Mad Dogs and Englishmen by: Paul Magrs

 

J.R.R. Tolkein famously held allegory in disregard due to its limiting effect on storytelling: to write a true allegory one must create a one-to-one relationship between an aspect of the work that becomes poor if any divergence is made.  Mad Dogs and Englishmen in part feels like Paul Magrs wanted to take the idea of allegory and see how far he could diverge while making things incredibly over the top and camp, specifically writing an allegory for the Inklings and the dynamic between Tolkein and his close friend C.S. Lewis with a third interloper I suppose meaning to represent Meryn Peake or something.  The Smudglings as they are called have let an interloper into their group who has confused the Tolkein allegory, Reginald Tyler, to rewrite his The True History of Planets (a book which was already making its way to be over 1,000 pages) into a story about intelligent poodles from space, reflecting the politics on Dogworld which is ruled by an Empress and has its own Princess Margaret grabbing for power.  There is also a world for cats but that is one I’ve decided not to name for the double entendre should be obvious to the reader of this review.

 

This is only one of the three time periods that the book generally takes place in: 1942 with Tyler, John Cleavis, and newcomer William Freer; Las Vegas in the 1960s with Noel Coward and pop star Brenda Soobie who should be obvious to any reader as a version of Iris Wildthyme, and 1978 where stop motion animation pioneer Ron Von Arnim is being replaced by CGI in John Fuchas’ filmed version of The True History of Planets.  These plots somehow manage to overlap with the poodles finding their way into the TARDIS with two of their friendlier number intersecting a television miniseries version of The True History of Planets.  The True History of Planets and its adaptations are clearly the analogue to The Lord of the Rings with Iris Wildthyme and her bus becoming an analogue for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in genuine bits of absurdity.  The Doctor, Fitz, and Anji are also here, pushing the plot forward at every opportunity but somehow they are too subtle and normal for Mad Dogs and Englishmen.  No, I’m serious, the Eighth Doctor is somehow playing the straight man in this one as he tries to put the plot together but becomes exasperated with Iris, MIAOW, the poodles, and a time travelling Noel Coward.  Magrs is suppressing any lingering angst from The Adventuress of Henrietta Street and despite the back cover referencing a dark figure that you begin the novel believing might be Sabbath, and then the Master, but you become quite surprised when it eventually comes together.  Fitz has to be with Iris for a decent chunk of the book so he is out of commission as he also can’t really deal with the insanity of the Time Lady who can’t be a Time Lady since Gallifrey is destroyed, while Anji is stuck in an awkward situation in the past.

 

Overall, Mad Dogs and Englishmen may be the most Paul Magrs a Paul Magrs novel has ever Paul Magrs.  The cover is garish with a banner and gold logo proudly declaring the “100^th BBC Doctor Who Novel” and features poodles with hands and weaponry, so the appearance of Iris Wildthyme becomes somehow one of the more normal things of the book.  Yet, this is a novel that I couldn’t help but quickly fall in love with for how weird and fun it is, the fun coming from the out there twists and turns that really work well with Magrs’ writing one of his more straight forward stories.  The prose itself is beautifully simple and leans less on the esoteric but is nevertheless weird and insane and just a genuinely good time from start to finish.  10/10.