William Corlett
| William Corlett | |
|---|---|
| Born | 8 October 1938 Darlington, County Durham |
| Died | 16 August 2005 (aged 66) Sarlat, Aquitaine, France |
| Occupation | Novelist, playwright |
| Nationality | English |
| Period | 1963–2004 |
William Corlett (8 October 1938 – 16 August 2005), was an English author, best known for his quartet of children's novels, The Magician's House, published between 1990 and 1992.
Corlett was born in Darlington, County Durham. He was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh, then trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He worked as an actor while embarking on a literary career during the 1960s, and wrote plays and adult novels as well as the children's novels for which he is particularly remembered. Several of his works were adapted for the screen.
Later in life he came out as gay, and it was from his partner, Bryn Ellis, that he gained some of his inspiration for The Magician's House. Corlett died at Sarlat in France.
Corlett's first novel, The Gate of Eden (1974), appeared before publishers began using labels such as "Young Adult" to categorise novels that seem suitable for middle to late adolescence. The Gate of Eden is an apparently simple story about a mid-teenage schoolboy who makes friends with an eccentric retired bachelor school teacher. This is the boy's first step beyond the confines of home and school. By the end of the book the boy has found his first girlfriend and rejects the old man's fussy, demanding friendship in favour of the young woman.
The character of the vulnerable old man, Tom Falcolner, is presented as vividly as that of the boy who is the unnamed first person narrator. He tells the story, recalling, quoting from letters and commenting on his own memories and failings, long after the events revealing himself in breathtakingly painful detail. Tom is also a fascinating character: grubby, used to his loneliness, yet keen to share his love of literature with the boy who wants to be a writer. The balance of interest between youth and old age is equal part of the reason for it not being a Young Adult book and the point of view is strictly adult, tinged with bitter sweet nostalgia and regret, poetically told, ending with a poem.
The book is also an account of first love and (implicitly) first sex. But this is tarnished with rumours of scandal (probably homosexual) associated with the old man having been fired from a school. However, despite such sexual matters, treated in a very low-key way, the overall feeling matches that of the A.E. Houseman poems which are quoted when Tom introduces them to the boy. What is the significance of the title? Unreligious old Tom defends his unkempt garden, saying, "Nature must take care of itself …. Besides the weeds are as beautiful as the flowers! Were there weeds in Eden?" (p 15). Near the end, the young man remembers walking very slowly to a fateful appointment, but doubts his memory: "As like as not I bounded towards the gate of Eden and the land beyond" (p 158).
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