VISITING TIME BY EMMA BROCKES

Readers’ Notes for Emma Brockes’s ‘Visiting Time’

Who wrote this piece?

Emma Brockes was born in 1975.  After studying English at Oxford University, she joined The Scotsman as a feature writer and moved to The Guardian at the age of 22. She was named Young Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2001 and Feature Writer of the Year in 2002.

What is the piece and what is it about?

‘Visiting Time’ is a short story of about 3,000 words. It was published in New Writing 12 (Picador, 2003). The full text of the story can be downloaded here. The story concerns the exceptional efforts of an ordinary man to cope with extreme grief. It describes Mr Garrison’s thoughts and feelings after the senseless murder of his son, John. The story’s central focus is what happens when Mr Garrison is in the position of being able to kill Luke Slater, the young man who has been imprisoned for John’s murder. ‘Visiting Time’ is ultimately about acts of restorative justice: ‘I decided to go to prison and talk to the boys … who hadn’t been done for the full violent murder but were heading that way. I set it all up … Eventually I decided, I wanna meet it direct, John’s murderer. … So I start the ball rolling, push push, five years that went on for, to get the right contacts, MPs, the House of Lords. It was 1986 when it was imprisoned, and it was ’91 that I was given the go-ahead to visit it. Restorative justice they call it now. Back then, though, it hadn’t never happened before. Letting the families meet the murderer.’ Emma Brockes’s story also explores fury at injustice, unrelenting anguish within a family, and moral courage.

What kind of read is it?

An uncomfortable and very moving one. The dramatic opening is alarming – we are being confessed to, directly, and in detail: ‘I had it all worked out. I’ll tell you the truth, I’ve never been a liar. … I have the advantage of height, which is handy when you’re planning on killing a man. As I saw it … if I could get my hands in the correct position, get my thumbs fast enough under its chin, I could break its neck.’ Disconcerting, yes, but you feel compelled to read on, to discover what has happened.

‘Visiting Time’ grows into a poignant portrait of raw pain – the narrator is exposing a grief so profound it is difficult to express. And because we see through the eyes of the father of the murder victim, we feel as far as possible the full impact of his suffering. Mr Garrison speaks to us in a flowing stream of consciousness that shuttles between the present and past incidents in his life, showing how his thoughts range about, returning endlessly to his son: ‘… every day we’re one day further from John, but that’s one day closer to him getting out.’

We are also given insights into the ways Mr Garrison has tried to lead an honest life in difficult circumstances - ‘we stuck by the rules and look where it got us’ - and how the trial of his son’s murderer was a humiliating and terrible experience - the murderer’s solicitor had ‘a big grin on his face’, then, ‘Eventually, it testified and it did everything it could to sound like a bleeding little poor type of character. Bad childhood, bad home. The confidence it had was ridiculous. I have to fight to bring words back now …’

Mr Garrison’s everyday, straightforward way of expressing himself heightens the sadness of the story, and there are very touching moments, for example, when he suddenly uses his son’s words - ‘… our son … staggered over to a lady who was sitting in a car waiting for a friend and asked her to help me, please help me …’ - and when he moves from calling Luke Slater ‘it’, to addressing him face-to-face by his name.

The mood throughout is tense and intense (‘I’m still undecided, which way to go?’), and your attention is held by the narrator’s unusual courage, especially when he confronts his son’s murderer: ‘“I’ve come to let you know we exist, Valerie and me,” I say, soaring.’ There is a luminous, unforgettable ending.

When we’ve read it, how could we structure our discussion?

• How do you feel about the narrator, Mr Garrison? What kind of person do you think he is? What can we learn about the kind of man Mr Garrison is from the way he speaks?
• What do you think Mr Garrison’s life was like before John’s murder?
• What do you think John was like? How clearly do you see him?
• Describe your feelings towards Luke Slater.
• How would the dramatic effect of the story differ if we saw John’s murderer through more neutral eyes?
• How do you react to the end of the story?
• In what ways has the story changed your view of what life is like for the family of a murder victim?
• What do you think can be achieved by confronting criminals who have committed murder with the bereaved relatives of their victims?

Reading group tips
You might like to widen your discussions by using ‘additional material’, such as a relevant news story or an author interview. For example, how do the following affect your reading of ‘Visiting Time’?

1.  ‘Relatives of murder and manslaughter victims are to be given the right to be represented in court as part of a pilot project in five areas of the UK. From April 2006, the scheme will see a ‘victim’s advocate’, a family member for example, making a statement in murder and manslaughter trials. The family statement would be read out in court at the sentencing stage. It would detail how the death and subsequent events had affected them. Currently, relatives have to remain silent throughout court proceedings.’
Story from BBC News, 23.02.06

2. In an interview for the New Writing 12 website, Emma Brockes explains that ‘Visiting Time’ is based on a true story – she once interviewed a man whose son was murdered, thinking she would write a newspaper feature about him. But she chose to use the interview transcript to write a ‘fictional’ story instead. The New Writing 12 interview with Emma Brockes can be downloaded here.

If we enjoyed this, what other writing might appeal to us?

Gerard Woodward’s short story ‘Milk’ also explores how life can surprise us, even when we think we have planned everything immaculately. ‘Milk’ is included in New Writing 12 (Picador, 2003) and Readers’ Notes can be downloaded here.

The Constant Gardener by John le Carré is a tense and very moving novel about a gentle British diplomat based in Kenya who seeks revenge for the brutal murder of his wife. This novel was adapted into a compelling film with the same title in 2005.