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    Mr Mac and Me
    Mr Mac and Me
    Mr Mac and Me
    Audiobook8 hours

    Mr Mac and Me

    Written by Esther Freud

    Narrated by John Banks

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    It is 1914, and Thomas Maggs lives with his parents on the Suffolk coast. Life is quiet - shaped by the seasons. Then one day a mysterious Scotsman arrives, looking for all the world like Sherlock Holmes. Mac is what the locals call him as they whisper. But Mac isn't a detective, he's the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and together with his red haired artist wife, they soon become a source of fascination and wonder to Thomas.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateFeb 5, 2015
    ISBN9781471283567
    Author

    Esther Freud

    Esther Freud is the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and the daughter of the painter Lucian Freud. She trained as an actress before writing her first novel. Her books have been translated into thirteen languages. She lives in London.

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    Reviews for Mr Mac and Me

    4/5

    72 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Charles Rennie Macintosh is the Mr Mac in Freud's beautiful, sensitive story. By looking at Mr Mac through the eyes of an 11-year old boy Freud shows the architect's vulnerability following his rejection after completing the design of the Glasgow School of Art. He and his wife, Margaret MacDonald, also a gifted artist, retreated to Suffolk in 1914. The story yields an amazing amount of information about Macintosh, Margaret, and the the culture of the times. Freud's story also points to the moment in our history when craftsmanship was being replaced by mass production. I've always been an admirer of Mackintosh designs but now I feel like I have known him for a short while. Wonderful, highly recommended. The author notes at the end reminds the reader that the Glasgow School of Art, one of Mackintosh's great achievements, burned just as Freud's book was going to print.
    • 5/5
      I returned to a novel that both Vicky and I truly loved when we both read it when it first came out. It’s the story of Thomas Maggs, a 12-year-old son of a drunken pub keeper in a small village on England’s Suffolk coast, as World War One begins. The regular slow pace of life there and then is beautifully reflected in Esther Freud’s writing. I originally wrote of the book that, “I would love to be able to carry the world that this novel created around in my mind, each and every day.” Another reader, the writer Ann Patchett said the following of the book was, “A compelling tale beautifully told, Mr. Mac and Me is as close to a perfect novel as anything I’ve read in a long time. I loved every page of it.”Life changes for Thomas with the arrival of a mysterious couple, Charles Rennie McIntosh and wife Margaret. The Scottish architect, designer, and artist becomes a person of interest, as tensions with Germany continue to rise. The villagers are suspicious of the artistic couple, especially his habit of taking walks along the coast while always carrying his binoculars. Thomas has some suspicions about them, but he gets to know them as a kind and generous twosome. They both encourage Thomas to do more with his doodling and sketching. It a very curious friendship that develops.The slow pace of village life changes drastically once the war with Germany breaks out and the troops being shipped out are passing through their streets on a regular basis. But just as the book’s short chapters pass by quickly, once a group of soldiers leave, the village almost returns to it peaceful and traditional pace of life—until the next group arrives. Perfectly reflecting the feel of the story, Freud has Thomas along the shoreline in the following passage. “I stand on the beach and tilt back my head and I count the few stars that have pierced the cloud. There are less than a dozen, although the longer I look the more I find, and I'm searching so hard that at first I don't notice the shadow of the Zeppelin, it's belly only slightly blacker than the cloud. I stand quite still. It's got me by the eye.”I love the fascination with the airships, and the images seem almost benign, until Thomas realizes that they’re headed to attack London, and later they strafe and bomb the village with most likely leftover armaments from a London run. I simply love the way this book tells its story. I learned more about McIntosh and this book also worked on so many levels telling its story of war, family, friendship, and trust. In the reverse of most reviews of her work, I will only tell you now that Esther Freud is indeed the great-granddaughter of Sigmund, and that her father was the famous painter, Lucian Freud, AND that she has written a wonderful book.
    • 4/5
      I love Esther Freud's writing - she has such a sense of place and atmosphere that is so quintessentially English (or quintessentially English home counties, at least).Mr Mac and Me is set in an English seaside village just as WWI develops. Our narrator, a curious young boy, befriends Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his artist wife Margaret Macdonald, who are staying in the area to put some distance between themselves and issues Mackintosh has been having around recognition of his work. It feels natural to add some kind of 'and' to that, i.e. 'and the point is', but.... I'm not sure that part was well executed. Freud rushed into the last 10 or 15 pages some attempt at a twist and reason for Mackintosh and Macdonald being in the book, but it felt an unconvincing plot turn, and one contrived to try to justify putting these names into the story to begin with.As it's Esther Freud I enjoyed it anyway - she develops great characters, and it's nice just to go along on a jaunt with her regardless of where she takes us, but the sinister developments that the jacket blurb pushes are really a misnomer and inconsequential to the big picture.If you're a reader who's happy enough to meander along with fantastic prose without any big plot then this is a beautifully written book, but somehow I felt a little unsettled that it tried to be more plot driven without following through fully on the intention.3.5 stars - I'm still very much in the Esther Freud fan club, but somehow this book felt a little confused in terms of what it was trying to be.
    • 4/5
      I would maybe give this four stars if I was a bigger fan of historical fiction, since the writing was flawless. Taking place at the onset of WWI in Ireland, it is a lovely (and at times harrowing) tale of a young boy who befriends the famous Scottish architect, Charles R. Macintosh, and and his famous artist wife Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. A nice, well written period piece.
    • 5/5
      Mr. Mac is the famed Scottish architect and artist Charles Rennie Macintosh. Me is young Thomas Maggs, son of the local pub managers. Maggs is club footed and has a talent for drawing; his fondest wish is to get out of little seaside village he lives in and see the world. His family spends its time working hard and trying to not upset his drunken, abusive father. When Macintosh and his beautiful, red haired, wife rent a tiny cottage in the seaside village, Maggs suddenly has someone who appreciates and even encourages his sketching of boats in the margins of his schoolwork. Soon Maggs is entangled in the lives of the Macintoshs as he sees lives that are very different from any he’s seen in the village. This budding relationship is threatened by the onset of WW 1 and the warnings the British government publish about spies and traitors; Macintosh speaks with a heavy accent- could he be German? He walks the cliffs at all hours, frequently using binoculars. There are German words in pamphlets in his house; he even corresponds with a German! Could he be in the village to spy for the Germans?This is a coming of age story; young Maggs has his first romantic relationship, works for a rope maker to help support the family, learns to look at the world with new eyes, and learns horrid fear as Zeppelins fly overhead. It’s also a story about how abruptly lives can change; a village that people come to to enjoy holiday becomes a watchful town with soldiers billeted in it, handmade rope is being replaced by barbed wire, a Scotch artist is suddenly seen as a German spy, people die or nearly die, and people are changed in ways no one thought they could be. The prose is just lovely; it’s like the words were lovingly set by a jewel maker. Freud made me able to see this little village and feel the fear of the Zeppelins. It was a delight to read.
    • 4/5
      William is 14 yrs. Old, living in Suffolk, with his mom, dad and older sister. His parents run a local eating and drinking establishment, and he had six older brothers born before him, though none survived. He was born healthy, strong though with a twisted foot. His life is fairly simple, helping his mother at the inn, working part time for the local rope maker, wandering through the town and the woods. He knows all the flowers, birds, loves to fish and because he is everywhere and people are used to seeing him he manages to over hear things and in this way he knows things many don't. Things are notCompletely rosy though, when his father drinks he becomes abusive.Mac is Charles Ronnie Mackintosh, an architect and painter from Glasgow, come to the coast with his wife for health reasons. William takes to following Mac and eventually becomes wrapped up with him and Margaret. Things are fairly normal until Germany infiltrates France and Suffolk, on the coast, becomes a prime target. This is a simple story, a story about villagers living their lives. Some struggle financially, some are afraid of losing their livelihoods, there are tragedies and times of joy. Many of the things we all experience in our own lives.The war will change these people, make villagers suspicious of each other and particularly of strangers. I embraced this touching story, loved William, all his thoughts and deductions. How he wanted to keep everyone he loved safe. Charles Ronnie and his wife, who was an artist in her own right, were not recognized for their work during their lifetimes. As with what happens with many artists, their genius would not be recognized until after their deaths. Enjoyed the many descriptions in this novel, the setting and the flowers and plants Mac so painstakingly paints. The ending took a turn I didn't expect but it was right, fitting and poignant.ARC from NetGalley.