Patrick
grew up in Guernsey in the 50’s and 60’s. Years later, far away in Australia, he
discovered The Toilers of the Sea and became a little obsessed. As an
actor and theatre artist, story telling is his trade and he felt compelled to
share Hugo’s fabulous novel, set in the charmed landscape of his youth.
However,
as a professional story teller in the 21st Century, Patrick felt
that modern readers and audiences were impatient with Hugo’s habit of straying
so far from the spine of his tale. Indeed none of his Guernsey friends and
family, when asked, had finished the novel. So he set about abridging the
translated text, keeping Hugo’s tragic adventure front and centre.
When
the text was just 50% of the original Patrick published his adaptation. But his
obsession wouldn’t let him stop there. Patrick went on to produce an Audio Book
of The
Toilers (available on Amazon/Audible) and then a stage play, The
Brainstorm, which he brought home to Guernsey in 2019.
2024
finds him working on Hugo’s L’Homme Qui Rit. Again, for many
modern readers, this is a novel full of superfluous detail and tangential
episodes becoming tiresome and impenetrable. Yet, at its heart, is a wonderful,
bizarre, Gothic romance – another of Hugo’s inimitable ripping yarns.
Patrick’s
current project is to abridge and adapt L’Homme Qui Rit or The
Laughing Man for publication and then to produce the Audio Book (where
Patrick gets to play all the extraordinary characters). It’s an intense journey
and he’d like to share some of what he’s learned of the style, passions and
predicament of our ‘larger than life’ friend and hero, Victor Hugo.
Come and hear Patrick’s illustrated presentation at Les Cotils at 7.30pm.
Society Members Free, non-members £5. | 
