Mr Chartwell

Synopsis: July, 1964. In bed at home in Kent, Winston Churchill is waking up. There's a visitor in the room, someone he hasn't seen for a while, a dark, mute bulk, watching him with tortured concentration. It's Mr Chartwell. In her terraced house in Battersea, Esther Hammerhans, young, vulnerable and alone, goes to answer the door to her new lodger. Through the glass she sees a vast silhouette the size of a mattress. It's Mr Chartwell. He is charismatic and dangerously seductive, and Esther and Winston Churchill are drawn together by his dark influence. But can they withstand Mr Chartwell's strange, powerful charms and strong hold? Can they even explain to anyone who or what he is? Or why he has come to visit? For Mr Chartwell is a huge, black dog. In this utterly original, moving, funny and exuberant novel, Rebecca Hunt explores how two unlikely lives collide as Mr Chartwell's motives are revealed to be far darker and deeper than they seem.

Review: What a great premise, to take the famous remark from Churchill about his 'Black Dog' depression, and use it to conjure up one of your central characters. The dog is referred to as 'Mr Chartwell' or more familiarly 'Black Pat' and as well as plaguing the life out of Winston he has turned up at the door of Esther Hammerhans seeking lodgings. Esther, being a literary character, is a bit perturbed by this huge black dog but not as much as you or I would be if he came knocking on your door. And, he's not there to rent the room as first supposed, he's there because Esther is coming up to the first anniversary of her husband's death .. and Black Pat has seen a way in. Esther doesn't know any of this however and at first she's intrigued and fascinated by him because Black Pat can be quite charming and persuasive when he want's to be.

The chapters alternate between Winston and his struggles with Black Pat and Esther's increasing problems with her new lodger. He's a very oppressive character (the writer has captured the blanketing weight of depression perfectly) he has a dark, dark sense of humour (which actually made me laugh at times .. he loves puns) he's very destructive and his sole aim is to completely overwhelm and oppress his 'clients'. Churchill is in a way resigned to this dark presence in his life, however it's still a constant struggle and a battle. Black Pat will drape himself across your chest so that you can hardly breathe, bark in your face or sit squealing like an injured animal in the corner, breathe on your food and block you from sunlight or sit chewing on rocks. He'll make sarcastic comments which are audible to nobody else but you (Black Pat being invisible to all non sufferers) and his stench will overpower all other smells. If he came to your house he'd probably drag your favourite paperback onto the rug, infact he'd drag your whole library there, drool over it and then chew it to bits, belching continuously and eyeing you for your reaction. And even though you are horrified by his presence, there would be a part of you, as disgusted and oppressed by him as you are, that actually looks for him .. it's such a love hate thing whilst you're in the grip of it.

Esther has a number of people in her life who care for her and are concerned about her state of mind and they set about trying to cheer and occupy her. But it's a meeting with Churchill (not so co-incidental as it sounds .. Esther works in the House of Commons Library) that may prove to be the turning point, it's too late for Churchill to shake off Black Pat but maybe Esther can be saved.

It actually took me a little while to get into the book, the writing is quirky and very creative and I occasionally had to do that thing of reading a sentence twice to make sense of it but once I got the hang of it I was up and running and greatly entertained. It can sometimes be a problem when writers write dialogue for well known historical figures - there's a risk of it sounding false and unauthentic - and this was even more of a problem than usual because I've been listening to readings of Winston & Clemmie's letters and so his manner and style of speech were fresh in my mind but I thought she captured Winston perfectly. Unusual, enjoyable and a very clever debut indeed.