Robert Sears: October Ferry To Gabriola

Robert Sears: October Ferry To Gabriola -  painted as a tribute to the novel by Malcolm Lowry-  Allison on the ferry with Gabriola Island in the background - also a homage to Alex Colville who was an influence on my work.

Read more about Robert Sears's work here

Celebrating Malc's Birthday with Yorkshire Blonde

After my talk last night on Malc's Merseyside, we decamped to the nearest pub from Wallasey Central Library - The Telegraph in New Brighton which I now regard as my local mainly because the beer and atmosphere is the best around. I just wish Malc had written about it then it would have been perfect!



We had a few glasses of a good beer for a warm evening is Ossett's "Yorkshire Blonde" - "pale coloured ale is full bodied, well-rounded and slightly sweet on the palate. A generous late addition of Mount Hood hops result in a delicate fruity hop aroma."



The above description of the beer made me smile - a nice Lowryan coincidence - Mount Hood crops up in a few of Malc's works; "Ethan said, "there's old Mount Baker out this morning, or is it Mount Hood? Out very clear and beautiful.." October Ferry to Gabriola; And far away over in America the snowy volcanic peak of Mount Hood stood on high, disembodied, cut off from earth, yet much too close, which was an even surer presage of rain, as though the mountains had advanced, or were advancing. ... The Bravest Boat and "A hint of the summit of Mount Hood remained, or it might have been clouds." The Bravest Boat; "that ribbed the continent from Alaska to Cape Horn — and of which Mount Hood was no less a part than Popocatepetl...." The Forest Path to the Spring; "I see a great cold white and grey remote peak that vanishes behind rows of flats and stores so I can hardly believe I’ve really seen it. Presently Malc sees it also and there we are, out of the city, on a long straight highway running between neat farms and there it is: Mt. Hood." La Mordida








See Mount Hood, Portland, Oregon 1946 on Postcards from Malc

Manor House School, Stoke Newington

The ability had often stood him in good stead during that very time of darkness and misery at prep school, exhibiting, in those early Stoke-Newington days, and long before he found he had a truly encyclopedic memory October Ferry to Gabriola

In October Ferry to Gabriola, the main character Ethan identifies himself with Edgar Poe because both attended Manor House school in Stoke Newington. Poe lurks in the background of October Ferry - you can read more on Poe's presence in Anthony Kilgallin's "The Long Voyage Home" in George Woodcock's Malcolm Lowry The Man And His Work. One possible source for the reference to the school was Lowry's visit to the Valentine Museum in Richmond which features in his short story 'Strange Comfort Afforded by the Profession'.

You can read the details of Poe's time at the school in the excellent Poe Log:

On or about 11 December 1811 Poe’s father may have died. On the death of his mother, 8 December 1811, in Richmond, Virginia, Poe is taken into the home of John Allan, of the merchant firm of Ellis & Allan, and Allan is added to his name. Accompanying John Allan to Scotland, where are visited his family and friends, and to London, England, where in 1815 a branch of the Richmond firm is established, are his wife Frances Keeling Valentine Allan, his wife’s sister Ann Moore Valentine, and Poe. Poe is first tutored by the Misses Dubourg in London; later he attends the Manor House School of the Reverend John Bransby at Stoke Newington. Read more on Poe Log.

The above photograph is from Arthur Hobson Quinn's Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography 1941 in which he says of the school:

The Manor House School is of singular interest. In his story of “William Wilson” Poe described in terms of fiction not only the place, but also its master, to whom he gave his right name of Bransby, with the addition of a “Doctor” to which the reverend gentleman seems not to be entitled. Since our interest in the school lies entirely in Poe’s connection with it, William Wilson’s own words are better than any paraphrase:

My earliest recollections of a school-life are connected with a large, rambling, cottage-built, and somewhat decayed building in a misty-looking village of England, where were a vast number of gigantic and gnarled trees, and where all the houses were excessively ancient and inordinately tall. In truth, it was a dream-like and spirit-soothing place, that venerable old town. At this moment, in fancy, I feel the refreshing chilliness of its deeply-shadowed avenues, inhale the fragrance of its thousand shrubberies, and thrill anew with undefinable delight, at the deep, hollow note of the church-bell, breaking each hour, with sullen and sudden roar, upon the stillness of the dusky atmosphere in which the old, fretted, Gothic steeple lay imbedded and asleep. Read more

Outward Bound Movie 1930

Ethan had met her one winter afternoon of thunder and snow in 1938 within the foyer of a suburban Toronto cinema, where they were showing Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., in Outward Bound. October Ferry to Gabriola

Outward Bound (1930) is a film based on the hit 1923 play of the same name by Sutton Vane. The film stars Leslie Howard, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Helen Chandler, Beryl Mercer, Montagu Love, Alison Skipworth, Alec B. Francis, and Dudley Digges. It was later remade, with some changes, as Between Two Worlds (1944). Malc saw a performance of Sutton Vane’s play Outward Bound at the Theatre Royal, Exeter in 1924 on a family holiday. The play was most influential on Malc’s late work October Ferry to Gabriola in which he used the play’s title as a title for Chapter 3 of his novel.

A disparate group of passengers find themselves aboard a darkened, fog-enshrouded crewless boat, sailing to an unknown destination. Their stories are revealed one by one. Tom Prior, a prodigal son, discovers that he's travelling with his ex-boss Mr. Lingley, a captain of industry; Tom's mother, Mrs. Midget, whose identity the son does not know, is curious about how her son is doing; Mrs. Cliveden-Banks, an affected socialite, chats with the steward Scrubby; Rev. William Duke, a clergyman, is keen about his missionary work in the London slums; and a young couple, Henry and Ann, who are facing an impossible love affair and find they cannot live without each other, wonder if they'll be together forever.

In time, the passengers slowly realize what's going on -- the one thing they have in common is that they are all dead, and they are on their way to either heaven or hell; during the course of the trip they will be judged. Arriving at their destination, they sit awaiting judgment by Thompson, the "examiner". He will determine what sort of punishment or reward they receive in the next world.

But Henry and Ann, who unsuccessfully committed suicide and now hover in a sort of limbo between life and death, have not quite crossed over yet. Scrubby, the ship's steward, has already been condemned to sail the ship for eternity, having successfully committed suicide. Henry is eventually saved from asphyxiation by his dog breaking a window pane; he calls to Ann, she revives, and together they are rescued by an ambulance. Read more on Wikipedia

You can view the trailer for the movie below:



You can read more about the use of the movie in October Ferry to Gabriola in Anthony Kilgalin's 'The Long Voyage Home' available in George Woodcock's Malcolm Lowry The Man And His Work

The unfortunate thing is that the movie does appear to be available on DVD.