The Vicar of Nibbleswicke

A new vicar is nervous about his upcoming sermon and unwittingly makes several mistakes in his speech only to learn that he suffers from dyslexia. Dahl uses humor to explore the problem and present an interesting solution. Appropriate for high school and beyond.

A clever little five-minute read about a young vicar who sometimes says words backwards. It ends rather abruptly. Perhaps the most interesting part is the foreword by illustrator Quentin Blake, which explains that not only was this written during the final months of Dahl's life, but also that it

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was auctioned off to benefit the Dyslexia Institute. Suddenly this silly little tale gains a bit more weight.

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An interesting tale about a vicar who due to stress comes down with a strange disease (related to his child hood dyslexia) in which he will randomly and without warning or knowledge reverse the letters in key words and say them backwards. Of course hilarity ensues when he uses words such as

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“dog” for “God” and “krap” for “park” during his sermons. This book and all rights and royalties were donated by Dahl and Blake as a way to raise money for the Dyslexia Institute.

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I have to preface this by saying that I can by on-the-fence about Dahl and in general I find his works to be a bit harsh and violently cruel, though I suppose that by today's standards he'd probably be viewed less harshly as Dahl-style cruel adults seem to be more and more commonplace. But this

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book was hardly of typical early Dahl. This is a story with the gentleness found more often at the later end of his career where the people were of a small town and were kind and understanding of each other's faults and worked as a community to solve them or tolerate them. I like later Dahl much more and this is no exception. The story of a dyslexic vicar who must take the rather absurd measure of walking backwards to make his words come out forwards is far more palatable and pleasant than the treatment the tormented James got from his own aunts before they were crushed by a giant peach.
This is a far shorter and less developed story though and can be read in a single setting. Also, the preface shares that all proceeds of the story will be used charitably at Dahl's request. It's very nice and I enjoyed the story a great deal.

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A vastly amusing book about a vicar with a speech impediment that compels him to say rude words in church.

Typically I do not enjoy scatological humour. But this quite short story was so funny I laughed out loud while reading it.

And finally The Vicar of Nibbleswicke which was written for the Dyslexia Institute in London. (Dahl and Blake donated their rights to the Institute and it was actually published after Dahl's death.) This is a quick little book about a vicar who just happens to be dyslexic. However, he has conquered

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the normal form of dyslexia and contracted a new (and fictional) type called Back-to-Front Dyslexia which causes much of what he says to come out backwards. Conversations with his new parishioners, sermons, etc all are said as almost complete gibberish. Much hilarity ensues.

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Roald Dahl + cartoonish illustrations doesn't mean it's a children's book. Luckily, my 8-year-old wasn't reading along so i was able to think quick and alter the lines that would have been problematic.

The story is about a Vicar who has a unique form of dyslexia, just saying some words backwards.

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That causes problems among his congregation especially when it comes to telling them not to park on the street in front of the church...

Amusing and very short... extra funny when reading it with kids and realizing you have to alter the story on the fly!

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Just lovely!

A quick and funny read. However, being an American, I have no idea what a vicar does and my little knowledge comes from the British sitcom Keeping Up Appearances. I did like Dahl's quote, "What you must do is pis. Pis gently. All of you, all the way along must pis, pis, pis."