the Trunchbull by illustrator Quentin Blake
My weekly pick of something creepy/scary to share with you all… Anyone who has read Roald Dahl’s Matilda will know exactly whom I am speaking about. If you haven’t, Agatha Trunchbull is the headmistress at the school Matilda attends.
“She was above all a most formidable female. She had once been a famous athlete, and even now the muscles were still clearly in evidence. You could see them in the bull-neck, in the big shoulders, in the thick arms, in the sinewy wrists and in the powerful legs. Looking at her, you got the feeling that this was someone who could bend iron bars and tear telephone directories in half. Her face, I’m afraid, was neither a thing of beauty nor a joy forever. She had an obstinate chin, a cruel mouth and small arrogant eyes.” (Roald Dahl, “Matilda”)
From the choice of name, to the vivid description of her clothes, to the way she hammer-throws a small girl over the school wall (by her hair!), the Trunchbull is a brilliant literary villain. She is perfection in the book, and happily the movie version – while not faithful to the novel’s storyline – is diligently faithful to her astonishing appearance and character, right down to the belt buckle.
The Trunchbull may seem like an odd choice after past posts of demons, orcs and other ghoulies, but I think she could hold her own against Azog the Defiler, don’t you?
Yep, not the kind of person I would like to meet (;