Paul Gallico

Classic storytelling from a bestselling author. Gallico's most famous story, THE SNOW GOOSE, is set in the wild, desolate Essex marshes and is an intense and moving tale about the relationship between a hunchback and a young girl. THE SMALL MIRACLE is a contemporary fable about a young boy's love for his dangerously ill donkey.

The Snow Goose and the Small Miracle

Quaint, touching at points, this book is of its time and hasn't aged well. 

Written in the 1940's during the war, I'm sure it would have been mournful and a touching story about sacrifice and overcoming prejudice. 

However, for a book marketed about Dunkirk - this features very little at all (though it is called the snow goose and is ostensibly about the bird so perhaps the marketing leaned too heavily into post-war pathos). 

Even though we must try not to hold vintage books up to the modern gaze, and that times have changed, it is also true that we can remain thoughtful and honest about how this might appeal now. And it doesn't age well. The author reminds us at every opportunity about Philip's "deformity" and how its amazing that despite his appearance he isn't a monster. He also spends a remarkable amount of time discussing Frith's looks - even though she is 12 at the start of the book. She's painted as primitive, emotional and stupid, whose woman-ness means she can't understand what war is.

There's also a sustained obsession with 'Saxon-ness' - Canada is not named and described only as land that belongs to the English, and Frith's blood is mentioned at least 7 times. Given it was written during the war, I understand the tendency to patriotism but this reads a bit more of race-purism. 

Kinda sweet and will probably take you 20 mins to read.

hat carter

Quaint, touching at points, this book is of its time and hasn't aged well. 

Written in the 1940's during the war, I'm sure it would have been mournful and a touching story about sacrifice and overcoming prejudice. 

However, for a book marketed about Dunkirk - this features very little at all (though it is called the snow goose and is ostensibly about the bird so perhaps the marketing leaned too heavily into post-war pathos). 

Even though we must try not to hold vintage books up to the modern gaze, and that times have changed, it is also true that we can remain thoughtful and honest about how this might appeal now. And it doesn't age well. The author reminds us at every opportunity about Philip's "deformity" and how its amazing that despite his appearance he isn't a monster. He also spends a remarkable amount of time discussing Frith's looks - even though she is 12 at the start of the book. She's painted as primitive, emotional and stupid, whose woman-ness means she can't understand what war is.


There's also a sustained obsession with 'Saxon-ness' - Canada is not named and described only as land that belongs to the English, and Frith's blood is mentioned at least 7 times. Given it was written during the war, I understand the tendency to patriotism but this reads a bit more of race-purism. 

Kinda sweet and will probably take you 20 mins to read.

The Snow Goose and the Small Miracle

Reviews