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King Fisher lives
- GenresBritish Literature
206 pages, Hardcover
First published July 5, 1976
168 people want to read
About the author
Julian Rathbone
68 books24 followersJulian Christopher Rathbone was born in 1935 in Blackheath, southeast London. His great-uncle was the actor and great Sherlock Holmes interpreter Basil Rathbone, although they never met.
The prolific author Julian Rathbone was a writer of crime stories, mysteries and thrillers who also turned his hand to the historical novel, science fiction and even horror — and much of his writing had strong political and social dimensions.
He was difficult to pigeonhole because his scope was so broad. Arguably, his experiment with different genres and thus his refusal to be typecast cost him a wider audience than he enjoyed. Just as his subject matter changed markedly over the years, so too did his readers and his publishers.
Among his more than 40 books two were shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Both were historical novels: first King Fisher Lives, a taut adventure revolving around a guru figure, in 1976, and, secondly, Joseph, set during the Peninsular War and written in an 18th-century prose style, in 1979. But Rathbone never quite made it into the wider public consciousness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_R...
The prolific author Julian Rathbone was a writer of crime stories, mysteries and thrillers who also turned his hand to the historical novel, science fiction and even horror — and much of his writing had strong political and social dimensions.
He was difficult to pigeonhole because his scope was so broad. Arguably, his experiment with different genres and thus his refusal to be typecast cost him a wider audience than he enjoyed. Just as his subject matter changed markedly over the years, so too did his readers and his publishers.
Among his more than 40 books two were shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Both were historical novels: first King Fisher Lives, a taut adventure revolving around a guru figure, in 1976, and, secondly, Joseph, set during the Peninsular War and written in an 18th-century prose style, in 1979. But Rathbone never quite made it into the wider public consciousness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_R...
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 12, 2013
King Fisher Lives – strangely quite an obscure book given the lack of reviews on this and other sites and taking into account it was Booker prize nominated in 1976. Perhaps the opening on the inside dust jacket of the hardback put some people off:
“Lewis Fisher-wise man of the sixties, author of The Fxxx Haters and The Venus High….Lewis Fisher-shining star of the younger generation of seminal thinkers…Lewis Fisher-gunned down by the Civil Guards in an obscure corner of Spain.”
That’s actually part of the art, of course. The book is of its time, drawing heavily on the author’s academic background, out of the swinging sixties and his time living in Salamanca, and definitely aims to (and succeeding-the book’s not for the faint hearted) shock in the first part through its depiction of a guru/genius/himself expressing himself to his followers through a combination of free love, drugs and alcohol. The ultimate taboo is reserved for a much more settled second part when he loosely hangs the clothes of a Lord of the Flies-esque, Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens morality around a slightly thin crime story based on the main protagonists desire to ‘go native’ in an out of the way (existing) valley in north western Spain called Valle de las Batuecas.
The Independent said in Rathbone’s obituary in 2008 that before writing this book Rathbone considered recent Booker prize-winners and specifically wrote King Fisher Lives with the prize in mind. Whether that’s true or not I don’t know, but it does feel a bit like it. Rather amazingly, the book was actually shortlisted for the Booker that year (won by David Storey's Saville). From the obituary: “Rathbone believed [this was] because Harold Wilson's wife, the amateur poet Mary Wilson, was chief of the judges and thought the book "filthy". "Harold, who made a brief appearance at the Booker dinner, gave me a very dirty look." I think actually the book didn’t win because although well written and quite interesting, it wasn’t good quite enough. Worth reading though.
“Lewis Fisher-wise man of the sixties, author of The Fxxx Haters and The Venus High….Lewis Fisher-shining star of the younger generation of seminal thinkers…Lewis Fisher-gunned down by the Civil Guards in an obscure corner of Spain.”
That’s actually part of the art, of course. The book is of its time, drawing heavily on the author’s academic background, out of the swinging sixties and his time living in Salamanca, and definitely aims to (and succeeding-the book’s not for the faint hearted) shock in the first part through its depiction of a guru/genius/himself expressing himself to his followers through a combination of free love, drugs and alcohol. The ultimate taboo is reserved for a much more settled second part when he loosely hangs the clothes of a Lord of the Flies-esque, Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens morality around a slightly thin crime story based on the main protagonists desire to ‘go native’ in an out of the way (existing) valley in north western Spain called Valle de las Batuecas.
The Independent said in Rathbone’s obituary in 2008 that before writing this book Rathbone considered recent Booker prize-winners and specifically wrote King Fisher Lives with the prize in mind. Whether that’s true or not I don’t know, but it does feel a bit like it. Rather amazingly, the book was actually shortlisted for the Booker that year (won by David Storey's Saville). From the obituary: “Rathbone believed [this was] because Harold Wilson's wife, the amateur poet Mary Wilson, was chief of the judges and thought the book "filthy". "Harold, who made a brief appearance at the Booker dinner, gave me a very dirty look." I think actually the book didn’t win because although well written and quite interesting, it wasn’t good quite enough. Worth reading though.
March 9, 2021
What if Timon of Athens were right to curse mankind and civilisation? Let him live that life, eating roots, and descend into that pit where he bids the dispossessed to "eat men."
Rathbone comes up with a formula for a ruthless social and philosophical experiment - albeit one in which he has pre-determined its outcome - and conducts it in a contemporary context.
The subject of his investigation is Lewis Fisher, a radical, American, free-love advocate at an English south coast university, who directs a production there of Shakespeare's dyspeptic play.
I thought at first we were heading toward a tragic workout for a noble savage. Or would Fisher become like Turgenev's nihilist hero Bazarov whom the author would kill off when he became too much of a threat to his creator's own views?
But the way ahead is much darker, as becomes clear when Fisher gives a lecture on Lord of the Flies, espousing the cause of those boys exercising free will against the constraints of discipline and decency.
And when Fisher and Nadia, his young lover, choose to isolate themselves in a similar, primitive environment in a remote mountain valley in Spain, the result is a similar descent into barbarity.
In an earlier interview, Fisher had misquoted the 17th Century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, champion of Leviathan - the organised state - and questioned his repudiation of an idyllic life of nature.
Yet Fisher's life beyond civilisation becomes exactly as 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,' as Hobbes predicted, and contagiously so, as the book's gripping climax illustrates.
The novel is constructed artfully - itself a contrast with the impulsive character of the author's main antagonist - through journals, that rather scholarly BBC interview, a lecture and notes. Its later pages are shot through with Rathbone's descriptions of his beloved Salamanca (the author had himself gone off in a camper van to live there with his young lover) and the rough Spanish landscape - beauties of which the now atavistic Fisher and Nadia seem oblivious.
If, as the Independent wrote, Rathbone set out to write a novel to win the Booker Prize, he was doubly unlucky in his timing, firstly in his year, 1976. Having read all the short-listed novels up to that date, it seems to me easily the strongest, with Brink's An Instant in the Wind, Rising by R.C. Hutchinson and William Trevor's The children of Dynmouth all worthy of the prize in other years.
Secondly he was unlucky in his three judges, including the socialist chairman Walter Allen and Mary Wilson, wife of Prime Minister Harold, who chose David Storey's outstanding working-class novel Savile as the winner - a well-deserving if unfairly favoured choice, I believe.
The third juror, novelist and Sunday Telegraph critic Francis King had preferred King Fisher Lives, but Mary Wilson could be obdurate, as he reported. She told him: “I couldn’t be party to giving the prize to a book about cannibalism.” Who judges the judges? Makes you wonder.
Rathbone comes up with a formula for a ruthless social and philosophical experiment - albeit one in which he has pre-determined its outcome - and conducts it in a contemporary context.
The subject of his investigation is Lewis Fisher, a radical, American, free-love advocate at an English south coast university, who directs a production there of Shakespeare's dyspeptic play.
I thought at first we were heading toward a tragic workout for a noble savage. Or would Fisher become like Turgenev's nihilist hero Bazarov whom the author would kill off when he became too much of a threat to his creator's own views?
But the way ahead is much darker, as becomes clear when Fisher gives a lecture on Lord of the Flies, espousing the cause of those boys exercising free will against the constraints of discipline and decency.
And when Fisher and Nadia, his young lover, choose to isolate themselves in a similar, primitive environment in a remote mountain valley in Spain, the result is a similar descent into barbarity.
In an earlier interview, Fisher had misquoted the 17th Century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, champion of Leviathan - the organised state - and questioned his repudiation of an idyllic life of nature.
Yet Fisher's life beyond civilisation becomes exactly as 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,' as Hobbes predicted, and contagiously so, as the book's gripping climax illustrates.
The novel is constructed artfully - itself a contrast with the impulsive character of the author's main antagonist - through journals, that rather scholarly BBC interview, a lecture and notes. Its later pages are shot through with Rathbone's descriptions of his beloved Salamanca (the author had himself gone off in a camper van to live there with his young lover) and the rough Spanish landscape - beauties of which the now atavistic Fisher and Nadia seem oblivious.
If, as the Independent wrote, Rathbone set out to write a novel to win the Booker Prize, he was doubly unlucky in his timing, firstly in his year, 1976. Having read all the short-listed novels up to that date, it seems to me easily the strongest, with Brink's An Instant in the Wind, Rising by R.C. Hutchinson and William Trevor's The children of Dynmouth all worthy of the prize in other years.
Secondly he was unlucky in his three judges, including the socialist chairman Walter Allen and Mary Wilson, wife of Prime Minister Harold, who chose David Storey's outstanding working-class novel Savile as the winner - a well-deserving if unfairly favoured choice, I believe.
The third juror, novelist and Sunday Telegraph critic Francis King had preferred King Fisher Lives, but Mary Wilson could be obdurate, as he reported. She told him: “I couldn’t be party to giving the prize to a book about cannibalism.” Who judges the judges? Makes you wonder.
December 14, 2025
A very engaging, interesting, suspenseful novel about the enigmatic and charismatic American Lewis Fisher, “King Fisher’, a radical free thinker who decides to live in a Spanish wilderness with his young female partner, Nadia. The two in search of freedom, decide to live a primitive, isolated, independent, secretive life, unwilling to be in contact with anyone else.
The novel begins with King Fisher directing Shakespeare’s ‘Timon of Athens’. There is interesting commentary on this play. Another literary work that receives a deal of analysis is William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’.
Here is a quote from the novel:”
‘I don’t think it’s being human that’s gotten us to where we are. I think it’s trying to be more than human, and ending up less than human.”
Overall, a very worthwhile, memorable read.
This book was shortlisted for the 1976 Booker Prize.
The novel begins with King Fisher directing Shakespeare’s ‘Timon of Athens’. There is interesting commentary on this play. Another literary work that receives a deal of analysis is William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’.
Here is a quote from the novel:”
‘I don’t think it’s being human that’s gotten us to where we are. I think it’s trying to be more than human, and ending up less than human.”
Overall, a very worthwhile, memorable read.
This book was shortlisted for the 1976 Booker Prize.
May 8, 2015
It is so refreshing to pick up a book that has effectively been forgotten and find it so much more enjoyable than the current crop of contemporary fiction or recommended classics. It is very much a book of its time, written and set in the mid seventies, but that was part of its charm. It is a slim and very readable novel, with so many vivid images, some quite shocking, and with a genuinely climactic ending. Definitely worth reading and anyone with an eye for turning this book into a film should snap up the rights!
April 2, 2019
Academia goes feral and descends into barbarity.
October 15, 2021
SUMMARY - Hobbesian cynicism mounted to a pacy chassis, and decalled in pulp fiction garb. It shouldn't work, but it left me wanting more.
Only 16 Goodreads reviews and a cover that was intriguingly homespun did not exactly raise my expectations of this relatively forgetten 1976 Booker Prize nominee.
In reality, its pulp fiction bawdiness is all a ploy. Don't be fooled by the semi-nakedness and shouty exclamation mark. While the book itself scantily clads itself in sexual voyeurism, beneath it is deadly serious. The novel recreates both Shakespeare's 'Timon of Athens' and William Golding's 'Lord of The Flies' (which entirely coincidentally, I read for the first time a couple of months ago).
There is a passage where visiting academic, the American Fisher, tells his south-coast UK campus audience that Golding's work wasn't dark enough. What if they had really been challenged on their desert island, by rival tribes or swine flu? It's a dog-eat-dog world, and all the spliffs and threesomes of cosily permissive uni life ultimately get swiftly forgotten when the going gets tough for Fisher, Nadia and Southam (the latter relied on for much of the account).
Alongside my Booker Prize project (to read the shortlists from 1969 to present), I am also aiming to read through Golding and Iris Murdoch. Murdoch's books have tended to stick fairly rigidly to a formula, and perhaps built a reputation on being a known quantity. I think Rathbone was much more experimental with form and genre, and some have said he has perhaps unjustly suffered for his unboxable capriciousness. I may now look out for more Rathbone's for variety, and in terms of content after 'King Fisher Lives' I'm certainly now ready for my next Golding!
Only 16 Goodreads reviews and a cover that was intriguingly homespun did not exactly raise my expectations of this relatively forgetten 1976 Booker Prize nominee.
In reality, its pulp fiction bawdiness is all a ploy. Don't be fooled by the semi-nakedness and shouty exclamation mark. While the book itself scantily clads itself in sexual voyeurism, beneath it is deadly serious. The novel recreates both Shakespeare's 'Timon of Athens' and William Golding's 'Lord of The Flies' (which entirely coincidentally, I read for the first time a couple of months ago).
There is a passage where visiting academic, the American Fisher, tells his south-coast UK campus audience that Golding's work wasn't dark enough. What if they had really been challenged on their desert island, by rival tribes or swine flu? It's a dog-eat-dog world, and all the spliffs and threesomes of cosily permissive uni life ultimately get swiftly forgotten when the going gets tough for Fisher, Nadia and Southam (the latter relied on for much of the account).
Alongside my Booker Prize project (to read the shortlists from 1969 to present), I am also aiming to read through Golding and Iris Murdoch. Murdoch's books have tended to stick fairly rigidly to a formula, and perhaps built a reputation on being a known quantity. I think Rathbone was much more experimental with form and genre, and some have said he has perhaps unjustly suffered for his unboxable capriciousness. I may now look out for more Rathbone's for variety, and in terms of content after 'King Fisher Lives' I'm certainly now ready for my next Golding!
July 12, 2025
“I don't think it's being human that's gotten us to where we are. I think it's trying to be more than human, and ending up less than human.”
February 19, 2026
Worth the wait (this novel is hard to find). A gripping story, written in a nice pacey, page turner style, but with an inevitable climax. Shortlist 1976.
July 24, 2015
Rathbone writes thrillers and this was a gripping, literary relationship thriller if such a thing exists. A real philosophical page-turner.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews