Greetings, fellow adventurers of the page and screen.

Last week, we promised you a deep dive into Food as a Love Language in Fantasy. We had the spread all laid out: the rice ball from Spirited Away, the Famous Five’s ginger beer, a veritable feast of fictional sustenance. But, as so often happens in the best stories, a different path presented itself—a quieter, more whimsical lane, dusted with icing sugar and smelling of warm pastry.

We were ambushed by a book. Or rather, by a feeling.

So, forgive this delightful detour. We must, this week, break our own format. We must dedicate this entire space to a single, extraordinary discovery: Tales from the Story Catcher by the marvellously whimsical Joules Young.

A Discovery: On Whimsy, War, and Waffles

Sometimes, you find a book that doesn’t feel written so much as found, like a perfectly smooth stone in your pocket or a message in a bottle washed up on a familiar shore. Tales from the Story Catcher is such a book. It arrives not with the fanfare of a blockbuster, but with the gentle, insistent tug of a friend’s hand, leading you to see the magic in a dewy cobweb you’d almost walked past.

From its very dedication—“To little things long remembered / To Moonlight walks and shooting stars”—this book establishes its territory. It is a map not of grand continents, but of the secret, overgrown corners of the heart. It is a collection of stories read aloud, meant to be heard in the mind, and it carries the warmth of that intention on every page.

We must, of course, discuss the tale that utterly captivated us: “Wobbleton-upon-Jelly, the War of the Whiffle Waffles.”

The Review: A Syllabus for Enchantment

To call this a story about two pig bakers defending their shop from militant breakfast foods is to describe The Wind in the Willows as a story about some animals who live near a river. It is true, but it misses the music.

The World: Wobbleton-upon-Jelly exists in that sublime borderland between Nonsense and Profound Sense. The sky is “a generous shade of jam tart pink every Thursday.” Cows hum in tune. The wind tells rude jokes. This is not fantasy as escape, but fantasy as a corrective lens—it shows us our world, but softer, kinder, and infinitely more interesting. It is the spiritual heir to the Hundred Acre Wood and the Midsummer Night’s Dream, a place where the logic is the logic of the heart.

The Heroes: Fizzwick Tumblebutton and Toddy Brimblethatch are instant classics. They are not heroes of might, but of character. Fizzwick, who reads books upside down, represents a curious, resilient optimism. Toddy, who can make talking to a squirrel sound like a grand toast, embodies the radical act of treating every moment—and every being—with celebratory respect. Their weapons against the syrup-drizzling Luftwaffes are not swords, but scones, jam, and an unshakeable partnership.

The “Villain” & The War: The Whiffle Waffles are a stroke of comic genius. They represent the tyranny of the single-minded, the fanaticism that cannot abide the existence of pies in a world they decree for waffles alone. Their cinnamon bombs and toffee-traps are the perfect metaphor for the kind of conflict that is both utterly absurd and deeply felt—a sibling squabble on a geopolitical scale, a culture war fought with confectioner’s sugar. It is satire so gentle it feels like a caress.

The Heart: Beneath the sugary mayhem, this is a story about finding your “Brimblebutton’s Rest.” It’s about the journey from the ambitious, licence-requiring hustle of “Marmalade Junction” (where even unicorn horns are for sale), through the forced exile and lonely pop-up stalls of a bewildering “London,” to the final, quiet farm where you bake “not for the fame or fortune, but simply because it brought them joy.” It is, quietly and powerfully, a story about healing, about choosing a quiet, creative life after the bombs—even cinnamon-scented ones—have fallen.

The Author’s Spell: Joules Young

This book could only have come from a particular kind of soul. Joules Young writes with the cadence of a born storyteller, one who understands that the true magic is in the telling. The recurring refrain of the “Story Catcher” segments—to Look, Listen, Linger, Laugh, and Love—is more than a sign-off. It is the book’s thesis. It is an instruction manual for how to live a life that notices the whimsy, that collects stories from the everyday.

In an age of relentless narrative urgency, Young offers lingering. In a time of cynicism, Young offers a laugh that is never a sneer, but a shared delight. This is the kind of writing that doesn’t shout to be heard over the noise; it simply changes the quality of the silence around you, filling it with the hum of contented cows and the hopeful creak of The Flying Scone.

Imaginarium Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (A Rare and Necessary Magic)
This book is a sanctuary. It is a cup of tea and a warm blanket for the imagination. It is, in the very best way, a little thing long remembered.

We will return to our themed explorations next week. But for now, we needed to share this discovery with you, our fellow travellers. Some books are not just to be reviewed, but to be gifted to the right circle of readers. Consider this ours to you.

Find a copy. Read it aloud, if you can. Let it remind you that bravery can be found in a bakery, that home is where you plant your plum trees, and that a world where pigs can bake is a world worth defending, one perfect pie at a time.

Yours in endless (and newly whimsical) wonder,

The Curator of The Imaginarium Review

P.S. The book’s dedication ends: “To D, Young / From the girl who painted stories and the boy who sat beside her.” We like to think that somewhere, in their own Brimblebutton’s Rest, Fizzwick and Toddy are raising a cup of tea to them, too.

 

A Little Note From The Curator...

While writing this, I went looking for the perfect passage to read aloud to a friend—the kind that demands to be shared in a voice, not just on a page. In doing so, I stumbled upon the loveliest thing: a free, full audio copy of Tales from the Story Catcher over at hocksbox.co.uk.

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It’s read with such warmth and twinkly-eyed charm that it feels less like a recording and more like being invited to pull up a chair in Joules Young’s own storytelling parlor. If you’d like to let the tale of Wobbleton-upon-Jelly wash over you while you sketch, bake, or simply stare out the window, I can’t think of a more perfect way to do it.

The site itself is a bit of a hidden treasure—it’s the home for Hocksbox: A Year in Stories, the beautiful universe Joules Young is building, published by Hollyhock Books. It feels less like a website and more like a friend’s gently uncluttered, wonderfully inviting study. If you’re in the mood for a digital wander somewhere soft and imaginative, I’ve left the gate unlocked for you.

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Just a suggestion, for when you need a story to Listen, Linger, and Laugh with.