The Hypnotist
Page 23
It is not just the victims themselves who suffer – the ripples spread through the generations. The horror that my father witnessed was passed on through his inability to nurture. When I write about Pip in the orphanage, I only need to close my eyes and remember the iron bed in the cold dormitory of my boarding school. I was not an orphan, but sometimes I felt like one. And perhaps the culture of bullying and the regular canings were my personal glimmer of that nightmare in which the men with the power are your enemies.
That’s all a bit miserable, isn’t it! But I’m one of the lucky ones – I have a wonderful life, free of war and prejudice. Those small hardships were nothing more than the grit in the oyster shell, which every creative person needs. My father did pass on many positive things. Chief amongst them is a dream of tolerance, equality and mutual respect.
When they stayed at the Kozy Kabins Motel, Jack lay awake watching a historic moment on TV. If you know nothing about the March on Washington of 28th August 1963, I urge you to check it out! Don’t let another day go by without hearing the ‘I have a dream’ speech, which brought Jack Morrow to tears.
Martin Luther King’s dream was that one day, Black and White; Jew, Muslim and Christian; Gay and Straight; Woman and Man, will join hands and sing together, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’ I hope it’s your dream too.
Laurence Anholt, Devon, England 2016
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This is where authors traditionally thank their agent, their pets and their crumbly relatives.
Despite my best efforts I have never found an agent; instead I would like to thank the magnificent UK Society of Authors for their untiring support, and the generous allocation of an Authors’ Foundation Award.
Pets? Sadly my cat, Harrods, passed away, but I gladly acknowledge his teaching and wisdom.
I owe a humungous hunk of gratitude to the whole team at Penguin Random House in London; in particular, legendary publisher Annie Eaton and editorial director Ruth Knowles, who spotted a pip of potential, watered it with encouragement and helped it to grow. I cannot overstate their contribution to this book.
I could fill another book with devotion for my children – Claire, at the United Nations; Tom, artist of genius; and Maddy, actor extraordinaire. You are my moon and stars.
And a library could not express my love for my talented wife and companion, Cathy, who had the strange experience of sleeping and waking with Zachery, Lilybelle and the Dead River clan. You laughed at my silly voices and supported me in every way. You are my sun and sky.
In memory of my mother, Joan Anholt; one of many wise women who have inspired my life.
A rousing yell of thanks to the unsung warriors of words – librarians, teachers and booksellers!
And lastly for YOU, dear reader – sisters and brothers everywhere who share The Dream of tolerance, diversity, equality and freedom. One Love!
@LaurenceAnholt
www.anholt.co.uk
1963 Timeline of Historical Events
3 January – Battle Ap Bac in Vietnam is the first major defeat for South Vietnamese and American forces against the Communist Viet Cong, leading to 200 Vietnamese army casualties and the shooting down of five US helicopters.
7 January – US first-class postage raised from four to five cents.
11 January – The Beatles release Please Please Me.
14 January – Governor of Alabama George Wallace is sworn in and pledges ‘segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation for ever.’
20 March – First exhibition of Pop Art in New York City featuring Andy Warhol
20 March – General Harkins predicts that the war in Vietnam will be over by the end of the year. He is wrong by twelve years.
21 March – The infamous Alcatraz penitentiary is closed and the island reclaimed by Native Americans.
2 April – USSR launches Luna 4, missing the Moon by 8,500 km.
9 April – British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill becomes honorary US citizen.
10 April – US tests nuclear bomb at Nevada.
16 April – ‘Bad Friday’ Coral Gardens Massacre in Jamaica in which hundreds of innocent Rastafarians lose their lives.
12 April – Birmingham, Alabama, police use dogs and cattle prods on peaceful civil rights demonstrators.
16 April – Martin Luther King Jr is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham. He writes his seminal ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’, arguing that we have a duty to disobey unjust laws.
11 May – Racial bomb attacks in Birmingham. The Klan call it Bombingham.
12 May – Commissioner of Public Safety ‘Bull’ Connor uses fire hoses, police dogs and violence on Black demonstrators during televized civil rights protests in Birmingham, Alabama.
16 May – US Army instructs its soldiers to ‘emphasize the positive aspects of your activities’ to the media and to ‘avoid gratuitous criticism’.
10 June – John F. Kennedy signs law for equal pay for equal work for men and women.
11 June – JFK says it is ‘time to act’ against segregation.
12 June – Assassination of Medgar Evers by ex-KKK member. Evers was an African-American civil rights activist and member of the Association for Advancement of Colored People.
18 June – 3,000 Black people boycott Boston public schools.
19 June – Twenty-six-year-old Valentina Tereshkova becomes first woman in space.
24 June – First demonstration of video recorder at BBC Studios in London.
26 June – President Kennedy visits West Berlin and gives famous ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ (I am a Berliner) speech.
1 July – The ‘fab four’ Beatles record She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.
1 July – First ZIP codes used in America.
28 August – The March on Washington. 250,000 demonstrate for equal rights, an end to racial segregation and the Jim Crow laws in the South. The time limit for speeches is four minutes, but Martin Luther King Jr clocks up 16 minutes with his seminal ‘I have a dream’ speech at Lincoln Memorial. Many pass out from heat exhaustion and 35 Red Cross stations treat 1,335 people. Just one person, New Yorker Charles Schreiber, dies from a heart attack. The number of toilets at the march is a big concern.
The following year, on 14 October, King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in combating racial inequality. He has many enemies amongst White supremacists and is murdered in 1968.
10 September – First twenty Black students enter public schools in Alabama.
15 September – Four young girls attending Sunday school are murdered by the Ku Klux Klan when dynamite explodes at the 16th Street Baptist Church, a popular location for civil rights meetings in Birmingham, Alabama. Riots erupt in Birmingham, leading to the deaths of two more Black youths. Four Klansmen – Bobby Cherry, Herman Cash, Thomas Blanton and Robert Chambliss – were implicated. Chambliss, known as ‘Dynamite Bob’ was actually seen planting the bomb and arrested later that day. An all-White jury found him guilty of a minor charge of possessing dynamite without a permit, for which he received a six-month jail term and a hundred-dollar fine. It was not until 1977 that Chambliss was re-arrested and convicted of murder. He died in prison in 1985.
27 September – US population reaches 190,000,000.
1 October – 16,752 US military personnel now stationed in Vietnam.
5 October – In Saigon, Vietnam, a meditating Buddhist monk sets himself alight in protest against oppression by the government of President Diem. The shocking photograph appears on the front page of nearly every newspaper in the world, increasing pressure on the Kennedy administration to do something about Diem.
19 October – Beatles record I Want to Hold Your Hand and the term ‘Beatlemania’ is coined. A few years later the KKK would burn their records in disgust.
1 November – In Vietnam, rebel forces assassinate President Diem and his brother. The Kennedy government admits that they hold some responsibility
. An unstable situation now arises in which the Viet Cong increase control. The US is inexorably drawn into one of the most contentious wars in its history.
18 November – Bell Telephone introduces push button telephone.
22 November – American President John F. Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas. His death is never fully explained but JFK was a strong civil rights supporter, friend to Martin Luther King and to the Native American community.
22 November – Lyndon B Johnson sworn in as the 36th US President following assassination of JFK.
23 November – Launch of Doctor Who in England is overshadowed by assassination of JFK.
23 November – JFK’s body lies in repose in White House.
24 November – First live murder on TV – Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald
24 November – Incoming President Johnson tells his advisers, ‘I am not going to lose Vietnam.’
25 November – JFK laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
26 November – Explorer 18 launched.
20 December – Berlin Wall opens for first time to West Berliners.
22 December – Official thirty-day mourning period for President John F Kennedy ends.
31 December – 122 American and 5665 South Vietnamese soldiers have been killed in Vietnam in 1963.
Fun facts from 1963
• First C60 cassettes produced by Philips in 1963.
• Computer mouse invented by Doug Engelbart as a pointer for a graphic display screen. A wooden box rolling on wheels, connected to a computer with a cable which resembles a mouse.
• First lava lamp. Even John Lennon has one.
• Harvey Ball designs the smiley face to cheer up bored office workers at State Mutual Life Assurance Company.
• Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduces Transcendental Meditation, inspiring The Beatles, the Beach Boys, Mia Farrow and Stevie Wonder to take up meditation.
• Weight Watchers created by Jean Nidetch. At 214 pounds Jean invites overweight friends to hear the story of her ‘promiscuous eating habit’ and support each other in losing weight. For the first meeting in May 1963, Jean sets up fifty chairs but over 400 people attend and membership eventually exceeds one million. Unfortunately Lilybelle is unable to attend.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in 1959 to a Dutch family with Persian roots, Laurence Anholt spent his early years in Holland. He trained as a painter at Falmouth School of Art where he met his wife, the artist, Catherine Anholt. Laurence went on to take a Master’s Degree in Fine Art at the Royal Academy in London.
The Anholts have produced more than 200 children’s books, which have been translated into 30 languages. Their titles have won numerous awards including the Nestlé Smarties Gold Award on two occasions. Many of their books are written by Laurence and illustrated by Catherine, but Laurence has written for several other artists including Arthur Robins and Tony Ross, and in addition, he self-illustrates his Anholt’s Artists series, an introduction to great art for young children.
Laurence’s first full-length novel, The Hypnotist was published by Penguin Random House in 2016.
The Anholts have three grown up children: Claire works for the United Nations in Geneva, and twins, Tom and Maddy are a Berlin based artist and an actor in London. They also have twin grandchildren, Nina and Felix.
Catherine and Laurence live in an ‘upside down’ eco-house, surrounded by wildflower meadows overlooking the sea in Devon. Laurence’s passions are family, art, bees, books and Buddhism.
Read on to discover more stories of countries in turmoil, and the people caught up in the chaos. You’ll be gripped, heartbroken, inspired . . .
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‘A small wonder . . . worthy of the hype’ The Times
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the undoubtedly talented Savit’ Guardian
This is the harrowing war-time story of fifteen-year-old Lina and her family, as one night they are hauled from their home by Soviet guards – and deported to Siberia.
During the terrible journey, Lina has only hope to keep her alive. And the love of a boy she barely knows, but doesn’t want to lose.
‘Heart-wrenching . . . an eye-opening reimagination
of a very real tragedy’ The Los Angeles Times
‘A hefty emotional punch’ The New York Times
High on the mountain above his home town, Fergus makes a chilling discovery: the body of a girl, hidden deep in the bog. As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him – this is Ireland in the 1980s – a voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the Bog Child unfurls.
‘A harrowing story of choice and obligation,
peace and politics’
Independent
‘Her sentences sing, each note resonates with an urgent
humanity of the sort that cannot be faked’ Guardian
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First published Corgi Books, 2016
This ebook published 2016
Text copyright © Laurence Anholt, 2016
Cover artwork copyright © Christopher Worker, 2016
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978–1–448–19666–1
All correspondence to:
RHCP Digital
Penguin Random House Children’s
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