The Hammil Academy Stories

Foreword

        I have long been an admirer of the British public school stories I’ve read.  They make me nostalgic for a place I’ve never been, if that’s possible, with their sense of community and tradition.  The strong feelings I’ve enjoyed when reading these adventures have led me to want to write some of my own set against that particular background.

        There is a problem doing this, of course.  The maxim for writers is, as always, write about what you know.  And all I know about British public schools is what I get from reading stories about them.  That makes any sort of authenticity, for me, more than problematic; it makes it impossible.

        Undaunted, however, I have soldiered on, and the Hammil Academy Stories are the result.  So far, I have completed two of these, and have more on the drawing board.

        I would hope those of you reading these stories who have a working knowledge and perhaps happy memories of British boarding schools can suspend you disbelief, perhaps even your gasps of dismay, feelings of injury, possibly even your chortles, and hopefully enjoy the stories for what they are.  They don’t pretend to be accurate portrayals of these places, and what went or goes on there.  These stories are simply stories, set against a background that cannot be drawn accurately as my drawing materials are blunted and my canvass smudged. 

I know I enjoyed writing these stories, and as usual, it’s the characters I’m interested in, and how they relate to each other.  I hope I got the psychology right.  And, I suppose fair is fair.  Those of you upset that I greatly traduced the British public school tradition can get back at me by writing a story about kids playing baseball, and breaking for tea in the middle of the third inning.

Cole Parker