A former Plymouth College pupil, John Symons, has used his father's life as inspiration for his first book, 'Stranger on the Shore'.
A day-boy between 1957 and 1964, John won a scholarship to ExeterCollege, Oxford, where he got a first in Classics in 1966, followed by Ancient History and Philosophy in 1968. After twenty-five years in the Civil Service, he became freelance in 1995 and a few months later he started writing his book.
The book follows the fortunes of John's father, William, from his days working for coal merchant, Dick Bath, in the West Cornwall town of Newlyn to a long period of service in India in the Army.Along the way the author makes reference to his time at PlymouthCollege and some of the staff who taught him.It also reveals the family's tragic inheritance of a faulty gene that can lead to Huntington's chorea.
Cornish historian and writer, Margaret Perry, wrote the following review:
William Symons was born in Newlyn in 1878. Following family tradition he became a fisherman and a member of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. In 1914, following some early action at sea in the First World War, he died at the age of 36 yrs, leaving a widow and seven children, a boy and six girls. Unknown to him, and to his family, he left another legacy. In his body he carried a faulty gene, which, if inherited, could lead to Huntington's chorea, a disease that normally becomes apparent in middle age. William died before symptoms appeared but the disease, known at the time as St Vitus Dance, was to claim the lives of a number of his descendants.This book chronicles the life of his eldest child, and only son, William John, who was 12 years old at the time of his father's death. There was a small naval pension and William earned what pennies he could in his spare time until he left school the following year aged 13 years and went to work, initially for Dick Bath, the coal merchant. Somehow the family managed to stay together even after the death of his mother, Florence Louisa, from tuberculosis in 1921. They attended St. Peter's Church, where the vicar, Mr Phelps, knew the family well and gave them his support.
In 1919 William (always known as 'Jack' in the family) signed on as a soldier in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and thus started a lifetime career in the Army and, from 1922, a long period of service in India. Mr Phelps helped him to weigh everything up and arrive at the decision to make this move. And so the story unfolds.
Eventually, at the age of 70 years, chorea would claim his life, but it was a life that saw a lot of happiness. Not least the birth of his two sons. The elder of these, John Symons, is the writer of this book.
Despite the underlying tragedy this is an uplifting book and an absorbing read, It is beautifully written, on one level vividly portraying Army life in India between the wars and at home in West Cornwall, and on another exploring the meaning of suffering. I read it from beginning to end, not skipping anything as sometimes happens. The book was, to quote from a comment on the cover, totally absorbing,
Margaret Perry
'Stranger on the Shore' by John Symons is published by Shepheard-Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd at £12.95. ISBN 978-0-85683-264-2.
The book captures a Plymouth, a Devon, a Cornwall, an England and an India, that have gone for ever. A Russian reader has told John Symons that the story of his father and his life give an image of an Englishman (she used the word by which Russians denote the Icons which they use in Orthodox worship) which explains why for so long the nations of the whole world, justly, felt such admiration for Great Britain. When she lost her parents in Stalin's Communist GULAG the existence of our country gave her hope.
