Leavers' Post ...

Sadly, at the end of this term, we are bidding farewell to Mr Collinson and Mr O'Brien - but they've been kind enough to answer the book blog's leavers' questionnaire before departing.  

What were you reading when you were a teenager?

Mr O'Brien: As an early teen I was obsessed with the Alex Rider series. I progressed to reading a lot of SAS Fiction, especially by the author Chris Ryan. 

Mr Collinson: I grew up on the edge of the West Yorkshire moors, just outside Bradford and very close to Haworth, home of the Brontës. I was absolutely mesmerised by the novels and also by the landscape, which is still wild and somehow unforgiving. My surroundings definitely made the books come alive. I still like to visit the Brontë parsonage museum from time to time, when I am up there.

What are you planning to read this holiday?

Mr O'Brien: I want to read a book I purchased at a charity shop recently. Jungle Soldier is a World War Two true story about Arctic explorer, survival expert and naturalist, Freddy Spencer Chapman, evading the Japanese army in the Malayan jungle. He survived on the run for three years and five months, until the end of the war, despite the Japanese deploying whole regiments to try and find him. I shall also be reading lots of syllabus text books ahead of next term (joy of joys). 

Mr Collinson: One of the most powerful novels (for me) I ever read was Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance. I love visiting India, and have been to Mumbai many times (where it’s set) and this novel has it all: wealth, squalor, joy, tragedy, suffering, teeming with smells and colours. 

I have just started Neel Mukherjee’s The Lives of Others which is 500+ pages long but is set on similar lines, but in Calcutta. The characterisation is exquisite and the family drama intense. I look forward to really getting through it over Christmas.

What/who is your all-time favourite book/writer?
Mr O'Brien: This is a tough question. I have a few that really made an impression on me. Touching the Void was a gripping read. It’s a true account of climbers Simon Yates and Joe Simpson getting into trouble in the Peruvian Andes; Simpson breaks his leg and Yates has to cut the rope when he falls off a cliff face. The story follows Simpson and his perilous journey down from the glacier he consequently falls into. 

Two autobiographies I loved were that of footballer Roy Keane and skateboarder Tony Hawk. Roy’s story is a fiery and raw account of early Premier League era football from one of the EPL’s most notorious midfielders, whereas I fell in love with the utopia of back yard swimming pool bowl skating in Tony’s accounts.   

Mr Collinson: Really hard. If I were on Desert Island Discs and Lauren Laverne asked me this question at the end of the interview, I think it would have to be Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. I have read it twice and it’s thrilling, terrifying, brilliantly written and so relevant today.

Who’s your favourite fictional character?

Mr O'Brien: I was truly part of the Harry Potter generation, with the first book coming out just shy of my 7th birthday. Having dark hair, large rounded glasses and (yes) a faded lightening scar on my head (no, seriously) I was a serious Potter fan. 

Harry Potter. Or possibly Mr O'Brien.  

Mr Collinson: Here I will be SPS-specific. I have taught many times over the years (for French A Level literature) François Mauriac’s Thérèse Desqueyroux. Think Emma Bovary, but a bit different. She is a fascinating, complex, disturbed, malevolent, highly intelligent woman and every time I teach the novel I find another aspect of her character to discuss. Mauriac paints her so subtly and skilfully: every word counts, every pause, every facial expression. It’s a superb novel but not one to cheer you up. A film came out a few years ago.

Do you have a favourite word/favourite line from a book?

Mr O'Brien: I have a whole book of favourite lines. It is a book of famous quotes called Enduring Words for the Athlete. It has made its way to big competitions and was always read before squash matches at university. 

Mr Collinson: Another tricky one but I have gone for Atticus Finch at the end of To Kill a Mockingbird – 'Most people are nice when you finally see them'. I think it’s true and I think we need to reflect on this in times which are turbulent, where people seem to seek rivalry and division for the sake of it.

If you had to recommend one book that everyone should read, what would it be?
Mr O'Brien: It’s a plug for one of my friends, Ania Whiteley. Ania has her debut book, The Weavers, out this month! Set in the dark and glamorous world of modern London, The Weavers is a YA urban fantasy about one girl fighting against a powerful but seductive evil…

Mr Collinson: So, if you’ve just got a couple of hours and fancy an assault on the senses, then I’d say Kafka’s Metamorphosis. It is so charged, dazzling and it takes my breath away still when I read it. 

For a wet and windy weekend, when you have all the time in the world, when all you want to do is curl up on the sofa with a good book, I’d go for Dickens’ David Copperfield. I love the characters, the journeys they make, the conversations and relations, the humour, the joy and the sorrows. I find it a feel-good book. I’m not calling it my favourite novel/the best novel I have read, but for the sheer pleasure of the reading experience, it would be my top pick.

Many thanks to Mr O'Brien and Mr Collinson for generously taking the time to answer the book blog's questions: we wish them all the best with life after St Paul's!