Michael Collie

The Life of George Borrow, 1803 -1881 Michael Collie

'It has been said that idleness is the parent of mischief, which is very true; but mischief itself is merely an attempt to escape from the dreary vacuum of idleness.' First, the subtitle of this completely revised and newly augmented study of George Borrow. 'Misfit' implies not subscribing or submitting to normal, mainstream middle-class values and habits. Borrow preferred the company of gypsies, vagabonds, foreigners, horse-dealers and outsiders to the conformist, respectable English person, whom he thought were sometimes incapable of understanding the realities of the human condition, or simply preferred to evade them. In 1982, this was the intended meaning of the word 'eccentric'; someone with valid, personal priorities, not in the main stream, away from the centre, free to be critical of aspects of English life he regarded as false or shallow or unworthy. Borrow did not subscribe to other people's view of how life should be conducted; his publications are the expression of this freedom. 'Traveler' simply refers to his many travels which will all be described and discussed in the new book.
These travels include his journeys to Russia, Spain, France, Turkey and possibly other countries, as well as to Scotland, Wales and parts of England that were little known at that time. The book will be more directly about these travels than in 1982.