20 DECEMBER 1968, Page 20

Grimble Clement Freud (Collins lOs 6d). Any- one accustomed to

coping with the unrelia- bility, the inscrutable sense of humour and the tiresome vagueness of the adult world will recognise in the imperturbable Grimble a true hero of our own times: small, dependable, obliging, aged about ten, patient and infinitely forebearing. It would take more than a pair of absconding parents to shake Grimble, who simply sets himself to become a resourceful and imaginative cook (`people would point at me and say, "There goes the inventor of trifle d la Grimble." And others would say, "Not the Grimble." And the first lot of people would say, "Yes, the Grimble of trifle fame" ), as well as a fluent letter-writer and an accom- plished poet, able at will to dash off elegant verses on My Situation, Women or The Horse.