Steve-Calvert.co.uk
Steve-Calvert.co.uk
A Passion For Horror
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The Haunting of Toby Jugg is a supernatural thriller set during World War 2. The central character, Toby Jugg, is a wounded RAF pilot who is confined to a wheelchair. Toby might be crippled physically, but financially he is sitting pretty because on his upcoming 21st birthday he will inherit his grandfather's business empire which is worth many millions of pounds. Toby's was eight-years-old when his grandfather died. The old man had gone up in the prototype of a new airliner and had taken Toby's father with him and when the airliner crashed both men were killed. Toby's mother died giving birth to him so after the accident his only living relatives were his Uncle Paul and Aunt Julia (Paul's wife). Paul was a constant disappointment to his father and so the old man more or less cut him out of his will and left everything to Toby. Until he celebrates his 21st birthday though, a board of trustees continue to take care of Jugg business. Toby's uncle bears him no ill will, however, and after the airliner crashed Paul and Julia felt that it would be best for him to be with family and so they took him in to live with them. Toby likes his uncle and positively adores Julia and so he was happy with the arrangement. When he was ten Toby was sent to boarding school called Weylands. It is an unconventional school where there are no rules, religion is frowned upon, and the pupils are encouraged to be atheists. The Pupils are also encouraged to pursue sexual relationships with each other. Although relationships is perhaps the wrong word because at Weylands it is a case of share and share alike. At normal schools the children might very well swing from the monkey bars; at Weylands they just swing and carved into the stone above the front porch is the instruction: DO WHAT THOU WILT SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW. While at Weylands, one of Toby's tutors was a man called Helmuth Lisicky and when Toby left the school Helmuth went with him and became his personal tutor. Paul and Julia have a lot of faith in Helmuth and so after Toby is injured, and with the war still going strong, it was agreed that Helmuth would care for Toby when he was sent to convalesce in Wales, at Llanfordrach Castle and this is where the reader finds Toby on the first page of the book. The Haunting of Toby Jugg is presented in journal form and so the book is split up into dates rather than chapters. The first entry is Monday 4th of May and Toby writes that he is worried that he might be going mad because he is being haunted by a strange shadowy presence at his window and in the moonlight he can see the monster's shadow moving about, underneath the gap at the bottom of his blackout curtains. It is a fearsome creature with many legs and it exudes a feeling of such evil that terrifies the wounded airman. Toby began keeping the journal as a means of keeping track of these strange events. He used to enjoy writing essays and feels that the process of setting his thoughts down on paper might help prevent him from focusing too much of his attention on his fears. While he is documenting his experiences, though, Toby gradually comes to believe that he is not suffering from delusions at all, but, instead, that there is a sinister plot against him. To make matters worse, when he writes and asks his Aunt Julia to visit him she does not come. Nor does he receive a single letter from her. Then one day Toby has a chance encounter with the mailman and picks up his own mail for a change. As soon as he reads Julia's letter he realizes that someone has been intercepting his mail. The Haunting of Toby Jugg is 307 pages long and I had to turn quite a few of those pages before I began to get pulled into the story; probably because it does read a little like an essay. Or so it seemed so to me anyway. I was interested from the start though, to find out more about the monster at Toby's window and so that kept me reading and once I got a little way into the book I became more comfortable with the prose and soon had plenty of other questions in my head that could only be answered if I read to the end. Should you decide to read The Haunting of Toby Jugg yourself you will probably enjoy it because the book has some great characters, even if it isn't always easy to tell what their motives are for the things that they do. Helmuth, for instance is a very dynamic man and for a lot of the book it remains a mystery whether he is part of the problem or if he really does, like he says, have Toby's best interests at heart. The book is, in part, a mystery (what really is going on at Llanfordrach?), but with supernatural presences and satanic cults it is also very much a horror story. Towards the end of the book it even has the aspects of a love story, so if you do decide to read it you will find plenty happening and perhaps a few surprises as well. |
