The Boy Who Taught the Beekeeper to Read
Encyclopedia
The Boy Who Taught the Beekeeper to Read is a short story
collection by British
writer Susan Hill
published in 2003 by Chatto & Windus (hardback) and the following year in paperback by Vintage Books
. It "received long and favourable reviews in The Guardian
(Hermione Lee
), The Spectator
(Francis King
), The Sunday Times
(Penelope Lively
) and The Times Literary Supplement
(Mark Cries).
It contains nine stories :-
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
collection by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
writer Susan Hill
Susan Hill
Susan Hill is an English author of fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels include The Woman in Black, The Mist in the Mirror and I'm the King of the Castle for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award in 1971....
published in 2003 by Chatto & Windus (hardback) and the following year in paperback by Vintage Books
Vintage Books
Vintage Books is a publishing imprint founded in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. Its publishing list includes world literature, fiction, and non-fiction...
. It "received long and favourable reviews in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
(Hermione Lee
Hermione Lee
Hermione Lee, CBE is President of Wolfson College, Oxford and was lately Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature in the University of Oxford and Professorial Fellow of New College. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Literature.-Biography:Hermione Lee grew up in...
), The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
(Francis King
Francis King
Francis Henry King, CBE was a British novelist, poet and short story writer.He was born in Adelboden, Switzerland, brought up in India and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II he was a conscientious objector, and left Oxford to work on the land...
), The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
(Penelope Lively
Penelope Lively
Penelope Lively CBE, FRSL is a prolific, popular and critically acclaimed author of fiction for both children and adults. She has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize, winning once for Moon Tiger in 1987.-Personal:...
) and The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
(Mark Cries).
It contains nine stories :-
- "The Boy Who Taught the Beekeeper to Read": a schoolboy befriends the beekeeper at his aunt's country house and begins teaching him to read, but will the closeness last...
- "Father, Father": two sisters live with their recently widowed father and try to help him move on from his grief, but when he does they find themselves unable to cope...
- "Need": in a travelling circus troupe Biddy is dogged by Little Midge, the unnerving whistler as she visits her closest friend Rosa the fortune-teller one last time...
- "The Punishment": Mick's brother Charlie dies as a result of an accident whilst being punished in a Catholic School. Mick and his friends take seemingly dreadful revenge on God and the Church, but things do not go as they expect...
- "Moving Messages": two women once close friends meet after 34 years apart...
- "Sand": after their mother's funeral, two sisters recall of the only act of kindness they had ever seen from her when she helped a small boy with sand in his eyes...
- "Elizabeth": a mother warns her daughter against remaining at home when she grows up, which will end in a life of drudgery like herself, but instead to escape and see the world...
- "The Brooch": Rima's uncle is blind but few people realise this as with his dog and fixed routine he works as a commercial traveller selling hosiery in the city where he knows every customer and remembers every order. But then he buys Rosa a gift...
- "Antonyin's": an Englishman is posted to Vldansk, a bleak Eastern European town; he struggles with the food until he discovers Antonyin's, a cafe serving perfect food. But then he is targeted by a determined woman who sees marriage to him as an escape to the West...
External links
- Official web page
- Like Buttons in a Box Times Literary Supplement review
- Right up with the best of them The SpectatorThe SpectatorThe Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
review