Matthew Kneale
was born
in London in 1960. He was raised in Barnes, and went to school in Hammersmith.
Environmental factors would seem to have dictated his choice of career as
author, as both his parents were writers – Judith Kerr and Nigel Kneale (of
“Quatermass” fame). Matthew Kneale read Modern History at Magdalen College,
graduating in 1982. He first showed his wanderlust by teaching English in Japan
for a year. He began writing shortly after his return. His first novel to be
published was “Whore
Banquets” (1987). This led to Matthew Kneale winning the Somerset Maugham
Award, 38 years after his father had done the same. “Inside
Rose’s Kingdom” followed in 1989. 1992 saw the publication of “Sweet
Thames”, which won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Matthew Kneale’s most
famous novel, “English Passengers”, was published in 2000, and went on to win
The Whitbread Prize, and was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize, which it
should have won. In 2002, “Whore
Banquets” was reissued under the new title of “Mr
Foreigner”. 2005 saw the release of “Small
Crimes in an Age of Abundance”, a collection of short stories. “When We Were
Romans” is the title of Matthew Kneale’s latest novel (2007). He lives in
Rome with his wife and family.
My week: Matthew Kneale
– the
week that Matthew was nominated for The Whitbread Prize in 2000. He was working
on a novel about an imaginary Marxist state at the time
Coming
Clean – Matthew Kneale writes about Rome’s fascist architecture for The
Guardian
Letters:
Britain and Mussolini – how Guardian readers reacted to Matthew Kneale’s
article
The
Chief Clerk’s story – a mysterious, alien object has to be buried in this
Matthew Kneale story, possibly influenced by some of his father’s tales
Five Minutes with Matthew Kneale – Emma
Yates’ interview for The Guardian contains audio files. Interview dates from
2001
Conversation
with Matthew Kneale – Sean McDonald’s interview
The
Tourist – Marion McLeod’s recent interview with Matthew for the New Zealand
Listener, in which he reveals that the Marxist novel never really took off
Small
Crimes in a Shrinking World – Peter Stanford interviews Matthew Kneale for
The Independent
English Passengers - Kevin
Patrick Mahoney reviews Matthew Kneale's Whitbread winning novel. It
should have won the Booker too. Here are some links relating to the
novel - find out who was the real Robson, Governor Alder, and Doctor
Potter. Discover more about the location and ideas mentioned in the
novel:
Methodist
Returns from 1851 Religious Census - you'll recognise many of the
surnames of Kewley's crew amongst these names, including Mylchreest, Moore, and
Clucas. You'll also find mention of the Kneale surname - Matthew Kneale
was born on the Isle of Man.
Manx Surnames -
this gives a clear guide to the division between Norse and Gaelic surnames on
the Sincerity which Potter thought so important.
Manx
Publications - these titles give some idea of Manx history
The
Four Rivers of Eden - it's this very puzzle which makes the Reverend
Geoffrey Wilson make a huge deductive leap of idiocy into thinking that Eden is
to be found in Tasmania. It's a debate which still goes on today, as
these sites reveal.
Has the
Garden of Eden ever been found - also quotes the most important theological
faqs, such as: did Adam and Eve have belly-buttons?
Has the
Garden of Eden been located at last? - The ideas on this site seem to
be a little more thought out than those that occur to Wilson.
The
1857 Indian Mutiny - this is the revolt that breaks out during the
novel, and disrupts Wilson's plans
whoseland.com -
for Tasmanian region
Hobart Town -
including a visit by deposed New South Wales Governor Bligh
Tasmania by
Track and Road Chapter 12 - includes an account of some convicts and
the notorious Black Line
Manx
Family History Records - this section deals with the Manx who were
transported to Tasmania. Includes a description of Port Arthur which
Kewley and his passengers would recognise - "hell on earth"
Port
Arthur Historic Site - contains a description of the Separate Prison
and its "dumb" cells
Eaglehawk
Neck - an account of the dogline which was designed to prevent any
means of escape for Port Arthur convicts. It was set up in 1832 by Ensign
Darling - could he have been the Commandant Darling who took the Tasmanian
Aboriginals to Flinders Island in the novel?
Truganini -
a brief account of her life. She was one of the Tasmanian Aboriginals who
helped George Augustus Robinson (Robson in English Passengers)
Truganini -
another bio
Tasmania
by Track and by Road Chapter 16 - perhaps the most shocking extract reveals
what happened to Truganini's body and what Emmett thought of the Tasmanian
Aborigines. Emmett was writing in the late 1940s - is this really
supposed to be a promotion of Tasmanian Tourism?
Authenticity/Hybridity and Pallewah Identities in Castro's
'Drift' – essay no no longer online - discusses the ghoulish display of
Truganini's bones as an "emblem of extinction". It also
examines Brian Castro's novel 'Drift' - this reveals that Matthew Kneale's not
the first novelist to bring the Garden of Eden to Tasmania: "Sperm
McGann's notion of a "hybrid" race constructs the Pallawah women's
reproductive capabilities in economic terms as "the supply of
labour," "our reward," "our harvest," which is
juxtaposed with biblical images of Sperm as a new Adam and his favourite
Pallawah woman, Wore, as the essential Eve. Even the name of McGann's
"hybrid" tribe--The Intercostals--alludes explicitly to that classic
tool for constructing the "other," Adam's rib."
Black
War: The Destruction of the Tasmanian Aborigines - describes the
events, and how Truganini's body was treated after her death - "Don't let
them cut me up," she begged the doctor as she lay dying. No doubt
she knew how William Lanney's body had been treated.
Caricature featuring
Dr William Crowther in St David's Cemetry - should be a familiar scene
to readers of English Passengers, and greatly adds to the novel's
authenticity. It concerns the attempted stealing of William Lanney's
body. Click on the image to see it more clearly - that odd creature must
be a Tasmanian Devil, appropriately enough
Tasmania -
features history and pictures of the Tasmanian Devil
Extract from
the Diary of George Augustus Robinson - interesting to compare this to
English Passengers' diaries - we get to see how Robson may have written.
Robinson complains about the homicide of the Aboriginals by the settlers
Tasmania -
some more details about the history
The
Black War - set up by Governor Arthur
The Journal
of Syms Covington - this contains an excellent criticism of Darwin by
the editor: "Darwin [Darwin
1906: 430; Barlow
1933: 389] quotes Hobart as having 13,826 inhabitants (in 1835), with
Tasmania at 36,505. The remaining 140 Aboriginal Tasmanians were expelled to
Flinders' Island in Bass Strait between 1831 and 1835, as Darwin explains, by
beating them into Tasman's Peninsula, near Hobart, the way tigers were driven
towards the hunters "in the great hunting-matches of India" (which
failed) and by the remarkable conciliatory efforts of George Augustus Robinson
(which did not) [Darwin
1906:431]. What Darwin called necessary was nothing less than genocide. As
a race, they are now gone."
The Science
of Racism and its Consequences - "Creationists have been very vocal
in ascribing the spread, even the very genesis, of racism to evolution (see,
for example, Henry Morris's 1974 book,
The
Troubled Waters of Evolution, as quoted by Richard Trott
[1998]). The facts are entirely otherwise. Racism was alive and kicking long,
long, before the Darwinian revolution; and almost invariably it was the curse
laid on the children of Ham..." Very interesting debate between the
Potters and Wilsons, covering the Tasmanian Aborigines
Aboriginals dancing
at Brighton, Tasmania 1835 - a picture by John Glover from the estate
of George Augustus Robinson's son
Tasmania by
Road and Track Chapter 7 - gives an account of the "valiant
little bricklayer of Hobart Town, George Augustus Robinson" tracking
Aborigines
Genocide
site handed back - how slowly the wheels of justice turn
Aboriginal Station
Oyster Cove - a picture by Annie Benbow
Tasmanian Aborigines
at Oyster Cove - again by Annie Benbow
The
Descent of Man by Charles Darwin: Chapter 7 On the Races of Man -
mentions the Tasmanian Aborigines and Robert Knox, the vile surgeon Dr. Potter
was based upon
And the
Lord Said, 'Where is your Brother?' (Aboriginal Reconciliation) -
examines the genocide of the Tasmanian Aborigines through the Cain and Abel
story (can't seem to escape the Garden of Eden allegory). Useful in that
a refers to the catechism Robinson taught on Flinders Island
The
Hope and Anchor Tavern - is this where Peevay finds Thomas Perch?
The Daguerrian
Process: a Description - how to make Daguerreotypes
Mona Vale: Residence
of William Kermode - I'm not sure if this is the same William Kermode
who sent George Vandieman to England, but it's a possibility (see Matthew
Kneale's epilogue to English Passengers)
Overview of
Dr. Robert Knox - on whom Doctor Potter is based. Whilst
practising in Edinburgh, he employed a couple of fellows by the name of Burke
and Hare....
The Races
of Men by Robert Knox - read this extract (if you can
stomach it) and compare it with Dr. Potter's journal
"Knox on the Celtic Race"
Anthropological Review -
" – this essay is no longer online. Although Knox perhaps generalised too
much, and allowed his great partiality for epigram and satire, to hurry him
beyond the sobriety which appertains to science, into real or apparent
inconsistencies, we believe that his views are, on the whole, sound.... "
- thus does the
Anthropological
Review
condemn itself
History
of Anatomy - discusses nineteenth century attitudes to anatomy.
This issue has reappeared with the recent Alder
Hey scandal, and the retention of children's organ parts without
parents' permission
"Prize
Negroes" and the Development of Racial Attitudes in the Cape Colony, South
Africa - "Keegan, Colonial South Africa, 24. Saul Dubow
concludes that the "landmark" work of scientific racism was not
published in England until 1850. The work was Robert Knox's The Races of Men,
and it claimed that individual and "national" character "is
traceable solely to the nature of that race to which the individual or nation
belongs." Quoted in Dubow, Scientific Racism in Modern South Africa
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995),27"
A
"Perverse and ill-fated People": English Perceptions of the Irish
1845-52 - featuring Robert Knox - perverse is the right word
God's
Image in Ebony - features the following Knox quote: "Knox says,
and he has good authority for his assertion, that it is only since their
contest with Europeans, that the Kaffirs have become "treacherous, bloody,
and thoroughly savage;" before that period, although rude and barbarous;
wanting in all the arts of civilization, they were "mild, and to a certain
extent trust-worthy." It is humiliating to learn that such an effect
should have been produced upon the dark Aboriginal races, by contact with white
men--educated men--christian men! But so it is, and so it ever will be while
the sword is used to open a way for the Bible. If the warrior and the
missionary go hand in hand, the latter preacheth and teacheth for the most part
in vain; some good he will do, but how little good, compared with what he might
do, if he went forth relying only upon the promises of God, and the sure word
of salvation. Those missions have ever been the most successful which have been
planted in the desert and the wilderness, wherein no sword or bayonet has ever
flashed, no drop of human blood been spilled; those Missionaries the most
beloved, and the most influential for good, who have leaned the least upon the
arm of earthly power.-- "Their noblest epithet--the men of peace!"
"
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