“15 miles to Oxford, read the sign. It was a bit strange as they were in Prestatyn.”
This is the opening line of the classic novel Hairy Wigwams by exiled Lebanese author, Claude Banane. It was originally published in 1948 and immediately created a stir, as it featured the first use of the word ‘gradient’ in any English-language novel. Questions were asked in parliament about it and there were no satisfactory answers. It caused Clement Attlee many a sleepless night, when he should have been more concerned with founding the NHS.
Hairy Wigwams is now almost forgotten, except by those who still remember it, but its cultural impact is immense. Apart from the whole ‘gradient controversy’, the novel introduced the world to the concept of wearing a long sleeved t-shirt underneath a normal t-shirt. Crazy days.
Most of all, it gave us the everyday phrase ‘Hairy Wigwams’, which we couldn’t now imagine life without. There is barely a conversation that takes place when it isn’t used, and the world is undoubtedly richer for its presence.
Claude Banane, we salute you.
A visionary writer, Claude Banane, sadly `passed on` in 1962. He wrote several classics , apart from Hairy Wigwams, notably `Ill Have Mine With Chips` subtitled `If You Can Read This Your To Fucking Close`. He died as he lived his life, riding a charabangue naked, covered in honey whilst high on Mongolian Hill Mice and singing his favourite song `It May Be Old And Shabby But It Did My Grandma Proud.
[...] Hairy Wigwams – Celebrating a classic novel that you’ve probably never heard of. [...]