Following
the death of his parents, Robin has two choices. He can either become his
uncle’s heir, thus denying his cousin his birthright (probably not the best
idea considering what his cousin is like) or he can allow himself to be
disinherited too and live in the woods as an outlaw. Robin decides to be an
outlaw, and soon puts his means-tested version of tax into operation, making
many friends along the way, including a number of people who have just tried to
kill him. Robin could probably live like this forever if he has to, but maybe
there is a way he could become part of society again. And if it’s a way that involves
the pretty Maid Marian, all the better.
If this book wasn’t personalised, I might
not have finished it. Barely a chapter goes by without a fight, and I don’t
really like reading about fights. They’re either disgusting or boring, if not
both. I’d have thought: ‘I don’t want to read this book, it’s all about
fighting’, and put it back on the shelf without reading another word.
But the fact I’d personalised the
characters gave me a reason to keep reading. As there were roles for five men,
I named them after One Direction. So I had Harry Hood, Little Liam, Friar
Louis, Zayn Scarlet and Niall Horan. So instead I was thinking: ‘There are a
lot of fights in this book, but I want to keep reading because it’s all about
One Direction’. And the more I read, the more I appreciated the book.
Admittedly, while I can imagine that
personalisation can only help encourage people to keep reading (never a bad
thing, particularly not in the electronic age), it’s no substitute for the
original if you’re studying Robin Hood
at school. Even if you wrote the most perfect essay about the homoerotic
overtones in the relationship between Harry Styles and Niall Horan, there’s a
good chance those stuffy old teachers won’t have a clue who you’re talking
about.
It was great fun imagining the 1D boys
taking part in the story, especially as the outlaws are often referred to as a
band. I was Maid Marian, and I really had no objection whatsoever to marrying
Harry Styles. I’m not sure we’d get on in real life, though I’m certainly not
averse to staying up all night and jumping around until we see the sun (that
sentence sounds dodgier every time I read it), but personalised books are all
about dreaming, and the idea of living in a wood with One Direction really
isn’t what I would call a nightmare (though I do hope they have some
battery-powered hairdryers. I imagine Harry probably would).
It was slightly disappointing that the
personalised characters were in it so little. Little John (Liam) doesn’t appear
until halfway through the book, Friar Tuck (Louis) comes in only towards the
end of the story, and while Will ‘Zayn’ Scarlet is referred to frequently, he
is absent most of the time. There are characters who are in the book a lot
more, and I couldn’t help wondering why those characters hadn’t been
personalised instead. However, by the end of the book, all the personalised
characters had had an important role to play, and the personalisation choices
made perfect sense. (The blurb says that Allan-a-dale is personalised, but he
isn’t.)
There are a lot of characters in this book,
but most of them don’t have proper names, which probably makes it easy.
Allan-a-dale is often called Allan, so I wouldn’t put an Allan in your
personalised version. There are two Richards, which is probably confusing
enough without adding an extra one. Will o’ the Green is occasionally just
called Will, but I only got him confused with Will Scarlet because I’m stupid
and I thought they were the same person. Other names to avoid are Roger and
Micah. Other than Maid Marian, the only important female character is called
Fennel, so if you have a friend called Fennel (which I doubt many people have),
I wouldn’t call Maid Marian after her.
Robin
Hood isn’t really my kind of book, but it’s a book
I’m very glad to have read. It’s surprising how much difference a spot of
personalisation can make to my enjoyment. Maybe I’ll even enjoy Charles Dickens
when it’s personalised. At least I can give the main characters some sensible
names.
