Brat Farrar door Josephine Tey

Josephine Tey, Brat Farrar, Heinemann New Windmills, 1998, First published in: 1949. Number of pages: 275. Library catalogue number ME Tey 5

I chose this book because it looked nice and on the backcover, there was some interesting information and that made me curious.

The book is about a boy, Brat, who is recognised by a man as a boy who has killed himself. The man says that he must go to that family and pretend to be the boy, then he is going to inherit a whole farm and a lot of money. He is going to inherit the stuff because Patrick’s parents died in a plane accident. The boy does it, they first had to practise and he had to learn all the stuff that Patrick liked and did. They all believed that he was Patrick, except Simon, Patrick’s twin. But Patrick was the first born so he was older. They do a lot of stuff and he is going to like Eleanor (‘his sister’) more and more. After a few weeks it is his anniversary, he is going to be 21, and he is going to inherit all the property. He has to sign some papers and he feels so bad about doing it, but he does. He feels that Simon isn’t saying the truth and he thinks that Simon killed Patrick, because he says that he knows that he can’t be Patrick and more of such things. He wants to prove that he is right because he knows that they won’t believe him otherwise. He has the feeling he knows how and where Simon did it. He buys a long rope and Simon sees it, he makes some excuse. That night he is going to prove it. He takes the rope and goes, when he is at the right place he ties the rope and goes down. When he is half way, Simon is there already; he threatens to kill Brat (Patrick). But Brat is clever and climhes up quickly, then they begin to struggle and in a strange way Simon falls down; he’s dead. Then Brat falls too, he falls in a tree; he has some serious injuries. In the hospital he sleeps and sleeps. His aunt (Patrick’s), sits there and sits there but Brat proved that Simon killed Patrick, therefore he has to confess that he isn’t Patrick, but they already had guessed that he wasn’t. Simon did it because he was jealous, he wanted to inherit all the money and horses. Bee (the aunt) goes to Scotland and asks if Brat will come along and he does.

The climax of the story is that Simon, when he is drunk, says to Brat that he killed Patrick he doesn’t really say how he did it. But it makes Brat think about it constantly.

The meaning of the title is the real name of the boy who’s pretending to be Patrick Ashby.

Brat Farrar, round character, he is an orphan, has been in America. At first he is very distantly and doesn’t know what to say and how to act. Then he gets more and more involved and begins to love the Ashby’s
Simon Ashby, flat character, keeps his distance to Brat. He doesn’t want Brat there and doesn’t believe him; he is very depressed, and rude. Bee (Beatrice) Ashby she is the aunt of Simon (and Patrick) and his sisters. She takes care of them and is very worried about Simon.

The message of the story is that you can’t kill someone just because you want to inherit all the property and you don’t want your brother to get it. It will always come out.

I like Brat and Bee, but I don’t like Simon because of the way he does things and because of what he has done. I like Brat even when I know that he does something really wrong, I like the way he is, because he is very human and I can understand why he does things and why he is the way he is.

An incident that I can remember most vividly is the moment when Brat has put the rope he bought in the car, and Simon has to do something else in the car and he sees the rope. He asks why Brat bought the rope; Brat has to make some excuse because he can’t say why he really bought it. A person who remembers me of someone I know is Bee; she is just like my mother. She cares all lot about the children and is very worried about Simon. My mum would do the same things and would be as worried as Bee. An occasion that reminds me of an experience in my own life is the incident when Brat bought the rope and has to make the excuse. Because when you want or have to do something secret you can’t tell anyone about that is very hard, and you have to make an excuse. I have that when I want to surprise someone and she finds out little things, then you must make an excuse and that is very hard, because I normally can’t think of any.

I really liked the book; I found it exciting and wanted to keep on reading. In the beginning I didn’t really understand the book, and when I finally understood the book I had nearly finished with the book.