E. Bishop-Potter

I was so lucky to be gifted with this book via Library Thing, not realizing what a treat was in store for me.

It comprises a series of postcard messages from Basil (age undisclosed, as far as I can see, but probably 14 or 15) to his father. Basil has been sent to St. Cloud´s, presumably a public school (though the book´s sub-title is “Collected Postcards of a private schoolboy ---“ perhaps all “public” schools are private schools, I wouldn´t know).

The communication is one-way, but we get the gist of what´s happening in Popsy´s life (and also Mother´s) from Basil´s replies.

I never knew before that the offspring of the upper classes called their Dads “Popsy”.

Basil´s messages are penned in what is apparently the colloquial utterances of public-school boys, though the language does seem somewhat old-fashioned to me, but, again, I wouldn´t know, not belonging to that stratum of society. He writes in the exact way we would imagine him to speak, so it as though we hear him speaking. He is wonderfully articulate, has a wide vocabulary (I had to look up “combinations” in the dictionary to be reminded of what they were), is totally extrovert, and thus writes exactly what he thinks.

If the postcards were sent unenclosed in envelopes, I would imagine the postman delivering them to Popsy to have been an avid reader of them – he would have had difficulty in waiting for the next one, and would probably have been torn between his enjoyment of the latest instalments of Basil´s life and debating with himself whether to report what is happening to the boy to the authorities.

Basil has an extremely keen interest in beauty products and his own personal adornment, attire, and beauty, and from the first postcard we understand that all males with an affinity for beautiful boys find themselves unable to keep their hands to themselves when in his company. (The book is adorned with illustrations, so you can see Basil´s beauty!). This generally does not bother him, however, since he adores being the centre of their attention; neither is he averse to being punished by them!

On arrival at St. Cloud´s, Basil is not tardy in finding friends of an ilk, including Gemini, who paints his nails and wears frocks, Courtney, who sews curtains, Bletchworth, who wants to thrash Basil to death (he has a passion for flogging), his confessor, Father Absolute, not surprisingly, and Sir Geoffrey Grassington, a local magistrate.

Things develop. Mother shows proof that the Law of Attraction works, when her continued focus on the horrors of her varicose veins leads to the amputation of her leg. Basil begins to work at the “Palace”, where he entertains gentlemen with a penchant for stretching him on a rack, or rather, “the Rack”. Popsy becomes violent and has to serve time, and Bletchworth ends up in a lunatic asylum for the criminally insane. So life is very merry for Basil, visiting them in these cheery places where they´ve ended up.

I´ve tried to analyse some of the reasons for these postcards being so funny, and have come up with the following:

1) Basil is so very much himself in his utterances, telling the unadorned truth.
2) Though all the events he recounts are so special – some would say “perverse” -, he has no qualms about revealing them all to Popsy (and the postman). (It turns out later in the book that Popsy, himself, is, if not interested in boys or flagellation, open to other forms of relationships than the conventional ones.)
3) Basil writes as though the extravagances of his life are common occurrences – well, they are for him, of course.
4) We see that these extravagances/perversions are reflections of real life, though they are all a blast to Basil.

The book is one of its kind, hilarious, and unputdownable. The subject-matter is extremely black, and the book is one way of “transforming” these matters in one´s consciousness so as to let go of focussing on the negative, which is not good for one and attracts negative things to oneself!

I would recommend this unique book to everyone who can read. Basil´s immaculate though special prose gives us a welcome change from reading status updates and comments on Facebook, where it can be seen that 95% of today´s population are shockingly illiterate (or perhaps it´s only those on Facebook). Read this book!… (altro)

The characters in this book are all damaged, deranged, and dysfunctional individuals, without any sense of ethics or morality. It makes it very hard to feel sympathy for any of them, or identify with them in any way. Just as an example, what kind of nutcase do you have to be to find out that a child that you have cared for years is being sexually abused by both his parents, and then you decide that you feel ADMIRATION for the perpetrators, even referring to them as heroic for abusing their child? Outrageous.
But despite my dislike of all of its characters, and my inner desire to hate this book, I was still strangely drawn to the story, perhaps because it is such a far cry from my normal life. It is admittedly very well-written, and this is probably what kept me reading until the end. I’d be curious to read other works by this author, perhaps if only to see if all his characters are dark and twisted or whether this book was an exception.… (altro)