Art work exhibited in the Bratislava Biennale 1985
Art work exhibited in the Premi Catalonia D’ll-lustracio 1986

Even on a summers day in the Southern Hemisphere, Christmas Day can be boring. Something just has to happen. And it does. The Horror of Hickory Bay rises up out of the sea and causes havoc on a sleepy afternoon. India Brown and her friends Uncle Athol and Smudge the dog quell the monster while Mum and Dad are sleeping off Christmas dinner.

Gavin Bishop's youngest daughter, Alexandra was the model for India Brown in this book.

Reviews

"Gavin Bishop... Presents dream and nightmare having their own reality in a private experience which people do share in kind, though not in specific detail... The Horror is a huge amorphous mass... It has eyes and a cavernous mouth into which a hand sweeps up birds trees, cars and all. It is richly textured and coloured, swirling in shape and pattern across large double-page spreads most effectively and enjoyably in painterly terms...

Not only the Horror is uncompromising. The parents are fat, sunburnt and hairy. The violin (I shudder) is seen stuck in the sand alongside its bow... Uncle Athol with his unnerving stare serves to highlight the imaginative quality of India Brown, whose strange name is rhythmically right. There is a fitting logic in the appearance of the devouring Horror after the family have consumed their large meal in the heat of the sun.

I find this book fascinating for its masterly use of colour and design, its grim humour, its coherence of idea, text and image, and for its acceptance of the dreamworld reality, which will help children realise the difference between that world and their waking lives."

Diane Hebley, NZ Listener, 1984