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Mr. Mac and Me
Esther Freud
2015, 296 pages
Fiction
In 1914 in the small village of Dunwich on the Suffolk coast of England, 12-year-old Thomas Maggs is intrigued by two new arrivals, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife. Mackintosh (Mac to the locals) is a Scottish artist and architect, and a friendship starts up between him and Thomas. Mac encourages Thomas to keep at his drawing and painting.
Thomas has much to occupy him. He helps out at his family’s pub, and has a job after school with a rope maker. Thomas is smitten with a young herring girl and he longs to go to sea. He is also on the lookout for German spies along the coast. War with Germany has just been declared, and local men and boys are leaving to fight it.
Thomas is worried for his friend. The villagers are wondering what Mac is doing on his evening walks. After all, Mac is Scottish – “a foreigner!” – and he takes long walks by himself along the coast with his binoculars. Could he be a spy?
This is a beautifully written novel about a real artist, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and a young boy who might have admired him. The descriptions of the village and coast are vivid and the characters well-developed. I was sorry to come to the end.
