The Midnight Folk

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The Midnight Folk is a children's fantasy novel by John Masefield. It is about a boy, Kay Harker, who sets out to discover what became of a fortune stolen from a sea-faring ancestor before it is found by a coven of witches who are also seeking it for their own ends. He is aided in this by various talking animals, most notably Nibbins the cat, who used to be a witch's cat but has reformed. One of the other household cats, Blackmalkin, takes its name from the witch's familiar in the opening scene of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

There is a sequel, The Box of Delights, which features the same villain -- the evil wizard (and jewel thief) Abner Brown. Kay's guardian in that book, Caroline Louisa, first appears in the Midnight Folk as a kind of white witch. Kay's ancestor comes from an earlier, adult fantasy novel by Masefield, Sard Harker, although it is not entirely possible to marry up the dates.

There was a BBC radio version of the book made in 1958 and broadcast on Children's Hour that year. Patricia Hayes played Kay Harker and the narrator was David Davis.

A new two-part production will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Sundays 10th and 17th December 2006, repeated on the following Saturdays.