Friends and Enemies
by
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Preview excerpt from: “Friends and Enemies” by Richard Woolley
Monica froze. She had been through so much over the last two hours she could now feel nothing at all. But if she could not feel, she must think and think fast. This boy was mad, and dangerous. He wanted to beat her, a fully-grown woman and daughter of a master. And if she did not let him he would tell that red-hating Royston Smith woman about Matthias. Was he bluffing?
"The Honourable Mrs Royston Smith is abroad."
She tried to keep her voice calm but her body trembled so the voice trembled too.
"I don't think so,” said Patterson coldly. “I phoned her housekeeper last week."
Damn! Not bluffing and a smooth hiss returning to the voice – the snake puffing up with her running out of ways to deflate it. Keeping up pretence of calm had drained her. And it had been pretence. She was frightened. Perhaps she should run. Warn Matthias, if he hadn't already left. She opened the door, but Patterson read her mind.
"Mr Kollwitz leaves on the three o'clock train – if you’re thinking of warning him. It will take you at least twenty minutes to reach the station and it is now ten to three."
Damn Matthias! Why had he broken his word to keep out of politics? And if he couldn't keep out why hadn't he told her? Because he knew she’d try and stop him, because apart from this morning she had not seen him since Christmas Eve. She kicked herself.
Patterson now stood in front of her, closing the barn door with his left hand.
Feeling returned. She was scared. Couldn't she just forget about Matthias? What did it matter if he were sent back to Germany? He was a red and she wasn't. Then she remembered the camp and the beatings and Erwin's anger on hearing that Matthias had fought in Spain. They would hurt him. She knew they would. And it did matter to her. She didn't want him to suffer. One beating now to save him from a prison cell and endless beatings – she could do that, couldn't she? It wasn't the Monica she knew. But…
Patterson stood staring, waiting for her to submit.
Why did he hate her so much? Why did people hate each other so much? Why did people want to hurt each other?
Without a word she moved to the stool, undid the side buttons of her trousers and lowered them together with her cotton underpants. Then she bent over the wooden seat and thought what a brave boy Mason must be, they all must be, to endure this kind of torture. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Patterson reach for a cane hidden behind the harrow. Did he bring boys here too and beat them? Why? Why? Why?
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About the Book
A search for political and personal truth across three generations, a story of idealism, love, cruelty and revenge set in England and Germany…
After a chance meeting in East Berlin filmmaker, Jon Cruft, finds more than he bargained for when he starts searching for the truth about his family’s past amidst the political and personal conundrums of the Cold War and beyond. From seventies idealism, via eighties pragmatism to turn of the century terrorism, Jon chases truth in life, love, friendship and art only to discover the destructive circularity of human existence.
The story follows Jon’s encounters and discoveries in the divided Berlin of 1973 and 1987 and the re-united Berlin of 2003, as well as the incompatible and combustible love affairs of his mother as told in a Mills and Boon style manuscript, uncovered by Jon in an a touching case of Cold War cooperation. It is a novel about unsettling physical and psychological experiences that bring Jon, his mother, and the people they meet, pleasure, pain, insight and despair. A book about overturned assumptions, friendship found and enemies revealed.
“A broad canvas covering seventy years of recent history that the author manages to fill with conviction and a strong feel for human emotion and the relentless sweep of history.”
STEPHEN MASON
“A heady mix of styles and stories that takes the reader from Communist East Berlin to Nazi Dresden via the claustrophobic and cruel corridors of a 1930’s English Public School. Well-written, very readable and highly recommended.”
ELISABETH KLEEBLATT
About the Author
Richard Woolley is a screenwriter, academic and former film director. In the eighties he wrote and directed a number of films for cinema and television. These included: Telling Tales (1980), Brothers and Sisters (1981) and Girl from the South (1988). He has written two other published novels, Sad-eyed Lady of the Lowlands and Friends and Enemies and has lived in Berlin, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and New Zealand as well as in his country of origin, England. He has one son, works as a university professor and is currently writing a new novel set in 2084.