From my children's book cabinet - Catweazle

Wait ... from my book cabinet?
Yes, my friends. Today I'll talk about the book "Catweazle" by Richard Carpenter which was based on the scripts from the first series of the British cult TV show with the same name. Okay, I can't avoid it being a mix of both.

I actually used a vintage button for this bead
embroidered brooch. I remember an online
friend saying she didn't know she liked the
man very much, but she liked the brooch.
Of course she didn't know Catweazle.

But wait, I have no idea if Catweazle was as popular as in the UK or Germany or even known everywhere, so let me introduce him to you first.

Catweazle is a sorcerer in 11th century England. One of his great goals is being able to fly. One day Norman soldiers chase him out of his cave and in order to escape he's forced to jump into a pond.

Catweazle running from the
Norman soldiers, but not
without his familiar, the
toad Touchwood

When he comes up again, the landscape looks very different. He hides in a barn and quickly learns that he has landed himself in the 20th century when the son of Hexwood Farm's owner - Edward, called Carrot because of his red hair - finds him.

Carrot with Sam, the farmhand

Understandably, everything is new and scary to Catweazle.
He thinks this time is full of sorcerers. On one hand, he'd love to learn their magic - like Carrot's "electrickery" of the "little sun in a bottle" (simply a lamp that's switched on) or the vicar's "telling bone" (a telephone) - but on the other hand he has problems getting used to so many new things and he doesn't always react very gracefully when they don't go his way (here's a video with "all the insults, name calling, derision & mockery" from "nettle face" to "spider spittle").
Luckily Carrot, who doesn't really believe the Norman story, by the way, can handle Catweazle quite well unless he runs off to get himself into a new pickle, but the sorcerer is also able to help Carrot with a few things, such as dealing with the overdrawn bank account for the farm or an annoying housekeeper and her son.

Catweazle sets up camp in an old water tower in the woods which belongs to the Army and calls it Castle Saburac after the spirit he claims led him there.
When he's not out confusing people or hiding from them, he spends his time there desperately searching for a spell to return to his own time. A lot of his spells go wrong, but he's quite good at hypnotizing people into forgetting him, for example.

I won't be getting into the individual episodes of the TV show although it's tempting - how Catweazle removes an old curse, how he gets his magic dagger Adamcos back or why he steals broomsticks (and almost gets Sam in trouble by doing so) and so on.
As the book is based on the scripts of the show, however, and really sticks very closely to them, I'll take a short look at the creation of the show.
In a short documentary, Richard Carpenter tells the story of his brother-in-law who had a turkey farm - that's one difference between book and show, in the show you don't see a turkey - they visited, and on the way back they got lost and came to a gate with "Catweazle" written on it. Further inspiration came from this Hieronymus Bosch painting, to be precise from the figure in the left corner.

Carpenter who had actually been an actor was so intrigued that he turned it into a character himself. His friend, the wonderful Geoffrey Bayldon, had turned down the role of "Doctor Who" before which he wasn't sure had been the right decision until he got offered the role of Catweazle which he wouldn't have been able to do as Doctor Who.
Bayldon brought his own ideas to the character, silly noises, mimics, movements, he really became Catweazle and made him magic.
The chemistry with the others was great, especially with Carrot who spent most of the time hiding the magician from his father, Mr. Bennet, and everyone else, with more or less success.

Robin Davies got his hair dyed red
for the role of Carrot

Spoiler alert - Catweazle does make it home eventually, with his familiar Touchwood whose name is of course inspired by the ancient habit of touching wood for good luck.

In a time before the Internet, yes, even before being able to record something from TV, the book must have been a great way to dive back into that magic, whimsical, crazy world of Catweazle conjured up by the stories and illustrations when you didn't get the chance to watch a rerun.
I still say "Elektricktrick" from time to time (our version of "electrickery", there were a few changes to names and words) and I'm not the only one.
There's a whole glossary on the official fan club's page. Carpenter researched the "occult & mythology" to add to the show's charm by using Latin words and ancient names.

There are two series of "Catweazle" and two books, the second one is called "Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac".
Carpenter also did novelizations of other shows he wrote for (one of them is my other favorite of his "Robin of Sherwood" which adds a magic layer to the Robin Hood legend). In the second series Catweazle comes back again, but alas, not to Hexwood Farm, and after the director had died, a third series was never realized.
The German translation to the books got published after the show made it to TV here and there was even a special edition in 2010 with a foreword explaining to children that this was their parents' world - no computers or cell phones and not even a TV set in every household. There's even a German movie from 2021. I didn't watch it and won't spoil my memory of Catweazle doing so, but it shows he's not forgotten.
I got the English books a long time ago and still enjoy reading them ... although watching Catweazle is of course even better!

The fan club used to be very active - for example they commissioned a beautiful Catweazle bust, had meetings with the actors at the farm where the show was filmed, and there was a forum (which like so many has sadly fallen asleep).
I wonder how many people passed the magic dagger on to their children and maybe even their grandchildren, but can kids of today still appreciate a story like that? What do you think?

Salmay, Dalmay, Adonay!


Sources and more info (I visited more pages, but these two links have a lot of info):

1. Official Catweazle Fan Club
2. Catweazle Extra - Brothers in Magic: a documentation. On YouTube