Confirmation, The

Out Of Print ... Under the shadow of war, John Fletcher grows up in the border town of Abergavenny, his life governed by the ethos of his shopkeeper parents. The story centres on the difficult and compromised relationship between son and his mother, from which the boy escapes, not to other people, but to nature, the intense life of the hills, rivers and woods that surround the town. The story ends with John's confirmation in the Church in Wales against his will. But deep within, the boy confirms something else-his commitment to the natural world, which asks nothing and gives with equal-handed indifference, its cruelty and beauty. The life of John Fletcher is flanked by two sections of poems, the wings of a triptych, which, as they explore themes of nature, war and the difficulty of love, confirm the experience of the central story. Symbolic fiction of this kind is a new departure for John Barnie and was inspired by his reading of the Swedish writer Harry Martinson.