Stupid, cunning, lecherous, greedy, heartless, persistent and power-mad, John Thomas
MP and his gambler's streak illustrate in grotesque caricature the com- bination of limited ability with all- consuming ambition which Peter Riddell describes in his perceptive — if drier Honest Opportunism, Thomas is a truly vile man.
This is my problem with Craig Brown. It may be my problem rather than his, for I have the same difficulty with Evelyn Waugh and Somerset Maugham — and, among modern cynics, with Mark Lawson. When a novel is executed with no apparent trace of love or warmth or even respect towards any of its characters — when the author's anger against his creatures is unredeemed, even, by some sense of betrayed belief in something better — then I can admire the skill, but cannot ultimately like the book. I get bored with it. I need to feel on somebody's side.
Jonathan Swift was plainly an idealist, if a disappointed one. His disappointment illuminates his savagery, reflecting back a not unkindly light onto its author. The same is true of Auberon Waugh. But in The Hounding of John Thomas the only light thrown on the author is our realisa- tion that he simply loathes MPs, particular- ly Tory ones. He also loathes the music industry, Trust House Forte, Melody Maker, the media, academia, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, pretentious writers, the Oxford Union and high-class grocers. His skills in deriding each by mimicry are quite superb.
But mimicry, I believe, is at root (and rather seriously) an expression of hatred; it is a primal expression, one of the first ways that children and baboons learn to hurt each other without physical violence. Can you mimic with a twinkle in your eye? Try, and you will find that it goes wrong. This novel has.
It's a cold and ingenious book, but it's too long, too cruel, too relentless, too unsubtle, and too clever by half. I am worried about that twinkle missing from Craig Brown's eye. FREE BOOK OFFER New subscribers will receive, FREE a copy of Richard III A Medieval Kingship (edited by John Gillingham), published by Collins & Brown at £8.99. PLUS a copy of our special Henry VIII issue (normally £3.75).
Future Features
• Templars — The Knights of Christ • Thailand's War with Vichy France • Puritans in the Pulpit • Republicanism and Charles 1 • Rebels in Nazi Germany
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