The Borribles

The Borribles (occasionally known as The Borribles: The Great Rumble Hunt) is the first book in Michael de Larrabeiti's The Borrible Trilogy.

It was first published in the UK in 1976 by The Bodley Head, and in the USA in 1978 by Macmillan Inc., New York. It was named one of the Best Books for 1978 by the American Library Association, and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award and the Other Award.

The Borribles can be seen to subvert the mainstream of childrens' literature in that it does not attempt to gloss over grunge, pain, and violence. The language of the book is true to the London streets, including various instances of swearing. This created much controversy among reviewers and contributed to the failure of the book to be paperbacked in the UK.

The controversy surrounding The Borribles caused the book and its two sequels to go underground for years. However, in June 2002 the trilogy was republished in one volume in the UK by Pan Macmillan as a trade paperback; in April of 2003, the UK branch of Tor Books reissued the trilogy in a smaller paperback volume. Tor released the trilogy as three separate paperback volumes in the USA in late 2005.