William The Conqueror A Novel by Ruarri Joseph
Ruarri Joseph is the frontman of three-piece rock band William The Conqueror, alongside bassist Naomi Holmes and drummer Harry Harding. Formed in 2017, they have recorded three albums to date including the Ethan Johns produced Bleeding On The Soundtrack (2018), followed by Maverick Thinker (2021), which was self-produced and recorded in Sound City Studio in Los Angeles.
In a previous interview, the singer songwriter, and now novelist, makes reference to an essay by Hermann Hesse which relates to the three stages of human development; innocence, disillusionment and acceptance. On the basis of Joseph’s impressive musical output with Cornwall based William The Conqueror and his debut novel of the same name, it would appear that he has successfully navigated through all three stages.
Whether his first novel is entirely autobiographical or not, it is a most detailed memoir of psychological suffering, centred around episodes of innocence and disillusionment. It tells the tale of an introverted only child whose naïve pipe dreams of success and stardom as a singer songwriter are his only medium of escape.
The novel’s protagonist William was born into a dysfunctional family (‘I was an accident. Born the only son of an academic and an artist on the dot of 1981’). His father was a Bob Dylan obsessed alcoholic, his mother an introverted new age hippy. With parents who barely acknowledged each other’s existence and growing up in a small rural village in Cornwall, William’s companions were his headphones, his father’s (mainly) Dylan albums and his sketch pads, which soon became filled with poems, stories and comic drawings. While all family members, despite living under the same roof, avoided any contact with each other, an eight-year-old William befriended his nearest neighbour’s daughter of a similar age. Part of a family at the opposite end of the spectrum to his own, Jess became his first and only childhood love and as we subsequently learn in the novel, she also became every bit as ‘unlucky in love’ in later life as her boyhood admirer.
Discovering an old guitar in his father’s garage created another distraction. Some formal lessons led to previously scribbled lyrics becoming fully-fledged songs and teaming up with an older schoolboy Simon, to form a grunge two-piece band. However, the wheels fall off when Simon’s interest turns to Jess, rather than his younger bandmate.
Leaving Cornwall and her fruitless marriage, mum heads to her sister in the North Island of New Zealand to start a new life, with fifteen-year-old William in tow. Taken under the wing of his fearless and reckless first cousin Hamish, the following months introduce William to pipe bombs, homemade crossbows and eventually enrolment in a local school. Forming a punk band and performing in the local and nearby schools proved to be a confidence booster for the sixteen-year-old, only to be shattered on discovering that his English teacher and mentor’s interest were directed more in the direction of William’s mother than his pupil.
With a returning sense of isolation, bags are packed and William set his sights on a return to London to pursue his musical career. That journey, with stopovers at Bali and Amsterdam, both of which prove to be anything but enlightening, finally delivers him to his final destination. On his arrival in London, rather than his intended career galvanising placement in an indie record store, he is reduced to low paid employment in a supermarket and senior citizens home, both of which end in dismissal. Low grade accommodation is provided by a shabby acquaintance, whose modus operandi includes shifting stolen goods, petty drug dealing, while promising his tenant stardom, despite spectacularly mis-managing any career potential the budding musician may have had. Flirtations with drugs, illness, failed relationships and despair follow, leaving the now eighteen-year-old William, on the eve of the millennium, alone and impoverished in a high-rise complex in an unsavoury part of London, pondering his next move.
Joseph’s style of writing is by way of two-way dialogue. His written memories are challenged throughout the novel by an alter ego, at times questioning the validity of his writing and other times reminding him of unsavoury incidents deliberately ignored and omitted. Though very much a page turner, it’s not an easy read. There are numerous moments of hilarity amongst the tragedy, isolation and despair. It also leaves the reader pondering where reality checks out and fiction kicks in.
A stylish and engrossing debut, Joseph’s capacity to turn a tale of struggle into essential reading is admirable.
Review by Declan Culliton