by David Ashby
Mandy stood up from the table and went for Bengt. “You are in such trouble now, you ugly little runt!”
Bengt stood his ground. “You’re weak, Mandy. And every time you bully someone, you show it. It’s like a beacon flashing over your head. Weak. Weak. Weak.”
Mandy didn’t say anything, instead she lunged at Bengt with her fists and her kicking legs.
Bengt calmly took a step back, flipping his tray over quickly, so it was like a shield. Of course everything on the tray went flying off towards the advancing Mandy, who was quickly covered in orange juice, gravy, bits of chicken and rice and chocolate tapioca pudding, just as her fist weakly hit the tray.
She shrieked at him in anger and frustration, and scooped a piece of chocolatey chicken away from her forehead as it dangled from her fringe and the gravy oozed down her cheeks.
“Oops,” said Bengt softly. “Butterfingers, me.” And then he dropped the tray to the ground with a clatter, which sounded amazingly loud in the now pin-drop quiet cafeteria.
Everyone was looking at Bengt and Mandy.
“Sorry about that,” said Bengt, before gently nudging Anna’s arm. “Come on, maybe I can share some of your lunch.”
Mandy and her gang watched them depart in shocked amazement, and Mandy’s enablers looked at her slightly differently.
“That was amazing,” Anna whispered to him.
“Mandy Musgrave may be a bully,” Bengt whispered back, “but she’s no Mara.”
CHAPTER 47
That night, Anna was doing her homework at the kitchen table when she saw Nils slip on his coat by the back door.
“Where are you going?” she asked, her pencil resting on her lips as she still half thought about the maths problem.
“I’m, uh, I’m going to go and visit Gribblebob. He said I could. I said I’d help him walk Dimple. And I want to make sure that he hasn’t forgotten about his promise to take us across the veil one day.”
“But haven’t you got homework to do too?”
“Oh, I can do it later, it’s simple. Only got to write a poem about badgers or baboons or something.”
“Nils, you should do your homework first.”
“Oh, don’t be such a flimming grimblesnort, sis,” he said, and slammed the door behind him.
It was in just that moment Anna had the feeling that Robert Gribble Esquire of Webstone Cottage, Blacksmith’s Lane, was perhaps not going to be a terribly good influence on her little brother.
And she went back to her long division.
Acknowledgements
I’d just like to say how grateful I am to Adam Freudenheim and his excellent team at Pushkin Press for helping ease a first-time author through the book publishing process.
Firstly, of course, I have to say a massive “thank you” to Sarah Odedina for showing an interest in my story and for advice and encouragement in turning it into a book. She’s always been so positive and helpful along the way and I couldn’t have asked for a better or nicer editor.
Tilda Johnson was a fantastic copy editor and gave me lots of great suggestions for little tweaks here and there, and the book is much better because of her.
I am so happy with the fabulous illustrations from Jen Khatun, the cover and the chapter headings really help bring the book to life and Anna Morrison’s design work has really turned the story into a book. The rest of the behind-the-scenes people have also been so friendly and helpful and really supportive, so a big thank you to India Darsley, Managing Editor, Mollie Stewart, Publicity and Marketing Officer and Rory Williamson, Editorial Assistant.
I wrote Gribblebob’s Book of Unpleasant Goblins one or two chapters at a time, in order, and read them as bedtime stories to my children, Sam and Tilly, who gave me huge amounts of great ideas for what might happen next and told me when things were getting boring. Thank you! I love you.
My wife, Elvira, is also an author and she helped me tremendously with the book too, giving me lots of encouragement and suggestions and making it easy for me to write. You ARE the best and without you there’d be nothing. XXX
Finally, just a heartfelt thanks to Bengta Andersson and Mathias Sautermeister for being such good friends and being so helpful in so many ways. Tack!
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About the Author
DAVID ASHBY lives in Sweden with his wife and children. A few years ago he visited a fortune teller who told him that he would never have a book published. Gribblebob’s Book of Unpleasant Goblins is his first book.
Copyright
Pushkin Press
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London WC2H 9JQ
Copyright © 2019 David Ashby
First published by Pushkin Press in 2019
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ISBN 13: 978–1–78269–235–5
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