"Handsome Brute: The Story of a Ladykiller" by Sean O'Connor

[Nigeyb]

I have just finished Handsome Brute: The Story of a Ladykiller by Sean O'Connor. Click here to read my review (which recycles quite a bit of what I've written in this thread).

A fascinating, complex, provocative and ambiguous tale - and one I am so glad to have shared with you. Thanks BYT.

[Jan C]

I'm still waiting for my book. I guess I'll get into it after Christmas.

[Nigeyb]

^ I hope you enjoy it Jan

[Nigeyb]

Nigeyb wrote: "I was inspired to pick up a copy of Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan out of the library having come across the reference to it in Handsome Brute: The Story of a Ladykiller.

Heath and Behan both inmates at the same time made for an interesting coincidence."

I've now started reading Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan. I'm about 40 pages in and finding it very interesting and enjoyable.



Anyone else read it? Or thought about it?

[Susan]

I haven't read it, but await your thoughts with interest.

[Nigeyb]

I was inspired to pick up a copy of Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan out of the library having come across the reference to it in Handsome Brute: The Story of a Ladykiller. Neville Heath was incarcerated with Brendan Behan at Hollesley Bay borstal. I am still reading it and really enjoying it. I think it would make a great BYT non-fiction read.

In Borstal Boy at around page 220, Neville Heath, here just referred to as Heath, is introduced as house-captain at Hollesley Bay borstal. Interestingly given his later horrific murders, Heath, on first meeting Behan and his fellow new arrivals, takes exception to a mild and humorous sexual reference, and responds angrily, stating that he will not tolerate that kind of talk.

Brendan Behan wrote Borstal Boy as it happened, so there's no retrospective reference to Heath's later notoriety as a murderer. Brendan Behan wrote a second memoir, Confessions of an Irish Rebel, which I now intend to read, and I know in this he makes a passing reference to his being the second most famous person to pass through Hollesley Bay, and he states...

...the first being Neville George Heath, who murdered about five women and expiated his crimes on the gallows, and was the first Borstal boy to get a commission in the RAF and the first from our institution to pay the supreme penally for his après-Borstal activities

^ I'm not sure where Brendan Behan gets "about five women" from. I guess he couldn't be bothered to check the exact number.

Susan wrote: "I haven't read it, but await your thoughts with interest."

I've still got about a third of Borstal Boy left to read however it is well written and I am really enjoying it. It's an illuminating insight into prison conditions during the late 1930/early 1940s and full of humour, humanity and occasional horror. Overall it's a very enjoyable and uplifting book, which is testimony to Brendan Behan's personality and skill as a writer. As I mention above, it would make a very good BYT non-fiction read.

More when I've finished.

[Nigeyb]

Nigeyb wrote: "Brendan Behan wrote a second memoir, Confessions of an Irish Rebel, which I now intend to read..."

No copy in my library service so I just ordered a second hand copy online. Another book I cannot wait to raad.

[Jan C]

I was surprised the other night. I was half-watching the second season of Murder Maps on Netflix when the case suddenly started ringing some bells. It was this one. I will now feel obliged to come back to this book.

[Nigeyb]

You should Jan. It was an engrossing, well written, fascinating, complex, provocative and ambiguous tale.