The Iron Man

This is a wonderful, albeit short, children's book from celebrated poet Ted Hughes. I have seldom seen such efficient and effective writing in children's fiction, nor anywhere else for that matter, and the way he writes is every bit as fascinating as the unique story itself!

The Iron Man is a massive robot of unknown origins who finds himself roaming the countryside. He feeds on metal and iron, much to the detriment of the local farmers - who find their tractors and barbed wire fencing destroyed or gone in the wake of the Giant. They resolve to trap the being in a large pit and to cover it over with dirt. When this fails they listen to the local boy who first spotted the giant, who suggests they try to befriend it and make some kind of deal with it.

But the Earth is a wicked place. Our fighting and warring has become so clamourous that it brings terrible trouble to us in the form of a massive space dragon. This is a being so large that it covers all of Australia and it seeks to subject the Earth to a horror unmatched. The Iron Man might be the Earth's only hope of salvation.

This is pretty much most of the book. Like I said, it's short. It runs for about sixty pages or so and runs in a linear and slightly episodic fashion. No dialogue is featured until the last chapter, the book's climax, where the book gains most of it's meaning and the frightening urgency of the situation becomes all too apparent.

The Iron Man is a timeless tale and a memorable parable on war, peace and technology. The farmers' first reaction to the Iron Man is to destroy him but little do they know that his help will be sorely needed. Unfortunately, the world remains - mostly - a wicked and inhospitable place and the messages here are just as clear now as they ever were. And, sadly, they seem just as fanciful and unattainable. A wonderful story for everyone, to read to children and to be enjoyed by adults alike.