THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

By: Alexander Baron

ALEXANDER BARON Alexander Baron (4 December 1917 – 6 December 1999) was a British

author and screenwriter. He is best known for his highly acclaimed novel about D-Day entitled From the City from the Plough (1948) and his London novel The Lowlife (1963). His father was Barnet Bernstein, a Polish-Jewish immigrant to Britain who settled in the East End of London in 1908 and later worked as a furrier. Alexander Baron was born in Maidenhead and raised in the Hackney district of London. He attended Hackney Downs School. During the 1930s, with his school friend Ted Willis, Baron was a leading activist and organizer of the Labour League of Youth (at that time aligned with the Communist Party), campaigning against the fascists in the streets of the East End. Baron became increasingly disillusioned with far left politics as he spoke to International Brigade fighters returning from the Spanish Civil War, and finally broke with the communists after the Hitler–Stalin Pact of August 1939.

ALEXANDER Baron, who has died aged 82, was the greatest British novelist of the last war and among the finest, most underrated, of the postwar period. He burst on the literary scene in 1948 with his debut novel, From The City, From The Plough, described by VS Pritchett as "the only war book that has conveyed any sense of reality to me", and went on, through the 50s and 60s, to become a seminal London novelist, as well as pursuing a successful screenwriting career.

ALEXANDER BARON

SOME PEOPLE NEVER DIE

CHARACTERS• Private Quelch – A young man under army

training, probably in Africa. His nickname was ‘Professor’ because his knowledge was very deep and vast.

• Corporal Turnbul – A senior army officer and instructor

• The narrator – Another young man under army training

• An instructor – One who gave a lecture on the use of riffles

WHO WAS PRIVATE QUELCH

• Private Quelch was not an ordinary soldier under training. Even though he was in his initial years of training, Private Quelch had the attitude of one who had a great ambition in life. He wanted to become an officer soon and rise to higher ranks in the army. For this he worked, day and night, read books and revised his army lessons.

• Even though he knew much more than what a soldier should know, Private Quelch had a weakness; he used to exhibit his knowledge where ever he got a chance. He questioned his instructors, corrected his lecturers and sermonized his fellow soldiers.

• His tone was that of condscending.He interrupted the trainers. He replies to the sergeant proudly,”it is a matter or intelligent reading”, when the latter asked him how he got all this knowledge. He used to read enormously. He borrowed training manuals and burnt the midnight oil to learn them.

SUMMARY• The story is about a man named Private Quelch who likes to show off his

knowledge. The narrator and his friends also gave him nickname ‘Professor' due his lanky body and bespectacled looks. Although Private Quelch meant to acquire a stripe and to get commission. He works hard for his ambition but due to his habit of interrupting seniors and showing off his knowledge he was nominated for permanent cookhouse duties by Corporal Turnbull. Corporal Turnbull, a young and smart soldier who had returned from Dunkirk, was a man not to be trifled with. The narrator and his fellow soldiers told each other that they could hammer nails into him without him noticing. There are also many incidents in the story, when Private Quelch outshone his fellow soldiers(including the narrator) on aircraft recognition, when professor interrupted the Sergeant and he started asking questions to Professor in hope of revenge. The story ends with a light note on Private Quelch lecturing his fellow soldiers on how to cut potato without its vitamin values being wasted.