PORTRAIT OF A BOY

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 226, 20 June 1936, Page 23

PORTRAIT OF A BOY

Mr. Tom Clarke’s Memorial Of His Son

“Bryan,” by Tom Clarke (London: ‘ Gollancz).! This is essentially a happy book. It is. dedicated to Bryan’s mother, at whose wish it was written, yet until the chapter on the lad’s last "great adventure,” there is only one sentence to remind the reader that “Bryan” was written by Mr. Clarke in memory of his little boy. He has gathered together all that was lovely, or interesting or amusing in the nine years nine months of Bryan’s life, together with his own reflections upon boyhood, and a real and sturdy youngster smiles back at. the reader. He was a lucky child—growing up in the midst of a happy, interesting and interested family, with', every, advantage that money could provide, and a- father regaining his own boyhood through his special love for. the younger spn. Mr. Clarke seemed to have a-special interest in the. development of this'youngest member of the family. A bond of sympathy seemed to exist between him and Bryan,. such a bond as could exist between a parent and but one of the family. '■ Bryan recognised this spiritual affinity and gave his father entry to magic worlds of childhood to which few grown-ups are permitted to return.

During Bryan’s short life he journeyed right round the world, and although he was too young to remember the voyage to Australia, incidents are told about him travelling. It. is all very intimate and homely. Then, too, Bryan travelled England widely by car and acquired an interest’ in Roman remains, when a very small boy. Like most small boys, he. collected various boyish treasures for his museum. It was, however, to Sussex that Bryan seemed to have belonged most truly, and it was his delight to wander over Sussex downs and by Sussex lanes with his father, exploring any by-way that looked sufficiently forgotten to he of interest. Then there was the exciting motor tour of Laud’s End—the haste to reach the magic spot, only to find it was just seashore. There is so much of England at her gentlest and greenest in this happy record.

Mr. Clarke has some relevant but not very complimentary remarks to make upon schools and schoolmasters. His generalisations are very sweeping, considering that Bryan does not appear to have come to any harm at their hands. “There seems a lack of touch with hew forces and problems all the way up the academic ladder from the pupil teacher to the doh,” he writes. "There is an indecision, an aloofness, an inability, a disinclination to apply learning to modern phenomena, or to bread-and-butter affairs.”

Every phase of the little boy’s mental and physical growth was watched with loyintr care. Some will perhaps feel that Mr. Clarke was too careful of his small son’s dignity, for the world at large ie not so kind. Rather too much is made of Bryan’s attitude that “girls ought to be debolished.” In this small matter Mr. Clarke seems to pander to his own masculine conceit: as if in retrospect he desires to feel that he came first with his small son. In the pathetic story of the nine weeks’ illness which preceded Bryan’s passing this is noticeable, too. In the stern fight with death, Mr. Clarke stayed with his son night and day. He mentions the doctors,' nurses, servants, but the-boy’s mother not at all. In the last chapter in the book Mr. Clarke bravely makes his own confession in faith. How many fathers have an honest answer to the question, “Daddie, do you believe in God?” Mr. Clarke’s answer was written two years after Bryan’s death. It should in fairness to the author be mentioned that “Bryau” was not intended for publication. It was to be privately printed as a memorial to be circulated among friends. The fact that it achieves, general interest as a faithful portrait of a child is of secondary Importance.