Having heard actor and author William Parker read at the Polari Literary Salon at the South Bank, and chatted with him a couple of times there, I was intrigued enough to take a look at his novel The House Martin. It begins dramatically. We first encounter Ben Teasdale, the protagonist, blind drunk and falling down the steps of Charing Cross station. I liked the voice immediately; not just the immediate yelp of ‘Oh fuckandbolloxandpissandshit!’ but also the waspish note that his ruined suit is from ‘Marks and Spencer’s Italian Collection actually’.
Ben has just been scoping out a gay bar, when a dimly familiar face looms into view. The sight of Val Lorrimer triggers a Madeleine moment for Ben – memories begin to flood back of their time together at a small prep school in Wales. The bulk of the novel relates to his difficult time there. The young boy’s voice allows the adult reader both to inhabit his fears and anxieties and to see beyond them to the real story that Teasdale (the boys are always called by their surnames) is too naive to understand.
His father is a shadowy figure, unwilling or unable to reach out to his son. The boy’s main emotional focus is his glamorous mother, Pamela, whom he both longs for and dreads, for she invariably turns up at the school drunk. A little detail of them both drinking sherry out of teacups before departing for the new term tells us all we need to know about the source of adult Ben’s problems.
Courtlands School is no better and no worse than most – Parker resists any tendency to melodramatise. It’s no Dotheboys Hall. There are some bullies, but some kind boys, some odd masters, some watchful and percipient ones. Teasdale is profoundly ashamed of his bed-wetting (again, we as readers have more compassion for him than he has for himself). He constantly feels the need to protect and cover for his wayward mother, and the pressure builds until he’s forced to take dramatic action.
The other boys are well characterised in all their cheek, cruelty and, sometimes, their surprising compassion. Despite a rather troubling friendship with a male teacher, Teasdale’s closest relationship is with his teddy, Jollo – these scenes are truly heartrending. The birds of the title nest under the eaves of the dormitory and feature in a telling incident, both realistic and highly symbolic. Though the overriding ambience is elegiac and melancholy, some rays of humour peek through the clouds. A lovely read.
The House Martin by William Parker, Eirini Press