The Box of Delights

The Box of Delights is a sequel to The Midnight Folk (reviewed earlier) by John Masefield, the longtime poet laureate of England (I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky...)   Kay Harker is older now and returning home from school for the Christmas holidays.   He encounters an old, and rather odd, Punch and Judy man, who warns him that The Wolves are Running.  Commanding the Wolves and other servants of evil is Kay's old enemy, the wizard Abner Brown.  The illustrations in this lovely Folio edition are magical - and some of the story is also quite nice, though, like most sequels, this is not equal to the original in charm and adventure, though the language is still a pleasure.  Here's one nice quote, describing some truly odious pirates:

all bronzed with tropical suns, purple with drink, scarlet with battle, and bloated from evil living