Banquo’s Son by T K Roxborogh

Penguin, $37.Reviewed by SARAH GUMBLEY

Four hundred years later, Shakespeare’s works remain not only relevant, but also enjoyable, and here one of his plays is the subject of the latest piece in New Zealand writing. Banquo’s Son is a fresh and original take on Macbeth. For fans of the Scottish play, the book attempts to answer some of the many questions left lingering in their minds at the end: What happened next? Did the witches other prophecies come true? What happened to Banquo’s son?

Banquo’s Son, the first tale in a planned young-adult trilogy, takes up where Shakespeare’s play left off: Duncan is King, and leading a peaceful rule after years of Macbeth’s evil antics. The story follows young Fleance, known as ‘Flea’, son of the murdered Banquo. Flea is discovered wandering in the woods alone, having just witnessed his father’s murder and barely escaping with his own life. The humble pair, Miri and Magness, who discover him, take him in, and raise him as one of their own.

A few years later, he meets a young girl, Rosie, with whom he falls in love. Before long, Rosie’s parents pressure them to marry. Flea, still plagued by the untimely death of his father, simply isn’t ready. He needs to find answers to what happened on the day of his father’s murder, and to take revenge. He thinks that until he does this, he will never be ready to lead a peaceful life with the lovely Rosie. So he heads off on his quest with his trusty horse Willow, encountering various ‘baddies’ on his travels.

Along the way, he also manages to save Duncan, a grandson of the King, from being eaten by wolves. Duncan and Flea become fast friends, and Fleance is taken in to be part of the royal household once more. His secret identity as the son of Banquo, once also in line to the throne, is revealed to the astonishment of the court.

While Roxborogh, a high school English teacher, has made an effort to give the book a ‘Shakespearean’ feel, names like Flea, Keavy, Rosie, and Rachel, sound more appropriate in New Zealand high schools than in seventeenth-century England. The novel doesn’t uncover much regarding either Scotland or Shakespeare’s stories.

Instead, the main focus is the teenage love story, and Flea’s struggles with grief over his father’s death. But perhaps this is irrelevant. Roxborogh is an author who understands her readers well, and her readers will feel completely comfortable throughout the whole story. While it may not help teenagers understand the finer details of Shakespeare’s work, at least Roxborogh is giving her students, and other teenagers throughout the country, literature that will captivate them and encourage them to read.

LINKS

You can read an extract from Banquo’s Son here:

Banquo’s Son blog

This review was first published in the 30 October 2009 issue of NZLawyer magazine, and is reprinted here with permission.