HOWZAT

I start to explain why, when I read the book this time, I kept seeing the Wizard as Gordon Brown and the Emerald City as the utopian Britain he believes he has wrought over the years. Graham listens politely while Tote dozes in his chair, as useless as Toto in the book. Indeed, Toto was so superfluous that Graham, in the end, demoted him to a toy, putting him on wheels. Graham is not taken with my Brownian theory of Oz, but then he doesn’t believe any of the various theses, some of them wilder than others, that have emerged over the years. Salman Rushdie even wrote a book to explain why Oz was really all about the inadequacy of adults. Irvine Welsh, of Trainspotting fame, created a play about what the Munchkins had really got up to (drinking, drugs, sex – what a surprise).

The most famous theory, fascinating in an Oz-spotting sort of way, claims the book charts the story of the Populist movement’s attempt to reform America in 1896. Apparently the Wicked Witch of the East symbolises the greedy eastern bankers who controlled the people (Munchkins). The Scarecrow is the Midwestern farmers and the Tin Man the factory workers. The yellow brick road, strewn with obstacles, was the gold standard, while Dorothy’s silver shoes provided the answer to all economic woes (the Populists wanted the “free and unlimited coinage of silver”). Even Toto, for once, plays a part: he is the teetotal Prohibitionists who backed the “silverite” coalition. The name Oz, an abbreviation for ounces, also fit this theory, though Baum himself had said the word came from the label on the front of a filing drawer (O-Z).

The main hole in this theory is that there is not one shred of evidence. Graham points this out gently. Baum was a fascinating if odd character who loved the theatre and poultry, particularly a type of chicken called the Hamburg. There is no evidence that he was political, though bits of the book really do cry out for political interpretation. Even Graham thought he saw the Boxer Rebellion in one chapter called “The Dainty China Country”, where the fragile porcelain people fear that incomers Dorothy and co will break them.

I return, like a Toto to a bone, to my theory, for I am seeing politics everywhere now and have decided the ghastly winged monkeys symbolise the Whips in the Commons. Graham and I muse about how Oz, like so many politicians, shows a different face for everyone. Even when the Wizard is revealed to be a “humbug”, Scarecrow still believes he can give him a brain, the Tin Man a heart and the Cowardly Lion courage. “They don’t want to see that he is just a little man who’s useless,” says Graham.

Graham’s own theory is that The Wizard of Oz, as the most perfect story ever told, is a receptacle for what people want it to be. If you are a sketchwriter, it’s political. If you are spiritual, it’s religious. Or it could be about the Masons, drugs or even Pink Floyd, for there is a theory that the Floyd wrote Dark Side of the Moon to correspond with scenes from the film. Oh dear, I say. “Yes, somebody – too many drugs – spotted it,” says Graham. “Once I started reading that I thought, well, you can find anything if you really look. That’s not my area of interest. I’m interested in the relationships.”

And the story? “Of course. America’s favourite fairytale. America’s only fairytale, actually.” But, I say, at its heart this book is not about money, or success, or faith, though I suppose it is about perseverance. “It’s feeling incomplete,” says Graham. “All of the characters feel incomplete in some way. The scarecrow thinks he’s stupid, but he’s actually the most ingenious. When Dorothy was at home, she was happy, but she didn’t recognise it. You have to go on the journey to find out! That what it’s about.”

And, this journey being over, I pick up Tote and head for, yes, home.

The Wizard of Oz, illustrated by Graham Rawle, is published by Atlantic Books, £25

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