Mr Mac and Me

Still not shaken off the Flu bug, but managed to catch up on some light reading today.

I read Esther Freud's book, Mr Mac and Me a few months ago, but thought I would read it again.

The novel, presents a moving tale of young Thomas Maggs in Walberswick, Suffolk, at the outbreak of the First World War and the friendship he developed with Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh.

Esther gives a great insight into what life was like in the village of Walberswick on the Suffolk coast in 1914, just at the outbreak of WWI. The narrator of the novel is Thomas Maggs, a publican's son, who has one lame leg and whose untutored talent for painting arouses the admiration and encouragement of the Mackintoshes.

Young Tom wants to escape from his drunken publican father and sail off to explore other lands. But he settles for patrolling the local beach and cliffs on the lookout for spies, zeppelins and anything untoward. He stealthily trails Mackintosh, who inevitably senses his presence. They connect over their shared difficulty walking and love of drawing, striking up an unusual but plausible friendship. And Mackintosh's devotion to his wife, "my Margaret," introduces Tom to the possibilities of love.