The Illumination of Merton Browne

When he wants to get away from things, away from his mum and "Uncle" Tuck, away from the shouting and the sound of the TV, Merton Browne hides in his cupboard with a torch and a Tintin book and pretends he's going to space. As he gets older things don't change much. He thinks secondary school will be about learning, but mainly it's about staying out of trouble. Disenchanted and desperate to avoid the attentions of Savage and his posse, Merton finds refuge among the forgotten history books in a dusty basement, remnants of another regime. Inspired by what he reads he comes up with a plan to earn protection for him and his friend...

The Illumination of Merton Browne is a powerful and redemptive novel about the power of education, recounting one boy's journey from a West London sink estate to another life...Did you identify with any of the characters here? Did the book's view of family relationships resonate with you? What do you think of the book's portrayal of bullying? Did you find it a realistic picture of the teenage world? Did you empathise with Merton in the same way throughout, or did your feelings towards the character change? Is anything morally acceptable in the interest of self-preservation...?
 
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Comments

[Georgina Tranter]

I really enjoyed this book. I found the characters and settings very believable and as a teacher myself, could relate in some ways to life at New Crosland. The situations the characters find themselves in, are in my opinion, realistic, particularly the way Merton changes his relationship with Savage so that he becomes the one in control and not the victim.

[Lynsay Lambert]

I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was really well written, and a good approach to how Merton used his education to gain an advantage over the posse, and how it ended up almost backfiring. I thought it was really clever how it linked in, and I took the situation Merton goes through as being very symbolic of the point that was made about revolutions.. ie where does it stop? The posse may succeed in taking over the flats, but someone will be waiting to overthrow them, as they may not be the best solution..

[Neil Fulwood]

Probably shouldn't comment yet as I'm only a third of the way through the book, but ... wow!
Ostensibly this shouldn't work: the juxtaposition of Merton's burgeoning intellectualism with his involvement in the posse's reign of terror seems almost too contrived. How could someone so bookish be accepted - trusted - by such a brutal gang? But J.M. Shaw's fast-paced prose, in-your-face set-pieces and briskly effective characterisations have swept me along so briskly that I've believed every word so far.
Like I say: I've still got a couple of hundred pages to go, but as long as Shaw doesn't fudge the denouement, this could be one of the best fiction debuts of recent years, up there with Boston Teran's 'God is a Bullet' and Joe Hill's 'Heart-Shaped Box'.

[Adele Winston]

Like Merton, I could happily hide in a bunker and devour books, but the story leaves many questions unanswered. When Merton’s mother’s violent boyfriend beats Merton up, why doesn’t Merton press charges? Why does Dan’s mother delay sending Dan off to safety in the Caribbean? Why doesn’t Miranda want to have sex with Merton? I think this is a book with a message but I’m not sure what the message is.

[Lynsay Lambert]

I agree that it is definitely a book with a message! I think Merton doesnt press charges as he knows it wont stop his mothers boyfriend. He believes the best way to get him back is violence (real or threatened) from the posse..

i think Dan didnt go to the Carribbean straight away as his mum wanted him to finish his education first (he was meant to be going in the summer, about a week after the final drama in the book.

I also think Miranda didnt have sex with Merton, as it showed how different her character was from the girls on the estate, who would sleep with anyone (sometimes for money). I think she was meant to symbolise a different way of life for him, does that make sense??

[Adele Winston]

I agree she was meant to symbolise a different way of life for him but it seemed so extreme; she seemed to be a caricature.

[Emma Lou Smith]

I loved this book. I found it totally gripping from the first page, and very moving. The characters stayed with me long after I finished reading. I think the points the author wants to make, about the power of education and the failure of so much of what surrounds Merton in his childhood are powerful, but at the same time they never overwhelm the very strong characters and storyline. Although I didn't have a teenage life like Merton's it did ring completely true, and I was with him all the way as he tried to find illumination.
On the point about Miranda, I thought it was good that she didn't have sex with Merton - I agree with Lynsay that it showed she was different from the other girls - she was part of a world Merton was trying to escape to.

[Adele Winston]

It seemed to me too huge a leap for Merton to be quite plausible. One thing to escape promiscuity; Miranda didn't even seem tempted.

[Emma Lou Smith]

I think that the main factor in the Merton-Miranda situation was the issue of trust. Miranda's obviously a confident girl (with a Catholic upbringing) and she has a strong dose of self-preservation. Merton wasn't the most instantly trustworthy person, and while she found him attractive, he was obviously potentially quite dangerous and unreliable. She wasn't just going to throw herself at him and risk getting hurt.

[Anne Cater]

I really enjoyed this book and think that JM Shaw is going to be a very welcome, fresh voice and someone to watch out for.
I liked Merton's character, although at times aggressive he is also cheeky, bright and somewhat vulnerable.
Having worked as a Youth Offending Officer for four years I did recognise some of the behaviours and morals displayed in the story, but unfortunately have never come across anyone like Merton - who wanted to read and better himself in that way.
I loved the way Gibbon's character developed and wonder about his background - why was he no longer a teacher?
The book contains so much humanity and understanding, yet is raw, violent and often graphic.
Neil asks in his comments if Merton would have really been accepted into the gang? I dont think that the gang knew about his passion for reading, on the face of it, Merton was like them. Dealt drugs, bunked off school, had sex - I think it was his contacts and level headedness that made him acceptable to them. Merton was using them, they just didnt realise it.
I'm not sure about the character of Miranda though - I would question if Merton would have been accepted into her family home.
Overall, a great read, very different, with a message to be told, but in very direct way.

[Neil Fulwood]

Adele - another reason Merton doesn't press charges against his mother's boyfriend: the police represent the autocratic system that he rails against throughout the novel. One of the overriding themes of the novel is rebellion and a breakdown of established social orders - can it be achieved? at what cost? and will the victors of one rebellion just be overthrown by the perpetrators of the next?

[Anne Cater]

Neil, although I agree that Merton didnt press charges due to his feelings about the police initially, he did make an about turn towards the end of the book and spoke quite candidly to the police.
I wonder whether his Mum and Mike 'lived happily ever after' - hard to believe!

[Georgina Tranter]

I shouldn't think so Anne. It was probably very nice for a while until she 'did something wrong' again and he used her as a punch-bag. I thought she was really well portrayed though with her string of abusive men. When she finally decided to get a job and start her life again I could feel the positivity within her character only to then watch it crumble again as soon as the next low-life lover appeared on the scene.

I also thought it was very refreshing that Miranda chose not to sleep with Merton as everybody else in the book was doing so left, right and centre. Nice to see a character with some morals!!!

[A.P.]

I'm sorry to be a voice of dissent but there is no way I could say that I enjoyed this book it made me feel too uncomfortable and I was disappointed in the ending.
The arguements about social order and change were spot on,if you over throw the present social order and replace it with a new order then logically someone should stand up to challenge you and seek to over throw your system.
We are always being told that education is the key to everything and Merton can see that it would be his way out of a situation he no longer believes in. He does not want to follow in his mother's or, very absent, father's footsteps. Yet the amount of sex he engages in could well result in him being an absent father and so perpetuating the cycle.
What disappointed me was the way the book ended.I just felt it was too "tidy". Yes, Dan had died,it appeared for no more reason than his mum was a "God botherer" and he was associated with Merton. But for Merton himself it all fell in to place, he got a place at university and not just any old university but Cambridge itself. Did he get in on his own merit or was the pen pushing Mr Smart responsible? Would it matter? Is Merton now going to be part of the establishment he has always despised? He also got the girl in the end as well! Cynical I know but I started out really believing in the characters until the book closed with what I felt was a fairy tale ending. Sorry.

[Caroline Watts]

I do agree with Emma Lou Smith as to the reasons that Miranda didn’t have sex with Merton, quite understandable really. She guessed that he knew Gibbon through being in trouble with the law, and as he wasn’t open about it she was probably quite concerned about the danger she may be in should she become involved with him. Even towards the end of the book she wasn’t interested in sex, if you look at her character this is no surprise, she knew he would have been with other girls, not always protected (I’m sure!) and therefore I think that she sets a brilliant example to other teenage girls. Should all teenagers have this attitude of not immediately having sex with someone then there would be less of an issue with the spread of disease amongst teenagers.

I think that Merton illustrates the often more publicised attitude towards sex, treating it as just a physical thing instead of the emotional side to things, Miranda seems more aware and therefore doesn’t want to rush anything. I’m sure once she trusts him completely and he becomes totally dissociated with the posse she will be more inclined to sleep with him. I should imagine that she would also be cautious if she were aware of his drug use I doubt that her Catholic upbringing would have approved of either promiscuity or drug abuse.

Like you Anne, I doubt her Catholic upbringing or her family would approve of Merton initially, maybe once he had fully turned his life around they would be more inclined to?

I too was left with a longing as to what happened to Gibbon to stop him teaching, but it is great when an author leaves something to the reader’s imagination, I would have liked a few more clues though!

As to his mother and Mike, like you Anne, I doubt Mike would ever change, but I would like to think that his mother wised up to that before it was too late, and managed to regain a relationship with Merton. If only for her to see that despite her obvious failings as a mother, her son did achieve great success academically and manage to leave the ‘estate life’ behind.

[Neil Fulwood]

Anne – I posted that comment while I was still reading the novel. Having finished it, I’m now reappraising my initial sentiments … There was me, thinking it was shaping up as one of the best debuts in recent years!

The Illumination of Merton Browne is a well-written, briskly-paced novel of social realism which balances its depiction of dyfunctionalism and urban violence with a genuine intellectual undercurrent … until, that is, the last third, where its ideologies become muddled:

Initially, Merton rails against the system – and rightly so. The family unit fails him: absent father, mother who submissively accepts the beatings of misogynistic boyfriends. The education system fails him: his first headteacher is ineffectual, his second runs the school like a corporation and tries to block Merton’s application for university. The authorities fail him: where are the police when Mike’s beating up his mother, or when Savage and the posse are persecuting teachers? The church (personified by his friend Dan’s zealous mother) fails him – it is, after all, her stubborn refusal to send Dan to his uncle until after he’s taken his exams, as well as her insistence on Jehovah’s Witness-style door-knocking around the estate, that indirectly seal Dan’s fate during the riot. The whole point of Merton’s self-education and burgeoning intellectualism is that everything he learns, everything he reads, strengthens his erstwhile belief that only reactionism and the breakdown of social norms can achieve anything.

And yet, by the end of the novel, he’s pulled the biggest u-turn since Tony Blair was in power: he’s taken up with rich-girl Miranda (upper/middle class = the system), started going to midnight mass with her (church = the system), applied to Cambridge (university = the system) and turned copper’s nark after the riot (police = the system). Merton Browne: man of integrity – NOT!

Okay, you could make a slim case for Merton applying to Cambridge in order to impress either his mentor/ersatz father figure Gibbon, or Miranda. But even then, Gibbon openly criticizes the way universities are run, while Merton’s interests in the impossibly saintly and virginal Miranda are frankly unfathomable.

Miranda is one-dimensional to the point of parody, emblematic of the author’s difficulty with female characters: schoolteacher Miss Dent is a frightened mouse, estate girls Tess and Emma are anyone’s for a spliff, Merton’s mother rationalises her boyfriends’ behaviour and always takes them back, Miranda’s intellectual pursuits are all at the behest of her family … isn’t there a single woman in this novel who thinks for herself?

Another thing that doesn’t ring true: Merton’s statement to the police (“I explained everything, going right back to when I was fourteen and started nicking Mike’s cocaine”). Surely this implicates everyone from Mike to the posse, including Savage’s second-in-command, Terry. Yet Mike marries Merton’s mother and they go swanning off Spain, while Terry is appointed to a Police-Community Liaison Committee. Excuse me? Wouldn’t the police want to interview, if not prosecute, these two in light of Merton’s statement?

[Adele Winston]

I think Gibbon was probably no longer a teacher because he had been Head of Classics, and in a school which had binned most of its books in the basement, Classics would no longer be taught. My own son went to a grammar school at which he could not learn Latin; he had to wait to learn Latin until he got to university.

[Denise Powell]

I found this book shocking, thought-provoking and a great book club choice as there are so many issues to discuss.

The bullying and violence suffered by Merton and Dan at the start of the book are sickening. I found the statement Merton makes on p30 “I just lay there imaging shooting everyone in the school one by one …” chilling, and it’s easy to see how that could have happened if he hadn’t found another way to overcome the bullies.

I too wondered why Merton didn’t go to the authorities regarding the violence he and his mother were suffering at home, or at least why he didn’t try to step in when his mother’s latest boyfriend was beating her to a pulp. I’m sure, as people have said, that it has a lot to do with Merton’s lack of faith in the authorities and his antagonism towards them, but it also made me wonder about his feelings about Diana as a mother, and whether he blamed her for the situation they were in.

Gibbon is an intriguing character; with regard to Anne’s comment about why he is no longer a teacher, Daly tells Merton that the school had to “move him along” because he “had his differences with the modern world”. He’s certainly a complex character (his celibacy is briefly mentioned but the reasons are never gone into) and I can’t imagine him adapting very well to the way schools are run today, particularly under a headmaster like Collins with his emphasis on “training the whole personality” and “feeling-management skills”(!)

Regarding why Miranda doesn’t have sex with Merton, I agree with Emma that he’s just so different to anyone she’s ever met before, she doesn’t know whether to trust him or not. On p293 Merton says “Miranda said we weren’t ready - that sex implied a lifetime’s commitment and we really had to get to know each other.” and I how much of a bearing her Catholic upbringing had on this attitude.

[Samantha Huddart]

A fascinating and hugely enjoyable read. I found that I'd completely got caught up in the personal journey Merton goes on throughout the book and I couldn't stop thinking about all the characters even when I'd finished the final page.

[Steve Grice]

I enjoyed this book. It kept me engaged. It’s full of ideas and very self-conciously clever, right down to the names of the characters (Gibbon named after a famous historian etc)

What it shows, I think, is that education can take you wherever you want it, and not necessarily for the greater good. For example, Merton’s at first uses his education for criminal ends (even if he doesn’t see it as such). If he hadn’t been booted out of the posse, then the terror that they subsequently imposed on the estate could have been far worse. I had an bit of a problem with the fact that Merton became so readily accepted by Savage when they had been beating him up a couple of years previously. It didn’t quite seem to ring true.

After breaking with Savage, Merton then does a swift volte-face and seemingly buys into the establishment. I think Neil Fullwoods analysis above of this is spot-on. I also agree with A.P. - Cambridge seems a step too far as well – why put him somewhere a little more believeable, say Leeds or Manchester? I can imagine Merton’s, the proto-revolutionary, entering Cambridge and despising all the privileged he meets there.

Had to suspend belief a little in some places, but overall, fast paced and a good read, whilst trying to lay out some interesting ideas.

[R Sangha]

I agree with earlier posters that this is a book with a message and I'm still trying to work out the exact meaning of the message. The disaffected youth angle of the story came across vividly, as did the dysfunctional family structure, although at times I felt the plot slipped into the realms of unreality and I found it difficult to believe. However, aspects of the book were spot on; many of the problems with education today, especially in GCSE History, were named and shamed and the gang culture of youths is becoming an unavoidable social reality.
The opening paragraph is one of the best I have read in a long time and Merton’s steady loss of innocence and his journey was fascinating, shocking, at times uncomfortable but always engrossing.

[Janice Atkinson]

I was gripped by this book from the start and managed to read it over two nights.
As I work in a school I found it a realistic account of schools and youths today but also how education can turn your life around.
I agree with Denise's comment about why Gibbons is no longer a teacher - he taught 'Classics' and was unable to adapt to schools and teaching in the present day.
I would also agree that the end was a bit tidy but this for me did not detract from a very enjoyable read.
J. M. Shaw is certainly an author with a future!

[amw]

Wow! I was totally swept along by this book, to the extent that the story line was moving along so fast that I knew I would need to go back and re-read some parts. The prose was tight and well written (as would be expected from an author who is flagging up the value of reading and education)and I agree with other posters who say that the characters are well drawn, especially the males. I found Miranda somewhat frustrating but ended up accepting her as a kind of soul-mate for Merton. I don't think she's totally angelic and virginal - she does after all have Merton at home with her for a week while her parents are away, and he does have to go and find her in a night-club. I interpreted her being attributed a Catholic upbringing and going to church as representing - and calling out to Merton with - a search for sprituality in the widest sense.
Back-tracking a bit I found the description of life in the New Crossland School totally harrowing - living abroad I'm a bit out of touch with UK reality but please tell me this is extreme and not the norm.
I think the book raised important issues concerning the role of education in society and it has certainly given me a lot to think about. I will recommend it for our book club.
Don't know if I'm being very innocent here but I thought the fact that Merton got into Cambridge - rather than any other university - meant that his extraordinary intellectual capacity would enable him to continue to be a thorn in the side of 'the system', whilst soaking up the best it has to offer.

[S Jackson]

Denise, I agree with you and think you have summed it up wonderfully when you say 'I found this book shocking, thought-provoking and a great book club choice as there are so many issues to discuss.'

I agree that it is a very raw book, but I don't think that detracts from it in any way - I think if anything it adds a positive aspect to the book.

I thought it was very well written and I was very easily able to 'fall' into the book.

Yes, some of his changes may not ring true - but that is a trait of human nature, people really can go from one extreme to the other, so I wouldn't really say that it was unrealistic.

This book certainly dishes up plenty of food for thought.

[Steve Grice]

I gather the author will be joining us over the coming days, so I have a question for him:

Why does Merton not read any fiction? Aside from a bit of TS Eliot, all his reading is factual. Do you think that his character would have developed differently if the first books he'd come across in the den had been Shakespeare or Dickens?

[Elaine Dingsdale]

“Never judge a book by its cover”-how true in this case! I confess to being slightly apprehensive, both from the cover and the jacket blurb, as it’s certainly not the type of book I would have chosen to read. But-how wrong can you be! This was a interesting read, and an absolutely astonishing debut by the author.
The male characters are very well drawn-most of them extremely unlikeable, but no less valid for that. The scenes of the old soldier juxtaposed against the posse were fantastic, moving, and delivered a very powerful message. Gibbon’s role too gave it an added dimension. Like the soldier, no longer respected in the society he served, with his subject being as marginalised as himself. Found both of these characters intriguing, as they gave Merton the chance to see life from a completely different perspective to that which he was accustomed. I did however feel that the female characters were stylised and more than a little dated.
But it was Merton’s journey which really held centre stage. As it began, I thought we were to be reading of a rebel, who rightly rejected the system, seeing education as a hope for the future. His passion for learning was well documented, and formed some of the most enjoyable segments of the novel. I have to confess that I found this angle more interesting than the posse-perhaps because the latter made me uncomfortable-no doubt the author’s intention! However, the Cambridge twist weakened this immensely, suggesting that Merton sells out, embracing the very institutions he hoped to see change.
Overall, a disturbing portrait, but a gripping read.

[Michael Scanlon]

The first third of the book really didn’t grab me. I didn’t think there was a real sense of time or place to the world that Merton inhabits which got in the way of me ever really connecting with the characters and situations.
Details like the Banshees gang, the incidents of domestic violence and the friendship with Dan kept my interest but there were far too few of them. Having said that, and I’m going to completely contradict myself here, I think those important moments in the first 80 pages that move the story along could have been covered with far less prose. The amount of time it takes to get to the main thrust of the story makes it seem contrived and less believable which I didn’t feel later on in the book. I would have preferred those first few years of Merton’s life to be covered in one or two chapters.
The themes of revolution and control kept me reading though. I enjoyed the power shift that takes places between Merton and the gang but again I think it’s not explored enough. There’s never a moment in the book when the psychology of the characters is laid bare. The reader is almost asked to take on board the physical scenes, join them up and then just accept what comes next. I’m never convinced of the motivation behind each action or reaction which means I can never fully empathise or understand the ‘why’ of what is happening. I found this all the more strange as there is so much from my own childhood that I recognise in this book.
It reads very cinematically, not a bad thing, but rather than sit back and be passively entertained I think the book would have benefited from more soul searching especially from Merton.

[amw]

I would be interested to know how the author sees Merton in the future - in the context of his continuing enlightenment and beyond.

[Cathy Grouchey]

Once I started reading this book, couldn't put it down until I had finished it, a lot of the book was very relevant to the world we live in today. A very gripping, emotional story, although like some, I found the end of the book too "easy".

[Karen Sykes]

To begin with I really enjoyed this book. I agree with just about all of the comments made, including a lot of the negative ones, but that did not detract from what I found to be a very good read. I am reading fiction at the end of the day – if I want the tragedy of total 100% realism I can read the newspaper. I like some realism and it is good to provoke debate – which this has already done in our household with my husband and two teenage sons – but ultimately I read fiction for enjoyment and to be entertained at the end of the day.

For me Merton was never a bad person, he was just trying to find his way and look out for himself because no-one else ever looked out for him. Not even his mother when she turned herself around; she still left him to go out hunting for a man. His mother did not even stand up for Merton when he tried to protect her against her raging boyfriends – first Tuck and then later Mike, her instinct was to protect the man who had just beaten her up and not her son. As I see it, two crucial things happened when he got to New Crosland - he found a refuge to read and to learn; he figured out a plan to protect him and Dan from the gangs that ruled in school. That plan worked for a while but then backed them both into a corner they could not escape from later.

Many people have commented that they would have liked to know more about some of the other characters present in the book and I know what they mean. I don’t know if my take on it is what the author intended, but I saw it as Merton’s story and we only find out about the supporting characters in as much as their lives impact on Merton’s. There were lots of characters in there that it would have been interesting to get a closer view of but I think it would have detracted too much from Merton’s story and his journey to take that closer view.

I have to say I liked the ending too. I would have been quite happy for Merton to fail his interview and to leave it with him trying for it again the next year. I do think it had to be Oxford or Cambridge to make it all work. Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester or anywhere else would have been a bit boring and played right into where Mr Collins and Mr Daley wanted to put him.

[Anne Cater]

I still would like to know the full story about Gibbons' teaching career, I just feel that there must have been an 'incident' that made him leave his career totally.

Someone asked why would Savage and the posse embrace Merton as they did? Well, he was a on-going supplier of drugs to the gang, so becoming very useful in their quest for power and control. Likewise, that is probably why Merton did not report Mike to the authorities, alongside his hatred for the police and authority, if Mike were to be arrested and imprisoned then his drug supply would cease, thus ending his usefulness to the posse.

As for the Cambridge entry, I'd like to think that Merton was still young and naive enough to think that by going to Cambridge he may be able to effect some change onto the system. I'd like to think that he accepted his place and became a thorn in their side!

I too was wondering where the author saw Merton going? Maybe a follow up soon?? Please!

[Georgina Tranter]

I was quite glad that Merton made it into Cambridge. The fact that his school had said he couldn't apply there and weren't keen to process his application spoke volumes, yet when he was accepted they took the praise as if it was something that they had achieved through their teaching. I think it was an important point of the book that he did get in - okay, so it might not happen in everyday life but had he been turned down by them, then surely he would have felt like this was yet another rejection from the society he was trying to escape?

Gibbons definitely had an 'incident' at his previous school - probably some dodgy allegation that meant he had to leave the profession. Wonder what J.M. Shaw had in mind?!

[Karen Sykes]

I agree with you Anne and Georgina, it would be interesting to hear Gibbon's story. Whatever made him leave teaching it seemed to me that he still had an interest in young people and helping them find their way. Why else would he take on the role of supervising community service offenders along side tutoring rich kids (one assumes) for entry to Cambridge? - a whole new book there I think!

As for the Cambridge acceptance I agree he had to get in if only to demonstrate how shallow the teachers at New Crosland were. I am not sure he would be a thorn though Anne, what better place to question everything and then question the answers you get too. I imagine him giving the likes of those on his interview panel a run for their money. They were all of different opinions in the one room, they were not looking for someone who agreed with them and conformed, they were looking for someone who could argue, debate and back up what he believed in. I don’t think Merton sold out, as was also suggested, just the opposite in fact.

[Michael Scanlon]

I would be interested in JM Shaw’s thoughts on the ending of the book. It’s certainly got people talking. I would like to ask if Merton gets into Cambridge because the author thinks that in a fair and just society that is what should happen? Also, did he ever consider alternative endings to the book. The observation that keeps cropping up is that the ending doesn’t fit well in light of what has gone before.

[Anne Cater]

Karen - I agree completely with you - a 'thorn' was probably the wrong expression to use. I hope he does question everything and stick to his beliefs whilst gaining a great education. I would hope that the university lecturers would enjoy teaching someone like Merton.

Gibbon was quite harsh on Merton whilst supervising him, I wonder if he had been a victim of crime in the past and becoming a community service supervisor was his way of 'pay back'. But I agree he does clearly still have an interest in young people and trying to ensure that they make the best of their potential.

As for the ending not fitting, I can see why people are saying that, it does seem unlikely that someone from Merton's background would go to Cambridge. But then again, shouldnt entrance be judged on ability and performance at interview? Maybe that is what the author is trying to say.

[Elaine Dingsdale]

Tend to agree with Karen, that there'a lot of "meat" available in the supporting characters, to merit another novel. They were supporting characters here-the title of the novel confirms that! But there's a huge amount which could be drawn upon as a contrast to this, in a history of Gibbon's past. I suspect-and hope-that the author has done this deliberately, and is planning a sequel/prequel, following Gibbon's life "on the other side".

[S Jackson]

I would also like to find out if the author had alternate ending ideas, and if so, what eventually swayed JM Shaw to go with the one published in the book?

[Stephen Grice]

This novel was all about gritty realism, so I think the point about Merton going to Cambridge rather than anywhere else is that it made the ending of the book veer towards fairy tale. If he'd have gone somewhere a little less elite I think it would have improved the ending. In common with everyone else, I think it would be interesting to hear JM Shaw discuss why he chose Cambridge.

[SJP]

Back in June those lovely people at Hodder passed on a proof of a The Illumination of Merton Browne. The jacket didn’t have either a photo of slender calves, nor illustrations of butterflies, flip-flops or cakes. To say I was skeptical is an understatement. As anyone who knows me will know, I have very little tolerance for reading outside of my comfort zone. With very very few exceptions. However, it was free, it was a long journey home, I’d had one of those horrible days at work, and the tramp on the bus who sat next to me kept angling for a conversation so I thought, "bugger it." I turned the last page at about 4am, some six hours later. Well worth a missed night's sleep I can tell you. Now, I didn’t understand a lot of his thoughts – cause he’s far far cleverer than what I is – but I loved the book. I loved even the bits that were horrible and scary, and made me fearful of going out at night, or visiting my friends that still live in Broadwater Farm in Tottenham…. I loved watching his illumination through education, and his growing relationships with Frank, Gibbon and Miranda – and was so rooting for him at the end that I had a few tears in my eyes, to tell the truth. The language is very colourful (as my mum would say); at times I felt like I should wash my mouth out with soap and water, let alone Merton’s, but everything about the story and the characters was so beautiful it kept me reading till the bitter end.

[Clive Wallis]

Another question for the author: what market does he see for the book? To my mind it sits as older teenage / adult reading (if there is such a thing!?) The language is very explicit for a 'pure' teenage market, yet the storytelling and prose have a clearn simple feels that lends itself to younger readers..

[Caroline Watts]

I agree with the previous entries that Cambridge was crucial to the story, another university would have left the reader feeling a little let down. I felt that once it became obvious that Merton would take his GCSE’s and succeed at them he would go to university. It was the achievement of gaining entry to a university with such high expectations and proving to the teachers at his school that he was different and could achieve what they felt to impossible. I felt it to be more symbolic that realistic.

I thought the comment that perhaps Merton felt he could make a difference in some small way once at Cambridge was interesting and a possibility I hadn’t considered.

Elaine I am grateful you too were put off a little by the cover, I must admit I was sceptical as to whether I would enjoy the book initially but I too loved it. I hope that people won’t be put off when they read the blurb in a bookshop. I know the saying ‘never judge a book by its cover’ but it is true that upon reading the blurb most people do form an immediate opinion (usually as to whether to buy or to put back). I hope that people have read this book club and know that it is definitely worth reading!

I would love there to be a sequel which maybe does give more information about the incident (which I agree there must have been) to stop Gibbon teaching. It must have been more than just the removal of classics. I’m sure all Classics teachers didn’t leave the teaching profession!

[A.P.]

I have been following other peoples posts with interest and re-read parts of the book to see if I felt differently.
I don't think Merton going somewhere else, other than Cambridge, would have been boring it would have been realistic. What did Merton have to offer as a whole and rounded person? All he had was what he had read in books and the few essays he had written for Gibbon.Universities look for more than academic qualifications these days as more and more people are educated to A level standard.
I had said in my previous post that I had not enjoyed it as the book made me feel uncomfortable.
I think on reflection and having read parts of the book again, I realise that the book just portrayed the sort of lives that a lot of the children I work with live. So it was a bit like reading someones life story. But I still feel the same about the ending. My children work really hard to overcome all sorts of disadvantages,medical/social/economic and educational and they all shine in their own way and in their high school years perhaps some of them will be able to gain access to higher education if they want to but I can't see it as being as simple as just applying to a university such as Cambridge, more is the pity, but then the world is not fair.

[Elaine Dingsdale]

Towards the conclusion of the novel, Merton comments:
"As long as I am alone, I will not find what I'm looking for".
I wonder if this encapsulates the central message in the novel, with his illumination being the acceptance of this understanding.

[Helen P Siddall]

I'm ambivilant about Merton Browne. Initially, I hated this book. I didn't want to know anything about Merton Browne and his awful background. However, in spite of myself, I got very involved and just wanted him to get out and get away. In that sense, I found the novel very well written as JM Shaw took me with him and kept me involved 'til the end. I know the story's a bit trite. Merton did get to University despite all his hangups and railings against the system. He did meet a 'nice' girl and basically, he fell into the trap of wanting to be part of a system he despised rather than changing it. I still don't like him as a character but nevertheless, found it a very good story. As far as it reflecting life, I don't know. Who could be so lucky as to meet a Gideon or a Miranda - if luck is what is needed to escape from a dire situation. Real life doesn't always have a happy ending but in this case, for Merton's sake, I'm glad it did. This brings me back to my initial reaction. It's a horrible indictment on our society that we still have kids like Merton and teachers who have become stunted by statistics and goals. Better to have one child who soars like an eagle than thousands who reach the heights of mediocrity.

[Greg Eden]

Posted on behalf of JM Shaw...

It has been fascinating reading all your comments, and extremely stimulating to me as the author.

Several people have asked about Gibbon’s background and ideas. I think the driving force in Gibbon’s character is that he believes passionately that children can achieve a huge amount, and that their true liberation as people depends on a really stimulating education. This tough-minded commitment to high academic standards as the basis of personal fulfilment is what has driven him all through his career. As he says to Merton in one of their early chats (p.128), he stopped teaching at the school when the curriculum and the world changed; and Merton reports him as saying that ‘the new exams were crap and he wouldn’t teach them’ (p.134).

Daly disagrees completely with all this, of course, and so does Collins and the modern educational establishment in general. Their focus is not on Merton’s actual experience of education, and the way reading blows his mind, but on measurable ‘outcomes’ and ‘processes’ in the ‘education system’, which they understand as a means of social control.

All through the story, Merton is driven by an overwhelming desire to expose hypocrisy and lies, and speak the truth. His mother is in denial about her relationships, but Merton refuses to lie about them; the education system has buried the most interesting books, but he finds them and reads them. I think this hunger for knowledge and illumination is for him the real meaning of education and even of life. And from Merton’s angle, people like Daly and Collins who oppose and block his development are the real oppressors, while those who can engage with him and help him to develop as a human being – whoever they are – must be potential allies.

That is why he would never reject Miranda simply on account of her class background, or Cambridge just because of its associations. Instead, he learns to put everyone and everything to the fundamental test of humanity: either they lead him to greater consciousness and wider horizons, or they shut him off. That is why, in the Cambridge interview, he basically demands of the dons that they should really be committed to education as an end in itself, not to the power or money it can give rise to; one of them takes up this point and they have a big discussion about it. I think that, although Mr Smart is there representing the government machine, still Merton hears enough from the others to make him think that there is something worthwhile for him here: that if he gets in he can read whatever he wants and write freely, without hiding in a bunker. (I also think the dons would be crazy to turn down a candidate like Merton.)

Whether any of these institutions and people are going to pass Merton’s test – and what the future holds for him – are of course open questions. But Merton has moved to a stage of maturity where he is asking the questions which really come from his heart, and that is something.

Some of you have asked, Why Cambridge in particular? I suppose to start with, in the logic of the story, Merton is pushed in this direction by Gibbon, who has experience getting people in to Oxford and Cambridge. More fundamentally, as one contributor has already said, Gibbon simply believes that Merton would benefit from what Cambridge has to offer: the tough reading lists, the frequent tutorials and essays, the company of people who share his fascination with history and who will meet him on equal terms intellectually. Merton clearly has the capacity to do well, and Gibbon’s attitude is, Why shouldn’t he go to Cambridge? After all, Gibbon used to get pupils in to elite universities in his grammar school days. On the other hand, Daly classifies Cambridge as ‘elitist’ in a bad way, and distrusts it as part of the old ‘establishment’.

I think Cambridge brings into focus one of the fundamental conflicts of ideas that runs through the book: the desire to fulfil the potential of individuals, all with their different levels of ability in different areas, versus the desire for relatively equal ‘outcomes’ in education, making sure nobody feels they have failed. Gibbon is tough and old-fashioned on this; Daly is more representative of the contemporary consensus. Merton chooses in the end what might fulfil him personally. I don’t think Cambridge is a ‘happy ever after’ ending: it is the start of a hard new phase in Merton’s life. But at the same time, I feel it would have been cowardly of him, and very out of character, to turn down an opportunity like this. Also, it is important that Merton is thrilled by Cambridge architecturally, and overwhelmed by the sense of history he finds there: these are very powerful instincts for him, and lead him to hope that there is something there which will enrich his life.

Steve asked about the place of fiction in Merton’s reading, and it’s true that he does not talk about it much. He reads Lord of the Flies just before his trial, and he says there are lots of old novels in the Bunker; but apart from history books he talks mostly about poetry. (As well as Eliot, Merton mentions reading Coleridge and Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.) I think Merton’s experiences of literature broaden out in the course of the book. As he gets to know Miranda, she introduces him to some interesting poetry, including Pablo Neruda and St John of the Cross; she herself is reading Middlemarch. And at the end of the story, Merton and Miranda read Shakespeare’s history plays together. Perhaps this means that Merton’s pleasure in reading is intensified by having someone he can trust enough to share it with.

Finally, so far as Miranda’s take on things is concerned, I feel that she is dead right to put Merton to the test, finding out gradually if he is capable of being intimate and trustworthy, and holding back a little. I agree with what several of you have said, that she is much too centred and thoughtful to sleep with him before she knows him intimately, and is strong minded enough not to be bulldozed by what other people say.

Unfortunately this is my only chance to post a response, because I’m going to be away for a while. Thank you all for your comments and questions. It’s been a real revelation and very heartening to hear your views.

[Elaine Dingsdale]

Fantastic to hear the author's comments. Thanks for organising this Greg.

[A.P.]

Nice one Greg thanks for organising the author's comments.

[Steve Grice]

Thanks to JM Shaw for really interesting response. Ta to Greg also.

[Anne Cater]

Fascinating to read the author's comments. Thanks a lot

[Karen Sykes]

Thank you for going to the trouble of organising the author’s input; it was very interesting to read his comments. Thanks too to him for taking the time to contribute.

[S Jackson]

Very interesting to read the input from JM Shaw, thank you, and thank you to Greg also!

[amw]

Great to read the author's comments - it adds another dimension to the forum. Thanks for organizing this Greg.

[R Sangha]

Just wanted to agree that it was great reading the author's opinion. Thanks for that.
The point Steve made about the place of fiction in Merton's reading made me think and reading the reply has helped clarify the emphasis on non-fiction.

[Clive Wallis]

What JM Shaw did not really talk about was the book as a love-letter to reading per se, not just education. As someone who escaped the reality of their own youth through books, it was certainly something I related to when reading it. (Not that my childhood was anything like Merton's!) Thanks Greg for a great choice.

[sharon rowe]

i realy didn't enjoy this book i found it boring and not very engaging. i could see from the start that it would end alright. for me that spolit the book, i want to be surprised and entertained by a book.

[Livia]

I really enjoyed reading the book... it was a great choice for the bookclub! Very engaging to go through what happens with Merton - and very realistic. I think I'll have to read it again very soon to pick up on some things I seem to have missed out on.
I don't really know if I can add anything else at the moment...all the posts I've read on here pretty much say it all.
If I think of anything, I'll be sure to post it! :)

[cheryl pasquier]

Wow, what a fantastic opening paragraph ! It's brutal and harsh and immediately drags you deep in to the sordid life of Merton Browne.

The early chapters were gripping - possibly because I work as a teacher and could relate to a lot of the situations. The bullies at the school may make the Waterloo Road-style hardnuts look like little angels but they are - unfortunately - very true-to-life and believable.

It was interesting to see how Merton changed from victim to bully, asking Savage to bully his tormentors in the Banshees on his behalf. His rise to power as consigliere and drug-dealer showed how this happens all too easily and too often in real-life.

The women in the story, aside from Miranda, all seem to embrace the violence as their destiny and almost enjoy it - Merton's original girlfriend says she likes a man with shoulders and he can hit her whenever he likes. Merton's mother accepts the domestic abuse as normal behaviour and her own fault and always goes back for more. I found this slightly disturbing but worryingly believable.

Unfortunately, as he took the path to becoming a "good guy" with Cambridge and Miranda, morally speaking (even if he is buying into the system he despises, as lots of you pointed out), I found his character became much more insipid and less interesting than in the first half of the book.

I still thought it was a great read though.