Wolf Mankowitz Quotes

“A kid named Joe, of London’s East End, with his dreams of a unicorn, meshes the world of reality and of imagination when he buys one for a pet.”

“His good friend, Mr. Kandinsky, who makes trousers and who wants a mechanical steam presser to insure business, for the old man knows the importance of make-believe.”

“Joe lived upstairs at number 111 Fashion Street. There was a bedroom and a kitchen, and the kitchen had a fireplace and a gas stove, but no sink. The tap was at the top of the first flight of stairs, and Mr Kandinsky used it, too. ”

“The whole house was Mr Kandinsky’s, not his, but he paid the whole rent and Joe’s mother gave him ten shillings every week. He was an old friend and the arrangement was made before Joe’s father went away.”

“A six-year-old boy in the British immigrant community of Whitechapel believes he has discovered an unicorn for sale at the market.”

“That the little unicorn is a baby goat, crippled, sick and too quiet a playmate, means nothing to Joe or to his good friend, Mr. Kandinsky.”

“Though it looks to most people like a white goat with a bump on its head, young Joe is certain it will make the dreams of his friends and neighbors come true.”

“A reunion with his father in Africa, a steam press for a tailor shop, a ring for a girlfriend. Others may be skeptical of the unicorn’s magic, but with enough effort, Joe believes he can make it all real.”

“Joe learns, too, that a ‘unicorn can’t grow up in Fashion Street but boys have to’, as he watches a new pattern assemble when Kandinsky achieves his steam presser, when Schmule bests the Python and when he loses the little unicorn.”

“There is Schmule, Kandinsky’s helper, whose aim is to beat Python Macklin in wrestling so that he can buy his girl a proper ring; Joe’s mother who wants to join his father in Africa.”