Martin Waddell is probably best known in Australia for his delightful children's picture books like Can't you sleep, Little Bear? and The Pig in the Pond.   While these books may give a first impression of warm and light humour, there is much more depth underpinning them.  Can't you sleep and its companion Little Bear titles deal gently with childhood fears - the dark, strange noises, loneliness.  Waddell takes the serious themes much further in Farmer Duck with its echoes of Animal Farm. 

He has also has written far more serious prize-winning novels for older audiences.

The Beat of the Drum is part of his acclaimed trilogy on the Northern Ireland troubles, along with Starry Night and Frankie's Story.  It is powerful, emotional and very confronting.  Its central character, teenager Brian Hanna, observes the madness of the troubled world of Ulster from his wheelchair.  The bomb that killed his parents also took his legs, but he is saddened more by the refusal of the people around him to learn the futility of their violence.

He watches as his uncle, his friends, his neighbours just keep repeating the mindless acts of discrimination and violence that are symbolized by the beat of the marching bands' drums.  But when his uncle is caught up in arms smuggling for the paramilitary groups, and his childhood friend Hicky becomes involved with the shadowy worlds of informers and major crime, Brian's helplessness almost overwhelms him.

But he finds strength within himself, and from his refusal to follow the beat of those partisan drums.  He sees how much the choice is his own, as it is also every single individual's in such a community. The problems and the solutions are not so much political as personal.  When individuals recognize the foolishness of their bigotry, they will stop perpetuating "The Troubles".

Brian's character could easily live in Yugoslavia, or East Timor, or any modern trouble spot where people take sides and attack anyone not seen as belonging.  Martin Waddell has brilliantly created a chilling, but also hopeful, portrayal of the madness that can grip "civilized" societies so easily. 

Review by David Beagley

© 2001 David Beagley