The True Story of Spit Mac Phee

by James Aldridge

Winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, 1987 Winner of the Ethel Turner Prize, 1986 Hailed as an Australian Huckleberry Finn , The True Story of Spit MacPhee is a timeless piece of literature. Originally published in 1986, and set in the 1930s in the fictional Murray River town of St Helen, it captures a time and place with a beautiful balance of realism and nostalgia. When young Spit MacPhee comes to live with his grandfather, the people of St Helen fear for his future. Fyfe MacPhee is a crazy old man, and barefoot Spit has to fend for himself along the riverbank where they live. While some people feel that Spit can look after himself, others believe he'd be better cared for in a boys' home. When Fyfe MacPhee dies, Spit becomes the subject of a court case that polarizes the town. But young Spit is a strong and resolute character, and can more than look after himself. When the truth about his life with his grandfather is revealed, no one is left unchanged. The True Story of Spit MacPhee is a much-loved, quintessentially Australian novel for readers of all ages. James Aldridge was a multi-award winning Australian author. His 1995 novel The True Story of Lilli Stubeck was the Children's Book Council book of the year. His novel A Sporting Proposition became the 1975 Disney film Ride a Wild Pony . Spit MacPhee was adapted into a TV mini-series in 1988. James Aldridge died in early 2015.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Australia, Novels, Fiction

189 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

From Wikipedia: Harold Edward James Aldridge is a multi-award winning Australian author and journalist whose World War II despatches were published worldwide and formed the basis of several of his novels, including the prize-winning The Sea Eagle about Australian troops in Crete.

Aldridge was born in White Hills, a suburb of Bendigo, Victoria. By the mid 1920s the Aldridge family had moved to Swan Hill, and many of his Australian stories are based on his life growing up there. Aldridge moved to London in 1938; he currently lives in Battersea, South West London.

The stories that are based on the real living conditions of his hometown of Swan Hill include his 1995 Children's Book Council of Australia book of the year "The True Story of Lilli Stubeck", one of his St Helen series of children's books. He lived in Cairo for many years, writing several books about the Middle East, including "Cairo - Biography of a City" and the novels "The Diplomat" and "Heroes of the Empty View". His 1973 children's novel "A Sporting Proposition" was adapted for the 1975 Disney film "Ride a Wild Pony".

Reviews

[CanadianReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

An immensely rewarding, old-fashioned story about an eleven-year-old boy in 1930s Australia who lives with his apparently “mad” Great-War-veteran grandfather, Fyfe, on the banks of the Murray River in the fictional town of St. Helen’s. Spit is almost a wild boy. He does attend school (barefoot), but he can’t quite be civilized. Independent, self-sufficient, genuine, and able to effortlessly command the respect of his peers and adults alike, Spit is an object of great interest to the beautiful and fervent Betty Arbuckle, an evangelical mother of two who wants to save the boy’s soul and have him removed from his grandfather’s care to be raised as a Christian. When Spit’s grandfather dies after a particularly bad “fit”, Betty Arbuckle and Grace Tree (the mother of Spit’s friend Sadie) become opponents in a legal fight to adopt him. There is a major complication: adoption law in 1928 Australia has determined that the religion of the adoptive family and the adoptee be the same. The Arbuckles are Protestant; the Trees are Catholic. Spit’s family, now all gone, was Presbyterian, but religion has never played any role in his life.

There are echoes of Huckleberry Finn here, and the book put me in mind of a wonderful, more recent novel for older children/younger teens: Alabama Moon by Watt Key. Like these books, Aldridge’s is concerned with a boy on the fringes of society, who is deeply and essentially good.

There’s a bit of language in the book that may trouble the politically correct—references to “”black fellas” and “African heathens”, but I feel that taken in the context of the novel, the use of these words is not offensive.

I really enjoyed this book.

[Asya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Старомодный обаятельный роман о том, что никакие социальные институты и предрассудки не могут предопределять искреннюю любовь к ребёнку (роман в лучших традициях голливудских фильмов с хэппи-эндом).

[Perry Middlemiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winner of the 1987 Guardian Fiction Prize for Children and the 1986 Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature.

Spit MacPhee is a problem, both for himself and the small fictional town of St. Helen where he lives. After his grandfather dies there is no-one left to look after the young eleven-year-old Spit and the fight that ensues over his guardianship will change not only Spit but the town as well.

James Aldridge was born in Bendigo and spent the early part of his life in Swan Hill – the town on which St. Helen is based – on the River Murray on the State of Victoria. He left Australia in 1938 to work as a news and then war correspondent and never returned to live. In this novel he returns to the town of his childhood to explore all the various cultural, religious and legal constrictions on people at that time.

In 1930 or thereabouts eight-year-old Spit MacFee goes to live with his grandfather in St. Helen. Old MacPhee is living in an old boiler on the banks of the Murray and adds an extension to the metal structure when first Spit, and later his mother, arrives. He earns an income fixing clocks and watches for various townsfolk. We soon learn that Spit’s father has died in a house fire somewhere else in the state and his mother has been badly disfigured. She stays only at the “house” and doesn’t talk to anyone and it’s only a few months later that she also dies from the injuries she suffered in the fire. So Spit is left to be brought up by his grandfather. It seems a perfect life for the young lad as he becomes very efficient at catching Murray cod and crays on the river and earning money by selling his wares door-to-door. But his grandfather has a serious problem: from time to time he flies into a shouting fitful rage and only Spit can calm him down. One night, when Spit is 11 it all gets too much for his grandfather who burns down the house, destroying everything in it. This is the end for the townsfolk as he is taken to hospital, and it appears he will never recover.

And so begins the major part of the novel. From Spit’s earliest arrival in town the local “do-gooder” Protestant has been circling around him trying to get Spit to attend church, for his spiritual well-being, and also to get the local authorities to see that Spit is transferred to a boys’ home in Bendigo (about 180 kilometres away), again, presumably for his own good. But neither Spit nor his grandfather would have anything to do with this suggestion. Spit becomes friendly with a local Catholic family, eating with them from time to time, and ensuring that they always got the prime choice of his fish on Fridays. After Spit’s grandfather has his final seizure and then dies in hospital the conflict between the two religious sides of the town comes to the fore as both sides seek to adopt the boy.

Aldridge has obviously written this as a semi-autobiographical novel and the love he still has for his boyhood experiences shines through the text. Spit is a larrikin, a lovable one,
who always seems to be running around wild but never gets into trouble with the police, is always polite and courteous, and just wants to enjoy himself in as carefree a way as possible. It’s an idyllic life for Spit, only interrupted by the ambitions and desires of the adult world around him.

I’m sure there are going to be many people who read this novel and wonder at the religious divide that impacted small Australian communities in the early twentieth century, splitting them down the middle between Catholic and Protestant. This divide was still evident in the 1960s when I was growing up in the country, and while I noticed it start to dissipate in the 1970s it was strong enough to have an impact even then.

This is an excellent coming-of-age Australian novel that resonates with me to a large extent. Having a childhood where you were generally allowed to roam as widely as you liked is one that I will always cherish and feel grateful for. Spit’s spirit and enthusiasm for life is all the supporting argument you need.

I also have to commend Chong for his cover of this novel. Depicting Spit as a young Ned Kelly was a stroke of genius.
R: 4.3/5.0

[Nazifa Islam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really amazing book . There are many things I get to learn and acknowledge I really like how Grace put forward her option and it is astounding to Mr. Jack Tree's development in this story . He is a loving husband and an honest man as well as good by heart .
Besides, this is really disturbing to how adoption of children's act of 1928 , this is not like a child is being adopted this is more like " who will take care of child's religion"
I think the author has made a masterpiece ❤️

[Kirsten Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I couldn’t put it down. Loved the characters and how the author intertwined them altogether. Quite a moving story.

[READING4Me · Rating 3 out of 5]

An honest yarn told with heart & subtle emotions.

[Lera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ewa gave this to me, and so I have kept it. But now another teenager can have it. Giving away to school book sale.