This narrative reads like we’re in Victorian England, with cosy fireside chats, serving staff and endless cups of tea. Perhaps the six years at Ellesmere College in the Welsh borders had that effect on this Adelaide-born Australian, or maybe his predilection for puzzles, treasure hunts, and the magic of nature and the theatre was already ingrained.
Mackinnon taught at Ellesmere College in rural Shropshire around thirty years ago. At that time, it was a boys’ boarding school. The characterisation of the young men and the teaching and ancillary staff within are – apart from a few people – an admitted conflation of different identities. This may make this sound more like fiction than memoir, but Mackinnon is liberally using a ‘metaphoric truth’, to both add flavour to the narrative and to save the blushes of some of those involved.
Mackinnon taught English, and the book’s chapters have epigraphs from favoured sources: Shakespeare, Tolkien, Dickens, Keats and, the novel at the beating heart of this story, Tom Brown’s School Days. Each year a play was staged and the descriptions of both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth illustrate his inventive mind, a school hall big enough and old enough to seem Elizabethan, and a healthy school budget. I would’ve loved to have seen those productions.
There is an affinity – and serendipitous associations – with animals, such as the arrival of Jack de Crow and the serpent used by Lady Macbeth. The mystical environment and his boyish sense of wonder lend a gothic sensibility to the narrative. There are quests and treasure hunts and very interesting characters. The tendency to smugness in his humour is an acquired taste but doesn’t diminish his storytelling talents.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A J Mackinnon was born in Australia in 1963 and travelled as a boy on P&O liners between Australia and England, developing a love of slow travel. He started his teaching career in 1984 and has worked in various schools around the world, sharing his passion for English Literature, mathematics, drama, art and philosophy with countless students over the years.
He now lives in the Victorian High Country of Australia, where he continues to love his teaching, his garden and various other creative projects.
He is the author of the international bestseller The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow and The Well at the World’s End. His forthcoming book is Quaint Deeds.
0 Comments