BY BILL BROWNSTEIN, THE GAZETTE MAY 23, 2014
Photograph by: Pierre Obendrauf, The Gazette
Paul Almond could have quietly retired years ago and
divided his time between his home in the Gaspé and his retreat in Malibu. The
renowned Quebec filmmaker really had nothing more to prove, having directed
more than 130 film and TV dramas since the 1950s.
But Almond figured the beach life wasn’t for him. Yet.
So he decided to take up a new métier: novel writing. As for a subject, he
settled on something rather grand: merely his family’s history over the last
200 years. Which would turn out to be far more than one book.
Folks were skeptical. Well, Almond has proven them
wrong. It has taken him close to 10 years but at the age of 83, he has
completed his mission. He has written the Alford Saga, a whopping eight-book
package that details his family’s earliest days and concludes with the author’s
present-day existence.
“The saga covers Canadian history as it relates to my
family, and I just couldn’t do that in one book,” explains Almond, over a glass
of white wine at a downtown bistro. “It’s been quite the process. First, I had
to go back to school for three years to learn how to write novels as opposed to
screenplays. Then I had to research the subject for another three years. And
then the writing process began.”
The Deserter, the first book in the saga, focuses on
the ordeals of Almond’s great-grandfather Thomas Manning, who jumped ship in
the Gaspé Peninsula in 1810. He had been serving under no less than Lord
Nelson, with whom he had fought in the Battle of Trafalgar, before deciding he
had enough, jumped ship and deserted. But though life in the colonies wasn’t
initially grand for his great-granddad, he persevered, as did future
generations of his family.
The Alford Saga goes on to follow the exploits of
Almond’s uncle Jack, the only chaplain to accompany Canadian troops in the Boer
War. Then it’s on to his own father, a gunnery officer who barely lived to tell
of fighting through all the major battles of the First World War.
“What’s funny is that I was really terrible in history
at school,” relates Almond, an officer of the Order of Canada. “Truth is: facts
and figures have always terrified me. That’s why I have taken the liberty to
call these books factional. All the facts relating to my family are true. But
nobody really knows what anyone actually said in 1820, so that’s all imagined.
“But what I did learn for certain was that my
great-grandfather was rescued by a tribe of Micmacs in Shigawake in the Gaspé.
He then fell in love with a Micmac woman, and so the adventure begins.”
Almond had made his mark in filmdom with Isabel, The
Act of the Heart — featuring his ex-wife Geneviève Bujold and Donald Sutherland
— and Every Person is Guilty. He won, respectively, the Canadian Film Award and
the Genie Award (which the Canadian Film Awards were renamed in 1980) for his
direction in the latter two films.
Almond also directed the first installment of the
famed 7 Up documentary film series in 1964, focusing on a diverse group of
British schoolchildren and their views on the class system. (Michael Apted,
Almond’s assistant on the project back then, has continued to crank out
episodes every seven years and his name remains more synonymous with the
series.) In 2007, Almond was presented with the Directors Guild of Canada’s
Lifetime Achievement Award.
But if Almond was seeking serenity on the writing
front, he soon learned that such was not to be. “I think dealing with the
publishing world is even more agonizing than making films — and that is really
saying something.
“I loved directing and I’ve learned to love writing.
The only thing I hated about the film business was raising money. But having to
deal with publishers can be even more dreadful. I pitched the first in the
series after writing it, and got nowhere. So I wrote the second and figured for
sure I would get a publisher. Wrong. So I said to hell with publishers, and
wrote the third and the fourth and the fifth.”
Almond was finally able to prevail upon a publisher to
undertake the entire series. But that deal later went up in smoke after the
first five books in the series were published. So Almond found another
publisher, Red Deer Press, to release the last three books in the package.
The Gunner, the sixth book in the series that has just
been released, is set against the mayhem and tragedy of the First World War at
Vimy Ridge in France. “I read 140 books on the Great War while researching that
one.”
The seventh in the series, The Hero, comes out in the
fall. It deals with Almond’s father, who suffered shell-shock during the First
World War. “He really lost that battle.”
The concluding installment, The Inheritor, about
Almond’s life, will be available next spring. Almond insists he hasn’t taken
fictional liberties with himself in The Inheritor.
“My son Matt (whose mother is Bujold) read it and
said: ‘Dad, are you going to publish this?’ I said that I would, and it is
factual, dealing with all the women who have left me and have come through my
life. I’m close with Geneviève now, but we weren’t at first when she ran off
with her lover. I had a hell of a damn time until I found Joan,” the candid
Almond says.
It was his third wife, Joan, a photographer he’s been
married to for 40 years, who encouraged him to turn his attention to writing.
“She told me I should get out of film and do something
less stressful, like writing, before I killed myself. So I quit doing films
after having a quadruple bypass. But I have since had five heart procedures in
the last five years, thanks to publishers,” jokes Almond, who looks fit and
remains remarkably spry in spite of his medical ordeals. “But I must say that
there are no tougher genes produced than those of Gaspé pioneers. They lived on
that rugged coastline where nobody was living. They hacked down these damn big
trees. Those genes must be serving me well.”
Almond got his start with the CBC almost 60 years ago,
where he directed Sean Connery in productions of Shakespeare. After his stint
at the CBC, Almond headed to England to work at Granada on numerous projects.
He later returned home in the ‘60s, where he undertook his ambitious film
trilogy: Isabel, The Act of the Heart and Journey.
Almond declares he’s ready to retire now, but the
feeling is that he’ll miss the limelight.
“I might miss it a little, but I’ve had more than my
fair share. When I was with Geneviève, she got an Oscar nomination and we went
to the Academy Awards and sat with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Then we
all ate together. Been there, done that with the limelight. Now I’ll be content
to hang out by the seashore with my wife, five children and eight
grandchildren.
“It’s been a life well lived, but sometimes a
difficult life with lots of ups and downs. But I’m still alive and kicking,
thank God.”
Some feel that the Alford Saga could easily lend
itself to adaptation to the big screen. Almond doesn’t disagree.
“I just had lunch with Carolle Brabant
(executive-director of Telefilm Canada). She told me she missed four meetings
reading my last book, because she couldn’t put it down. She’s read all of the
books so far, and if the head of Telefilm likes them, shouldn’t some producer
pick it up and make it a film? Damn.”
What about Almond directing the screen version of the
saga?
“No!” the grinning Almond blurts emphatically. “That
would finish me off — for good.”
The Gunner, Book Six of the Alford Saga (Red Deer
Press), by Paul Almond, is now on sale. $19.95.
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