Perfect Peter in The Land of Applause (1988)
Their Mother was a very poorly woman who spent most of her time asleep. The Doctors would visit with big bottles of tablets, but nobody could find a cure. Their Mother slept and slept - only waking for a few minutes each day.
Mother's Husband was a gruff man with a very big beard. Eventually, his beard grew so large and bushy it became impossible for him to smile or speak so he could only communicate by frowning or stamping his feet.
The boys had to be very quiet and were never allowed any friends or noisy fuss in the family home. The older child - Peter - was a very bright boy. Peter loved to read and would often carry two bags of books to and from school. He couldn't possibly read so many books in one single day, but Peter wanted everybody to know just how much he loved his books. His Mother was delighted as reading is an almost completely silent hobby.
The younger boy - Simon - also liked to read, but he longed to play out with friends. His Mother had to remind him that playing out was dangerous and other people could not be trusted. Mother said it would be better for everybody if Simon stayed indoors and tried to be more like Peter.
As Peter grew up, his teachers said he should go to a special kind of School - an enormous, Castle-sized building where he could read all day, every day. Although he had never been away from home (or his Mother) before, Peter immediately packed his belongings and left.
To begin with, Peter would return home for holidays or at Christmas time and tell fabulous tales of tall white towers and shiny glass windows. He would talk of buildings full of books as well as happy, smiling older men who all thought Peter was very clever.
"Each room is like a different world with long lines of books to discover," Peter would say, "and my new teachers are always happy to see me! They say I've read more books than anybody else! They ask me to stay behind after lessons!"
Slowly but surely, Peter came home less and less often and for shorter and shorter visits. Books, words, the characters in made-up stories... they were all far more important to Peter than anything or anybody in the real world.
When he was old enough, Simon went to visit the special School... but he did not find it pleasant at all.
The School was situated on a faraway hill, miles from any towns or cities. There were long corridors and high staircases and most of the people didn't move around until well after lunch time. Every time Simon tried to speak or ask a question, Peter would shake his head and shush him. At the special School, you were only allowed to speak if you had something terribly clever to say, otherwise you would receive a stern look from the Teachers, or you would be laughed at by other pupils.
Peter skipped about the corridors and up and down the stairs, proudly showing off the new worlds he'd discovered...
In one world, people sat at separate tables, reading books in silence. In another world, people sat in rows and listened as an old man with frizzy grey hair talked about all the books he'd read. The old man had read books about books and then he'd written even more books about the books he'd read. And then he told everybody to go and read his books as well!
But Peter's favourite world was a huge hall filled with older men sitting on long wooden benches. He called it 'The Land of Applause'. As Peter walked through the hall the old men started to smile, clap and cheer. Peter stood on a stage and began to talk about all of the important books he'd read. One day, Peter said, he hoped to write books too! The older men looked at Peter with happy, twinkling eyes. They often asked to see him in their offices for special meetings.
"I am never going home!" Peter declared, "I want to stay in the Land of Applause for ever and ever and ever!" Although he knew this would make his Mother very sad, Peter wanted to read every book in the whole world and show everybody how clever he was.
Simon did go home. He loved to read - but not that much. He went back to The Middle-of-Nowhere and never heard from Peter again.
As the years passed, Peter realised that smart, new boys were always being allowed into the Land of Applause. Soon, it became his job to clap and smile at them. But Peter didn't want to spend his life clapping younger boys - he wanted everybody to applaud him.
Peter had been away from home for so long, he'd forgotten how to get back. And it was impossible to read every book - as new books were being written all the time...
Peter grew old and grey, spending his days surrounded by books that he would never have the time to read and only hearing applause as it was lavished upon the new boys.
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