The Watchman is now available on Ebook

12 years in the mixer and, finally, Adam’s journey is available to read.  Available on all ebook platforms, you set the price.  Or download the first 2 chapters for free…

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/308618#longdescr

The Watchman

The Watchman is a fictional novel told through the eyes of Adam, a young man with a learning disability, as he matures into adulthood and attempts to make sense of the disintegration of his family.

Set at the end of the eighties we follow the Olsen’s through their upheavals as they begin the final stretch of their family years.  We begin as the family move into rural Devon and try to settle into country life.  Adam is at first quietly content with his new life, new home and new dog.  He makes interesting friends and enjoys his days at a nearby day centre.  Adam’s love of his family and wonderfully endearing (if flawed) nature comes to the fore one Christmas.  He terrorises and smothers his long suffering Gran in equal amounts, supplying her with acts of wonderful menace and heartbreaking love.  We move onto a visit from a family friend who changes Adam’s view of those closest to him forever – he begins to realise how fundamental his differences really are, and that he may never make a ‘real’ friend.

The first cracks begin to appear, however, when he realises that his two younger siblings, Jake and Joss, are growing up and spending more time away from the family. It is also apparent that his father, Pete, who although clearly well meaning yet largely absent from Adam’s life, is on the verge of leaving the home.   Adam finds this situation impossible to understand – why do families break up?  Why do people hurt one another?  And, crucially, why do people have to change?  He can’t understand how his closest family, this foundation of his existence, won’t stay with him when, crucially, he never realised there was any other option.

As time goes on Adam’s behaviour deteriorates, culminating in a violent attack on his mother – the absolute centre of his world.  He realises his mistake and makes a pact with himself never to hurt those around him ever again.  Sadly, it is too late for him, and his worst nightmare is realised – the family as he knows it is split and gone forever.

The book is based upon my own childhood experience of growing up with a brother with a severe learning difficulty.  Although all the characters in The Watchman are fictitious, most of the events are based upon real anecdotes and encounters from our teenage years.  He never articulated a feeling or a need.  Everything he communicated required a noise or a physical act.  I cannot begin to comprehend the hardships he must’ve endured in life – not being able to make himself understood or be able to make sense of the world occurring around him.  So this novel is an attempt to see the world through his eyes.  I doubt I have captured even a degree of his real frustrations or bewilderment, but I hope it will allow the reader to go partway into the mind of someone who, essentially, just loved his family.