Young F managed to find the Dutch translation of this children’s book by the glorious Tom Baker in our local library, and I’m ashamed to admit that I snatched it from his grasp and devoured the text as rapidly as I can manage a short book in a language I don’t use much. I’ve given it back to him now.

It’s very short – only 120 pages, and half of those are a series of evocative line drawings illustrating the text. The central character, Robert Caligari, is a horrible boy who enjoys causing fatal road accidents, and comes to a suitably disgusting end (this is not a spoiler as the first paragraph says so). It is told with a certain deep and dark humour, which makes the unpleasant protagonist just interesting enough to keep us engaged. The second half is not as good as the first, with a peculiar digression into mocking local radio presenters which doesn’t really work. But it is yet another fascinating insight into Baker’s very peculiar mind.