella just is; has been since she was at school with Mrs Dearly, from which she was expelled for drinking ink. Because you could in those days. Actual reasons not really required.

Far from being either a composer or a games designer, Mr Dearly is some variety of maths genius, and solved the National Debt (as a result, he is rather rich, has been given house and financial rewards by the Government, and no longer pays income tax). I suppose that’s not exactly easy to explain in a cartoon to children who won’t understand.

But what neither film makes clear is that, actually, the cross-country journey to rescue the puppies takes more than a few days, as does the return journey before they hitch a lift. The Pongos (Perdita is not Mrs Pongo, but an entirely separate dog) stay with various members of the dog-world, including an elderly Spaniel with excellent manners, whose “pet” (owner) remembers Dalmations running alongside the carriages in the Old Days and mistakes the Pongos for dogs of his youth.

Perdita, by the way, is a liver-spotted Dalmation brought in to help Missus feed her fifteen puppies, and the hundred and first is her long-lost “husband” (they were “married” for all of long enough for Perdita to have a litter a month later). There is, naturally, a group of liver-spotted puppies found at Hell Hall.

I do like children’s novels. They’re always such fun.

This post includes Amazon affiliate links. This simply means when you click on the links I might earn a commission, but there is no additional cost to you. Other bookshops and editions are, of course, available.