Malachy Doyle, like Allan Ahlberg or Michael Morpurgo, is a highly versatile writer. His story collection, Tales of Old Ireland, illustrated by Bisto Award winner Niamh Sharkey, is a vibrant re-telling of traditional Irish legends, and he is well known for his quirky and original picture book texts. Georgie, his first book for older readers, is a remarkable and courageous debut.
Stand-alone children's or teenage fiction, and fiction by authors who are not J.K. Rowling or Jacqueline Wilson, often gets over-looked by parents and children alike. Every year only a handful of books are strong enough to push through the layers of mediocrity that the publishers, Irish included, pedal. Last year it was Holes, by American journalist Louis Sacher, this year it will be Georgie. And, interestingly, both books are published by Bloomsbury, home of that well-known wizard and some fine and audacious editors.
Georgie is the extraordinary story of a young boy in residential care who will not communicate with the outside world. The eponymous Georgie Bayliss is a ball of bruised and battered emotion, a whirlwind of destructive, indiscriminate energy who physically hurts himself and anyone who gets close to him. When moved to Abernant, a new centre in the Welsh hills, he gradually learns to become human again and to tame the demons in his head, with the help of his counsellor, the stoic Tommo, and his new Irish friend, Shannon.
Originally from Whitehead, Co Antrim, Doyle worked in a residential special needs centre in Wales for many years, and this novel started life as a short story, based on his experiences there and the damaged children he worked with. It won a runners-up prize in the Fish Short Story Award (1996), the catalyst for his career as a full-time writer.
The book is written in a direct, uncompromising and, in the case of the chapters told by Georgie himself, a deliberately brutal and stilted style, using strong and emotive language. Georgie is a difficult character to like and Doyle describes his mental processes unflinchingly, violent and unpleasant thoughts and all. Symbols of happier, childhood days - his mother's long hair, birds, and colourful picture books contrast with the brutal images of blood and knives, which occur over and over again in Georgie's nightmares. As the story progresses the reader is given clues as to what happened to the boy and, although in some way prepared for it, the unnerving scene - the key to his behavioural problems, is frighteningly real.
I heard a man's voice in the kitchen, a wild, angry voice. A voice I recognised. He was shouting something . . . I stood in the hall, frozen into stillness, into fear.
Georgie was always going to be difficult to close and Doyle resorts to sentiment, unworthy of the rest of the book - ending on a happy, upbeat note, which may be reassuring for younger readers, but which is disappointing for older ones who will have come to understand and accept that life will never be easy for the boy. But even the unsatisfactory resolution cannot detract from the power and strength of this astonishing novel.
Sarah Webb is the children's book buyer and marketing manager for Eason's and a writer. Her latest book, Always the Brides- maid will be published in August (Poolbeg)
Malachy Doyle will be taking part in the Children's Literature Summer School at the Dublin Writer's Museum from May 18th to 20th.
Entitled "Once Upon a Summertime", the event is organised by Children's Books Ireland. Details from O1-8725854.