A Swarm in May

Choir School #1

by William Mayne

John Owen returns to the Choir School at the start of term to find that he is the youngest Singing Boy in the school. This means he must also be Beekeeper - a traditional role. One of the traditional duties of the Beekeeper is to sing a solo in the Cathedral. Owen hates and dreads the prospect, so he persuades the smallest boy in the school, Iddingley, to take his place. Then, while exploring one of the Cathedral towers without permission, Owen finds something which makes him change his mind, and solves a mystery which has been baffling people for hundreds of years...

Genres: Fiction, Childrens, British Literature

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

William Mayne was a British writer of children's fiction. Born in Hull, he was educated at the choir school attached to Canterbury Cathedral and his memories of that time contributed to his early books. He lived most of his life in North Yorkshire.

He was described as one of the outstanding children's authors of the 20th Century by the Oxford Companion to Children's Literature, and won the Carnegie Medal in 1957 for A Grass Rope and the Guardian Award in 1993 for Low Tide. He has written more than a hundred books, and is best known for his Choir School quartet comprising A Swarm in May, Choristers' Cake, Cathedral Wednesday and Words and Music, and his Earthfasts trilogy comprising Earthfasts, Cradlefasts and Candlefasts, an unusual evocation of the King Arthur legend.

A Swarm in May was filmed by the Children's Film Unit in 1983 and a five-part television series of Earthfasts was broadcast by the BBC in 1994.

William Mayne was imprisoned for two and a half years in 2004 after admitting to charges of child sexual abuse and was placed on the British sex offenders' register. His books were largely removed from shelves, and he died in disgrace in 2010.

Reviews

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating book that provides a unique slant on the school story. Based on Mayne's own childhood experience in the Canterbury Cathedral choir school, it's like Hogwarts with music instead of magic. There's a bit of detective work and a great deal of subtle intellectual humor. We learn about things like differences of opinion on Latin pronunciation, the caste system of boarding school, and how students interact with their teachers.

Mayne has a wonderful talent for describing musical performance: "When Dr. Sunderland began to jubilate on the organ the sounds behaved differently, multiplying in the transepts and reduplicating against each effigied tomb, rolling in distinct thunders down each separate aisle, and whirlpooling in the round apse; then hurtling down the choir and setting the altar candles trembling: spring-tiding over the choir screen, dropping their fatness on Dr. Sunderland's own head where he sat playing; scaling the tower-straddling arch, and losing themselves in breakwaters of chairs in the nave." (pp.20-21) In this, we get a sense of architecture, of acoustics, of how the listener perceives sound being generated, traveling, and interacting with the space. A few lines later, Mayne concludes, "The seven notes of the clock in the west tower came through hand in hand with the voice of the organ: Dr. Sunderland had brought his tune back broken in and running quietly under a slack rein." (p.21) To me, that's sheer genius - the metaphor of riding a wild horse and taming it. It gives a beautiful sense of how a florid improvisation settles back into a simple melodic theme after rambling far and wide.

Walter Hodges does a great job with the pen-and-ink illustrations. He intersperses portraits of characters, 8 or so of them, throughout the book. I kind of wish they had been all together in the front (like a school yearbook) so I'd have those pictures in mind while reading instead of being surprised later.

Mayne explains very little, which perhaps says something about the audience he was writing for at the time. He expects some prior (ha!) knowledge of churches and services and music. There is a fair bit of slang, inside jokes, and the like that show how the choir school has its own traditions.

Very enjoyable, and I look forward to hunting down the three sequels. Curiously enough, I had to purchase this used, and it came all the way across the country only to reveal the stamps and Ex Libris plate of my local public library where it was acquired shortly after its publication more than 60 years ago. I do wish they hadn't spoiled the endpapers, as these feature an amusing depiction of the plainchant notation (entirely accurate, with images of bees replacing the neumes) for The Beekeeper's Introit. Here it is, performed for a BBC dramatization of the book in 1957.

I am also inspired to hunt down From Morality to Mayhem: The Fall and Rise of the English School Story, which has an excellent section on this book.

[Capn · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A minor masterpiece . . . one of the twentieth century's best children's books." Franke Eyre

WILLIAM MAYNE is, in the opinion of The Times Literary Supplement, "the most original good writer for young people in our time."

"A brilliant and exciting book." Observer

"It is pure joy . . ." Sunday Times

If you've never heard of Carnegie medallist, Guradian Prize for Fiction recipient William Mayne, there's probably a very good reason for it. This man was the feted, lauded, beloved children's author of the late 20th century in Britain for decades, and then died, a convicted sex offender, in well deserved disgrace and obscurity. It turns out he was a reprehensible excuse for a human being. You can read about that awful story here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/201... For a statement on why I read his books, and why I'm reviewing them (I don't see why you'd care, but just in case), please see the end of this review.

This is the first of a critically acclaimed series on the lives of choir boys at cathedral school in England (I'm not sure where exactly, but the internet tells me the author attended Canterbury C. S. as a boy). All of the boys are boarders (they live at the school), and this story begins with the choristers and the singing boys (not yet titled choristers) returning to school in the week before the autumn term begins. John Owen is the youngest and will therefore become Beekeeper, a solely ceremonial role as the cathedral no longer keeps bees with which to make wax candles for internal illumination. But it comes with a solo to be sung, the Beekeeper's Introit, and a procession and words in Latin before the bishop. Owen doesn't want this. Owen bows out. Owen later regrets that decision, the troubles it caused him and others, and finds that being Beekeeper may be something he is seemingly fated to do regardless of his initial reluctance.

Much of this story is to do with the interactions between Owen, the other boys and their practical jokes and their internal codes of conduct amongst themselves (seniority playing a big role, of course), and Owen's relationships with the various masters and staff. The setting and the ritualistic existence reminded me a lot of The Gormenghast Novels, which I didn't prefer (but which many love). It's archaic and atmospheric and insular. The parts I enjoyed most (of both works) are the architectural bits: secret passages, dusty and forgotten rooms, labyrinthine corridors, and sneaking about in such places. There's lore and tradition and mystery, and some really old and crotchety teachers who have unchecked powers and who seem to have abandoned reality for a life of pure academia...

I've now got the other books in this series, and I feel compelled to read on and find out just what exactly that orb on the beekeeper's keychain is made of. Otherwise, again, this was a little too Gormenghast-like for my comfort. I didn't grow up in England, and so any British book that's heavily 'school-based' I already struggle to relate to - it's all very alien to me, and a boy's cathedral school all the more so.

That said, it was brilliantly written, and it managed to capture my attention better than Gormenghast. In short, it's a story about a child taking on responsibilities and pulling his weight within a group. I think it would also appeal to readers with a Church of England background or formal musical education - there are many references to cathedral services and order of procession, sung Psalms, hymns, choral pieces and instruments that I wasn't able to fully appreciate. There was at least one joke that I completely missed. Any Anglophile interested in ecclesiastical settings should probably not miss this. And anyone on the "Health and Safety" team looking for a few frights would be interested in reading about the termly procession of trunks to the storage space in the Norman tower... yeesh.

- And now a personal statement that doesn't need to be made, and probably won't be read anyway -
Why did I read this? Because Mayne was a very gifted author. Because he's dead now. Because I bought this secondhand and he can't profit from it. And simply because I don't give a toss about who wrote what - the criminal justice system takes care of criminals in our society. That's why we have it. I'm not interested in any author, personally. This book is a product of Jade Publishers, and WOB more recently so... As I said, if Mayne was receiving money or fame from my purchase of this book, however inconsequential that gain might be, I might not have chosen to read it at this juncture. But he isn't. He's dead. The book lives on.
Should you read his books? An entirely personal decision. My short answer is yes - read everything. Avoidance is rarely a good solution. Maybe too many people were avoiding bad vibes or suspicious circumstances or statements to allow him to do what he did... Maybe it's good to know and remember how he wrote, looked, presented himself - maybe we'll do a better job at spotting predatory paedophiles ahead of disaster, AND at not being seduced by celebrity, allowing our dependent minors to be put in potentially risky situations going forward. Lessons can be learned. Judge not*; instead, learn well! (*Judicial system and court processes excluded, of course. Don't forget we have this system to work to our good!).
Why am I reviewing this? Because I like to read books. I like to read used books, that I can get cheap paperback copies of, the best. I like vintage juvenile lit. I even started a group here for Forgotten Vintage Children's Lit We Want Republished. I'm not doing it for attention, for 'likes'. I'm not big on the parasitism that is reviewing socially unacceptable books or those written by social pariahs for the attention it garners by denouncing them and feeding into the roiling vat of hatred and disgust that seems to drive today's society. I read banned books because I don't believe any book should be banned. I read unpopular or sidelined books, if I feel like it, because the plot or setting, etc., interests me. I write reviews for other potential readers, like myself, who want to know if a particular book is worth tracking down/downloading/ordering/opening. That's it. I have been the grateful recipient of the wisdom and content of other user's reviews, and I'd like to return the favour by faithfully and hopefully helpfully reviewing the books I read for the sake of others.

[John Frankham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Came across this 1950s reprint by chance. Well written, catching the tone and nuances of children's behaviour and talk and their interactions with teachers as they grow up in a choir school environment and face the universal problems of facing and accepting duty and responsibility. Thought-provoking as well as intriguing. I felt a better person for having read it. The premise is:

John Owen returns to the Choir School at the start of term to find that he is the youngest Singing Boy in the school. This means he must also be Beekeeper - a traditional role. One of the traditional duties of the Beekeeper is to sing a solo in the Cathedral. Owen hates and dreads the prospect, so he persuades the smallest boy in the school, Iddingley, to take his place. Then, while exploring one of the Cathedral towers without permission, Owen finds something which makes him change his mind, and solves a mystery which has been baffling people for hundreds of years...

[Gretchen Rubin]

A very traditional English work of children's literature. I've read several books by Mayne at this point, I enjoy them very much. Very different from the children's literature of today.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant books - loved this author as a child when I devoured everything he wrote. My favourite of his books concerned the boys at boarding schools attached to cathedrals - the boys sang in the cathedral and this was part of their education. Loved it, and finally found a copy of this book. The books are now very difficult to obtain as they have become collectors' items.

March 2012 - have read this again as an adult but sadly I didnt particularly enjoy it, or perhaps it's too dated. It was written in the 1950's and much of the schoolboy humour doesnt work these days, nor do the frequent Latin references. I have left the star rating as 5 because as a child I loved this book, and it is written for children. My adult's rating is only 2 or 3 stars.

February 2023 - Ive reread this book, and enjoyed it. Dont know why I wrote that last review, there was no Latin, and although it is dated the story is still acceptable. Tells the story of the special service commemorating the bees, their wax, and which boy will lead the service.

[Pollymoore3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a child many years ago, and have got far more out of it as an adult. The descriptions of the inside of the cathedral are very realistic, and you share choirboy John Owen's journey from uncertainty and rejection of his allotted task to his growing confidence and maturity as he finds he can do this and much more. But even in the 1950s surely small boys would not have been expected to carry their own heavy suitcase trunks along a narrow walkway high above the cathedral nave, with no handrail......? The sense of yawning architectural space and height is like William Golding's "The Spire".

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look inside a boys boarding school. I was glad that John found the importance of the task of Beekeeper and a way to fulfill his responsibility. Fascinating adventures and a good group of kids. I really liked the illustration. Nice pen and ink drawings of each character. They really brought the book to life.

[Tig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This reminded me of my attempts to read A Dance to the Music of Time in that it's a very clubby, male-centred book, full of in-jokes and repression. There is literally not one female character in the whole book. I found the depiction of the organist with a speech tic which is reproduced in every sentence incredibly irritating. The atmosphere of a cathedral school was fascinating, but the allusive, slippery way of writing didn't suit me in this instance. And one can't get away from the fact that William Mayne was a paedophile who served time in prison. What might otherwise have been the charming informalities and intimacies of a particular type of school start reading as uneasy inappropriateness: when Trevithick buries their teacher in sand, with references to him smoothing the sand over the legs, when Owen gets his hair cut by his housemaster, I can't not focus on all the touching that is going on, something that does not happen in ordinary school stories. Overuse of chiz reminds one too much of Molesworth. The passages describing music are utterly beautiful and illuminating, and the bee elements are good to read (I am a beekeeper, which is why I decided to read this).

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusual book. Took a bit of work to understand the vernacular. But the ideals presented in the book made it worth the work. Wished there was more information on the families of the children in the book, but the author very much keeps things in the here and now of life.

[John Hardwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I enjoyed this as a child and re-reading it I can understand why. An interesting story well written and leaves you feeling contented.

[NoName · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful book!

[Doodles McC · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this mild English children's story as a child, 1970's edition. Boys at choir school where they also keep bees. It was ok, well written.

[rr]

I read this book because I came across a number of people online who had affectionate memories of reading it when they were young, and how could I resist a book with the following elements? A long-standing mystery involving bee-keeping, the setting of a British boys' cathedral school in which students and teachers communicate partly through quotations from the psalms which they sing in the choir, and a main character who is processing his experiences with Latin, Welsh, and English. For me, however, the book didn't quite live up to the promise of these appealing components. Each and all of them of them could have benefited from more development; I felt like I was kept consistently on the surface or the outside, looking in, without the book cultivating and using that positioning (and distancing) of the reader to its advantage.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of my absolute childhood favorites. I loved the setting of the choir school and the academic life and all the music! I've read this book about ten times, including a couple of times in my twenties, before passing it on to my nephews.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a fantastic book, I preferred it to Sand. Excellent plot..... would love to read more on these lines!