The Conqueror

David McKee is a wonderful writer. Sadly, many people know him only for his bread and butter books, the Elmer series. Those are the books that come with the cuddly patchwork elephant. I do not want to deny him his success. He lives in the South of France and has enjoyed a good life.
McKee is a bit of a cynic and like Dahl, does not seem to like grown ups very much. Not Now, Bernard and The Story of Veronica who Played the Violin, are two examples. They are a lot of fun to read , right the way through to the violent demise of the protagonists.
     Like John Le Carre, McKee seems to have been moved to write by the turn of events in the world. No longer the cynic, McKee has written an anti-war fantasy story. Like Le Carre, emotion materialized as diatribe. And in both cases, their efforts were not up to scratch.
    The Conquerors is about a country that conquors the countries around them. They are successful in every battle. Then they invade a country that has no army. They are befriended. They share their culture and seem to change the conquerors' culture.
    I read it to my eleven year old, eventhough he is far too old for the target audience. He thought that the ending was abrupt. He did not understand the moral (and he is no dummy). The book was vague and the plot was unsatisfying. It should have ended with a dot dot dot to give a sign to the parents that it is not their turn to take over and explain the book.
    McKee would have been better taking his terrifically expressive drawings and packaged this book for adults to be sold with rubber bracelets or at anti-war rallies. The Conquerors just doesn't work in the nursery.