285 ] English Literature
Louis de Bernieres
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Louis
de Bernières (born 8 December 1954) is an English novelist. He is known for his
1994 historical war novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin. In 1993 de Bernières was
selected as one of the "20 Best of Young British Novelists", part of
a promotion in Granta magazine. Captain Corelli's Mandolin was published in the
following year, winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book. It was
also shortlisted for the 1994 Sunday Express Book of the Year. It has been
translated into at least 11 languages and is an international best-seller.
He
was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2006. In 2008, he
was awarded an honorary doctorate by De Montfort University in Leicester, which
he had attended when it was Leicester Polytechnic.
Politically,
he identifies himself as Eurosceptic and has voiced his support for the United
Kingdom's exit from the European Union.
Biography
Louis
H. P. de Bernières-Smart was born near Woolwich in London in 1954 and grew up
in Surrey. The name de Bernières is inherited from a French Huguenot ancestor.
He was educated at Grenham House school—where he reported the pupils were
subjected to "hellish abuse"—and at Bradfield College, and joined the
army when he was 18, but left after four months of the officer training course
at Sandhurst. He next attended the Victoria University of Manchester and the
Institute of Education, University of London. Before he began to write
full-time he held a wide variety of jobs, including being a mechanic, a
motorcycle messenger and an English teacher in Colombia. As of 2008 he lived
near Bungay in Suffolk.
In
2009 he separated from his partner, actress Cathy Gill, who took custody of
their children, Robin and Sophie. Eventually, he gained equal custodial rights.
He has never remarried.
De
Bernières is an avid musician. He plays flute, mandolin, clarinet and guitar,
although he considers himself an "enthusiastic but badly-educated and
erratic" amateur. His literary work often references music and the
composers he admires, such as the guitar works of Villa-Lobos and Antonio Lauro
in the Latin American trilogy, and the mandolin works of Vivaldi and Hummel in
Captain Corelli's Mandolin. He has dystonia, which affects his playing.
Books
Latin
American trilogy
According
to de Bernières, his experiences in Colombia, and the influence of writer
Gabriel García Márquez—he describes himself as a "Márquez
parasite"—profoundly influenced his first three novels, The War of Don
Emmanuel's Nether Parts (1990), Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord (1991) and The
Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman (1992).
Captain
Corelli's Mandolin
De
Bernières' most famous book is his fourth, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, in which
the eponymous hero is an Italian soldier who is part of the occupying force on
the Greek island of Cephalonia during the Second World War. In the US it was
originally published as Corelli's Mandolin.
In
2001, the book was turned into a film. De Bernières strongly disapproved of the
film version, commenting, "It would be impossible for a parent to be happy
about its baby's ears being put on backwards." He does however state that
it has redeeming qualities, and particularly likes the soundtrack.
Since
the release of the book and the movie, Cephalonia has become a major tourist
destination, and the tourist industry on the island has begun to capitalise on
the book's name. Of this, de Bernières said: "I was very displeased to see
that a bar in Agia Efimia has abandoned its perfectly good Greek name and
renamed itself Captain Corelli's, and I dread the idea that sooner or later
there might be Captain Corelli Tours, or Pelagia Apartments."
Red
Dog
His
book Red Dog (2001) was inspired by a statue of a dog he saw during a visit to
the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It was adapted as a film of the same
name in Australia in 2011.
Birds
Without Wings
Birds
Without Wings (2004) is set in Turkey, and portrays the tragic fate of the
diverse people in a small village, who belong to different language-speaking
groups and religions, towards the end of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of Kemal
Atatürk, and the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War from the Turkish
viewpoint. The book was shortlisted for the 2004 Whitbread Novel Award and the
2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best Book).
A
Partisan's Daughter
A
Partisan's Daughter (2008) tells of the relationship between a young
Yugoslavian woman and a middle-aged British man in the 1970s, set in London.
Notwithstanding
Notwithstanding
(2009) is a collection of short stories revolving around a fictional English
village, Notwithstanding, and its eccentric inhabitants. Many of the stories
were published separately earlier in de Bernières's career. Notwithstanding is
based on the village of Hambledon in Surrey where he grew up, and he muses
whether this is, or is no longer, the rural idyll. Some of the stories are
autobiographical, such as "Silly Bugger 1" about a boy who brings up
an abandoned rook, which becomes his companion, the rook sitting on his
shoulder as he goes about his life – de Bernières is pictured on his website
with a rook sitting on his shoulder. Notwithstanding is rich in local detail,
containing references to the nearby villages and towns of Godalming,
Chiddingfold, and Haslemere, as well as to Waitrose, Scats, the Institute of
Oceanographic Sciences, the Merry Harriers pub and the "suicidal
driving" of the nuns at St Dominic's School. De Bernières reflects in the
Afterword:
"I
realised that I had set so many of my novels and stories abroad, because custom
had prevented me from seeing how exotic my own country is. Britain really is an
immense lunatic asylum. That is one of the things that distinguishes us among
the nations... We are rigid and formal in some ways, but we believe in the
right to eccentricity, as long as the eccentricities are large enough... Woe
betide you if you hold your knife incorrectly, but good luck to you if you wear
a loincloth and live up a tree.
Blue
Dog
The
movie Red Dog: True Blue (2016) is adapted from a screenplay by Daniel Taplitz.
In this prequel to the Red Dog, a boy named Mick is sent to the outback to live
with his Granpa after a tragedy befalls on him, it looks as if he has a lonely
life but while exploring the floodwaters, he finds a lost puppy covered in mud
and half-drowned. Mick and his dog immediately become inseparable as they take
on the adventures offered by their unusual home, and the business of growing
up, together. Louis de Bernières tells the story of a young boy and his Granpa,
and the charismatic and entertaining dog..
The
Daniel Pitt Trilogy
The
Daniel Pitt Trilogy, comprising the three novels The Dust that Falls from
Dreams (2015), So Much Life Left Over (2018), and The Autumn of the Ace (2020),
follows the life of its central character Daniel Pitt, a flying ace in WWI, and
the McCosh family through the 20th century. The story was strongly inspired by
de Bernières' own grandfather's life.
Bibliography
Novels
The
War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts (1990)Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord (1991)The
Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman (1992)
Captain
Corelli's Mandolin (1994), originally published as Corelli's Mandolin in the US
Red Dog (2001) Birds Without Wings (2004)A Partisan's Daughter (2008)The Dust
that Falls From Dreams (2015)Blue Dog (2016) So Much Life Left Over (2018)The
Autumn of the Ace (2020) Light Over Liskeard (2023)
Short
story collections
Notwithstanding:
Stories from an English Village (2009)
Labels
and Other Stories (2019)
Plays
Sunday
Morning at the Centre of the World (2001)
Poetry
A
Walberswick Goodnight Story (2006) Imagining Alexandria (2013)
Of
Love and Desire (2016)The Cat in The Treble Clef (2018)
Non
fiction
The
Book of Job: An Introduction(1998)
Notwithstanding
is a short story collection by British author Louis de Bernières. Published in
2009, it was inspired by Hambledon, the Surrey village in which he grew up
during the 1960s and 1970s.
Inspiration
In
the Afterword to the collection, Louis de Bernières addresses the nation. He
looks back wistfully to a time when "Villages were proper
communities", with pubs and shops and a rectory "with a proper rector
in it". The stories in Notwithstanding, he explains, with just a hint of a
huff, are a celebration of the "quirky people" he remembers from his
childhood in Surrey: "the belligerent spinsters, the naked generals, the
fudge-makers, the people who talked to spiders".
Stories
It
contains 20 stories, first publication in brackets :-
"Archie
and the Birds" (Punch, March 1997) - Communicating with his mother via
walkie-talkie, the narrator sticks seeds to the living-room window in an
attempt to stop his retriever Archie from bringing dead birds into the house.
"Obadiah
Oak, Mrs Griffiths and the Carol Singers" (Country Life, Nov/Dec 1996) -
Mrs Griffiths makes punch and mince pies in preparation for the visit of carol
singers, but ends up giving them to Obadiah, "the last peasant in the
village".
"Archie
and the Woman" (The Independent, 15 August 1998) - Still walkie-talking,
the narrator's mother asks him to find a wife. He begins his search with the
help of Archie.
"The
Girt Pike" (The London Magazine, Jul/Aug 2002) - How 12-year-old Robert
caught the infamous 'Girt pike'.
"The
Auspicious Meeting of the First Two Members of the Famous Notwithstanding Wind
Quartet" - The new music teacher, who plays the clarinet stops to help a
fellow Morris Minor driver who has broken down, only to find she is collecting
pheasant feathers to clean her oboe.
"Mrs
Mac" (Daily Telegraph, 27 Dec 1997) - Amateur spiritualist Mrs Mac,
accompanied by her husband, visits his graveside.
"Colonel
Barkwell, Troodos and the Fish" - Colonel Barkwell is suspicious of the
poached salmon he has prepared as host of a dinner party, so tests it on his
cat Troodos without incident. However, after dinner the cat is reported dead.
"All
My Everlasting Love" - 13-year-old Peter has reached puberty, fallen in
love with a friend's sister and left a note in her handbag to meet her on a
secluded bench.
"The
Devil and Bessie Maunderfield" - Bessie the new housemaid at Notwistanding
Manor catches the eye of Piers De Mandeville, the squire's son, who promises
that if he does not marry her then the Devil may have his soul. Bessie falls
pregnant and Piers' resolve weakens.
"The
Auspicious Meeting of the Third Member of the Famous Notwithstanding Wind
Quartet with the First Two" : Brian and Jenny are practicing Devienne duets,
when Jenny's husband catches Piers de Mandeville (a descendant of the Lord of
the Manor) loitering in the flowerbed and listening intently.
"Footprint
in the Snow" - The rector is told that Sir Edward Rawton is dying, and
needs Communion. Then on Christmas Day the church bells ring what the Rector
recognizes as a passing bell for a death.
"The
Happy Death of the General" (Sunday Times, 8 July 2001) - The general
often forgets to dress and one day is found in Godalming, naked from the waist
down and soon finds himself in Belleview home, the largest house he has ever
had with "an enormous staff of servants".
"Rabbit"
(New Writing 10, Picador, March 2001) - The Major puts down a rabbit dying of
myxomatosis which brings back unwelcome memories of killing from war.
"This
Beautiful House" (The Times, 18 Dec 2004) - a man considers the house in
which he grew up in before a fire started by candles on a Christmas Tree killed
himself and his family.
"Talking
to George" : John the gardener complains about his dull life, Alan his
assistant is in love with Sylvie the stable girl, and George the spider sits in
his web.
"The
Auspicious Meeting of the First Member of the Famous Notwithstanding Wind
Quartet with the Fourth" : Jenny now works in a music shop in Goldalming where
she is offered a Buffet clarinet to buy, but she is suspicious as it is stamped
'Property of the ILEA'.
"Silly
Bugger " - Robert is given an abandoned rook fledgling to look after which
he names Lizzie. His Uncle Dick resolves to teach it to say 'Silly Bugger'.
"Silly
Bugger " - Royston Chittock, having retired to Notwithstanding takes up
golf and determines to construct a putting green on his mole-ridden lawn, with
the assistance of Dick, with Lizzie making her last appearance as she utters
the fateful words 'silly bugger'.
"The
Broken Heart" (Saga Magazine, Jan 2003) - Obadiah Oak's daughter persuades
him to sell up and move to Devon, but he cannot let go of his old home.
"The
Death of Miss Agatha Feakes" (BBC Radio 4, 1996) - The last day in the
life of the title character and with her menagerie of pets.
"Afterword"
- The author explains his inspiration for the stories in the collection.
Reception
Ian
Sansom in The Guardian writes "Notwithstanding is a village where
"strange things happen from time to time". There is a case of
suspected food poisoning. Someone kills a rabbit. Someone catches a fish. A
grumpy old lady sends Christmas cards. All the stories have that well-told,
underwritten quality of the fairytale or the fable: occasionally, and at their
very best, they also have the necessary fairytale bite and discomfort...The
experience of reading this collection is rather like being wrapped in a tartan
blanket and handed a nice mug of cocoa. Treats on offer include the adventures
of Colonel Pericles "Perry" Barkwell, tales of the pipe-smoking Polly
Wantage, and the sorry story of the poor old general who is slowly losing his
mind. There is a mysterious "hedging and ditching" man and a dog
called Archibald Scott-Moncrieff. And of course Obadiah Oak, the village's
literal and proverbial last peasant, who "exudes the aromas of wet leather
and horse manure, costive dogs, turnips, rainwater and cabbage water, sausages,
verdigris, woollen socks, Leicester cheese, fish guts, fraying curtains, mice
under the stairs, mud on the carpet and woodlice behind the pipes"."
Carol
Ann Duffy in The Telegraph notes "de Bernières here has his eye and ear
firmly on English eccentricity and individualism. His intention may well have
been to make the familiar strange, but his stories achieve the opposite. While
not quite the vanished world that the author feels it to be – the emotional
intensity of de Bernières’s sense of the “better laughter, warmer rain” of the
past serves up a comforting fictional world that his many loyal readers will
find delicious" and concludes "it is interesting that the most
haunting stories, literally, are about ghosts: a woman who lives happily with
the ghost of her dead husband; a man’s death protectively foretold by the
spirit of his grandmother. It is here that de Bernières’s sentimental
attachment to his lost boyhood village comes closest to narrowing the gap
between then and now."
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