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Julian Gloag
Julian Gloag (2 July 1930 – 12 September 2023) was an English novelist. He was the author of eleven novels, the best known of which is his first, Our Mother’s House (1963), which was made into a film of the same name starring Dirk Bogarde.
Gloag was born in London, where he was largely brought up. He attended Magdalene College, Cambridge, and then emigrated to the United States before settling in France. Though his literary reputation has declined somewhat in Britain, he remains popular in France, where he lived much of his life, and there most of his work is available in translation from Gallimard. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1970.
Gloag died in Provins on 12 September 2023, at the age of 93.
The story concerns the seven Hook children, who decide not to report their mother's death for fear of being separated and sent to an orphanage. Instead they bury her in the back garden, pretending to the outside world that she is ill and confined to her room. Their problems begin when curious officials make inquiries, and well-meaning neighbours offer assistance. The children have begun quarrelling when an enigmatic stranger appears, claiming to be their father.
Gloag's first novel was an unexpected success and launched him onto the 1960s literary scene. Our Mother’s House received high praise from many prominent critics. Evelyn Waugh read it “with keen pleasure and admiration”. Christopher Fry says the novel “drew me into its world from the first page and held me there ... a penetrating and touching story, which at every point touches on even more than it speaks”. The London Magazine compares the work to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and says it “achieves explosive effects with seemingly unpromising material”.
Film director Jack Clayton, who had previously directed Room at the Top, got to hear about Gloag's novel from his friend, Canadian writer Mordecai Richler, and he found it “instantly fascinating”. The film version of Our Mother’s House was produced by MGM and Filmways and released in 1967. Dirk Bogarde played the father, Charlie Hook, Yootha Joyce played cleaning lady Mrs Quayle, and Mark Lester played Jiminee, one of the younger boys.
Though a commercial failure, the film was well reviewed by Roger Ebert, who noted the Gothic elements, such as the bleak rundown house and attempts to commune with the spirit world, together with the parallels to Lord of the Flies. He praises the ensemble of child actors, saying “no adult actor can hope to hold his own against their innocent blue eyes”. Dirk Bogarde received a BAFTA nomination and described working on the project as one of happiest experiences of his career. Child star Mark Lester went on to achieve huge fame a year later with the titular role in the film musical Oliver!
When Ian McEwan’s The Cement Garden was published in 1978, some reviewers noted remarkable similarities between that novel and Our Mother’s House, and this issue resurfaced in 2006 when McEwan was again accused of copying passages from Lucilla Andrews’s memoir No Time for Romance – for the wartime hospital sections of his novel Atonement.
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Julian Gloag
Julian Gloag (2 July 1930 – 12 September 2023) was an English novelist. He was the author of eleven novels, the best known of which is his first, Our Mother’s House (1963), which was made into a film of the same name starring Dirk Bogarde.
Gloag was born in London, where he was largely brought up. He attended Magdalene College, Cambridge, and then emigrated to the United States before settling in France. Though his literary reputation has declined somewhat in Britain, he remains popular in France, where he lived much of his life, and there most of his work is available in translation from Gallimard. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1970.
Gloag died in Provins on 12 September 2023, at the age of 93.
The story concerns the seven Hook children, who decide not to report their mother's death for fear of being separated and sent to an orphanage. Instead they bury her in the back garden, pretending to the outside world that she is ill and confined to her room. Their problems begin when curious officials make inquiries, and well-meaning neighbours offer assistance. The children have begun quarrelling when an enigmatic stranger appears, claiming to be their father.
Gloag's first novel was an unexpected success and launched him onto the 1960s literary scene. Our Mother’s House received high praise from many prominent critics. Evelyn Waugh read it “with keen pleasure and admiration”. Christopher Fry says the novel “drew me into its world from the first page and held me there ... a penetrating and touching story, which at every point touches on even more than it speaks”. The London Magazine compares the work to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and says it “achieves explosive effects with seemingly unpromising material”.
Film director Jack Clayton, who had previously directed Room at the Top, got to hear about Gloag's novel from his friend, Canadian writer Mordecai Richler, and he found it “instantly fascinating”. The film version of Our Mother’s House was produced by MGM and Filmways and released in 1967. Dirk Bogarde played the father, Charlie Hook, Yootha Joyce played cleaning lady Mrs Quayle, and Mark Lester played Jiminee, one of the younger boys.
Though a commercial failure, the film was well reviewed by Roger Ebert, who noted the Gothic elements, such as the bleak rundown house and attempts to commune with the spirit world, together with the parallels to Lord of the Flies. He praises the ensemble of child actors, saying “no adult actor can hope to hold his own against their innocent blue eyes”. Dirk Bogarde received a BAFTA nomination and described working on the project as one of happiest experiences of his career. Child star Mark Lester went on to achieve huge fame a year later with the titular role in the film musical Oliver!
When Ian McEwan’s The Cement Garden was published in 1978, some reviewers noted remarkable similarities between that novel and Our Mother’s House, and this issue resurfaced in 2006 when McEwan was again accused of copying passages from Lucilla Andrews’s memoir No Time for Romance – for the wartime hospital sections of his novel Atonement.