Andrew and Tobias
J.I.M. Stewart
eBook
(House of Stratus, Nov. 2, 2013)
The Feltons are a family with a long lineage stretching back beyond the Norman Conquest. They now have a daughter, Ianthe, but prior to her birth Tobias, or Toby, was fostered and then adopted as their heir after he had miraculously survived the sinking of a refugee ship by a German U-Boat. Then, someone who is clearly Tobyâs twin turns up as an under-gardener. He had been fostered by a Scottish couple, now dead. There is now general and disturbed confusion on everyoneâs part â including the boys themselves. Stewart explores magnificently the nature of the complicated relationships, including those from outside of the family such as Tobyâs lover; the irony of the situation; and the many ramifications of class and culture in the absurd situation the characters find themselves. The Author: John Innes Mackintosh Stewart (who also wrote as âMichael Innesâ) was born in Edinburgh where his father was Director of Education. He attended Edinburgh Academy before going up to Oriel College, Oxford where he was awarded a first class degree in English and won the Matthew Arnold Memorial Prize and was named a Bishop Frazer scholar. After a short interlude travelling with AJP Taylor in Austria, including studying Freudian psychoanalysis for a year, he embarked on an edition of Florioâs translation of Montaigneâs Essays. This subsequently helped him secure a post teaching English at Leeds University.In 1932, Stewart married Margaret Hardwick, who practised medicine, and they subsequently had three sons and two daughters. By 1935, he had been awarded the Jury Chair at the University of Adelaide in Australia as Professor of English and had also completed his first detective novel, âDeath at the Presidentâs Lodgingâ, published under the pseudonym âMichael Innesâ. This was an immediate success and part of a long running series centred on âInspector Applebyâ, his primary character when writing as âInnesâ. There were almost fifty titles completed under the âInnesâ banner during his career. In 1946, he returned to the UK and spent two years at Queen's University in Belfast, before being appointed Student (Fellow and Tutor) at Christ Church, Oxford. He was later to hold the post of Reader in English Literature of Oxford University and upon his retirement was made an Emeritus Professor. Whilst never wanting to leave his beloved Oxford permanently, he did manage to fit into his busy schedule a visiting Professorship at the University of Washington and was also honoured by other Universities in the UK. Stewart wrote many works under his own name, including twenty-one works of fiction (which contained the highly acclaimed quintet entitled âA Staircase in Surreyâ, centred primarily in Oxford, but with considerable forays elsewhere, especially Italy), several short story collections, and over nine learned works on the likes of Shakespeare, Kipling and Hardy. He was also a contributor to many academic publications, including a major section on modern writers for the Oxford History of English Literature. He died in 1994, the last published work being an autobiography: âMyself and Michael Innesâ. J.I.M. Stewartâs fiction is greatly admired for its wit, plots and literary quality, whilst the non-fiction is acknowledged as being definitive.