posted on 07 Dec 2022

The Old Boys by William Trevor

Published in 1964 when he was 36 years old, The Old Boys is often referred to as William Trevor’s first novel – although there had been an earlier one, A Standard of Behaviour, that the author disowned and always refused to have reprinted. If, like me, you read The Old Boys and assume that it’s the work of a mature, subtle and seasoned author, you’d be forgiven for being taken aback at the precocious talent it represents.

All the things you might associate with the later, peak-form Trevor is already there – a sly humour, superb observation, delicate but seductive prose and a dark underbelly that makes the final product hard to forget. Trevor, even at this point in his career, knows just how to create characters that have such a three-dimensional presence that you could easily believe you know them in real life. By and large, Trevor isn’t one for big set-piece action or plots that hinge on behaviour that requires the reader to suspend their disbelief. No, he’s much more interested in the small but often vicious dramas of everyday life, what Harold Pinter called ‘the weasel under the cocktail cabinet’.

The old boys who are the focus of Trevor’s novel are a group of septuagenarians who are members of their shared former public school’s Old Boys Association. What you might assume to be a modest, uneventful and benign occupation is in fact a pit of viperous resentments and perverse relationships. The past, specifically their school days, stay with them and the experiences of their educational experiences continue to shape their latter days.

At the hub of the story is an upcoming election to the Presidency of the Association that one man – Jaraby – believes should be his for the taking. Jaraby has grown up believing that his former Headmaster was a great man who instilled vital life lessons in the boys under his control. However, Trevor makes it clear that the Headmaster was in fact a sadistic relic of the past who was possibly sexually perverse and unbalanced and that an alternative narrative of this man’s influence is in fact held by others who had experienced his teaching style.

Jaraby himself had clearly been a bully when at school and his former ‘fag’, Nox has indicted that he will do anything he can to stop Jaraby’s election – going as far as to hire a dodgy private investigator to turn up some dirt on his nemesis. 

There’s plenty of darkly comic observation of the absurdities of the lingering resentments the two men have carried with them through the years. But this is only really a gateway to something more substantial – a rather melancholy exploration of Jaraby’s marriage and the rather tragic relationship breakdown between this martinet of a man and his wayward son, Basil. 

A second storyline runs in parallel with the Jaraby/Nox conflict and acts as something of a comic counterpoint. Two other members of the Association, Sole and Cridley, live permanently at the rather flyblown Rimini Hotel which is run by the formidable Miss Burdock and the two men fill their time by replying, often maliciously, to various newspaper advertisements. They often play hosts to one other Association member, Mr Turtle, who is a lost and lonely figure whose flirtation with Miss Burdock will come to a sad end during the course of the book.

Ultimately, this slim volume ends up being a meaty contemplation about age, the relationship of the past to the present and the way the lessons of the past can twist and pervert the present. 

A really wonderful book.

Paperback copies are easy to find and can be purchased cheaply but the first edition hardback is, predictably, hard to find and expensive when you do.

 

Terry Potter

December 2022