The Firewalkers

by Francis King

Book by King, Francis

Genres: Fiction, LGBT

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1985

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Francis Henry King, CBE, was a British novelist, poet and short story writer.

He was born in Adelboden, Switzerland, brought up in India and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II he was a conscientious objector, and left Oxford to work on the land. After completing his degree in 1949 he worked for the British Council; he was posted around Europe, and then in Kyoto. He resigned to write full time in 1964.

He was a past winner of the W. Somerset Maugham Prize for his novel The Dividing Stream (1951) and also won the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Prize. A President Emeritus of International PEN and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 1979 and a Commander of the Order (CBE) in 1985.

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

This, King's 7th novel, originally published in 1956, is something of a curious anomaly in his oeuvre. Working for the British Council at the time, King had to submit the book to them for inspection prior to publication and they found it so scandalous, they gave him a choice of resigning and publishing it under his own name, or staying and using a pseudonym. So it was originally published as 'The Firewalkers: A Memoir by Frank Cauldwell'. Cauldwell was the main character in King's first novel, To The Dark Tower, and the putative narrator of this tome, which King admitted in a subsequent forward to the 1985 edition, was largely autobiographical and based upon himself.

That edition was published by Gay Men's Press, which would lead one to believe this was a racy homoerotic tale - but there is virtually NOTHING salacious, and almost NO gay content whatsoever in any of the pages. It is clear from a few modest sidenotes that both Cauldwell, and one of his chums, Cecil Provender, are indeed part of the gay brotherhood, but there is no overt sex between men at all.

Indeed, the central characters are an elderly Greek Colonel, Theo Grecos, a penniless eccentric who dabbles in both art and music, and his platonic friend, an ugly German albino with a harelip, named Götz Joachim. Although there are perhaps homo-erotic undertones to their friendship, Grecos is a divorcee with rather little interest in sex, while Götz spends most of the book fruitlessly running after assorted women. The book reads now as a very mild, but enjoyable reminiscence of King's own days in Greece and all the colorful characters he encounters. It's not without interest, and even though an early work, King's prose is nascently impressive, but it lacks narrative drive and the intriguing plots of his later works.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb and lovely novel which is famous amongst Francis King's novels because he had to publish under a pseudonym (he chose Frank Cauldwell who was a character in his first novel 'To the Dark Tower') or resign his job on the British Council because his depiction of the British community in Athens was so scadalous. I am sure it is impossible for readers, for almost half a century, to understand quite what was so scandalous about this novel but you must remember the time (1956). Britain still regarded itself as 'world power' and it demanded gravitas in those who worked for it. The British Council was an enormously important vehicle of projecting that gravitas and, in the 1950s was an important Cold War frontier, as well the home of Prince Phillip. Interestingly in the novel the novel
'Les Ambassades' (translated into English as 'Diplomatic Diversions' in 1953) by Roger Peyrefitte which had caused a geat deal of upset because of its presentation of the behavior of Athenian society and French diplomats. It was more than allusively homoerotic though far from pornographic. The idea that someone working for the British Council promoting English culture (back then there was no pretense that British was anything then a polite euphemism to spare the Scotts. The Welsh or Irish didn't matter) could present Englands representatives, and most forieners, living and working in the home of the Queen's husband as a load of 'pansy' drunkards and wastrells was inconcievable. The 1950s was the real zenith of British UK establishment hypocrisy and it explains a lot about the collapse of respect in the 1960s.

But once it didn't have King's name on it (though I am sure anyone who was 'anyone' knew he was the author) there was no problem publishing the novel. The jacket synopsis read in part:

"It is an entertaining literary fact that the fringes of the Mediteranean give rise to an extraordinary crop of astonishing 'characters'. Whether it is a logical process from classical days when inhibitions were unknown or a consistent and natural panache does not matter..."

Which in 1956 was more-or-less screaming to those who could read code that this was a novel' about 'queers' and almost every major character in the novel, with the exception of a sweet German male who had been a soldier in WWII (but then at some stage every German male between 16 and 60 ended up under arms). You can imagine how the guardians of Britain's imperial mission regarded that! There is plenty of rough trade as well as, throughout the novel, 'signifiers' like the paintings by the Greek artist Yannis Tsarouchis (sailors, soldiers and working men almost always naked). The ostensible author of the memoirs, Frank Cauldwell, does is not explicitly described doing anything, but for any reader of the day the 'walks like a duck, quacks like a duck' analogy would have come instantly to mind.

All that is just scene setting to justify my love of this novel. King is an extraordinarily fine writer of human foibles and weaknesses, but with a great heart. He masters an ensemble cast beautifully and this incredibly short novel, like many of his others, should be required reading for students on 'creative' writing courses. At just over 200, small, pages King presents a foriegn country and culture with great subtlety, and brings alive even the most minor characters with a few exact and perfect words and phrases. King, unlike way to many modern novelists, never suffered from logorrhea.

It is also a brilliant portrayal of a vanished time but that only makes novels like 'The Firewalkers' or 'The Man on the Rock' about Greece, 'The Dividing Stream' about Italy, and 'The Japanese Umbrella' and 'The Waves Behind the Boat' about Japan so wonderful. These he lived, identified with and loved. He was observant and was honest, but he did not think of himself as better, different maybe, he always recognised that no matter how much he loved these places he was an outsider. To pretend or assume an ident would be false and dishonest. Above all King is an honest writer.

I loved this novel just as I have loved all of King's novels and stories and I am extremely pleased to see other recent reviews on GR praising thisa novel.

[Derek Driggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather bland compared to other King novels.
This one is ostensibly a memoir, but nothing of its style or content seems very personal. I assume the memories described are of special importance to the author. I also read that the depiction of Greek culture here was received by Greeks as very shrewd, which isn’t surprising as King seems to have had a penetrating eye and a quick ear when it came to learning about the foreign countries he spent time in throughout his life (which in addition to Greece included Italy, Finland, India, Japan, and others).

[Ken Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

An older book that was a reprint, it is a first person report for a young man in Athens (and surroundings) back in the 50's. An intriguing read looking at both local history, reflection in the past, and the nature of what could appear in print then.

[Niall Kiely · Rating 3 out of 5]

May not be as dramatic as some of King's other work but nonetheless really loved it. Low-key & tender writings about Greece, friendship and our wishes to be loved/remembered

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the ending really redeemed this book, beautiful and moving.

[anemoska · Rating 3 out of 5]

dis aliter visum.