Language English ISBN 978-1291609851 Page count 214 Country United Kingdom | Publication date February 2013 Pages 214 Originally published February 2013 | |
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Author Publishers Lulu.com (Hardcover), Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon Kindle) | ||
The Wee Fellas is a 2014 debut novel by Richard Maitland, a pen name for Ken Houston. It tells the story of a Bantam soldier who having been rejected from the regular Army in World War I voluntarily swaps the snooker halls of Glasgow for the killing fields of France and Belgium.
Contents
Plot summary
Billy Stirling - nicked-named "Stick" is born a small baby comes from a middle-class family who fall on hard times when his day dreaming father leaves for new pastures. He grows up in Glasgow with his mother and ends up on the wrong end of a birch for a minor burglary with two other "losers". His experience teaches him to toughen up and use his intelligence as he rises above his diminutive stature to become a ruthless operator in the unforgiving back-street snooker halls of Glasgow.
A lethal confrontation leaves Billy with a family blood vengeance and vulnerable to more than a birching. He meets a bearded older stranger who is acquainted with his mother in a Glasgow cafe. The stranger advises him to join the Army Bantam Regiment to escape his troubles. Billy has little choice and chooses an "honorable" escape to the killing fields of Belgium and France.
During his training in England he meets his true love and has to leave her behind. She is already married to a serving soldier and becomes pregnant.
He is posted to the front line and applies his belligerent Glasgow-streets survival skills to good effect in conflict and survives with bravery until his blood vengeance catches up with him in the trenches. He survives but is seriously injured - at least the blood feud is satisfied. He is invalided out of the Army and Stick's war is at an end. He goes back to Glasgow to try and overcome his injury and rebuild his life. The love he left behind finds him in Glasgow and surprises him.
The final chapter in Billy's life sees him with a happy wife and family situation and as being a well respected local Scottish businessman.
His final court flourish is characteristic of his unapologetic lifestyle and we see the wee mans life from start to finish in a dream sequence.
Conception
2014 is the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I. The author's inspiration came from his own keen interest and knowledge of military history and the expectation there would be a large volume of historical works produced around that time. The Bantam regiments are largely an untold story of men who were smaller than the Army regulation height and rejected to fight in World War I.
The author decided to use a fictional narrative to explore details of the bantam soldiers which are often missed in historical documents that refer to the bantam regiments. Many being of diminutive size were involved in brawls - especially in bars usually initiated by taunts of their height and stature.
The author weaves fiction and fact to good effect. He uses original songs from the Bantam soldiers to paint a historically accurate life of being a small soldier in the trenches.
The Wee Fellas is a Scottish dialect phrase meaning the small men. The Bantam regiments originated in Cheshire. Scottish dialect is used throughout the text and gives additional reality to the language of Glasgow
Publication
The novel is published in paperback and kindle format.
Reception
The Scottish press carried articles in 2014