Not since the summer of 1944 had I come across a copy of one of Larry's eight adventures until last week, when I came across this one in my local Oxfam bookshop. They are fragile pamphlets; few will have survived. They originated as stories told on Children's Hour on the BBC, a program that was on air every day at 5:00 p.m. and was devotedly listened to by English children, including in the 1930s the royal princesses. Larry was, if I recall, a weekly feature, and Dennis the Dachshund was played by the show's presenter, Uncle Mac. Dennis did not seem, even in wartime, a far-fetched creation; he was a stronger character than Larry, who bleated a good deal and was always getting in the way, as he did in this story, injuring his hoof on an item of furniture. Dennis spoke in the German manner, but in an extreme...

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