It is early 1969 at The Royal Chismock School for boys.
- The pupils of Connaught Second dormitory are occupied with a variety of things:
- Phillips wants desperately to be considered a serious artist, rather than just the renowned school cartoonist and caricaturist.
- As Purdom plans to visit his father in France, he finds himself subsisting on the ebbs and flows of luck, trying to find his place as life keeps happening to him.
- Huntington plans on winning the track and field competitions to prove himself worthy of the sacrifices and expectations made by his working class parents.
- Harrington apparently despises the nature of boarding school life, his sporadic loathing the result of unfulfilled needs.
- They are also interested in getting more 7-inch singles and “War Picture Library” comics.
- And so on.
- These are just some of the stories of Cannaught Second and these things are the making of character.
You must be logged in to post a review.
Please log in
1
Person Reviewed This Item
By Ian John Copeland
Oct 25, 2011
This book has been sitting at my bedside for a few weeks now, getting read gradually when I get the chance. Blazer Fables, is a collection of interlinked short stories set in the stifling confines of a 1960s tradition obsessed Public School. The boys are mildly rebellious, the masters daydreaming, both mostly oblivious to the world outside. The book itself, is slightly off the wall, it is not Jennings and Derbyshire, there is more to this book than neatly resolved adventures. Adventures are had, observations made and in one case a crushing change to someone's life happens. Buck Theorem has written each story in a slightly different style but over the course of the book you end up with a feel for the school and some of its inmates (yes, public school felt like prison to me). The best is saved to last "Now that we are here" has a gentle build up to a powerful ending with a sublime description of an afternoon spent doing mostly nothing. Really I wanted more of this one If you... More > liked some of the hinted stories around the edge of "If..." then this is for you. But be warned, no machine guns at the end, but something else.... Ian John Copeland< Less
