What is that on the top of the cliff? (The Iron Man - Ted Hughes)

Member Name: jamie56

Product:	The Iron Man - Ted Hughes
Date:	17/08/01 (3014 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to read

Disadvantages: Too Short

This is the first book I remember reading, I am sure I read some books before things like
‘Bill had a ball,
Bill had a big ball,
Bill had a big red ball,
Bill had a friend called Jill,
Bill and Jill……’
and so on and so forth.

But this is the first book that I am happy to call a proper book that I read (proper meaning that the words outnumbered the pictures)

Enough of all this and lets get on the book it set out in two main sections first one mainly about the Iron Man the second about something far worse.

Written by Ted Hughes is about a mysterious figure that appears one night at the top of a cliff just before it makes the foolish mistake of stepping off and realising that the ground stopped 10 feet back. No need to worry as the figure is a 100 foot high Iron Man which spectacularly smashes into pieces on the beach below, quite a terminal beginning to a book you might think. Remember the fun of a jigsaw is putting it together and with the help of two seagulls it all starts with a hand and an eye running round like a spider that had been got by a child (only five legs) it finds the other bits and slowly rebuilds itself.

The thing with any giant Iron Man it makes people scared when metal fences disappear and there is a huge bite mark out of your tractor so something must be done. So with typical human method of dealing with such a threat diplomacy goes out the window and they decide to dig a big hole to trap it and once they have got it will they try to talk to it, you’ve got to be kidding, they are going to fill the hole in.

So, the Iron Man is trapped, then one day a family go and have a picnic on the hill which was not there at the beginning of the story and there is a earthquake, the ground split dramatically and the picnic cloth rises off the ground on the head on an Iron Man. Screaming…yelling and running away quickly follows

It was not unti
l a small boy Hogarth Hughes befriends the Iron man and finally it is realises that he is harmless and all it wants is things to eat (metal and stuff like that). So the Iron Man gets to live in the scrap yard and get the all you can eat buffet.

What a happy ending.

But wait what’s that? A strange star getting bigger in the night sky till it’s the size of the moon than a black mark on the strange new sun which is getting larger everyday it seem to be some form of writing shape. One day the huge black dragon/bat/angel thing lands on Australia stretching from coast to coast. What can mankind do? How can they challenge this huge black beast? Mankind is doomed…..wait to fight this monster form outer space mankind had its own visitor from outer space who currently is munching through a stove.

So the Iron Man is sent forth to challenge the dragon/bat/angel thing in a battle of strength and stamina involving a big metal bed (Ooh, Err Misses) on which the Iron Man heats himself up to glowing hot and after which he tells the Dragon that it must lay down upon the Suns surface. The dragon laughing heartily goes to lay (giving Australia its blue sky back for a while) on the Sun till its glowing hot unfortunately the dragon survives and comes back. However as the Iron Man lies down for a second time and the dragon goes back to the sun with a little less enthusiasm and when the Iron Man lies down for a third time the dragon/bat/angel thing can not take any more trips to the sun so the Iron Man wins.

The dragon/bat/angel thing becomes a servant to mankind and its singing being peace to the planet and the Iron Man goes back to his scrap yard getting gifts from all mankind, from things like nails to ocean liners.

I really enjoyed this book as a child and it has kept it charm as I got older as I only re-read it very recently. So having been adapted for the big screen this is a great book.

Enjoy this modern
fairy tail.

Summary: