My first read for #readingIrelandmonth21 was William Trevor’s 1976 novel The Children of Dynmouth – one of those impulse buys based on noting but the author’s name. It is a novel about which I might be in danger of running out of superlatives – or perhaps using too many. With the sheer brilliance of the writing and Trevor’s characterisation it is easy to see why it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year – losing out to Saville by David Storey. Though it did win the Whitbread book of the year award.
This novel is not set in Ireland – not all Trevor’s books are – but in the fictional Dorset seaside town of Dynmouth. Trevor is a master at creating that sense of place that becomes almost filmic – every single one of his characters feel right at home there – they fit perfectly.
At the heart of this novel is Timothy Gedge, a lonely, overly curious fifteen year old boy. He is one of the most horrible teenage creations (other than Pinkie Brown) I have come across. Timothy isn’t a violent sociopath – though one wonders what he could become – and yet there is a malevolence about him that is almost as frightening. Excluded from his mother and older sister’s orbit, he is left to fend for himself.
“In adolescence, unfortunately, the boy was increasingly becoming a nuisance to people, endlessly friendly and smiling, keen for conversation. He was what Lavinia called a latch-key child, returning to the empty flat in Cornerways from the Comprehensive school, on his own in it all day during the school holidays. Being on his own seemed somehow to have become part of him.”
Friendless, and with too much time on his hands, Timothy Gedge walks the streets of Dynmouth watching and listening. For Timothy Gedge is a pest. He turns up unwanted on people’s doorsteps – the kind of people too polite to tell him where to go – does little odd jobs to get into their homes, he becomes over familiar and stays too long. He asks impertinent questions or makes awkward observations, all the time smiling obsequiously and calling all the men sir. He knows what everyone is up to, he has come across secrets – secrets that have the power to disrupt and distress the very ordinary people of this small coastal town.
The Easter talent show is approaching and Timothy Gedge has come up with an act – which he considers brilliant. He can’t wait for everyone to see it – and he intends to make darn sure he can get everything he needs for his big moment. His head is full of his big break – convincing himself that Hughie Green will come to Dynmouth for the golf and wander into the talent show and there’ll he’ll be, Timothy Gedge on Opportunity Knocks. He is so sure of his success he can see it – he just needs to persuade certain local grown ups to help him with his props and costumes. Only it isn’t just the grown ups who come in for the attention of Timothy Gedge.
“The children of Dynmouth were as children anywhere. They led double lives; more regularly than their elders they travelled without moving from a room. They saw a different world: the sun looked different to them, and so did Dynmouth’s trees and grass and sand. Dogs loomed at a different level, eye to eye. Cats arched their tiger’s backs, and the birds behind bars in Moult’s Hardware and Pet Supplies gazed beadily down, appearing to speak messages. Pairs of Loretto nuns, airing themselves on the promenade, gazed down also, blackly nodding, a crucified body dangling among their black beards. Ring’s Amusements were Dynmouth’s Paradise.”
Mr Featherstone the vicar is already sick of Timothy turning up to the funerals of people he doesn’t know. Now Timothy is bothering him about the talent show – and will insist on calling him Mr Feather. His wife Lavinia runs one of the nursery schools in Dynmouth, and the couple have their own pair of mischievous twin daughters. Lavinia has noticed how Timothy can make the four year olds scream with laughter – but there is definitely something about it she doesn’t like.
Commander and Mrs Abigail have been allowing Timothy to do jobs for them, to earn pocket money. Having become a regular at the house Timothy begins to get just a little too comfortable – making the Commander and his wife distinctly uncomfortable. The Dasses are a couple who come in for similar treatment, as does the man his mother has been sneaking into the house at night. They all begin to dread seeing Timothy Gedge approach their homes.
Meanwhile Stephen and Kate Fleming return to Dynmouth by train from school. They are both twelve years old. Not twins, they are new step siblings though they had been friends before that – and now are suddenly brother and sister. Kate’s mother (divorced) has married Stephen’s father (widowed) – and they will be returning from honeymoon in a few days. In the meantime, they will be looked after by Mr and Mrs Blakley at Sea House where this new blended family will live. Soon after their arrival at Sea House Kate and Stephen run into Timothy Gedge – he follows them to the pictures and talks to them as they walk home. Timothy easily shatters their little world, rocks their confidence, and drives a wedge between the pair. Stephen retreats from everyone in horror struck silence, while Kate struggles to help him while maintaining his confidentiality.
Timothy Gedge’s power to disrupt is brilliantly portrayed – I do rather love a monstrous character and Timothy Gedge made my blood boil. Yet it is William Trevor’s observational genius that is so spot on, his subtlety in slowly ratcheting up the tension around Timothy, that you have to constantly remind yourself that this is a child you are reading about. This is definitely my favourite William Trevor novel of those I have read.