Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge

Nominated by:
Copenhagen Central Library, Denmark;
London Metropolitan Borough Libraries, England;
Helsingin Kaupunginkirjasto, Helsinki, Finland;
Durban Metropolitan Library Services, South Africa.

Master Georgie is the centripetal presence of a novel set in the time of the Crimean war. It unfolds through the narratives of three protagonists - the geologist, Dr. Potter, Pompey Jones, the photographer's assistant, and Myrtle, a girl believed to be Master Georgie's sister. All four characters are linked by an incident in the past which changed the lives of Pompey Jones and Myrtle forever. The journey from Liverpool to the battlefield of Inkerman will end for Georgie in front of a camera. It is not only photography that illuminates and distorts simultaneously: what can we really know of others and what are the limits of deceit? Who really knew Master Georgie?
Beryl Bainbridge is one of the greatest living English novelists. She is the author of sixteen novels, two travel books and five plays for stage and television. Her previous novel, Every Man for Himself was awarded the Whitbread Novel of the Year prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She won the Guardian Fiction prize with the Dressmaker and the Whitbread Prize with Injury Time. The Bottle Factory Outing, Sweet William and The Dressmaker have been adapted for film, as has, most recently, An Awfully Big Adventure with Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman. She was born in Liverpool, but lives in North London.

Here's what the members of the Reading Group based at our Raheny branch library think of Master Georgie:

This novel, which is set in the time of the Crimean War, could best be described as a tragicomedy. The writer employs three narrators, Pompey Jones, Dr. Potter and Myrtle. All three are privy to dark secrets in Georgie's life but their loyalty guarantees that they remain secret and are rarely mentioned. Myrtle, who has no knowledge of her own beginnings and isn't even sure of her own age, is Georgie's willing slave. Her life is devoted to literally following in his wake, finally tending to him on the battlefield. His apparent indifference to Myrtle may be explained by the fact that, in reality, they are probably brother and sister. The author has written about the seamy side of life and the stupidity and awfulness of war, but in doing so has treated the subject in the manner of black comedy. Throughout the novel there is a sense of acceptance of events as they unfold, with Master Georgie dictating the action and his friends always in support. It is brilliantly written, Ms. Bainbridge conveying so much by mere suggestion. (Member of Raheny Library Reading Group)

This must be one of the best books I have read, an absorbing story, so convincing that I had to keep reminding myself that it was a novel, not a biography. Three people who were close to Master Georgie tell the story in the first person. Myrtle, found as a baby beside an unknown dead woman and by lucky chance adopted by Georgie's parents when she was due to be sent to an orphanage, begins the narrative. She idolises Georgie who takes shameful advantage of her dog-like devotion. Myrtle's story is a young girl's view of life in the Hardy household, the street life of Liverpool and about the adored Master Georgie. "The Duck Boy" Jones, another chance acquaintance of Georgie's takes up the story followed by Dr. Potter, husband of Beatrice, Georgie's sister. All three of them, with Georgie's family entourage went to Constantinople, then the three and Georgie went towards the Crimean war zone. They never got into the war zone but experienced great hardship and witnessed terrible scenes of death and maiming. Only Georgie, the doctor, moves up to the war ground. A strange thing about this story is that what we would consider important family events, weddings and births are never mentioned, apart from Annie's (Georgie's wife) several miscarriages. Perhaps this is why some revelations at the end took me completely by surprise.
(Member of Raheny Library Reading Group.)

An historical novel spanning eight years prior to and during the Crimean war, Master Georgie is about the interlocking lives of four people, three of which narrate their adventures with each other and the person of the title, Master Georgie. Initially we are told by Myrtle, a twelve-year old girl adopted by Master Georgie's father. Slowly and subtley each character reveals more about themselves and their individual relationships with the enigmatic Master Georgie, with the backdrop of Victorian England and its growing involvement in the Crimea beautifully described by Bainbridge. Myrtle, the one female character, has a deep and enduring passion for Master Georgie, who she realises, cannot love her in return. We discover late on in the novel that his real passion is towards the irrepressible Pompey Jones, who has dragged himself from the gutter using wit and cunning developed through hardship. Myrtle's naivete is contrasted with Pompey's lust for life and Dr Potter's pessimistic knowingness. In the meantime, Master Georgie, spoilt and selfish, flounders. The novel begins as a fascinating study of the bourgeoisie and those beneath them and develops into a psychological thriller as the characters experience the dramatically different culture of Turkey under siege by the flotsam and jetsam gathering there prior to the battles of the Crimea. Once war finally breaks out the class-system pervading life as the characters had known it in England has broken down and only life and death are significant. I was thoroughly absorbed by this novel from start to finish.
(Member of Raheny Library Reading Group)