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Sheldrake
The Arms of Borewich appeared to consist of a smoking chimney, a tram ticket couchant, and some nameless part of a spinning machine which the Major at first took for a phallus.
Major Sheldrake, a middle-aged traveller and expert on Tibet, has been invited to lecture at the Mechanics' Institute. Before long he senses that something, in this dim, industrial town, is afoot. Peering through the heavy lace curtains of his room in the Northern Railway Hotel he sees a shuffling procession of men with a fanatical gleam in their eyes, carrying banners which read "NO MORE FOREIGN INTERFERENCE" and "BOREWICH CAST OFF YOUR CHAINS!" It becomes clear to the Major that behind its commonplace soot-laden air, Borewich has a militant, angry soul. He meets the mighty Sir Marsden Braithwaite, a captain of industry, but in fact the virtual dictator of Borewich and a difficult man to cross, with his creatures in every place from the Mechanics' Institute to the Mayor's Parlour. Later, not altogether to his surprise, he is hailed by Nannus, the High Priest and head of the College of Prophets, as the military Messiah to lead Borewich in its inevitable conflict with the rest of England...
This strange tragi-comic story has a sledgehammer, if delayed, impact on the reader. It describes what happens to a man whose secret obsessions and desires are suddenly gratified to the last detail. Besides this it has a messages to patriots, local and otherwise, to lovers of the past and connoisseurs of nostalgia. In fact Sheldrake is not half so mad as it looks.
Major Sheldrake, a middle-aged traveller and expert on Tibet, has been invited to lecture at the Mechanics' Institute. Before long he senses that something, in this dim, industrial town, is afoot. Peering through the heavy lace curtains of his room in the Northern Railway Hotel he sees a shuffling procession of men with a fanatical gleam in their eyes, carrying banners which read "NO MORE FOREIGN INTERFERENCE" and "BOREWICH CAST OFF YOUR CHAINS!" It becomes clear to the Major that behind its commonplace soot-laden air, Borewich has a militant, angry soul. He meets the mighty Sir Marsden Braithwaite, a captain of industry, but in fact the virtual dictator of Borewich and a difficult man to cross, with his creatures in every place from the Mechanics' Institute to the Mayor's Parlour. Later, not altogether to his surprise, he is hailed by Nannus, the High Priest and head of the College of Prophets, as the military Messiah to lead Borewich in its inevitable conflict with the rest of England...
This strange tragi-comic story has a sledgehammer, if delayed, impact on the reader. It describes what happens to a man whose secret obsessions and desires are suddenly gratified to the last detail. Besides this it has a messages to patriots, local and otherwise, to lovers of the past and connoisseurs of nostalgia. In fact Sheldrake is not half so mad as it looks.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1958
About the author
Michael Wharton
25 books1 followerMichael Wharton was a journalist who wrote under the pseudonym Peter Simple.
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