Der Bienenkönig

by Mick Jackson, Gerald Jung (Translator)

When Bobby is evacuated from London to a remote Devonshire village, a strange new chapter of his life begins. Empty of its menfolk, the village is given over to the “stay behinds”: the women, the old and young, and five terrifying boys who accuse Bobby of being a Nazi spy. Then, there is the enigmatic Bee King, a mysterious figure who exercises a powerful, hypnotic influence on the village, and especially the boys.

As the days wind down to the D-day invasion and the Allied soldiers crash the beaches along the French coast, the villagers will enact their own drama -- a tense interplay of events that will engulf them all and ulti- mately reveal the truth about the Bee King.

Brilliantly captivating and thoroughly researched, Five Boys is the tale of the war's impact on the home front, bringing to light a lost place and time with an expert touch.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, British Literature, World War II, War

Hardcover

First published September 3, 2001

About the author

Mick Jackson (born 1960) is a British writer from England, best known for his novel The Underground Man (1997). The book, based on the life of William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and for the 1997 Whitbread Award for best first novel.

Mick Jackson was born in 1960, in Great Harwood, Lancashire, and educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn.

Jackson worked in local theatre, studied theatre arts at Dartington College of Arts, and played in a rock band called The Screaming Abdabs. In 1990, he enrolled in a creative writing course at the University of East Anglia, and began working on The Underground Man. He has been a full-time writer since 1995.

Jackson's other works are the novels Five Boys (2002) and The Widow's Tale (2010), and the short story collections Ten Sorry Tales (2006) and The Bears of England (2009). Under the pseudonym Kirkham Jackson, he wrote the screenplay for the 2004 television film Roman Road. He lives in Brighton.

Reviews

[Cordelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blew me away. This book is another work of art from Mick Jackson, who since I read The Underground Man is an author I am following closely.

Five Boys is fantastic. It has character, humour, intrigue and interest. If you're looking for a novel that will whisk you away and carry you along with it, then this is the one for you.

Astounding.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't get in to this book. I tried several times as I don't like to NOT finish a book, but I just didn't enjoy it. There were parts that were "ok" so I'm giving it a 2.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. What a great read. I've read some poor reviews of this on Amazon, and can't understand why people didn't like it. The main criticsim seems to be that the character we meet at the beginning, young Bobby the evacuee, disappears part way through the book. However - although he was a lovely character and sorely missed - he wasn't the focus of the book, he isn't after all one of the Five Boys of the title.
The book is set in a small village in Devon during WW2 the Five Boys all born within a couple of weeks of each other run loose around the village and generally get into mischief. Their tormenting of Bobby is increasingly horrid, but proabably typical. The Amercians arrive, and many locals have to be moved to accomodate them, Bobby and the old lady looking after him among them. The Five boys remain, and then the Bee King arrives. His affinity with the bees and the boys almost enchanter like. In this character and his effect upon the boys there is more than a little homage being paid to a certain Grimms fairy tale - very clever and quite dark. Excellent stuff.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. No, it doesn't have a conventional storyline, but it has wonderful characters and language and originality and truly beautiful writing. I would've given it five stars but, as someone else mentioned, the first character to which the reader is introduced disappears from the narrative partway through the book. I liked that kid and I wanted to hear more about him.

[Art · Rating 1 out of 5]

Confusing and slow

[Deborah]

This is a puzzling book. I loved Mick Jackson's Booker-shortlisted 'The Underground Man', based on the life of the eccentric 5th Duke of Portland, and expected much of the same originality and humour here. In some respects, 'Five Boys' has those elements, but the baggy, meandering nature of various set pieces - Bobby's meeting with the Captain, the dance at the village hall for which the GIs arrive in large numbers, the pig memorial - meant it drops its focus and any tension - after investing heavily in his story, we lose sight of Bobby the evacuee altogether.

There's much here that owes a lot to Barbara Pym (whose books I find whimsical and slightly irritating), but it also reminded me strongly of Golding - not 'Lord of the Flies' as one might expect, but a very early novel, 'The Pyramid', which has the same stifling sense of village life (the hero is a young teenage boy). Michael Frayn's Bildungsroman 'Spies' also came to mind, also set during the Second World War. So lots of echoes, although I don't think anyone other than Jackson could have written this book.

I wondered why the five boys are virtually interchangeable: apart from Aldred, I didn't get any sense of distinction between Finn, Harvey, Hector and Lewis. The village characters are equally impersonal: quirky, yes, but not in a way that brings them to life, and they are saddled with droll and waggish names.

All that said, the arrival of the Bee-King is a master stroke, beautifully put together and with more than a nod to the fairy tale, 'The Pied Piper of Hamlin' (prefigured by scenes in which thousands of rats are gassed by the local rat-catcher). That is such a richly moral and psychologically interesting take, I felt there were opportunities for some sort of allegory, but it doesn't appear, and that makes it feel flat to me. Worse, the 'shock' at the end is so out of sync with the rest of the novel it got me wondering whether this was originally two different novels that Jackson has melded together.

All this, yet I knew while I was reading that this book is original, surprising and very well turned, hence my puzzlement. Then it came to me: I put my finger on why it didn't quite work for me. It is emotionally flat: there's no feeling in this book, no affect, no sympathetic character, and no one ever expresses any form of affection for anyone else, but for two scenes between Bobby and his mother. And that meant, for me, there was no redemption, only revenge, leaving me feeling uncomfortable and disappointed.

[Bookguide · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read in Dutch, De bijenkoningin, so my review is in Dutch.

Mick Jackson is genomineerd voor de Booker voor zijn eerste boek, 'De tunnelman'. Ik heb van 'De bijenkoning' erg genoten. Het doet me denken aan 'Lake Woebegone Days' van Garrison Keillor, want het is een geheel over een dorp, verteld door korte verhaaltjes over verschillende dorpsbewoners, vaak grappig of een beetje vreemd (nowt so strange as folk!). Wat ik wel vreemd vond, was de keuze voor de Nederlandse titel, 'De bijenkoning', want hij komt alleen voor vanaf blz. 162, in een boek van 226 blz. Zeker een aanrader voor liefhebbers van verhalen over excentrieke personages en het dorpsleven.

Vijf jongens groeien op in een dorpje aan de Engelse zuidkust, terwijl hun vaders overzee moeten vechten en hun moeders zich staande proberen te houden in de aanwezigheid van Amerikaanse soldaten, die een aangrenzend gebied "bezet" houden. Als de oorlog eindelijk voorbij is, wordt de vrede in het dorp verstoort door het retour van de vaders. En door de komst van de Bijenkoning. Hij bepaalt zijn eigen wetten, heeft zijn eigen vreemde rituelen, en de dorpelingen vrezen de geheimzinnige macht die hij heeft over zijn bijen, en schijnbaar ook over de jongens.

Het grappigste verhaal gaat over een varken dat opgehaald moet worden uit het "bezet" gebied, met gebruikmaking van een doodskist.
BookCrossing ring, before it was released: https://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/...

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many, I was somewhat baffled when the character, around whom the book started, simply faded away as the narrative progressed. It becomes clear that Bobby's job is purely to introduce us to the Five Boys of the title and - if accepted in that light - the frustration wanes, a little. On one level, I was glad for the shift in dynamic this brought about, as comparisons to "Goodnight Mr Tom" were lifted; however, it did feel as if Bobby was meant to be in the book throughout but that the author grew bored of him and changed direction mid-novel. The vignettes of village life in wartime Devon were fascinating and, sticking with the book to the end, it draws together the last two-thirds of itself well as most of the threads meet with a conclusion. The Bee King's departure and his parting gifts to the boys sets up an intriguing puzzle that is left to the reader to solve, as to what each one meant. In all probability, a re-reading of the book might make the purposing of the gifts clearer but, as a pay-off for the reader, it would have helped if the these had been sign-posted more. Overall, an untaxing read with some lovely laugh-out-loud moments balanced with some truly bleak ones. The overriding impression, though, is of the bees: fascinating, threatening and loved. The layman, who knows little about bee-keeping, will leave this book the richer because of it - and that's no bad thing.

[Keith Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A delightful evocation of life in rural Devon during 1939-45, beautifully written and very easy to read. The book is divided into two parts, The Boys and The Bees, the first part introducing us to village life and the five young boys of the title, the second to the arrival of a mysterious newcomer (the Bee King) to whom the boys are drawn. The village becomes the scene of the preparations for the D-Day landings, with villagers given short notice to move out of their homes to make way for the incoming American troops. The intervening years see carefully tended fields become overgrown, country lanes become impassable and the villagers cottages overrun by infestations of rats, until one day the Americans move out. The climax of the novel brings all these strands together in satisfying fashion.

[Roger Brandeberry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story centers on young Bobby evacuated from London to a country village during WWII. Part two leaves Bobby behind without really telling the reader what happens to him and continues with anecdotes about the boys in the village and happenings immediately following the end of the war after the mysterious Bee King moves into the village. The book hints at a murder but the reader isn't given any obvious conclusion. The ending was unsatisfying and left me puzzled. I would have given this book five stars for it's entertainment value, except the author doesn't give a proper ending to Bobby's story and left me puzzled as to the ending of the book involving the Bee King and Howard Kent.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really several different stories - possibly a deliberate attempt to combine conflicting ideas, based on the title. Trying very hard to be like Pat Barker, but doesn't quite get there. Well written, but more Arthur Ransome than Graham Greene.

[Lee Torvi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, set in a Devonshire village, where a young boy from London was evacuated during WW2. Five boys in the village were friends, known for getting into mischief. The series of incidents are moving, funny, revealing, insightful, informative in that time and place. The novel handles essential elements-character, setting, plot-extremely well.

[Simon Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a cross between The Famous Five and The League of Gentlemen, this strange and charming novel starts like a boys own adventure story but becomes increasingly laced with dark humour. The chapters are often like perfect short stories themselves.

[Kevin Li · Rating 2 out of 5]

A series of vignettes with very little common string - but pleasant enough to read. I loved the idea of the bee king and would definitely read some deep fiction about that character in which he plays a Gandalf like character - nothing to do with this book

[Tacco · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well written book and I loved the first part and the little refugee boy. But after that the story scattered around various characters without clear direction.

[Nancy Mateussen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved the exentric characters and the great storyline. Magnificently written.

[Kath Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming, easy read, with occasional dark undertones. I loved the description of what it was like to be an evacuee.

[Mrs Jane Chubb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read...for just over half the book and then it lost its way a bit. Interesting oartiukarly for Start Bay dwellers

[Ella Curran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very intricate read.
Hard to follow, and ending wasn’t what I expected.

[Psytoad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quirky, whimsical, dark in places, with a hint of Dibley-ish humour…I loved it!

[Alexander Franz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fands schön wie man in das Dorf eingeladen wurde durch die ganzen Geschichten von den unterschiedlichen Peoplez

[Laura Mullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Strong easy to read story with wonderful characters. A difficult time in history is transformed into a warm and delightfully funny book.

[B. Tollison · Rating 2 out of 5]

A unique WWII story that is less a novel and more a collection of loosely related and stitched together short stories. With no tangible thread connecting the discrete and isolated narratives Five Boys never really managed to get into any sort of rhythm and so I found myself continually disengaged from the story, setting, and characters.

A few positives to begin; the writing itself is clear, easy to follow, and generally well balanced in terms of dialogue, action and exposition and Jackson's insight into the effects of the war on those who stayed at home is well depicted, sympathetic, and provides a novel backdrop. The first few chapters flow readily enough as we follow Bobby, who is being shipped out of London to a small Devonshire village to escape the war. We're introduced to the township, the locals, and the various quirks of character and place that add a little bit of initial colour to the setting.

But whatever sense of flow Jackson establishes in the opening chapters is largely thrown away once we reach the story's mid-point. By this stage, Bobby's story has been all but abandoned and the focus continually jumps and shifts between the different characters with no apparent direction. With the exception of Bobby and Aldred (one of the eponymous 'Five Boys'), Jackson doesn't provide much depth to the other characters and instead insists on regaling us with anecdotes that don't seem to have any real purpose or place within any wider context. These short stories are light-hearted, sure, but not particularly funny or engaging. Some details become relevant later on but, for the most part they're just left hanging.

So, while we begin with Bobby's story which is quickly buried and only mentioned in passing thereafter, we then shift to Aldrid and his friends and some of the other (very) minor characters, and it isn't until the final third that some kind of coherent plot actually develops surrounding the five Boys and the 'Bee King' (a newcomer to the town). And by then I'd lost most of my interest and my hope that everything would wind up connecting and feeling satisfactorily coherent.

I'm just not sure what Jackson was trying to achieve by approaching the story in this fashion. I feel if he'd focused his narration a little more he could have conveyed the same information without the fractures and relatively shallow characterisation that results from that.

With all this jumping around I feel I didn't spend nearly enough time with any one character to build up any report with them and so struggled to become invested in the characters and setting. And the one character that was detailed enough falls (almost completely) off the radar half way through the story. Besides Aldrid, the five Boys aren't actually given any depth. If the five boys had been reduced to one, I really doubt it would have made a meaningful difference to the story. And given that the book is named after these kids, it feels like they should have a much stronger presence than they do. Their relationship to the townsfolk is alluded to but never really explored but it's this very relationship that is required to add any real meaning to the allegorical finale, and with its absence I was left, once again, detached from what was happening on the page.

Overall, the book feels quaint, light-hearted (but not laugh-out-loud funny), but lacks depth and structure, and a real sense of direction. For those interested in WWII literature, there might be something in the early chapters and the few remaining threads of Bobby's story as well as the moving in of the American forces to the small town. Beyond that, the novel feels largely detached and without any real flow or rhythm.

[Mila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really had no idea what to expect from this. I had a great time reading "Ten Sorry Tales" by the same author and was just curious to see what else he wrote. The pace of this is very calm and makes the read almost meditative. Slowly, a picture of a quite realistic seeming little town is built, piece by piece, following first one character and then another, combining finally into one big picture of the place. And then, halfway through I was amused and thought that was all the book had to offer. A charming, uniquely calm way of following this strange and still so very normal place and its inhabitants, but then, quite suddenly towards the end, it evolved into something quite more exciting, bigger. The ending surprised me, positively. And the whole stuff about Beekeeping was like a little bonus, because it shines through, that the author has kept bees himself and knows what he's writing about. But bees aside, a very unique and in its own, unexciting way thoroughly captivating.
To my surprise, I now see a certain, soft pattern that links this book to Ten Sorry Tales, in a unique way of telling a story and I would lie if saying I was not absolutely excited and looking forward on reading the underground man next. This author makes me feel at home with his writing like rarely any do, so I am (for now) confident, that no other book of his will disappoint. At least that's what my gut tells me!

[zespri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a strange little book. Two different things seemed to be going on.

First the book is a series of anecdotes about those who stayed behind when the men of a village head to war. The five boys of the title are sons of these men, who are joined by Bobby, an evacuee from London. Each little chapter is an episode in itself, with an unusual, eccentric adventure in which the boys take part. Bobby's mum arrives and we presume he is taken back to London.

Suddenly, the mysterious bee-king arrives in the village and the tone of the book changes. He brings with him his hives and his bees, and though the bee-king has little time for the adults of the village, he befriends the boys and teaches them all about bee keeping. This seemingly straightforward story then takes a sinister turn, with the bee-king leading the boys out of the village in true pied-piper style, gives them a supper of broken bread and honey, and finally reveals his true identity as he disappears......

[Ian James · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing. The book is subtitled "a novel" - that is an exaggeration.

It started off well, bringing us into the repressed angst of a small boy being sent to live with strangers in the countryside during the blitz, butr Jackson soon leaves this character and the book devolves into a pointless collection of loosely connected short stories, vignettes and character sketches, all with a very routine two-dimensional style - like the memoirs of some avuncular teller of children's stories. At the end of the book, Jackson makes a desperate attempt at trying to bring the stories together into some sort of dark climax, which was so ridiculous it was idiotic.

It was so all so corny and routine, it was like a book written for eight-year olds - it was all so childishly inoffensive that it does offend the adult reader.

I won't bother reading anything else by this author. I feel ripped off.

[Cameo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the Danish version. I quite liked this story, how it seemingly hasn't got an overall plot or storyline, but just the story of a small village and the characters within. It has a bit of karma to it in the end.
But one thing I didn't get; was the Bobby storyline. When I was finished I couldn't really figure out what significans he had to the story. Jackson could just as easily have started with the five boys and it wouldn't have made a difference. It has the feeling of not being edited enough - like Jackson had an idea, began writing - and then a Whole new story emerged and he for some reason felt reluctant to dismiss the starting point.

[Milz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have just finished reading this as part of a book project. While I can appreciate the writing style, it was not for me. I found all the different story lines very jagged (a bit like GoT, where you suddenly find yourself without the main character you hung all your hopes of a fluid storyline to) and the things deliberately left unsaid had me scurrying back through the chapters to figure out what had happened. I'm sure it's filled with clever metaphors, allegories and whatnot, but it did not sit right with me. That said, I found the Bee King an extremely interesting and likeable person - it's just a shame he appears so late in the story.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up in a bookstore in London to read during the summer I was working there. I was enamored with British fiction about World War II, and had high expectations. This book would have been a solid 4 stars if not for the ending, which made me feel like I'd fallen into some sort of C.S. Lewis allegorical nightmare. But up until the weirdo Jesus Christ/pied piper teacher thing going on, I was digging the English-village-in-wartime story.

[Colin Heber-Percy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curious novel that abandons its hero half way through, and flirts with being a string of connected short stories. Evocative, characterful and funny. If less immediately engaging than The Underground Man, Five Boys still deserves an esteemed place among WW2 evacuee / rites of passage novels like Goodnight Mr. Tom.