THIS MORTAL BOY by Fiona Kidman

It is hard to believe in the New Zealand we currently live in that 63 years ago the death penalty still happened. It had already been abolished, and with a change to a more conservative government, amidst fears of an increasingly undesirable youth element, it was reintroduced. This I learnt from reading this novel based on the real life second to last legally endorsed execution in this country in 1955. The massive public out cry from both the trial and the hanging led to its abolishment in 1961. There had been a hanging not long before this one that also resulted in protest and public petitions.

There is no doubt that 21 year old Irish born Albert Black did kill a fellow young man, Johnny McBride. But the circumstances of the killing, the prejudices of the legal system of the day and most of the jury towards young Irish emigres, or just young men with no proper jobs or fixed abodes in general should have resulted in a case of manslaughter at the very least, and probably a mistrial. But no, neither of these things happened.

Dame Fiona takes us back to Ireland where Albert was from, his 10 pound pomme journey to NZ, his not terribly successful attempts at getting work, the people he met, friendships he formed. He was very well liked, came from a loving family, and had a good head on his shoulders. But he was alone and lonely, very homesick for Ireland and his family, a young man of little direction or the means to get himself a good start in a new land. He comes to Auckland, drifts into a group of people similar to himself, and things go very badly wrong resulting in a killing.

She tells a great story, using the facts and her extensive research to show us what Wellington and Auckland were like in the early 1950s, what people were wearing, eating, the night life, where they lived. It was also a time of moral panic, people were genuinely frightened of how out of control a certain element in our society was becoming. I think nowadays we would equate them to boy racer culture perhaps? Hence the crack down on law and order and anything involving immoral behaviour, excess drinking, partying etc etc.

You have to feel sorry for Albert. By all accounts he was a very nice young man who happened to get caught up in the wrong crowd. How many times do we hear that story. This is a beautifully told  and sensitive handling of a what at the time was a very difficult issue. Dame Fiona has yet again written an outstanding book, telling the stories of the people of this country. I wanted to cry when I finished it, not just for the subject but also for the quality and beauty of the writing and finesse of the story telling.