On the 17th of October, the author of the novel Skippy Dies, Paul Murray, came to the school to talk to us about his book. If I am honest, I was a little sceptical about the whole event at the start, mainly because I haven’t read the book and was concerned about how much of the talk I would actually understand. However, when the author began reading his masterpiece, all my preconceptions were wiped out and for ten minutes, I sank into the world of Seabrook College.
The first thing that struck me was the way Paul Murray read his piece. He seemed to be a little shy and unsure of himself, yet through his tone and manner of expression I got an impression of a man reading his own diary. He had a very clear emotional attachment to the piece, expressing a set of emotions that could only be felt by a person who experienced everything he wrote about. What also impressed me was Paul Murray's style of writing. He described everything with very vivid imagery, seen from a child's perspective. His descriptions of boarding life and school life in general, contained some very subtle social criticisms, like the influence of the Catholic church on the culture of Ireland and the attitude to sex in particular. His characters were very extreme in a humorous way, yet extremely realistic, and even reminded me of some people I know. Paul Murray also managed to capture the essence of a child growing up, working to find and take his place in society. All the emotions of fear, confusion and wonder are masterfully captured in every line of the text. The author even goes so far as to compare the Big Bang theory to a school, a reference which is very strange, yet makes perfect sense.
After Paul finished reading from his book, he went on to answer some questions about the text and his career and life as a writer and followed up on most answers by telling personal anecdotes. He revealed to us his secret characters based on real people he used to know, like the evil priest in his book who was built on the character of Paul’s old French teacher. He also shared his routine and his approach to collecting ideas with us. I found it very interesting how he used political and historical issues in order to generate ideas for his books. For example Paul Murray looks at the Irish people who died in world war one and their contribution which has largely been forgotten, and uses that fact to generate an idea for a school trying to cover up Skippy’s death. It is an interesting criticism of the work of a system, in a sense that a good system will always try to smoothe over and eliminate things that stand in its way or do not directly fit into it.
Overall Paul Murray came across as a very knowledgeable person. His amazing critical thinking and deep analytical skills made him an incredible person to listen to. I already ordered both his books on Amazon and am eagerly awaiting their arrival in order to dive into the story of Skippy and Seabrook. Honestly, I think this was one of the best English events this year and I hope that we get to see many more amazing authors of the same caliber. A big thank you to Miss Duggan for organising such and amazing evening, and an even bigger thank you to Paul Murray who took some time to come and speak to us.
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