Hope, despair and humour in Cambridge author Phillip Brown’s latest novel

The Spare Room – Of Elves and Men is the title of Cambridge author Phillip Brown’s latest novel and it is quite a departure from his previous books.

In the author’s previous effort, The Diary of the Last Man, the contest between hope and despair was evident throughout. The Spare Room might also be said to pose an important question: In the light of man’s unceasing inhumanity to man, should the future of humanity be viewed with stubborn hope or with grim resignation?

Whether The Spare Room is a humorous book with serious undertones, a serious book with humorous overtones, an allegorical commentary on the so-called ‘human condition’, or indeed all three, Phillip Brown leaves it up to the reader to decide.

He says: “It follows on from the last book, The Diary of the Last Man, because in that the key feature, I think, is the struggle between hope and despair – and that continues with The Spare Room.

“The big difference, I think, in style is the mix of seriousness and humour. It tackles the same problems, abbreviated under the heading ‘the human condition’, and the condition in which we find ourselves, the state of the planet – war, of course, is a constant theme, unfortunately, which doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

“But there is a humorous twist to it throughout the book. I think previous books have been dificient in humour. This time there is humour, in reference to Mr Potts, who is of course a completely fictional character, which is why the book may be regarded as allegorical.”

Phillip notes that the style of this book is also “lighter” and is more informal. “A good word to describe it would be ‘avuncular’. It doesn’t have an academic flair, or anything of that kind – the tone is conversational, I hope.”

The more humorous tone lends itself well to the main character of Mr Potts, who is “on the one hand a very eccentric figure, but on the other hand hopefully will come across as a profound person who has decided to cut himself off from what he regards as the facetiousness of other people and their superficiality and their mediocrity,” notes Phillip. “He is shunned by them and he shuns them.”

But what of the title? Phillip says: “Mr Potts lives in a world that he has constructed for himself; there is a tragic element about this – it’s almost like somebody wanting to blank out what they don’t want to acknowledge, something bad. But yes, he does live in a world of his own and seems to have this odd, inexplicable communication with elves, which can hardly be called communication because it’s one way. I don’t think we can have one-way communication, can we?

“But he has this insight into the world of elves, and into their natures, and this too of course is total fantasy. But the narrator goes along with it and sort of humours him in this way. So Mr Potts refers to elves all the time as being of a superior race to the human race.

“It’s an expression of complaint about what he finds in life – the human condition and how all the serious issues in life are handled by humans, not in the right way, obviously.

“The elves are a kind of superconsciousness and of course a total fantasy – we’re not going to see elves in the book, we don’t even have a description of them, so they are very much in the background. But not for Mr Potts. This too is part of the humour in the book... I certainly don’t believe in elves!”

The Spare Room – Of Elves and Men is to be published on June 14 by DB Publishing, an imprint of JMD Media Ltd, and will be available from the publisher, from shops or from Amazon.