The book I am a Stranger in a Strange Land is based upon events in the life of the author’s father, Max LeBlanc, in the years 1956 in which emigrated to England, and 1964 and 65, a time of great change in the UK. Tio was Max LeBlanc’s pet name as a child. Mourillon was his mother’s name. So why is the protagonist not called Max LeBlanc? Well, because it’s not 100% biographical, it’s fictional, but it’s underpinned by many true events.
First, a lifeline - England is open, Tio and many other Caribbean islanders are told. They are to be allowed without let or hindrance into the beating industrial heart of the country whose culture he has been told is the centre of his cultural universe, whose poems and literature he has been taught, whose sovereign resides at the very top of his social structure.
In 1956, just as in Max LeBlanc’s real life, Tio Mourillon sails on the SS Auriga across the Atlantic, the vast blue, arriving in Southampton on 13th May. He joins his older brothers and works in the booming steel industry in Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, answering the call to subjects of the rapidly disappearing British Empire to help rebuild the mother country after the Second World War.
The steelworks is a dangerous place to work, but with the danger comes camaraderie, heavy toil, occasional conflict, and the opportunity to finally make some headway in life.
His original plans, however go awry when he meets a local girl and they subsequently marryl, not to the delight of everyone. He now wants to establish a permanent dwelling place for his young family in the English countryside. That's when his problems start.
Why is he seeking to live there? Should he not be living with his contemporaries in a town or a city? And why is he seeking to buy a property anyway? Surely that would imply permanence. This simply isn't the way things are done.
This will be no straightforward matter should he venture down this road. If he wants a space within which to live, he is going to have to fight for it.
As alien an environment is to Tio, he equally is an enigma to them. Does this man not know the order of things? Does he not know his place? He must be taught it, then (perhaps) and only then, may he be embraced into the bosom of the mother country.
I am a Stranger in a Strange Land is the story of two countries, an industrial community, a town, a family, and one tenacious individual knowingly or unknowingly trying to answer a simple question. What is my place in this world?
This is the story of of one man answered that question.
