The Roundabout Man [Unabridged] [Hardcover]

The story opens with Quinn Smith being interviewed by a young reporter about his existence as `The Roundabout Man'; an eccentric figure living in a caravan on a busy motorway junction. However, she knows nothing about his real history as one of the stars of a phenomenally successful series of children's adventure books written by his mother, with characters based on Quinn and his sisters - triplets, Hetty, Fleur and Zuleika. So successful were the books that academics write theses on their impact and hidden meanings, and the family's childhood home has been turned into a National Trust tourist attraction.

As they grew up Quinn and his sisters began to resent the intrusion into their lives and each of them found their own way of escaping the spotlight. Their mother Larissa (aka Mumski due to her Russian heritage) is portrayed as something of an Enid Blyton figure - a woman who has a real skill for reaching out to thousands of children and inviting them into an idyllic, cosy world, whilst at the same time remaining a cold and remote presence in the lives of her own son and daughters (not to mention the 14 foster children who are stationed with the family throughout Quinn`s childhood).

The roundabout on which Quinn now lives is adjacent to a soulless motorway service station (optimistically named Primrose Valley) and Quinn goes there on a regular basis to finish off half-eaten meals and read abandoned newspapers. Through a combination of charm and old-fashioned politeness he becomes a friend and confidant to the people who work there, something which will stand him in good stead when his life takes a dramatic turn for the worse and he begins to realise that he can no longer live such an isolated, hermitic existence....

Clare Morrall is able to write intelligently and perceptively about people who don't fit into society's norms. In the past she has dealt with themes such as synaesthesia and Asperger's syndrome, and in my opinion she's scored another winner with this touching and very insightful story about the dilemma faced by a man whose childhood has quite literally been an open book. Read more ›

Family are not always all you want them to be. Quinn Smith grows up with the same name as a character in his mother's books, a funny little boy with a perfect life, an inspiration to thousands. But Quinn's reality is far from the happy family life portrayed in the stories. His mother is a cold, remote, dislikeable woman who never wanted the child she writes of so lovingly in her stories. His sisters, the precociously capable triplets of the books, are, in reality, unhappy, self-obsessed bullies. Then there are the succession of foster children, who are never considered good enough to be integrated into the 'perfect' Smith family. The reality of the idealised, media-darling, happy-family tales of 'The Triplets and Quinn' is that of a dysfunctional, neglected, love-starved family with bonds so fragile that they simply disintegrate as the children grow old enough to rebel and the family falls apart.

Now in his fifties, Quinn has finally found the courage to make his escape, living in a caravan on a roundabout beside a motorway service station. It's a world away from the privileged cold comfort of The Cedars, the family home immortalised by his writer-mother, but Quinn loves his lonely life, believing he's hidden far enough away to have escaped his family forever. Then a terrible, chance event throws him on the mercy of strangers, and he is forced into the realisation that families don't have to be linked by blood.

Clearly inspired by the memories of Enid Blyton's unhappy children, The Roundabout Man is a warm, delightful and very enjoyable read - and one that makes you think.... Quinn is such an engaging character, his worlds - the current reality of his caravan life, the past life as the immortalised child of a famous writer, and the imaginary world of his mother's books, where everyone is happy, the sun always shines, where there's always another adventure to be had with a slap-up picnic at the end - are all beautifully evocative and detailed.

There were very few things that didn't work for me, but one was the mysterious benefactor. So much was made of the unexpected gifts, I was expecting something more than we finally got - not a major shock-horror-I-wasn't-expecting-THAT! Revelation, that would have been wrong, but I would have liked something a little more interesting, more satisfying, than the afterthought we got.

Then there was the ending. On first reading, the ending was unexpectedly melancholy and downbeat. I was a little upset. I wanted... something else, I'm not sure what, exactly, just something. But then I thought about it, couldn't stop thinking about it - this book will take a while to leave my thoughts - and realised it was the only possible ending. Quinn had to leave the fantasy of his happy home and perfect childhood behind so he could finally move on. He has a new family now, the friends who were there for him when his blood-relations were not. He has a new life, a home he loves, finally, he's free.

A beautiful, thoughtful, and very readable book; highly recommended to anyone who enjoys gentle pathos touched with kindness and humanity. Read more ›

I have previously enjoyed other books by Clare Morrall, "The Man who Disappeared", "The Language of Others" , "Astonishing Splashes of Colour". Her characters usually drift around the edges of "normality", not quite fitting in with the mundanity of daily life. Quinn Smith, the protagonist of her latest novel, follows this pattern, having elected to opt out of his usual routine and, ironically, achieve tranquillity living in a caravan on a busy roundabout. Disruption comes with the arrival of a junior reporter for the local rag, trying to sniff out a human interest story and Quinn's life is literally turned upside down.

Like the roundabout, the telling of Quinn's tale takes the reader on a meandering, circuitous route as we gradually learn more about this reclusive character. The narrative flits between present and past, giving us snippets of Quinn's rather unusual childhood, son of a prolific children's author who showed little affection to her own three children or indeed the series of 14 foster children who make brief appearances. The mother is very reminiscent of Enid Blyton with her predilection for creating stories of a bygone age and a nostalgia for an innocence which perhaps never was. Ironically, Quinn's present isolated existence with a narrow circle of acquaintances seems to be his first opportunity to live life to the full, away from the shadows of the past.

This is a beautifully written story with fully realised and engaging charcters. It's a slow burner and one which rewards the reader's time and concentration. At times I was slightly irritated by the tortuous nature of the narrative but then Quinn certainly didn't lead a straightforward life! Fans of Clare Morrall will not be disappointed.