THE STORY OF THE WISE OLD BOAR

In Bar Carmen, one of Guájar Alto’s restaurants famous for traditional, home cooking, the wall of the dining area is decorated by an enormous wild boar’s head. I once asked José, Carmen’s grandson, where it had come from.
‘Arriba!’ he replied, pointing in the direction of our cortijo. His grandfather had shot it, he added.
It must have been a fearsome beast, the like of which you certainly wouldn’t wish to encounter on a dark night. Its curved tusks are long and pointed and it has a thick ruff of coarse hair around its powerful neck, typical of a mature male boar. Even though it is stuffed and harmless, it still might alarm some people were it not for the comical appearance bestowed on it by the adornment of a Mexican sombrero and a pair of round, black-framed spectacles with very thick lenses. Contemplating it last New Year’s Eve, while waiting for the midnight chimes, it occurred to me that Carmen’s stuffed boar’s head would make a good subject upon which to base a character for a chidren’s book. With a rough idea of how my story was going to be constructed, I began work on the first illustrations in January.
The story begins: ‘Far away, in a land of mountains and forests...’ a setting which, of course, is the beautiful, mountain scenery surrounding my home; the animal characters, too, are all inspired by the creatures which live here. I decided to make Bruno, the hero, into a conceited, self-important animal who deludes not only himself, but also the other creatures, that he is very erudite and wise, hence the title. It’s a simple tale with an element of repetition which children like. The animals seek the counsel of the Wise Old Boar and even though the advice he gives them is silly, they follow it faithfully, trusting in his wisdom. The climax of the story is a terrible storm (a sumbliminal reference to climate change, perhaps?) in which the animals are in fear of losing their lives. Unintentionally, Bruno saves the day and even though he’s revealed as a fraud, he’s hailed as a hero by the grateful animals.
My intention is that the story should be read aloud by, say, a parent at bedtime or a teacher in class. A different voice should be assumed for each of the characters, for example, a deep, pompous voice for the boar; a gruff voice for the badger; a fluttery, agitated voice for the partridge. The illustrations are detailed and as realistic as I could make them. From my experience as a teacher, I’ve found that children prefer realism to flat, cartoon-style illustrations. A child too young to read could look at the pictures and, perhaps, make up his or her own story about each one.
All the illustrations were painted in watercolour with the addition of a touch of casein bodycolour here and there. Some of the full page illustrations can be seen on my web site www.margaretmerry.com.